Speech Evaluation

In life, we are always experiencing first things. That dreaded first kiss you’d always imagined to be magical or the time you’d finally be in line to take your first ever driving test. Times come at us fast, and we’re always being pressured to do our very best. When the time came to finally meet my public speaking class and my first ever speech, pressure along with a huge adrenaline rush took over my body. I was excited yet scared at the same time. “This is it”, I told myself. No turning back. The show must go on.
Before even showing up to our first speech meeting, I asked myself if I was even mentally prepared for this and if I had done enough work in order to put a speech together. I worked hard in finding research on my speech topic on the boomerang. I searched hard and far for that boomerang but could not purchase one to save my life! In my opinion, I did achieve the purpose of my speech in that the audience has a little more knowledge about the boomerang that may spark even more curiosity inside so that they may search up on the topic even more. I didn’t want my speech to not have this complicated purpose so that my audience would be so confused on what I was trying to let them understand. I kept it brief and straightforward. I specifically told them the history, as a weapon and sport, and how it’s recognized today in society. It couldn’t get any easier.
Going into the speech, I felt very confident actually. I told myself that everyone else was about to give a speech so why should I be scared? This always happens to me though. I get up, start talking, and don’t even consider that my audience may not even be hearing my clearly because I may be talking too fast for them. Watching my video, I notice that I didn’t stand at the center of the room. I was located right by the podium. This really bothers me because I had told myself before to not try and hide to feel more comfortable with myself and I totally forgot. I was comfortable but not too comfortable where I could just wing it without having any problems. If I had the chance to do it over again, I would position myself in the center of the room, keep still, have eye contact as much as possible, and maybe memorize my speech so I can eliminate having to use note cards as a safety belt.
This was my first time ever writing an outline for my speech, and I must say that it was fairly difficult for me to come up with sub points for my main points. Especially my last main point on how it’s recognized in society, I was totally blank on what to write for a while. I almost regretted even picking the topic I had chosen. My one goal on improving the content in my next speech is to compile more research in order to make my sub points more effective. The next time I deliver my speech, I will stand up straight, smile, be confident as possible, have eye contact with every single individual in the room, and clearly speak in order to get everyone’s attention in the room.
I noticed many things with my delivery. I spoke way too fast for my introduction and I know when practicing at home that I didn’t act that way. I obviously was way more confident when practicing because my audience wasn’t as big as our class size. I noticed that I was distracting just by standing too close to the podium and saying the dreaded UM, the looking up at the ceiling thing, and just not standing in the middle of the room bugs me a lot. My eye contact during the speech was probably a six in my opinion. I feel like I was looking more at the wall then actually giving eye contact to people. Watching the video and looking and hearing If I had said my sources verbally, I had only said it twice. I had more sources and I know I should’ve slowed myself down so that I could remember all the sources I had written down in my note card.
First things aren’t always going to be an easy thing. From this first speech, I have learned that I need to let down my guard of even being scared of speaking in front of people. I’m making it into this big deal that isn’t even anything. People are going to judge me when I speak but so is everyone else. If I had to give my speech a grade, I would give it a C+. I wasn’t in front of my fellow classmates; I was more to the side of the podium then anything. I also kept saying umm way too many times. I left out a lot of sources that I should’ve verbally said out loud and that makes me sound like I plagiarized or something. I admire the 9/11 speech a lot. She took her time in presenting and that’s what makes a good speech. I need to pace myself in order to deliver beautifully. I will now learn from my mistakes and try and not let my audience see the same mistakes I made last time. Practice makes perfect, and with a little more practice, I know I can do much better.

Concept: Evaluating Your Research Materials

Chapter six is mainly about researching for our speech topics. The things that we accumulate from researching our topic must be evaluated before we can even put it into our speeches. From all our sources, we have to see if their is consistency and credibility in our resources from a particular source. We have to see if it's consistent in other sources as well. Also, it is important and beneficial to have our sources to be current to now. People can relate and will be informed as well. What I found useful was the "critical questions for evaluation information" because it will help our speeches to determine how reliable, valid, and current the information we are gathering to be. Not having our information correct for our speeches would totally create a horrible speech with false information and the validity of our sources would be totally wrong. The research we find for our speeches is the playmaker for our speeches. In order for our speeches to "perform", the playmaker must write up a "script" that we can incorporate into our speeches.

Speech buddy video for Chapter Six.

I enjoy all these videos. I really like how they all stick to the point of what they're talking about. They go right into it by telling us what we should do, how to avoid mistakes and errors, and what are the best ways into getting the speech done. They are correct in that we must first prepare to do our research on what we do and what we don't know about our speech topic. We also have to evaluate the sources that we find on our speech topic. Of course MLK LIBRARY would be perfect for resources for all of us! Dory's went right on talking about her speech in a confident manner. She did though look down more than the other speeches I've seen so far in these videos. I also liked that Dory got to do an introduction speech where she got to talk about herself. I would have liked if we had to do that also. I learned that research is the most important thing to do when putting your speech together because people will and can tell if you're just talking out of your a**. (sorry for the explicit language), but it's true. I'm learning a lot so far in this class, even though I haven't met any of my fellow classmates or teacher. I feel my confidence in speaking building up and I'm learning the steps I need to take in order to perfect my upcoming and anticipated speeches.

Research Interviews

I have had experience with conducting research interviews actually. My first semester at San Jose State, last fall to be exact, I was to conduct a research interview for a mentor project we had in my meaningful life class. It was the end of the year final assignment. We were to choose someone we knew, someone who wasn't related, and someone who made a big impact in our lives, someone we looked up too. He told all of us that we must conduct an interview and meet with our mentors to ask questions in order to present our findings to the class. It went well, knowing that I knew the person, she didn't give me a hard time when I was asking questions. The questionnaire went well because I had written a list of questions beforehand so I wasn't thinking of any on the top of my head. What I think needed improvement was that I ran out of questions to say. I also need to improve in that when I was talking and asking questions, I'd interrupt my interviewee. She didn't mind ofcourse, having her as a close friend. My advice is that people should be ready beforehand when conducting an interview because it's important to not interview someone and not be more or as ready as the person being interviewed.

Building your working outline

Now that I've chosen my topics for all my speeches, I can now learn how to build my outline. In the book, it shows me that I'm in the "working" outline, where the functions are to assists initial topic development and research. I've never done an outline for a speech before, although I've done outlines for notes in class, essays,etc; this looks far different than that. To begin with my speech topic, I must brainstorm for ideas that I may want to include in my speech. I'm actually excited for the topics I've chosen, especially my persuasive speech!!! :) I hope the professor approves it, because I'm excited to begin my outline. I really want to work very hard on my persuasive speech because it is our last speech, but it's also one that I need to argue my points to the class in order for the speech to do well in itself. Also, the thesis for your speech is very important. As in essays, we're always going to need a thesis to begin our essay, without it, we are left without knowing what point you are trying to prove in your paper.

Viewing the videos.

I first viewed the "Intro to Jessica" Video first. I must say, she looked very well prepared to do her speech. She looked confident and her face wasn't "beet red". What I liked from her speech was that she incorporated great hand movements while talking. What I learned from this speech is that hand movements are great in giving your speech. Jessica pointed to different things and herself to point out things about Helen Keller. I learned that it's good not to focus all your attention on the podium. She only looked down not more than 3 seconds, actually, it looked like she didn't look down more than 2 seconds! I would love to do that when I give my speeches.

2.1 taught me on relaxation, visualization, and relabeling. I do practice visualization in that I like to be alone in order to prepare myself for things. For example, when I had to present and analyza a poem this summer in English Class, I practiced in front of my mirror without anyone in the room to see myself presenting. I learned that I need to stand up, analyze the room and use all your senses. I learn that I need to pause when I'm feeling nervous and I need to relabel.

2.2 I learned about overcoming my fears. I will not comment on my nervousness! To alleviate my fears of my audience, I need to research on my audience and how it will be graded.

Apprehensiveness.

Public Speaking could be a chore to some, but many find speaking in front of people very fun. I myself, have found that speaking in front of people build's confidence and your level of shyness slowly gets smaller and smaller. To be apprehensive means to feel anxious or fearful of getting something done, or quick to do so. Every speech or presentation I have to go through, I'm always more excited on getting the job done, rather than getting myself ready to do the best presentation I can. I believe all of us have speech anxiety, some may have more than others, but it varies on different people. My speech anxiety has gotten better because I remember in Elementary school I would get up in front of the class, start twiddling my hair, and my cheeks would turn bright red. I felt like people were watching my every move, I focused all my attention on the paper rather than my audience, and in the end felt worse than before I had gotten up in front of the class. There is a lot of uncertainty that ties in with your speech anxiety. I am more of the person who will be listening rather than being the the speaker. I'm certain of my speaking abilities, in that, I prepare myself to an extent but not to the extent where I'm more than confident to speak in front of people.

So, what makes me most apprehensive about public speaking? In my opinion, I would say just getting my speeches done as quickest as possible. The worst feeling is standing in front of a crowd all eyes gazing towards you. If it was just the teacher and myself, I probably wouldn't be as nervous or have my eyes set on getting the speech as quickly done as possible. I'm also apprehensive in getting the job done because having to stand in front of a crowd not knowing and having uncertainty with how they feel about your presentation or speech makes me feel very uneasy. I got moderate speach anxiety onn my "personal report of public speaking anxiety" quiz.
I don't get too scared to present to the point of where I'm about to faint or pee my pants. I just hate the feeling of not knowing how someone feels about your work.

It is true that starting out your speech early and planning ahead will give you more time to practice and your speech will have been more prepared. That ties in with schooling also. Plan early and get things done early, so that you're not swamped in all this schoolwork and you won't be behind. Diaphragmatic breathing is what I use to do in my choir class back in eigth grade. It is a great exercise that I haven't done in a long time! To get a better feel of my audience, It is a good thing we have these blogs to get to know one another. Sorry for the long blog, but I hope you've enjoyed my blog :)