self-analisis

I’d like to begin by saying that the informative speech I gave was better than the how-to speech in that I was much more relaxed, prepared and organized this time. So I do think I am improving from speech to speech. Also, while preparing for my informative speech, I learned more about my topic from doing further research, which is great. I realized that you can learn so much, however, that it is sometimes difficult to put it all into a five to eight minute speech. Because of this, I’ve really learned the importance of good organization.
Although I saw some improvements in my most recent speech, there are still several areas that I could improve on in my speech giving, including my delivery in my introduction, my confidence level, my rate of speech, and my transitions. Let’s start with the first: introductions.
I feel like the introductions themselves have been okay, but I left parts out and my delivery could be much smoother. For example, in my last speech, I stumbled a bit when telling my initial story. I need to practice more and focus on being very polished in the introduction so that I get my speech off on the right foot. Also, I completely forgot to establish my credibility with the audience. I will be sure to include that on my speaking outline for my next speech.
The next area that I need to work on is my confidence level. I just don’t feel very confident preparing for or delivering speech, yet. I believe something that would help is just to have a positive attitude and to quit telling myself that I can’t do it! I can do it, I just need to believe that. One of the things I might do is pick out three people whom I’m comfortable with in the classroom audience in different areas of the room and just focus on those three people during my speech. To the audience, it will look as though I am scanning the room when in reality I’ll be just looking at the same three people. I think this will encourage myself to reframe the... [continues]