Week 12, Discussion 3 (Self Evaluation)

Speeches have always made me nervous to the point where I have felt like I was going to pass out. I get such great anxiety because I psyche myself out and think that I am going to do horrible. Going into this past speech, I thought of it as not a big task and tried to set low goals so I knew that I could meet them. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel nervous going into this speech because I felt so confident and I knew that within a matter of seconds, it would be done with.

In this past speech, I think that I achieved the purpose well. I informed my audience about the mind of a serial killer and went into great detail about each and every subject that I brought up. This speech seemed a whole lot easier for me to accomplish. I had practiced this speech more than I had practiced the first one which made me feel a lot more confident as soon as I stepped in front of the class. Secondly, the lack of people who were in the class made it easier for me. I tend to give better speeches when there are less people watching my every move.

Although I felt more confident with this speech, I would make some changes if I had to do it again. I know that I would have memorized my speech, so I wouldn’t have to use my note cards. Although I rarely used them, I would still like to accomplish one of my speeches without having to use something to help me along the way. Even though I did use my note cards for help, I feel like I gave much more eye contact to my audience which is a big accomplishment for me.

I don’t really have a specific goal for improving the content of my next speech. I feel like I have been writing my speeches well and including all the information that I have needed for each speech. One goal that I have for improving the delivery of my next speech would be to have it completely memorized or have everything but my direct quotes memorized. I think that the third speech will be the easiest one for me because I have done a lot of research on it before and I know a lot about my topic. Memorizing my speech should not be that hard so I will be trying to focus on giving the audience my fullest attention. Specifically, my confidence was different from my first to second speech. In the first speech I was so nervous and just wanted to get it over with and before my second speech I didn’t seem to care when I was presenting as long as I did a good job. I don’t feel like I did anything bad during my second speech but something that I could have improved on from my first to last speech was my eye contact. I did improve, but I know that I could have done a lot better. I also noticed that I move around a lot while giving my speech so I definitely want to focus on that for my third speech because I know how distracting it can be. This was not an improvement from my last speech because during my last speech I didn’t stand still as well.

On a scale of 1-10, I would rate my eye contact a 7. On a scale from A to F, I would give my speech an A. I felt really confident when I was finished presenting and I know that I had included all of the information that was asked of me. I also spoke loud and clear, and my eye contact also improved. I also noticed that during this speech I did not look at my slides and point to the images on the screen, I focused on my audience. During my speech, I used ten source citations. I had a lot of direct quotes and they came from the four sources that I had used to write my outline.

All in all, this speech was overall better than my last speech. I am happy with the way that this it turned out and now I know what I need to improve on for my third and final speech. I hope that my next speech turns out ten times better and I reach my goals that I have set for it!