Anticipating for my turn has always been the cause for my speech anxiety. I could be an expert on my speech topic, but getting in front of an audience would still cause me to become nervous. As I watched my video, I noticed that I had a confident body postures and a presentable approach. I talked loudly and clearly, or at least as much as I could since I was getting over a cold. I also thought that the idea with pointing out things at the power point was a plus, because it kept me moving and that would help the audience to stay focus; rather than just to focus their eyes on my just standing at one spot.
As for the deliverance of my speech, I believed that I got my purpose across. I addressed that I was going to compare how cameras are used back when it was first introduced, and how it has evolved into a cultural artifact for the American culture today. I felt very confident in my speech. I had done enough research to narrow it down to specifically what I wanted to talk about. With all of the research and being able to smoothly give a speech along with a power point made me feel comfortable enough.
Unfortunately during my speech, I did not recite any credibility. That’s one of the few negatives that I noticed during my speech. I had a few pauses during my speech. Some of the pauses were actually for the audience to take their time to view my slide page. Other times I slightly stalled because I lost some thought, but usually that shows in my face expression. I also noticed that at the end of some sentences I mumbled and said “what not” a few times. I guess I say that, because it works as a wrap for my sentence. So for my improvement for the content of my speech, I should focus on how to smoothly transition my sentences and topics. I have mentioned this before, there’s always room for improvement when it comes to giving speeches. Even after I feel confident about giving a speech, I begin to notice the smaller factors that I could have added to make my speech more effective. Another factor that I should improve on is to specifically use transitions in my introduction. I didn’t clarify my main points using the right transition words as some of my colleagues did.
As for positive notes, my posture was fine; it showed that I had confidence. I felt that moving around and pointing back at the power point kept my audience awake. I didn’t want to just stand in one spot an only have semi hand gestures, so I thought that if I were to direct my audience’s attention around, it would keep them entertained. As for giving eye contact, I believe that I did that very well. I’d give myself an 8, because I did stare out at the audience majority of the time. The other times I stared back at the power point to help point out some of the images for the audience. I didn’t rely on my note card. I noticed that only once did I check my note card. Other than that, everything flowed out in order and I got most of my points across.
If I had to do anything over, I would definitely have practiced a little more with my speech along with my power point. I was able to practice that a few times; although when I do get up to give the actual speech, sometimes I change my words around. So then I confuse myself and that causes me to become more nervous than I already am. This just shows me that I need to keep my speech very constant, instead of adding new sentences and new words to make my speech confusing for me. I would try to incorporate transition words too and make it clear to my audience of what it is that I’m going to be talking about.
Overall, I would actually give myself a B. For the mistake of not clearly mentioning my main points should dock some points off. Not using transitions during my speech was also a negative; A little bit of mumbling and using “what not” as a filler was a factor too. But other than that, I believe that my speech was fine and that I was still able to get my point across to the audience.
I know there’s more that I need to work on to improve my speech deliverance. For the upcoming speeches, I hope to at least accomplish each of these negatives that I have mentioned above. I found that the notes taken down by my colleagues helped out a lot. They are the audience and since the papers were anonymous, each of them can be honest and just write down our errors. Again, public speeches will never be flawless for me; therefore I hope to still learn and improve my speech giving skills.