MY BEST ADVICE:

I believe that the best advice I gave had to be to work on pacing – mostly keeping it steady throughout and at a moderate speed. I mentioned keeping the pace steady because I noticed the person speeding up in the beginning and slowing down towards the ends of paragraphs. I also mentioned keeping it at a moderate speed because I noticed as their nervousness increased so did their speed. It was also easy for me to pinpoint this problem as I am the same way.

WHY IT’S MY BEST ADVICE:

I believe this is my best advice because other than volume, the pace is one of the first things you notice when someone is giving a speech. This is because their pace normally relates to their nervousness or confidence, so it is easy to point out. Given that pace relates to your nerves, you can exude more confidence with a more defined pace that doesn’t waver. Not to mention, a good pace for a speech can put more emphasis on the key points you want people to hear.

BEST ADVICE FROM MY PEERS:

The best advice I received was to speak from my heart and not read from the page. This was given to me because I used to read my scripted speech, verbatim, and it would sound so monotonous and boring. This was also because reading from the page made me seem less interested in my topic – as if I didn’t care enough to know the information by heart. This was also because it made my speech seem like less of a speech and more of a reading.

WHY IT’S THEIR BEST ADVICE:

I believe this is the best advice because it helped me to improve my speech in more than one way. Learning to speak from the heart instead of reading from the page allowed me to really get into the speech as if I was telling a story to my friends. It was also great because it allowed me to put more emotion in my voice, it wasn’t so monotonous. Speaking from the heart even enabled me to improve my eye contact because I wasn’t reading from a page, I was speaking to an audience.

BIG REFLECTIVE MOMENTS:

  1. I believe that I read from my paper as little as possible and only glanced down at it a few times to assure myself of what I would be discussing next. I also believe my organization was quite solid because I had the two most important points at the beginning and end where people pay the most attention while I had the less important point in the middle of the speech. Lastly, I believe that I could have worked on the pace at which I delivered my speech because I think I spoke too quickly so if you stopped paying attention for only a short time you would have missed a bit of information (Journal 9).
  2. I was able to speak more like a human in this speech and less like a robot because I practiced giving my speech from the heart – I had a few phrases on my paper to keep me on track but everything I said was sincere and not read from a sheet of paper. Overall, I still need to improve my pace and the monotony in my voice. My pace is still too fast for an ideal speech and my voice is still too monotonous. I can improve my pace by practicing in more nerve-wracking situations and I can decrease the amount of monotony in my voice by becoming more passionate during my speech (Journal 15).

WHY THESE REFLECTIVE MOMENTS MATTER:

  1. I believe my reflection of speech 2 (Journal 9) was really significant for my career in public speaking. This is because I initially thought my eye contact was pretty solid while writing my reflection – I then got my grade back and I realized that I had mostly been staring and pointing at the pizza instead of looking at the audience. This was also significant because it made me accept that it doesn’t matter where I put the important points – if they are monotonous and boring, everybody will lose focus. Lastly, I think it was helpful that I recognized how dense my information was and how fast I spoke because it allowed my to improve on those parts for my third speech.
  2. I believe my reflection of speech 3 was extremely significant this semester. One reason for that is because it made me realize that I have to try to sound less monotonous, for the most part I will always sound monotonous since that’s just who I am unless I try otherwise. It was also significant because I realized that I can practice my speech numerous times but my pace will still be fast if I don’t directly focus on it. Lastly, I believe that noticing that I needed to practice in more nerve-wracking situations was really significant because it will really help me with future speeches.

MY BIGGEST STRIDES:

I believe the most growth between a dry run and a speech happened in speech three for me. I noticed a drastic change between what my dry run was like and what I was actually like. I saw that I was reading directly from the page and had no heart in my speech, I was speaking too fast and sounded monotonous so that made it very boring. Then on the final, after speaking to Jesse I knew what I had to do. I had to speak from the heart and that made all the difference – it made me talk at a more reasonable pace and have a tiny bit more inflection in my voice, it as well made me have better eye contact and have a bigger impact on the audience.

Final Speech Rough Draft:

Coming into this class I had no idea what to make of it, I just knew that I didn’t like to give speeches if I didn’t have to. Within just a few classes after starting we were already told to prepare a speech. Just giving that speech alone is a reason we should all pass the class, but here are a few examples of why I think I should pass. 

Im not sure if most of you remember but my speeches in the beginning were quite robotic and very boring, I had no idea that they were like this, I was completely oblivious to that fact. It wasn’t until our professor Jesse came up to me after I did my dry run for speech 3 that I became aware of this. He mentions to me that my outline looks like a hefty brick of text and if I didn’t want to continue to sound like a monotonous advertisement I should consider using less of a script and speaking more from the heart, the outline was merely a tool to keep me on track not some book to read from. 

As any of us would I took this quite seriously, I mean, this was the professor of the course speaking to me, how could I not? However, this really put me in a tizzy as I had to completely revamp my speech if I wanted to make it a good one. This took a lot of trial and error, after a while I managed to shrink my speech down to what I thought were the key points. I brought it to Jesse and it turns out I can make it even smaller! After his help and guidance I managed to size it down to the point where it was speech day ready. Turns out though, since I was speaking from the heart, I didn’t even need it in the first place! Taking a page and a half of dense text and making it into the heart felt speech that I believe speech 3 was really took a lot of self reflection and examination as I had to completely change my idea of what a speech was, and for that I believe my jump from my speech 3 dry run to my actual speech was my biggest stride.

Speaking of helping others, I believe I gave some helpful advice to classmates throughout the course of the semester. Specifically, I believe I gave some good advice on pacing. Since I tend to get all jittery and speak at a faster pace when I am nervous, it is really easy for me to notice that in others. I believe one of my best suggestions on how to work on pacing was to practice giving your speech in various locations, outside, inside, in a car, at work, you name it. This helps because you aren’t directly focusing on your pace, you’re working on your nerves, and nerves are generally what cause you to speak faster. By practicing in other situations, it prepares you for the distractions that may arise on the day of the speech, allowing you to work on building up your confidence and decreasing your nerves which in turn brings your pace back to normal. Having a slow and steady pace is really useful because it is one of the few components of a speech you can note without even knowing what the words being spoken are. A consistent pace can also help you to exude more confidence and emphasize key points better, which is always helpful.

Lastly, I want to talk about one of my big reflective moments that happened to me a little bit ago. After giving speech 3, I discovered that the monotony in my voice is so prominent because I have to physically focus on the tone of my voice when giving a speech. My brain will not let me do it unconsciously, especially when I am nervous and in front of an audience. This was important for me because, though monotony helps with dry humor, it does not help when trying to convey a point. If you want people to be excited about something, your voice needs to reflect that, if you want people to be anxious, your voice needs to reflect that, you cannot just hope that the words will convey your tone, that’s what you do in a book, not a speech.

With all of that said, I think I deserve to pass this course. I took some big steps in changing my thoughts on speeches, I helped others along the way and I managed to learn some things about myself as well. Not only will what I learned help me for other public events and schooling too, but it will also help me to hold my head a little higher because I can say that I did it, I wrote those words, I delivered those speeches, and I completed that public speaking course. Thank you all, and have a nice day!

Final Speech Outline:

  • No idea what to expect
    • Didn’t like giving speeches
    • Few Classes in, have to prepare speech
    • That speech is a reason we should all pass but here are a few

– Not sure if any remember…

– No idea they were like this, oblivious to the fact

– Hefty text, don’t want to sound like an advertisement speak from heart

  • As any of us would
    • Took lot of trial and error, shrunk down
    • Brought it to Jesse
    • Helped me size it down
    • Taking 1.5 pages of dense text, self reflection, change me idea of speech
    • For that I believe my jump from speech 3 dry run
  • On the topic of helping others, I believe I gave some helpful advice
    • Specifically pacing
    • Since I tend to do the same
    • Best suggestion was to practice in various locations
    • Helps because not directly pace, working on nerves which increase pace
    • Practicing in other situations prepares for distractions
    • Boosts confidence, lowers nerves, levels out pace
    • Steady pace exude more confidence and emphasize key points
  • Lastly, I want to talk about one of my big reflective moments
    • After giving speech 3, monotony is so prominent, need to physically focus
    • Brain won’t let me unconsciously
    • This was important to me because…it does not help convey a point
    • Want people to be excited, want people to be anxious, voice reflects that
    • You can’t hope words will convey your tone
  • With all of that said, I think I deserve to pass this course
    • I took some big steps in changing my thoughts on speeches
    • I helped others along the way
    • Managed to learn some things about myself as well
    • Not only will what I learned help my in other public events and schooling
    • But it will also help me to hold my head a little higher
    • I wrote those words
    • I delivered those speeches
    • I completed that public speaking course
    • Thank you all and have a nice day!