Persuasive Speech Blog

        Overall, I think this speech went pretty well. I'd say around 9/10. I felt I did a good job at explaining the subject well, and working in the audience analysis replies. I really wanted everyone to see the other side of what they thought, since I know it's always easy to look at the negative side first. I wish I could have gone into more detail, but the time limit was a big cruncher for me. Initially I started with like a 12 minute speech, and I thought, oh boy...this shall be fun to condense.
        I figured I was going to be talking really fast to fit everything in, but when I listened to the video my speed was actually decent. My tone and vocal variety was good for the most part, but I still think I sounded flat, especially at the beginning, which is something I feel I need to work on still. The other thing I noticed I need to work on is the hand gestures. I used WAY too many of them this time. I think a lot of it was that I was more nervous since this speech was worth so much, and the hands just kind of had a mind of their own. I also made a few mistakes while presenting. First off was not finishing my creditability statement and I also realized I said, I got my information from the Health Care Reform instead of saying Healthcare.gov. Just a few examples of dumb mistakes, that shouldn't have happened. I also feel I didn't use the right word choice sometimes, for example “so you don't lose the goodness of your health insurance”…how ridiculous was it of me to say goodness?

        But, those are all things I feel I can work on with more practice. On the other hand, I felt I did well on a lot of things. My stance was good, and so was my eye contact, although I still think I could have made more eye contact with the right side. But eye contact is definitely something I've improved on throughout the semester (that darn horseshoe shape let me tell you!) I think I've also done a better job at making sure to pronounce words more, to make them clearer.

        As far as being a good persuader, I think I did an adept job. I tried really hard to find a rebuttal for all of the replies people had added for why they didn't like the Health Care Reform. I think it would have been better if I had more time to explain my points in more detail. Even with the constraint, I feel I gave enough info and resources to convince them to research it themselves, though. Of course, in the end, you'll always have certain people who will stay with their initial view, due to influences in their life. But since there were so many that didn't initially take a stance on the platform, I hope I influenced them that national healthcare is a must, even if it’s not exactly what our government’s plan is, as of now.

Self-Introduction Self-Critique Blog

I watched my video three different times, once only looking at the video, once only listening to the audio, and the last time with both. This might sound rather odd, but it helped me to see if I was performing excess body movements. The audio, on the other hand, helped to see if I was clear enough to be understandably heard alone. After doing each of these, I'd rate myself 8/10.

Body Movements:

I improved on making eye contact, but I feel that I looked mostly at the camera, and not so much towards each side of the room. I adequately kept my stance and didn't fidget, which is an important part of any speech. However, I do feel that I used more hand gestures than I needed; some of which didn't really relate to the speech (such as switching the note cards in my hands). My visual aid helped in the speech but I feel I pointed back at it more than was needed, making it a slight distraction. It also distracted me personally, preventing me from making enough eye contact. I was glad that I did show some facial expressions within the speech, normally alongside hand gestures, which I thought went well and enhanced the speech.

Vocals:

I could hear myself easily and was surprised to find that I actually wasn't talking that fast. There were a few words I could have pronounced better, to be more understandable. I showed vocal clarity just as with the first one, even though it was a tad bit harder seeing as how it wasn't a story being orated.

Overall:

Overall, I feel I did a good job at completing the requirements for the speech, minus the fact that I was really close to 3:00 minutes (maybe even over by a few seconds). I think the cause of this was me adding a little bit more content to some of the points, out of noticing interest from the audience. As was demonstrated in the speech, though, I didn't allow myself enough wiggle room to fit it in successfully. Next time, I will make sure to give myself more room for addition in the speech. To improve next time, I won't overuse my visual aid, preventing it from cutting down on my eye contact with the audience. Also, it may be a better idea to reduce the time the picture is visible in the background. I will continue to use vocal clarity and speak clearly. I will attempt to use a few less hand gestures, but not completely and add more facial expressions to give more character to the presentation. Next time, I hope to come up with a more interesting grabber that's more in depth for the intro also. One thing I can say I was completely satisfied with was my little “thought” at the end, hopefully inspiring thought within a few audience members.