BRAINSTORMING
I want to become a better academic version of myself and who I am as a student right now. Doing this is a seemingly easy task, but it comes with the task of leaving an impact on the audience.
In terms of connecting with the audience, I want to use personal experience to connect with my audience. The way I plan to do this is through the use of pathos. I learned this technique in high school during my public speaking course. Calling on the audience’s emotions, provoking a response out of them is the way to draw their attention. When someone is able to have a visceral reaction to what they are listening to, it can be moving. I feel as if I use pathos and draw from personal experiences of being a not so good student; my peers will relate with me. Academically, I have changed greatly since coming to UNE. My drive and work ethic has improved immensely, I have a passion for what I learn. First entering UNE, I myself was not to be considered a good student. I did not know what I wanted to truly be at the time, choosing a random major of something I liked. This affected my grades a lot because when I am uninterested in a subject, I will be lenient on the standard I hold myself to. In simpler terms, I would get bad grades in classes I just didn’t like. It wasn’t until I began to explore my class options I found what I was passionate about. I began taking English and Creative Nonfiction courses that were able to set sparks off in my brain. It made me realize the opportunities that came with good grades and effort. Since I was so passionate about my English courses, it almost encouraged me to get the work done for other subjects so I could spend time with what I enjoyed.
DRY RUN VIDEO
MY BEST ADVICE
I think the best advice I gave throughout the dry run was helping people with the flow of their speeches. Especially when it was between points, many of my peers initially in their dry runs had a bit of choppiness in transitions.
WHY MY BEST ADVICE
I think this was my best advice because it actually helped my peers. I have already seen two of my peers give their final speeches, and they were so extremely smooth. I think it is crucially important to have a flow to your speech because it makes it easier for the audience to understand. It also adds a bit more of professionalism when giving a speech despite the topic. For the speaker, it becomes easier to read while looking through notes and maintaining eye contact.
BEST ADVICE FROM PEERS
The best advice I received from my peers after the dry-run was that I had made my speech too personal. I hadn’t realized that I had done this initially so it was a great comment. It also made me remember this speech is to help others, not talk about my whole experience.
WHY THEIR BEST ADVICE
This advice helped me a lot because it cut down on so much time. I had added a huge personal element to my speech in order to connect with my audience, but it proved to me too much. It also aided me in gearing my speech towards how I could actually help people, not tell my whole experience and expect my audience to decipher the points. I was able to cut down my speech time wise majorly and make it more effective to my audience.
REFLECTION AFTER REVIEW
The biggest thing that I did in my speech that I received advice on is that I made it almost too personal. I understand that a portion of a speech is making a connection with the audience, but I had taken it too far. This made my speech much longer than it needed to be, nearly 8 minutes long. Meaning that I was almost 3 minutes over the final speech criteria. What I have to do to correct this is go back into my outline, and simplify a lot of it. I didn’t really notice the fact that having a 3 page outline made way too long for a speech. My other advice that I took away from watching my video is making sure I stay in a superman stance. No wavering of my hands, swaying of body, or continuously fixing my mask. I found this VERY distracting within watching my video and I find that my audience would be distracted too. One thing I also did like about my speech what that I had a consistent tone that wasn’t shaky despite my nerves. It felt like I had a professional and conveying tone throughout. My eye contact was also done well, I was able to move my view in my speech so that I made eye contact with the entire audience. I also made sure not to overdue my eye contact, because there is a point where it becomes a little creepy. Overall, my speech did well but there’s little kinks that need to be worked out.
FINAL SPEECH
REFLECTION
After performing my speech this past Tuesday, I feel really strongly about it. The information I took away from Cuddys’ video actually aided me in being ready to perform. I am someone who comes off to others as very extroverted, but underlying, I am very anxious. My anxiety had me believe I was going to flop this speech but, using a power stance, was something I actually did. Obviously I cannot say for myself that it raised my levels of hormones, but it did make me more confident overall. I was able to stand in front of my peers and deliver what I think to be a great speech. I had really good eye contact with my audience, coming from the fact I had basically memorized my speech beforehand in order. I didn’t feel the nerves when I was up there, but my swaying was definitely still there. I am someone who is very jittery constantly and I can almost never sit still. I think this translated over to my speech. I was taking some back and forth steps while I was speaking, and moving my hands a bit more than necessary. Other points of my speech I thought were strong moving away from my performance was the flow of it itself. I thought I moved through my points smoothly, there were not abrupt pauses and change of subject. My peers helped me a lot in making my speech better, and it truly did. I appreciate the methods of review that we did for this project and I find that my peers were actually engaged in helping me. Overall, I feel really good about the way my Lone Wolf speech turned out despite my mindset of thinking it was going to flop.
