Speech Self-Evaluation

At first reaction after my speech I thought, “What did I even just say to these people?” and “Will my heart ever stop racing?” but soon enough it did. Right away, I realized that I hadn’t covered all the detail I had hoped to; in addition, I also knew I was a bit squeamish up there so my body language was unnatural. After watching others seem to just flow right on through their talks, it had me wishing I could just hit the redo button and give it another shot. However, knowing myself, negative thoughts after something of this sort seem to always float through my head so I would have to watch the video to truly judge this.

Once I had done this I notice there were a number of things I had done wrong, but also quite a few I did right. As a whole I was looking up and around the class for around 95% of the time and seemed attentive. Also I wasn’t a frozen icicle in the front just rambling off some words. I actually had a bit of body movement and at points tied it in with what I was talking about to express emotion.

Aside from the visual aspects, I seemed to cover all major parts I had hoped. I missed few more details about my family life and my future goals, but in its entirety I had what I could have hoped for. My opener, which I had imagined to be relatively interesting, seemed to have gone unnoticed because I spoke to low. On the other hand, my clincher, I thought was one of the better closing statements. It was quick simple and something, as long as people were paying attention, which could be easily carried out. My thesis during my introduction, even though it did not stand out to much, I thought was a good opener for people to see what I am about and to be used for transition into my first main point. As a whole, transitions between my main points could have used a little extra work but there was never anything to abrupt.

Even though there were a number of things I seemed to have done well in my talk, I would have love to have another shot because there were some major things I would change. For one, my eye contact was not direct enough. I appeared to simply be surveying what I was in front of my while nervously continued to reel out my talk. Next time I would want to make direct contact with certain individuals in the audience to capture their attention. On top of that, next time I will try to speak louder and be more enthusiastic about what I am saying rather than just rambling off my points. If I pretend that everyone is excited to hear what I have to say, who knows, maybe they will be. Also I need to be more familiar with what I am going to say so I can cover more of the supporting evidence as to convey across my point. Lastly, my opener to catch the audience’s attention could definitely use some work. Something that will make them look up and maybe tune in more for what I have to say.

After my first reaction, watching the video was somewhat reassuring in a good way for it being my first speech this year. It was not flawless by any means but it showed me that I can definitely conquer the idea of speaking to a crowd with some work. I was surprised at how low I spoke but this is something easily changeable. Something I have always feared is now a good possibility in the road ahead of me, and I am willing to put the hours needed to be able to make this happen.