My PRCA-24 Class

Throughout the semester I was aware I was learning things, but it wasn’t until watching my IDEA speech that I realized how much I had truly learned. I thought that maybe I had picked up a few useful tips, but I didn’t think that I had really changed much as a speaker. It turns out I was dead wrong. I have clearly learned a tremendous amount. This shows in my improvement from the first speech, as well the drastic change in my PRCA-24 score. When I took the PRCA-24 for the first time at the beginning of the semester I scored a 64, which didn’t surprise me at all. Having moderate speech anxiety seemed to ring pretty true to me as a speaker. When I took the PRCA-24 again, however, I was surprised. I received a score of 47, which means that throughout the semester my speech anxiety has dropped from moderate anxiety to low anxiety. At first I was shocked by this, going from a 64 to a 47 is huge, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense. I
do think that getting up in front of people and giving speeches on a regular basis has helped to bring my anxiety level down. Becoming more comfortable giving speeches was one of my goals for the semester, so having accomplished that feels really good. When I went to go watch my IDEA speech I once again cringed as I went to hit the play button.
Watching ones self speak is never exactly fun. Once again, however, I was pleasantly surprised. This time I was even happier with how I had done then I was with my first speech. I could tell with the IDEA speech that I was more calm. I wasn’t making as many nervous movements, as I did with with Grab Bag speech. I feel like my delivery was much better. While I need to continue to learn to slow down and speak more like I would in real life, my delivery was much more clear. This has a lot to do with not being as nervous. I know that I have a tendency to speak quickly, and I need to work on not sounding like I am reading from my note cards. I do feel like having note cards with me, tends to make my speeches worse. I need to learn to not rely on them as much. This is something I will continue to work on. I still have a tendency to use verbal fillers, however, I noticed them much less in this speech then I did in my Grab Bag
speech. My main goal for the semester was to write a speech I could be proud of. I struggled a lot with creativity for my speeches and I wanted to improve on that. I feel like for the most part I accomplished this goal. I am very proud of the content for my final speech, and that’s really what I wanted. It turns out I had too much information, as I went over time, but I am proud of the overall content. Being more creative is something that I will always strive for, however, I feel proud of how far I have come in only one semester. I feel like over the semester I haver grown as a speaker. I feel like my delivery has gotten much better, which is due mostly to me becoming more confident in what I am doing and saying. I also feel like the content of my speeches has gotten much better, mostly due to learning how to research for speeches. I think that my ability to make presentations has also improved. That is a skill I am really glad to have developed. I think my presentation skills were lacking before, and having a better understanding of what makes a good presentation is really great. I feel very good about having honed that skill a bit better. I am proud of how far I have come this semester, especially without really realizing it. I think I have really grown and developed and I am very happy about that. That is not to say that I don’t having things I can continue to work on, because I definitely do. There are several things that I need to continue to work on, the first of which being my delivery. I think I have gotten much stronger in this, however I really need to work on slowing down more. I think I tend to speak pretty quickly, which is a problem in my real life, as well as doing speeches, so it’s really just something I need to work on. I also need to really work on my time control once I am standing in front of an audience. I tend to practice it at home several times, and then get up on stage and my time changes drastically. I think that this is partly due to nerves, so that is something that I will need to continue to work on. Overall this semester, I am really proud of how I have improved. I think that I will walk away from this class a much more competent speaker than I was walking in. I am proud of how far I have come, and will continue to try to improve outside of the class.