Self Evaluation #3, our last one, ever.

Putting aside that this last speech evaluation is based on our last speech, I want to do an overall speech evaluation on my whole progress in the class. Coming into this class, I had expected to be scared to the point of sometimes not even coming on speech days. With putting in the back of my mind how I really need to pass this class and everyone is going to have to do a speech anyways, that gave me the confidence in going to speech days and not making myself stay home and receive no grade at all.

With my first and second speeches, I believe I didn't do fairly well as my last speech. With my first speech, I can say I did good, but when second speeches came, I felt really embarrassed I had just presented my speech that way. Getting sick the week of a speech was the worst for me. I had gotten a fever and a sore throat the week of that speech and wasn't better enough to do my speech. I had to suck it up because I know I'm ready, but my body wasn't.

This last speech we recently did, I had a tremendous time doing it. I really did. I am confident and sure that I achieved the purpose of this speech by just the audience's reactions coming back towards me. I could feel the energy of the room from the excitement and laughter that they loved from my speech. I honestly, going into the classroom on our last speech day, I was really nervous even more than my first and second speech. I don't know why but that's how I felt. I was sort of mad I got number ten on the order that I'd present, but that's okay, I got more time to prepare a little bit from waiting.
Once I got up and did my speech, I forgot all about my note cards and just started talking. I’m sure you could tell because I sort of just felt like I was talking to a big group rather than doing a speech. But, isn’t a speech supposed to be talking to a big group of people?
I felt accomplished in my last speech; I knew I had done a great job for my audience. I can honestly say if I had done it again, I don’t think it would be as good as the first time I did it. Going up for my last speech, I didn’t feel like I had the confidence in myself but once I got up there, I got this whole huge confidence boost because I knew what my topic was all about and I could relate to it so much.
From this speech compared to my other speech, my last one in my opinion was bad, I read over the note cards more than I looked up. This speech was better and good because I didn’t rely on my note cards so much, or even at all. This was definitely an improvement from my last speech and I didn’t do anything distracting. My eye contact on my last speech had to be around an eight at least. I would give myself, not being cocky, an 8. I know I did well and if I asked my classmates, they would say the same thing.
I know the source citations in my speech were from myself mostly because this speech was hard to find sources for, not like other speeches. This speech, I’ll say it again was definitely better than my other two speeches. I performed the best in this speech and I’ll miss doing speeches.

What I will take from this class.

I honestly really enjoyed this class. The last speech session really gave me the confidence boost I needed the next time I'm going to have to speak infront of people. I want to say my speech on unrelated coursework everyone enjoyed, just because I could see everyone directly looking at me and laughing with me while I gave my examples on how this is hurting me as well as how it's hurting them too. I will take the concepts I've learned from this speech class and possibly take it when or If i do take another sort of speaking class. I know that from this, I will be more prepared and less shy. Also, this class was really cool with the way we had discussions by writing blog post and commenting on each other. I really enjoyed this public speaking class and I'm sure everyone did as well! Bye! Hope to see you all again.

MY FAVORITE SPEECH

This last speech session we had as a class was the best. I can tell that everyone was very pumped up to do their last speeches and I can see the confidence we all have grown since the first speech. My favorite speech would have to be the actuative speech on teen pregnancy. Being on a more serious note, my sister recently had her child at 21. You may all think it doesn't sound as young as sixteen, but it truly feels the same for her. There use to be only four of us living in this house, my mom,dad, me, and my sister. Once she had her first child, she brought her boyfriend in. I do not like it at all considering the fact how nicely my parents just let her do all this to our family and the anger I have towards my sister and her boyfriend. Being a teen mom isn't a joke and it is a serious thing to have to deal with. Not only do they get affected, but others like me, as well. Teen Moms can be seen on a television show on mtv which show the teen moms at their lowest trying their hardest to get by. This was my favorite speech because I know how hard it is, seeing my sister go through it.

Concepts

The Concepts that I used in my speeches or helped me prepare for my speeches was putting into consideration the ideas for my topic. I usually spend a lot of time doing my outline on my main points. I don't take too much time on the introduction or conclusion. I believe that the middle part of your speech is the most important part. Putting aside everything, without great main points, your speech will fall apart and you will lose your audience's focus right when you hit your second main point, even first. With putting your audience into consideration, I believe that the concept of considering your audience for your speech is key. Knowing what kind of audience you have, you can write your speech around them. I try and choose topic speeches that can relate to the audience so that their attention will be focused on me the whole time.

Speech Buddy Interactive Videos: Schooling Pro/Con

Making a good argument is good for your speech. Arguments have four basic elements; thesis, claim, evidence, and reasoning. I learned that in the video Jessica looks very stern and has good vocalization. She is talking in a good pace. I have to support my thesis with a claim, evidence, and reasoning. I learned that you should clearly state your thesis when introducing your speech. The Hiker used statistics to claim his reasoning. He talks about how many hikers go off track and ruin trails. He then discussed how each person causes it. In the Schooling pro and con video, I learned a lot of things. In the pro video, she talks about how schooling at home is far better than going to school and that the school system is failing. It avoids the fighting in public schools. She talks about children coming home crying because of how bad school was for them. In the con video, He discusses how schooling in an actual public school benefits from being homeschooled. You get to be around a school environment, parents aren't qualified as teachers to be teaching their children, and that the home itself isn't effective for learning. What I learned from these videos are that they each state their arguments and have great reason to back them up.

Persuading others and accepting their point of view

There's always a time when you're going to have to try and argue with either your friends, family, or anyone for that matter. It is typically hard trying to persuade people to try and accept your point of view on things. There's was this one time with my friends where we were arguing about when I took my wst class and one of the proctors were sitting us all down. I told my friends that there was this one black female who I felt really bad for. The proctor had sat us all down row by row, so we weren't allowed to pick our own seats. When he sat this one particular female down, he told her "If this seat isn't comfortable enough for you, you can sit in the front". I saw the look on the girls face after and felt really hurt. This man didn't say that to anyone else but her. My friends argued that maybe she had told him something before he sat her down entering the classroom but I said no, that is just discriminating on her size or her race. I've experienced one time when eating at a restaurant filled with another race but mine and the waiters were really rude and didn't serve us as well as the other customers. I used experience and testimony as my type of reasoning. My friends later agreed with my point of view on how that man shouldn't have done that to her and that was clearly out of line!

Using Evidence Effectively : Types of Appeals

Going into this Public Speaking class, I had already familiarized myself with the types of appeals. The four different types of appeals are Logos, Ethos, Pathos, and Mythos. I am very familiar with the first three, but the last one is a little new to me. Logos is when you use logical proof to explain something. The main types of examples used to apply this appeal is of facts, statistics, and analysis. The second appeal is Ethos, which means to give speaker credibility. To use this type of appeal, try and make the listeners feel connected to you. Pathos appeals to emotion. We tend to use stories, examples, testimonies to show you feeling in our story and to make you really feel what we're talking about. Mythos appeals to cultural beliefs. Mythos is a new one to me so I might consider putting this into my persuasive/actuative speech. I might use mythos when talking in my speech about different schools around the world who do not require general ed courses.