Self-Analysis Essay

The event that I was attending was an NHS Induction, that I was a part of. The person hosting this event was my AP World History teacher, Mr. Banks. It was an honor to receive this invitation for having a GPA higher than a ninety and being a leader in my community.

I will look to the feedback and criticisms given in order to improve on my presentation and communication skills for the future.

(Q.2.) In comparison to my demonstration speech, I believe the introduction to my informative speech was much stronger, because I told a story instead of asking a question. My story allowed for my audience to have a mental picture of what I was talking about. How I related child development to my audience was much more effective in my informative speech than my demonstration speech. In my demonstration speech, not everyone raised their hand when I asked my question. In my informative speech, I related it to my audience by saying everyone has went through child development. I felt more confident in my informative speech because I practiced many times in front of my family and friends. I got marked points off for being too read-y in my demonstration speech, so for my informative speech I worked on not memorizing the whole thing. By not memorizing my informative speech I felt more confident while presenting.

Also, there were some difficulties that came about during my speech, one of those difficulties being inadequate direct eye contact. During the length of the speech there were not many time where I looked up and talked directly to my classmates. Something I could have done better to improve this would be to practice even more to ensure that I wouldn’t need to look at my notecards and slides as often. I also could have practiced when to look up and have a successful glance at my audience to have improved eye contact.

The introduction & attention getter were complete but weren’t very engaging, which in my opinion was my speeches biggest flaw. My speech wasn’t one that as soon as you heard it you gave it your undivided because the importance of they topic in my opinion was very subjective. In my opinion the me employing a very loud, lively attention getter would’ve

During the speech, I was also a good speaker in many ways. I had a good voice projection, my hand moment was consistent, I was always facing the audience and held eye contact, and had facial expressions to emphasize the importance of a topic. Right off the bat when I was explaining my citation saying According to the U.S Census Bureau “there are alone 5.7% Asian’s in the United States,” I was pointing my hands to make sure everyone was paying attention to the numbers. Another thing I did well during the speech was, that I kept eye contact with everyone during the speech

One of the things I noticed in my speech was how many times I looked at the screen. I didn’t realize how many times I looked at my prop until I watched myself on video. It was distracting and took away from what I was saying to my audience. Additionally, I feel like I could have improved speaking about the different experiments performed. I feel like they were rushed and I should have stuck to talking about only one or two experiments instead. With my time being rushed, I feel like I couldn’t explain as much of the experiments as I wanted to or as in depth. Lastly, I should have worked on the conclusion for my speech. I wasn’t able to come up with a good conclusion, so it felt as if I left some of the speech left hanging. I mentioned ethical issues performed in the experiments without actually going over it in the speech. Next time, I know I will come up with a solid ending and just wrapping up ideas I already went over in class. I know that for my persuasive speech, I will work on my eye contact, slowing down, and coming up with a solid ending.

1. What did you did well? Why do you think you did well on these aspects of your speech? Elaborate.

3. Was the speech well-organized? Did it have a robust introduction, a solid body with specific main points, and a conclusion? How was the time allotment for each section (too long, too short?) Were the times dedicated to each section appropriate? (Introduction and Conclusion: between 45 seconds to1 minute; Body: main points each 1:15 – 1:30)

In the first speech for this class, my main goals were to gain confidence to voice my ideas and use speech to make a difference in peoples’ lives, and to practice overcoming my speech anxiety therefore be able to use my nerves to focus myself. Overall, I believe that I did improve in both of these areas as a result of information from the book, mini speeches, and the larger speeches.

After completing the speech, I thought I did good in some area and can improve other. While giving this speech I was able to focus on my topic and utilize given time. I thought I won’t be able to stand in front of the class and speak for that long, but I went over the time limit. I’m sure I was able to explain the subject matter and entertain audiences. I also believe I speak with a voice that is able to reach all audiences.

I believe it flowed nicely and I successfully presented it in an extemporaneous fashion. I rehearsed numerous times and removed certain material to achieve an acceptable time. The last few times I rehearsed the time was just over six minutes while the real deal put me at seven minutes and forty-five seconds. The video revealed extra material that I ad-libbed. I knew what to say, I practiced it but still found myself adding material when it wasn’t necessary. One would think that would add an insignificant amount of time, but in combination with that, the glancing at my notes, and pauses, it did and put me over the time limit. I believe more practice will improve future

I have shown huge improvements on delivering speeches. This process helped me to understand different kinds of speech and their expectations. The only way I can think of improving is that to get myself be confortable and to do more preparations. Therefore, the mistakes I made in this will help me to improve on the next

My first strength in public speaking is my organization and preparation skills. I think that I am particularly skilled in creating and preparing a presentation that is straightforward and informational. I know how to effectively organize my presentation in such a manner that will appeal to my audience. In addition, I spend an ample amount of time preparing for my presentation. However, there is definitely room for improvement. I need a bit more practice in trying to make my presentations more concise. For example, I used to present to high school students on financial literacy. Initially my presentations were too long, but as my presentations progressed they were shorter while still retaining important information. I would like to hone this skill as much as I possibly can.

Before taking this course my writing styles and habits were very different. I was the typical procrastinator because I would wait until the night before a paper was due to start it. This did not allow me enough time to properly proofread everything, which resulted in getting points deducted for simple grammatical errors that could have been avoided if I would have had the time to proofread. My writing styles have many strengths and weaknesses and I have been able to improve my writing because of them. I have learned from my strengths and weaknesses how to become a better writer.