Mr. Perry
Senior English
23 January 2012
Final course reflection: growth
Growth is something that doesn’t come naturally in speaking, but takes time and
practice. This is something I realized throughout the semester that contradicts what I
originally thought about speaking. Speaking at times if you don’t practice can become
inconsistent which is something I experienced first hand. This lead early some good
speeches and some bad speeches at times. Nonetheless however I think I grew as
individual in speaking with my confidence the more speeches I presented.
First off, this class began back in September and I made some goals then where it
all began. My goals in the beginning of the semester were straight forward in every
speech to get better. After a couple speeches I realized this wasn’t a realistic goal. After
a lot incubating I decided that a better goal was to become more comfortable with
speaking not just during speeches, but with my peers. So really my original goal that I
wanted to fulfill wasn’t plausible, and as a result I thought of another way I could grow
from this experience.
Next off, currently in the class we have just finished our final speech which was
either a persuasive or motivational speech. My persuasive speech that I choose was about
uneducated voters. Overall I gave myself a fifty-five out of sixty as my overall score. My
score was thought out using logic and reasoning from observing my speech online. The
Light 2
only areas of content I didn’t give myself a five was familiarity with material, posture and
facial expressions, pausing for effect, and pronunciation and diction. First I gave myself a
four with familiarity because I tended to mumble at times because a few times I had to
think longer then a second to think about what I was going to say next (except pausing
for effect). Following familiarity with material is