amyv’s blog

This speech was my worst speech, which was opposite of what I was expecting.  I thought it would be my best speech, incorporating everything that I’ve learned from the other three speeches that I’ve given this semester.  I got nervous when I was speaking and completely blanked when I was talking.  I tried to just keep going, but I know I started looking at my note cards and saying “um” a lot.  I thought that I had the best main points in this speech out of all of my speeches, and thought I would be able to talk a lot about them since I was speaking from experience and had good supporting points in my outline.  I think I might have recited my speech a little too much, and so was expecting to say things, and then when I forgot what they were, I blanked and couldn’t remember what I wanted to say next.  If I could do this speech over again I would, because I know that I could have done a much better job with it.

Things that I would improve on if I were doing another speech would be not saying “um” and looking at my notecards so much.  Also, I would try to make better eye contact.  Since I was looking at my notecards, I wasn’t making great eye contact with the audience.  I would also try to be less nervous next time and have more fun with it, since I chose a topic that would be fun for me and would have been fun for the class if I had presented it better.

One thing that was easier with this speech was making the outline.  I thought I did a much better job on it, and I thought it was easier to make since I knew how to do it and had examples (my other outlines) to look at.

I think some of my strengths for this speech are that I was prepared and I presented confidently.  My first couple of speeches I was very nervous.  While I was nervous for this speech as well, I think my nerves turned into confidence as I was speaking.  My part of the speech went smoothly and pretty much without error.

My team did an amazing job of presenting this speech.  We all dressed up as BG tour guides, and everyone had fun with their section.  My teammates definitely helped me do a better job of presenting.  They did great with their parts, which helped me be more confident about mine.  We all have different personalities, so that contributed to our speech, and added to the humor of it.

The area I still need to work on is using word fillers, especially “ums.”  I think I have improved on eye contact and volume of my voice.

The overall experience was very good.  I think that I still had all the nerves of the previous speeches, but I think I’m getting better at channeling the nerves into energy for the speech.

For the second speech, our group had to present on Chapter 13 in the text, a chapter about giving presentations.  We met at the library once, figured out what work we all had to do individually, then met again to put it all together.  The process was pretty smooth because the work was divided up evenly and everyone did their share, so it was simple to put everything together.

The day that we gave our speech, I was very nervous during class and right before we gave it.  I was also nervous while Jason was presenting.  But once I started talking, my nerves subsided and I was able to present all of my information without any disasters!  I think our speech went very well, and I think it was effective.  Our example of a bad slide show really caught everyone’s attention.  We were also the first group to go over the minimum time limit of 15 minutes.  Overall I think our group worked well together and that we had a very successful speech.

Overall I think my first speech went well.  I found some strengths and weaknesses that I had in preparing and presenting my speech, so now I know what I need to work on.

One thing I struggled with was writing my outline.  I had trouble organizing my ideas and formatting them into an outline.  A basic one was easy to make, but I had trouble adding the details in the right places.  Something else I struggled with during my speech was that I think I said “um” in between ideas when I was trying to think of what I wanted to say.  I’d like to work on breaking that habit.

Before I stood up to give my speech I got really nervous.  I think this may have been helpful in a way though because it seemed to help give me a little bit of an adrenaline rush when I started speaking.  I felt very relieved when my speech was over and thought that I did a decent job of presenting it.  I covered all of my topics and didn’t really get stuck anywhere.

Last class we talked about ethics when giving a speech, both as a listener and as a speaker.  I thought this was a very important and relevant topic.  The biggest thing I took away from last class was plagiarism.  I always think of plagiarism as an issue only pertaining to writing; I forget that it’s important to cite sources orally when giving a speech.  This will help me to remain an ethical speaker.

I like my group members and think we will do well on our group speeches.

I am Amy Van Huffel and I am a sophomore here at BG.  My major is Sport Management with a specialization in Enterprise.  I may also minor in Women’s Studies.  I currently work at Meijer and have been there for a year.  I am also a member of the BG Women’s Rugby team.  This semester will be my 4th semester playing.

I was born and raised in Warren, OH, which is in northeastern Ohio near Youngstown.  I have one sister who also graduated from BG, and at home I have a dog named Brady (after Tom Brady).  I’m a diehard Steelers and Michigan fan, and have been for as long as I can remember.

If you can’t tell, I’m really big into sports.  I played basketball from the fifth grade until I graduated high school, and I played on an intramural team last spring.  I also threw for the track team for 2 years in high school.  I love playing, watching, and attending sports events.  I really want to coach a high school basketball team.

That’s about all for now.