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.
