Speech Review

After my speech I felt pretty confident. I had said everything thing that I needed to, I had spoken for enough time to match the requirements, I had spoken with a confident tone, and  I had stood with a good strong stance. Everything seemed to have gone well and of course I was relieved that I did not have to give a speech anymore to a room full of strangers. However, when I watched my video I was sorely disappointed as I realized everything I could have done better. While I did look at the audience for most of the presentation like I had planned and executed, I also looked back up at the screen multiple times unnecessarily because I had memorized all the points I wanted to make and the only thing on the board were pictures that, while relevant to the presentation,  did not contain any information that I did not already know. I also stood with a relaxed stance which I was aware of because I wanted to give out a relaxed feeling so that people did not feel uncomfortable with me and because I wanted to have more of a conversation with my audience instead of talking at them. I also was tired since it was an earlier class and my voice seemed tired since I was very sleepy. However, I see now how it could possibly come off as lazy or unprofessional. Finally, while I spoke with a confident and relaxed voice, it also lacked excitement and any kind of movement that would draw people into my speech. Like my stance, my tone could have given off a wrong sensation of laziness and unprofessionalism instead of relaxed and casual setting.

If I could go back and change my preparation and presentation, the biggest difference I would make is to tape myself before I actually presented. I would tape myself so that I could have seen all these mistakes before my presentation. I would have been able to change a lot and actually get what I was trying to say across the way I wanted it to. I also would have gotten more sleep the night before and woken up earlier to make sure I was awake for my speech so I could be active and involve my audience and make them interested to hear what I was saying. Although my speech had many mistakes, I was still pleased with my speech overall. Of course there were things to change, which is why I am glad I got to see my presentation, but I also was pleased that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. A great learning experience, and a great project for this class.