Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Informative Critiques
Nice effort on our first round of speeches this morning. A strong effort was shown in your performances on several levels (dress, delivery, outlines, etc.) The majority of you illustrated a sincere effort to present quality work in class today. This effort was noted and appreciated. Keep up the good work! Please post your informative critiques here. Please include in your comments three strengths and three improvements. The improvement comments should include suggestions on ways to make for a stronger performance in the next speech. Give a classmate some positive support! Comments are by March 3rd.
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I thought Sarah R. did a great job on the first speech! Michelle Obama's fashion was a great topic, as it is both interesting and timely. I thought her introduction and conclusion were both very strong. She gave a good mix of interesting tidbits to grab our attention but also important facts about the topic. Although the beginning was textually strong, I could sense some nervousness in her voice and body language. That anxiousness seemed to fade as the presentation went on, but hopefully next time she will be more confident and relaxed from the beginning. Another aspect of Sarah's presentation that I really enjoyed was her use of visual aids. Pictures were especially important for this presentation because many people are not familiar with Michelle Obama's clothing, or the style of women she was being compared to, like Jackie O. These pictures made the presentation very visually exciting, but it would have been better if Sarah's tone and facial expressions had matched that. Again, I would just credit this to nerves and believe that in the future, Sarah's passion for the subject will come across as she becomes more comfortable. Practicing the speech in a mirror could be very helpful for her to see the expressions she makes as she speaks. Lastly, I was very impressed with Sarah's verbal citations. It was clear that she had done her research, and she comfortably and smoothly gave credit to those sources as she spoke. However, something I noticed during much of the speech was the tendency for Sarah's voice to inflect at the end of each sentence like a question. I think it would help her to record her next speech beforehand, so she is able to hear what we all hear, and then I'm confident she will be able to correct it. Overall, I think Sarah did a really good job on this first speech, and I am excited to see how she will improve next time!
ReplyDeleteJessica Berg
ReplyDeleteBy: Angela Pineiro
First I am going to begin with the negatives and ways to improve. I noticed some fidgeting foot movements in the beginning which is most likely due to nerves. Your foot would move back and forth. I think the best way to avoid that is to be overly prepared. The more you know your speech, the less nervous you'll be. I also noticed that you would continue to face the power point instead of the audience. Again, I feel the best way to avoid that is to be confident with your speech and that comes from practice. Another thing I noticed is that towards the end of some sentences, you would end with "and everything" and "and something." I'm assuming you replaced "um" and "like" with these terms to fill in for silence when transitioning into a different sentence or topic. Again, I feel the only way to avoid this is to practice the speech over and over again. Practice makes perfect!
Now for some good feedback, I thought you knew your information very well. I felt that you believed and knew what you were talking about. You didn't read off of the note cards which is a major plus. You also mentioned that you had experience in the field because of an internship you had, which made your information more credible. Another thing I liked was your tone of voice. You had a loud voice with a slow tone that helped me take in and understand all your information. An overall great job!
Presentation One: Critique
ReplyDeleteAlyssa C.
For German R.
Strengths
1. Great intro with smooth transition into thesis.
2. Recovers well from mistakes.
3. Once the PowerPoint went on, the flow became much more conversational.
Improvements
1. Eye contact started out strong, but waned a little.
a. Try to look at the PowerPoint a little bit less.
2. Leaning on one foot into the PowerPoint presentation.
a. Work on having an easier stance.
3. Clip was a little bit long.
a. Choose a section of the clip to show in the presentation.
I really admire that you were bold enough to go first. In public speaking, it is definitely a good idea, since most of the audience is lost after the first 15 minutes anyway. In this manner, you guaranteed that your message came across. Furthermore, you were lively and interesting and it was easy to see that you put a lot of effort into your speech. Bravo!
Rachel K.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the topic that Rachel chose, Michael Phelps. It was something that we were all familiar with but did not have all of the information on.
The first area of improvement for Rachel is that she looked a bit too much at the power point. Perhaps practicing more before presenting could correct this problem. Another area of improvement is that there was not information on the slides. One or two words on a slide is not sufficient and there should have been a few more. The third area of improvement is that there needed to be a better ending. It was a little week and could have helped to end the speech strongly. Also, in the conclusion, you can not use the words "I believe." By doing this, it makes it into a persuasive speech and no longer an informative one.
Your main strength is that you seemed very confident. You spoke in a conversational tone which I thought was very good. In addition, you gave good citations throughout the speech. This helped add to your credibility. Finally, you were very knowledgeable on the subject. This helped keep the audience focused because we believed what you were saying because of your knowledge.
I think Rachel did a great job on her first speech!
Cory B.
ReplyDeleteCory, I thought you did a really good job for your 1st speech.
You had a good introduction and you knew your information. You were well prepared and poised, with good transitions. Your voice resonated with good volume.
You moved around as you spoke so if you become aware of that you can stop it. You could have had more works cited in your speech and cites need to be on your power point slides. Your conclusion faded out so between your voice quality and your content just be cognizant that even though you're happy the speech is over, the audience still wants to connect with you. But overall, the speech was great and held the audience's interest.
Review of Marisa M.'s speech
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job with your topic choice and overall presentation of the speech. You were conversational and brought some of your personality with your delivery. You had solid transitions and perhaps your strongest attribute has been your ability to transition from a cited fact to a conversational explanation of what the source was referring to. Moreover, you added a preview which was very important and recovered nicely when slipping.
In terms of improvements, I think you got a bit nervous in the begining and therefore there was no clear thesis stated in the begining. Subsequently, it was up to us the audience to figure out exactly what you were hoping to gain from the speech. Also, your reference slide seemed to convey that you did a tremendous amount of research for this speech but because you rushed through it the audience didn't get to see how much hard work you put into researching your topic. The good thing is that your content and reference to sources throughout the speech compensated for that but in future reference if you would spend 30 seconds more on it you'd have an easier job convincing the audience. You had good eye contact but you spent too much time looking at the power point and depdending on your card. I'd suggest writing one key point per slide so that you could quickly reference it and then look up at the audience. Finally, the ending was rushed so we didn't get the full effect of your lasting attention finale. Just remember to take a deep breath before every point and transition. By simply pausing before starting on a new section of the speech you'd be able to compose yourself better and arrange your thoughts.
I really enjoy your content and I think that if you continue relying on your information and solid research you'd be fine in any speech. Just remind yourself that you know more about the topic then probably the rest of the audience so there isn't much to worry about!!
Cathy O.
ReplyDeleteCathy, I really enjoyed listening to your speech. I thought it was both informative and interesting. Your topic was relevant and kept the audience’s attention. You had a very strong introduction and attention getter. I think that you really drew the audience in with your opening. Another strong point was your knowledge of the information. You really seemed to know exactly what you were talking about. You rarely referenced your note cards and because of this you demonstrated a solid knowledge of your content. You also spoke with a very conversational tone. This helped you connect with the audience and made it easier for you to deliver your message. Some things to work on next time: There were some “uh’s and um’s” that are unnecessary because you knew exactly what you wanted to say. Maybe instead of filling space with those words, just take a pause. Even though it sounds weird in your head, the audience won’t even notice. You did a great job not using your note cards but I think this directed your attention to much to the power point. Maybe direct your stance more towards the audience, that way you are kind of forced to look at them and you will only reference the power point when you need to. You had one slip up but I thought that you recovered excellently. You took a breath and collected yourself which is extremely hard to do. Overall, I thought your speech was great and you really did a nice job presenting your information.
I critiqued Dave's speech and I thought he did a great job overall. His first strength was that he used humor and smiled alot and used a friendly tone while speaking. He used a conversational tone very well and also carried a very calm and confident demeanor. Also, throughout his speech, Dave used words such as "extensively" and "scholarly research" to show that he researched in detail on his topic. He also used solid, factual, and statistical information which was very informative.
ReplyDeleteDave did not show too many negatives throughout his speech but there are a couple that I will point out for future reference. He used a couple of "uhs" and a few pauses which broke up the flow of the presentation. Another thing Dave did in this speech was he used some subjective points while this speech was supposed to be stricly informative. Lastly, Dave walked back and forth and blocked the screen unintentionally. While this would have been a powerful tactic in a longer speech with more floorspace, for this particular speech it was not effective. It was however a strong way to keep the audience engaged and I think he should continue using that tactic in future speeches, when appropriate.
Critique for Claudia
ReplyDeleteClaudia,
I really enjoyed listening to your speech. You had brought in some very strong visual aids like pictures that helped us understand what you were talking about, a website and even a video clip. I really liked this variety and the ‘coolness’ you presented it with. I thought you looked really calm and professional up there. Your attention getter was great and you had my attention from the get go. Listening to you was very easy because you knew what you were talking about. It seemed you were very interested in the topic which was well chosen for I did not know much about it but you made me want to find out more about it. I especially liked what you said about cultural exposure. Over all, you had a conversational tone and vocal variety which made it even easier to listen to you.
However, I found a few opportunities for improvement:
The main advice from me would be to take your time. This was probably the source of many of the problems you had.
1.) The slide with the citation was long and detailled and I would have liked to spend more time with it, but you had it up for only like 2 seconds. In adition to that you barely cited verbally. Although it might seem boring, spend more time with the citation page and let your audience know where you got your information, we appreciate it.
2.) If you decide to bring in more visual aid, like a webpage, let us see it. Spend some more time on it, explain it, maybe repeat the webpage so we can look it up later on. You might not believe so, but I was very interesting in the topic and wanted to check out the website for myself, but had no info on it.
3.) Good job on remembering to load the youtube page before starting your speech. I saw you did that and I was looking forward to the clip. You then accidently closed all the tabs and the clip wouldn’t load again. It all seemed like you wanted the speech to be over quickly. If you would have taken your time, you probably, maybe, wouldn’t have had closed the tabs. Taking time puts you in control of your media. Take advantage of it.
4.) The ending was not what I had expected at all. It was somehow abrupt and sudden. It left me with the feeling of: is she done? Should I clap now? To avoid this, try and think of a catchier ending for this is how we will remember your speech.
Those points make me think that you were not comfortable up there. But you really have no reason to not want to talk to us, because you were well prepared and you had something interesting to say. So next time you give a speech, remember that we want to know what you have to say. If it’s more fun for you giving a speech, it’s more fun for us listening to it.
Speech Critique for Hannah
ReplyDeleteI thought that Hannah did an excellent job for her first speech. She seemed very confident and delivered her information very smoothly. She has mentioned in the past that one of her greatest concerns is speaking clearly as English is not her first language, and I think that she did an excellent job expressing herself. I thought that her attention getter and closing were very creative as she was the only student to incorporate a prop into her speech, but I think it would have been more effective if she had elaborated more during her attention getter and closing. The inclusion of the iPod was a creative idea, but she only picked it up and showed it to the audience for a second – it felt rushed.
It was clear that she did a lot of research and really knew a great deal about her topic. She had a lot of information and it was evident that she was very familiar with all of it. She had a minor slip up in her slides and I could tell she got a little flustered, but her recovery proved that she knew her information and knew it well. For her next speech she needs to work on improving her eye contact and connecting with the audience. She looked at the screen and the ceiling a lot during her speech, and when she did look at the audience I felt as if she was just glazing over each person and not really connecting with them. I also noticed that she relied heavily on her note cards. She had a lot of detailed information, and it is hard to remember statistics and lengthy quotes without note cards, but in the future she should try to make her delivery more conversational. Perhaps practicing the speech without looking at note cards can help her to deliver without them, and then during her actual speech she can use them only as a reference if at all.
Overall I think Hannah did an excellent job, and if she works on the few small things that are giving her problems she can only improve from here. Good job!
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ReplyDeleteThe topic, Iceland's failing economy and prime minister was interesting because it gave us some insight on an issue across seas. The PowerPoint was well organized and presented in a very poised manner. You also projected a strong clear voice when you delivered your speech. The only issue in the delivery was when you began to look at the floor and the PowerPoint. Looking down is probably induced by nerves, but you were pretty calm during the whole presentation. Try keeping your eye contact consistent throughout the delivery of the presentation. It will make your delivery stronger.
ReplyDeleteI critiqued the presentation of Kenya Bullock. The topic was focused on the life of Johnson & Johnson's Dr. Carson. Overall, there was a great sense of confidence and energy from her. She kept the audience intrigued by her topic about Dr. Carson. I enjoyed her enthusiasm greatly. I liked the slide which discussed the TNT movie that was created about Dr. Carson. She even added a question for crowd participation during her presentation, which showed even more confidence in her ability to ask the question and than remain on task with her presentation. The passion for the topic was quite obvious, being that she was quite knowledgeable about Dr. Carson’s life and career.
ReplyDeleteThe presentation was great; however there were some minor details that could be worked on for the next presentation. There was a lack of citing on the information stated. Work on following the 6 x 6 rule for each slide of the presentation. Also, be aware of feet movement. Overall, great job!
Angela Pineiro
ReplyDeleteI thought Angela's strengths mainly came from the way she presented. Angela has an excellent vocal quality. She spoke clearly and loudly enough for everyone in the class to hear. She had a nice vocal variety and spoke in a conversational tone that the entire audience could easily understand. Her speech was presented around one main topic, the movie He's Just Not That Into You. Angela's speech centered around the characters and plot of the movie and it was a clear and specific topic. Her main points and subpoints flowed nicely and the overall speech was obviously planned out nicely. Some things to work on are sources need to be cited. I didn't see any citations throughout the presentation so just include where you got your information from. Verbal citations should be included as well. Also, more eye contact could have been made with the audience. There was a little too much looking at the powerpoint. The powerpoint was an effective and well-utilized visual aide however at times there was too much information on the slides. Try sticking more to the 6x6 rule we discussed in class. Overall, the speech was very informative and you did an excellent job presenting it!
Critique on Alyssa Conn
ReplyDeleteAlyssa,
I thought you did an excellent job on your first speech. The topic on the Peace Corps was a good choice because we are all familiar with it, but do not know much about its process. You had an awesome integration of various videos, websites, and quotations- you thoroughly explained each one. At the beginning you clearly stated your goal, and I liked the creative ending with the quotation. You kept a steady pace the for the entire speech, and always kept our (the audience) frame of reference in mind. Your passion for the topic definitely shined through and kept us interested the whole time! I thought you did a very good job of keeping your cool and showing 0%of the nervousness you may have been feeling. However, though your presentation was well organized you occasionally strayed from the topic by putting too much information on each point. But overall, your first speech was very successful!
Critique on Andy Garcia: I critiqued Andy's speech. Some strengths included his very professional yet calm presence, his good posture throughout the speech, voice tone, and smooth transitions. Andy had a very nice ending, by opening up to any questions that the audience could have had- that was very original and effective. As far as weaknesses, he looked at the powerpoint a bit much, as well as looking at his notecards a bit too much as well, and he was fidgety, probably from nerves. Overall it was a very good speech and he did a great job.
ReplyDelete