For the last speech, I decided to demonstrate how to clean a fish. We had to implement five sources into our speech so I predominately used the internet and magazines. I also watched numerous videos on youtube in order to choose the right way to clean a fish. I actually showed a clip during the speech because the audience would get a better visual than just seeing me tell them what to do. However, I should have warned the audience about the video because it did contain some blood and guts which people might think is appalling.
As for my demonstration of the speech, I thought I did pretty well. Since I had researched the topic so much I felt very comfortable talking about it. I thought I delivered the speech well by maintaining good eye contact and avoided ‘um/uh’ word fillers that had counted against me in the past. I know I spoke loud and clear enough during the speech so everyone could understand what I was saying. The visual aids and items to perform fish cleaning helped the overall demonstration because it allowed me to show what exactly to do to the fish.
Overall, I thought the demonstration speech was probably my best speech. I think my introduction and conclusion could have been a little more exciting or attention grabbing but was still affective. I also forgot to establish credibility which was part of the criteria. Other than these things, I believe my preparation helped deliver my best speech of the semester.
My group did a presentation over chapter 15 which detailed persuasion in speech. Focusing on myself first, I thought I did a decent job explaining my part of the chapter. I tried to give multiple examples to explain the material. The slides I created contained only key words and definitions so it did not look like I was just reading off the PowerPoint. Eye contact was another thing I believe I improved on from our first group presentation. I tried to maintain consistent eye contact throughout the entire audience to keep their attention.
As a team, I believe we did a decent job presenting the chapter. I thought our chapter was rather boring and it was hard to make persuasion content interesting. We split the material up into four sections in order to make the workload easier. We met many times throughout the semester since we have known for a while what chapter we were going to present. We tried to help each other if someone had a question or needed help with their material. If we had another group presentation, I would suggest we practice the presentation more in order to get the timing down since our conclusion was cut short.
For the final speech, I want to continue to give good eye contact to the entire audience and avoid word fillers. This group speech covered chapter content which sometimes can be hard to make interesting. The last speech will allow everyone to be creative and has the potential to be much more fun. Overall, I thought this group presentation was good, but not as good as the first speech because of the content. The video clip of the infommerical would have been better if we had a few more minutes to tie it all together with the chapter material. Still, I believe we did an efficient job detailing persuasion.
For our group speech, we created mock wedding toast. My part of the toast was being father of the bride. I tried to get into character when thinking about what to say during the speech. Since I bar tend many weddings over the summer, I had a good idea on the things most fathers of brides say in their toast. I thought one of my strengths of my speech was using actual stories I have heard and implementing them into my toast. This made my speech seem more real than fiction. I dressed up for the part which made it seem as if it were a real situation. I also thought that my tone was good because I wanted to make sure everyone heard what I was saying. There was a couple times during the speech when I looked at my notecards just because I had them in my hands. This took away from keeping eye contact with the audience which I will continue to work on for the next speech.
I thought as a team, we presented the toast very well. The introduction was well put together and we had clear transitions from person-to-person. We all tried to help each other by coming up with ideas for each parts in the toast. During the speech I thought everyone did exactly what we had planned and spoke very clearly with emotion making it seem real. I was happy with the way everyone put the same effort into the speech. Maybe one thing we can improve next time is eye contact because I think we tended to look at the picture on the screen a little too much as if it were the bride and groom.
Overall, I thought the group presentation went very well. I think we work well together as a group and everyone seems to do their part making it easier on the other group members. We had a few group meetings to make sure we knew exactly how everything was going to work. Since this was our first speech as a group, I think we will continue to contribute in equal parts for the next speech. I am not worried at all for the next speech which is over chapter 15 because we all worked well together.
My name is Broc Bauer. I am from Milan, OH near Sandusky (Cedar Point). I am an IPC major, after switching for the third time. Something kind of interesting is I used to race motocross since I was six years old. I have not riden much in college because of lack of funds but am hoping to do so in the near future. For now I am just excited to graduate in may and excited to get done.
