Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Informative Speech
Well done today! The informative speeches were very good this morning. I appreciate the effort and time devoted to creating some interesting speeches. Strong audience adaptation, strong application to visual aid techniques and some wonderful delivery was illustrated in these speeches. I am looking forward to the rest of the semester. I want you to post your self critique in this blog post. Please include three strengths and three improvements that either you heard in class or you recognized from you performance. Remember you are practicing positive criticism in this class. So, be positive in your own comments too. Also, stay away from superficial improvements...I want some depth...let's discuss some of the more important criteria for effective speechmaking and communication here. This blog is due next class on Tuesday, March 2 ( those that did not speak today will complete for the following week).
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I appreciated the comments given by the class after my speech, both positive and negative. While I enjoy public speaking and presenting my speech, I oftentimes become too animated or speak too quickly and without taking breaths. It's something I have to work on. Also, although no one mentioned anything about it, I would like to work on what I do with my hands during my presentations. I had one note card in my hand that I used to read my thesis, but I kept the card in my hand throughout the presentation and waved it around or held on to it. In future presentations I want to be more conscious about how I use my hands and my body. Aside from that, I felt fairly confident while giving my presentation and found it easy to be enthusiastic because I found my topic interesting.
ReplyDeleteFor my next speech, I want to relax my body. I thought I was too stiff while presenting. I also want to work on not memorizing everything, so this way I will have a more conversational tone. The final thing I want to work on is just having more confidence. I took a public speaking class before, the the class size was smaller, so I wasn't used to this size of a group. I thought my strengths were my in speech credibility, I tried to cite each fact that I shared. I also thought I did well on not talking to the powerpoint. There were times I looked at it but I made sure to not talk to it. I thought my powerpoint really helped the audience understand my topic a lot better. I looked hard for the pictures I found so the audience would get a better understanding of the miracle league.
ReplyDeleteI too appreciated the comments made in class about my speech and I think for the next speech I will be more conscientious of how I present myself when I am speaking. I feel that I planned out my speech well and I used my visuals to bring the class closer to my topic and that I was knowledgeable, all of which positively contributed to the speech overall. However I also get nervous when I am speaking and as a result I focused more on what I was saying than how I was saying it and how I was presenting myself. My nervousness showed on my face and my body language, though I thought about these things while practicing I forgot to think about them once I began speaking. For my next speech I want to focus more on how I present myself and try not to lose sight of it once I get caught up in speaking so that the whole presentation of the speech is more effective.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else, I really enjoyed and appreciated the comments my classmates made. For my next speech, I know that I need to slow down. For some reason, I got extremely nervous right before presenting and therefore spoke extremely fast. The thing is, I knew my information really well, and hope for next time that I will be able to present myself better. I make presentations very often for an organization that I am a part of and typically do very well, and do not get nervous. I think that because of the classroom setting, my nerves got the best of me. Also, for next time, I want to make clearer transitions, so that my audience is fully aware of when I am moving onto another important point.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated the comments from the class about my strengths and weaknesses because it helped me realize where I need to improve. For my next speech, I will work on my speed. I spoke too quickly which caused me to use "um" throughout my speech. This leads me to my second area of improvement which is eliminating the word "um" from my vocabulary. Finally, I would like to use my note card more efficiently. It was useful for quoting, but I need to learn how to hold it when I am not using it. In addition to these weaknesses I also had some strengths. I adhered to the 6x6 rule when creating my PowerPoint which was helpful because it prevented me from reading my slides. I also thought I did a good job of including citations in my speech. One final strength I had was I established credibility throughout my speech which helped my audience trust my words.
ReplyDeleteThe critiques in class highlighted things about my speaking that I know I need to work on as well as things that I tend not to notice, so it is nice to get an outside perspective. I believe that I was strongly aware of my audience throughout my speech. I wanted to keep the topic interesting to everyone, because of this I was able to add in interesting facts and ideas that would intrigue a college student. I was also pleased that my Powerpoint was effective. I tried to keep the theme simple and not distracting, but also current and appealing. Along with these strengths I feel as if I was fully prepared and informed about my topic. By reading articles and reviews of the Kindle I knew more than the just the points within my speech outline, because of this I was more comfortable getting in front of the class and feeling confident about speaking.
ReplyDeleteIt was pointed out in class, and I definitely agree, that my transitions from one point to another were not very strong. I had planned transitions on my outline however, they were not comfortable to use in a conversational style. I think I planned transitions that I would use in a written assignment and I need to work on planning transitions that will allow me to continue the flow of my speech smoothly. And with the lack of strong transitions I was more prone to use “um.” I felt that throughout my speech, I was fidgeting with my note cards and moving my hands too much. While practicing my speech, I moved my hands far too much and I need to get used to holding my note cards and not playing with them. Also, as said in class, I need to be aware of my volume. While many people have problems speaking up I tend to speak much too loudly. I was congested the day of the speech so I need to make sure to be aware of things like that and make sure I control my volume accordingly. My parents have always said since I was little that I do not have an “inside voice” and when I get nervous my volume just gets higher.
I really appreciated the comments from the class and they were extremely helpful. To me personally I felt my speech did not go well at all. In critiquing myself I believe I made good eye contact, and I tried to talk at a slow pace but I am not very sure if that actually happened. I feel like I have a lot to work on in many different areas. For one thing I need to do more in depth research and definitely work on clearly explaining things about what I am presenting on. For the speech I feel as if though I talked about features of the phone expecting others to know exactly what I was talking about. An example being the Jailbreak feature on the iphone. It definitely seemed that subject caused a lot of confusion. Another thing I definitely need to work on is incorporating my sources into my speech. I didn’t really mention many of my sources and a lot of it was very hard to follow. Another improvement that I need to make that I heard from the class was to be a more confident speak because I tend to trail off towards the end of my statements. I really would like to work on a way of calming my nerves because I really do think that this is my biggest problem. I know the Iphone inside and out but when I get in front of a class I feel like a deer in the headlights and I tend to freeze up and I just get more and more nervous as the class goes on.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciated the comments I received in class the other day, even though after I finished my speech I knew what was coming my way. A lot of where I need to improve revolves around my performance. I do not think that my first speech went as well as I would have hoped, despite as much preparing as I did for it. That leads me into my first improvement, that I might have concentrated on preparing too much and constantly repeating the same lines instead of practicing concepts and themes, so that I would be able to improvise if I needed to. Which brings me to my second improvement, the fact that I let my nerves get the best of me. In the future, I need to stop concentrating so much on the audience and more on getting my message across. Finally, I need to improve on loosening up my body, such relaxing my stance and smiling. I need to come across as more comfortable in front of the audience, which will probably wind up making me feel more comfortable and not so nervous and tense. However, I do feel that I had some strengths in my informative presentation, that generally had to do with the information and quality of my speech. For one, I thought I had a good introduction and attention grabber Also, I felt I did a good job at getting across to the audience three main, clear points about my subject that they could easily follow throughout the speech. Lastly, I thought my PowerPoint was creative yet supplied just enough information to be a visual aid to my verbal messages. Hopefully in the future I can be more confident and improve on these concepts.
ReplyDeleteFirst I want to start by thanking everyone in class for the positive and negative comments that were given to me following my speech. Being that I was not there the day that our class went over how to put together the actual powerpoint, due to an illness, I feel as if I gained a great deal of knowledge from this speech. For my next speech I want to work on changing the visual look of my powerpoints so that they are not the same every time. I also would like to work on citing all of my information on each slide in order to give myself credibility.
ReplyDeleteAs for the speech itself, I want to work on many aspects. I feel as if I did a good job while presenting, however I would like to be more confident in my posture and speech while talking. Also I noticed that I skipped points and rambled on during certain sections and would like on calming myself down and rationally think about all of the information I am going to present. I remember that I rushed through my thesis and did not truly introduce my topic and that needs to be changed.
Finally I would like to work with Professor M. in order to try and solve a lot of these problems. Having missed that one crucial class I still feel behind and would like to get rid of this feeling for my next speech. I feel as if this may have contributed to my nervous feeling and anxiety. If I am well prepared and confident in what I am presenting I feel as if I can do a much better job.
I think I did a good job of looking and sounding enthusiastic during my presentation because the topic was something that is important to me. I think my attention getter was a great way to get the audience engaged. Instead of just using a statistic, I started the presentation by asking the audience to raise their hand in response to a question, which got everyone's attention right away. I also thought I did a good job transitioning between my main points, even though my transition was not as strong between the intro and the body.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I tend to focus more on what I am saying and lose some awareness of my body language and nonverbal cues. I know I spoke with my hands a little too much and that may have been distracting. I also tend to talk too fast when I am nervous, so I usually end up saying "um" a lot and having to catch my breath at the end of a sentence. I also could have been more informative with my verbal citations instead of just saying "According to the CDC..."
Overall, I think my presentation was well prepared but I need to focus more on my nonverbal to make the speech more successful.
The content of my speech was too broad to be conducted within a three-minute speech. With that being said, the areas for improvement are easier said than done. I angled myself toward the screen too much. I did have a lot of statistics though so that is why I read from there in order to make sure that I had the information correct. My transitions should have been a little clearer, though I feel they were not forced and were very natural. Lastly, I misunderstood the way we were supposed to cite pictures. If all of my images were from Google Images, I though I would be able to cite it at the bottom. The next time, I will be sure to cite every picture directly underneath. The positive feedback was very helpful and did lift my spirits after the negative feedback. I liked knowing that my “attention getter” actually did get everyone’s attention. I hope that the handouts reinforced the importance of my speech. I feel I had a conversational tone, but it was not too casual because I paced myself well. I used hand gestures to emphasize some points but made sure to bring my hands back to the neutral point at all times. Overall, i think my presentation went well for the first time, but there is always room for improvement.
ReplyDeleteI thought that I did pretty well for my first speech, and I really appreciated all of the feedback from the class. I picked a topic that was interesting and it was related specifically to college students so it helped keep the audience’s attention. I received positive comments about how I explained the features on the phone rather then just assume that everyone understood them. I was also told that I opened with a great attention grabber and had such enthusiasm when I was speaking. I think this is because I own an iPhone and it is something that I really enjoy talking about, making it easy to get excited about the topic. Another positive comment that I received was in regards to my PowerPoint. My slides weren’t cluttered and I used many pictures to illustrate the points that I was making which helped everyone understand more clearly.
ReplyDeleteAs far as what I could work on, I definitely need to use my hands less. In a regular conversation, I don’t use hand gestures that much, but when I find myself getting more nervous I tend to use them at times where they don’t add to my speech. I need to establish more credibility while I’m speaking and actually cite the sources in my words. Doing this really adds to the speech and shows the audience that the speaker took the time to do some research on the topic. Also, no one mentioned this, but I know that I need to use my note cards more wisely. I end up writing down information but get so flustered with keeping the speech moving that I forget to say important points that I had written down. I think that this will eventually come with practice and when I become more comfortable in front of the audience.
Overall, I thought I did okay for the first speech assignment. With my classmates giving me great unspoken responses right from the beginning, I became comfortable with a conversational tone. As for the content of my speech, I definitely need to work on and come more prepared with transition sentences. The topic was a bit of a hard one for me and I was proud of myself for being able to keep comfortable with the story as well as the statistics. The class gave me some great feedback that I look forward to using in my next speeches.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I feel that my speech was good. This was my first time presenting such a “prepared” speech. This factor was nerve-racking because I was consumed with trying to not diverge too much away from my outline, while not memorizing it word for word. I was also confused on the presentation of my power point. I was unsure if my images were the right types of illustration or visual for each point. On a more positive side, I thought I connected well with my audience and had a good conversational speech. For the next speech I would like to work on creating a stronger thesis and transitions.
ReplyDeleteI had trouble with this speech, especially the outline portion. All the organization and planning that goes into an informative speech is very extensive. Doing it well takes a lot of practice and research. I liked being able to pick a topic. Also, learning to cite sources and use them to make a credible speech is very important. I have a lot to learn about public speaking, but hopefully I can improve quickly.
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