Speech Evaluation # 3

Overall, I believe I achieved my purpose quite well for this speech. I emphasized the points that I really wanted to touch on and also used my powerpoint slides to create more of an interest in my speech. I was a bit nervous in the beginning, I guess that’s natural, but as the speech went on I got over it and just really wanted to get all the information out. I felt pretty confident while doing my speech, even though I did have some difficulty practicing it because this one definitely had more information involved. But in general, I was pretty confident because I had done lots of research for my speech and went in knowing my topic pretty well. If I had to do it over again and make some changes, I wish we had more time to prepare for the speech (like having the outlines due sooner), I would have practiced my speech in front of some friends so I could get feedback of some of the “do’s and don’ts”, I actually wish I had time to show the class a documentary that I watched and was on an episode of Oprah about the portrayal of beauty around the world. Seeing that documentary really moved me, also gave me a lot to work with in doing research for my speech. Lastly, my delivery I hoped I wasn’t so nervous. Being nervous is natural, and me telling myself to not be so nervous helped a little, but it was still there. Some specific things that were different from my prior speeches was: this was the first time I used powerpoint as a visual aid (good), I think it really helped me emphasize my points better by showing graphic pictures of women in the media and it gave attention to my speech more. I think that in my last speech I had a pretty good delivery, I wasn’t as nervous as I was the 3rd time around. I also tended to rely on my note cards a lot in this speech though which, was a bad thing. I didn’t do anything distracting in my speech other than relying on my note cards (if you want to call that annoying? Well maybe to some people). I do think that this was definitely an improvement from my last speech; I had all my information well organized, my ideas in this speech were more thourough, and I had more complex ideas. If I could rate myself on a scale of 1-10 I would probably rate myself an 8, there’s always room for improvement. Based on performance, on a scale from an A to an F, I would give myself an A-, which is what I received. It wasn’t perfect, but there was definitely improvement from my last speech. My preparation could have been better as I believe I stated previously above.
I think this speech was better in some aspects than my last speech, because of my ideas that I incorporated in and also the variety of sources that I utilized. I mentioned a total of 5 source citations thoughout the entire course of my speech. So based on my review of all three of my speeches I think that this last speech was my best. I broke outside of my shell and discussed a topic that really had value to me which I wanted to share with the rest of the class. I think this would be a great topic to write a paper on :).

Week of Dec 7-10

What are you going are you going to take from this class that you think will be helpful in future endeavors?

I will be taking a lot from this class. This is my last semester at SJSU and I waited until the last possible moment to take this class! Because that's how much I like public speaking LOL. This was actually my first online course and I really enjoyed it. Through my speeches in this class I've gained confidence in speaking in public and I've also gotten more comfortable doing it. This has been one of my main problems that I have wanted to fix/get rid of and through this class I beleive that I'm not necessarily there yet, but I'm almost there :) There were some important tips in the book that I am going to take with my in the future; like not being so nervous when doing speeches, analyzing your audience and making sure that your speech is appropriate for your specific audience type. Overall, this was a great course and I wish I would have tooken it sooner!

Week of Dec 7-10

Which speech was your favorite and why?

My favorite speech out of all 3 had to be probably my last speech, even though I had some difficulties trying to prepare for it. I think that my topic (how women are portrayed in the media and why the media should embrace women's natural beauty and not hinder on trying to fix it) was a really important topic that is REAL, it is happening before our eyes as we speak. While I was doing research for my topic I actually learned a lot and I hopefully one day would like to become an advocate to embrace womens natural beauty, maybe start a program similar to what Dove has done...who know's :) But I do feel passionately about issues like this because there can be some serious problems that may come up, if these issues are not addressed. Such as eating disorders, increasing numbers of plastic surgeries, self-esteem and self-confidence issues, and even suicide. I didn't get a chance to address all these in my speech because of time, but they are all pretty important. Overall, this was my favorite because of the issues involved with it.

Week of Dec 7-10

What concept or concepts from the class that you thought was the most helpful in preparing your speeches?

Some of the concepts from the class that have helped me best in preparing for my speeches were the feed back from the turned in outlines, the topics in the books which were easy to find and understand (such as outline examples, types of outlines, and general information on speech formation). The speech buddy videos also helped me quite a bit because they re-emphasized the points in the book and also made things more clear. I liked the fact that they were relatively short, becuase I know I don't want to be sitting in front of the computer watching a video where it's longer than 10 minutes! :) For the most part, I've definitely learned a lot from this class and will take what I've learned and apply it to my future endeavours.