Self-Evaluation #2

Woot! Only two speeches left! It is so incredibly encouraging to feel like I am improving at speaking, and to be past the halfway point in our speech work is nice too. :D

And now for my evaluation:

I think that for the amount of time I was given, I did a fair job of achieving the purpose of my speech. Nutrition is a topic that I can (and have) talk about at length, and keeping myself confined to 4-5 minutes was tricky. While I was preparing my speech, I actually found myself wishing that the time allotment was longer so that I could talk about more cool stuff. But I think I did well enough.

While I was still very nervous, I was exponentially more confident for this speech than any of the past assignments. If I had to do it all over again, I would make better eye contact, and one person mentioned that I spoke a little fast. When I get nervous I go into "fast-forward mode," and woe to the person that tries to interrupt my train of thought. I've been working really, really hard this semester at trying to keep a nice, even clip while I speak, and only one person mentioned that I spoke a little fast, so I am going to go ahead and call that Winning.

My goals for improvement in the delivery department of the next speech are to not look at my cards so much. For our Demonstration Speech I was noticeably lost a few times, and I couldn't find my place in my cards. For this speech, I was so worried about losing myself again that I color coded and highlighted those suckers like you would not believe. They were a thing of beauty. So beautiful I couldn't stop staring at them.....no that's not true. It was mostly the fact that I was so determined to not lose my place that I didn't really want to take my eyes off the cards. I felt like I looked up a few times and locked eyes with people, but for the most part my eyeballs were all over those cards, and it was pretty noticeable. So the goal is to be much less dependent on those note cards.

As far as goals for improving the content of my speech, I actually thought I did pretty well. There's always room for improvement though, and I'd like to aim for a general, overall improvement for the next speech.

Specific differences between these two speeches: I was WAY more dependent on my note cards this time. I was also WAY more confident for this speech, and I felt like I was able to inject more of my personality into my presentation this time.

How would I rate my eye contact? Maybe a two or a three. You know, I am going to say 3.5. It wasn't good, for sure, but I felt like the contact was good when I did actually look up. I even noticed Tracie holding up the time cards, which i have always blissfully ignored before.

I'd give myself a B. I guess I went seven seconds over the time, so I would knock me down for that and the lack of eye contact. But I feel like I definitely improved in a lot of ways. I think I was visibly more comfortable up there, and I was able to have more fun with the topic. Like I said earlier, I feel like more of my personality was able to come out, and I think that gets kudos. Plus, I had a super sweet unicorn at the end.

If I am not mistaken, I mentioned four sources. I think I had six references, but only four in the speech and the outline. Someone suggested that I use shorter quotes so that my face isn't buried in my cards, and I have to say that I had never thought of that before. So thanks for the great suggestion!

Was this speech better than the last speech? An emphatic yes.

Also, I just want to thank everyone in the class for such wonderful and positive feedback. I think we all improved a great deal from our Demo Speeches, and it was so cool to watch us all be that much more confident up there. Rock on Comm 001!!!!!!!