IPC 205

The final speech went a lot better than the other three.  By now I know what is expected of me as a speaker and I am more comfortable being in front of the class. I believe each speech I get a little better with my speaking skills.  I am trying to have more eye contact and avoid saying “umm” or “ugh.”  With this last speech however, I lost my place, and had to back track a little.  Because of this I became a little nervous because I messed up, but tried not to say umm too much.

This speech was different than the others because we got to choose our topic, but we had to demonstrate how to do something.  Demonstrating and explaining how to do something is more difficult than just performing the task.  Having to think of the individual steps and wording it in an easy way to understand for someone else to perform was more difficult than I thought it would be.  Because it was a step by step process, I had to be sure to explain the steps correctly and efficiently. 

There are always areas to improve, and even though this was the last speech for the class, I know I still need to work on my presentation and public speeking skills.  I have realized that giving group speeches is sometimes a little easier, because it’s not all on you.

Now that all of the speeches are complete, I feel that I have improved greatly from the first speech at the beginning of the semester, but I know I still need to work on some things.  There is always room for improvement, I can always improve on these skills.

The third speech went a lot smoother than the other two.  By now I know what is expected of me as a speaker and I am more comfortable being in front of the class. I believe each speech I get a little better with my speaking skills.  I am trying to have more eye contact and avoid saying “umm” or “ugh.”  As a speaker I know I speak loudly and clearly, but I can always improve on my presentations.  The next speech will be interesting to see how I do because it will not be as a group, but individually.

The third speech was a lot of fun to do.  I enjoyed this speech because we got to choose our topic, and we chose something that was going on, on campus.  The Stroh Center was being talked about by everyone, and it was a topic a lot of people needed to be informed about.  However, after we picked the topic and found out the date we were presenting we wished we could have gone before the actual vote took place.  It was a little awkward to talk about after the vote had taken place, but we did it to the best of our ability.

There are always areas to improve, and because the next speech is by myself, I am going to have to practice more and be ready to complete the task alone.  Giving group speeches is sometimes a little easier, because it’s not all on you.  I think overall, as a group we did a good job, and got our points across.  Having different types of speeches and choosing our topic was nice, and gave a little more freedom when preparing.

Hopefully by the end of the class  I will have drastically improved my speaking skills.

The second speech I did was as a group, which made it a little more challenging then the first one. It was kind of difficult at first to get everything moving for the speech and to prepare for it. No one really took the initiative as a group to organize and assign people what to do, and the speech was getting closer. I decided to go ahead and send an email to the group stating what we should do and how we should go about it doing it, luckily that went over well, sort of. Everyone was good with their part, however we never heard from one our group members, and the speech was getting closer. We decided just to organize the speech without that member and continue on with our progress. Everyone new their parts, what they were discussing and everything seemed to be going smoothly, until the day of the presentation. Three out of the four group members were ready to go, when the news came that one of our members wasn’t going to be able to make it to the speech due to an illness. Once we found this out, the nerves kicked in to overdrive.

The speech had to go on, so we improvised. We were going to give our speech to the best of our ability. I decided I would take over the part of the missing group member, why I thought it would be a good idea, I am not sure. I was pretty nervous getting up there and not know exactly what I was going to discuss when the new part of my speech came along. I delivered my speech, pretty well, I thought. Of course, I can always work on better eye contact and speaking at a slower rate. After I delivered my section, I new there was another section I was going to have to deliver to the audience. Not know this part very well, I had to read straight from the paper and improvise as much as possible. I felt I got the information delivered, but wish I could have been more prepared for it.

Giving presentations and speeches in front of a group of people can be difficult, but adding in the elements our group had, made it a little more difficult. I feel with everything that was thrown at us, we did a decent job. Plus, going first is never easy!

Well, now that the first speech is over, I can definitely relax.  The first speech for me is always the worst.  Getting up in front of people you have to see for the next thirteen weeks is nerve-racking.  If you mess up, you still have to face them again.  For me, it is much easier to get up in front of a group of people I will never see again, but that is not the case for this class. 

Once, I got up in front of the class, the nerves begain to kick in.  I could felt nervous, I was shaking, and I could feel it in my voice.  I know that if I just take a deep breath and let it go, I will be fine, but I never seem to think to do that when I am up there.  My voice was quivering, but I was getting through the speech.  I tried not to look at my note cards too often, but I know I looked at them more then I should have.  As the speech went on, I could really hear my nervousness in my voice, which I’m sure everyone else could too.  Between being up in front of people and making sure I spoke for an adequate amount of time, my nerves were fried. 

Once I sat down, I was releaved, the speech was over.  But I felt that I did not do as well as I could have because I was nervous.  I told my friend how nervous I was, and of course, he said that he could tell in my voice.  But at least the first speech was done and over, and I could relax, and start preparing for the next one.

I know I need to learn to relax, just take a deep breath, and do my best.  Having 25 people staring right back at you and trying to deliver information to them without getting a little nervous seems impossible, but it is something I will continue to work on.  Getting up in front of people is something that will not go away, especially when I enter the work force.  All I can do now is hope that the next speech goes a little smoother and I hopefully won’t get as nervous.

Last class we discussed the ethical issues involved in class and in speeches.  We discussed how people in class should act while watching speeches and giving them and how they should be ethically sound. Everyone came up with their own ethical issues that we posted on blackboard.  Coming up with our own ethical issues is a good way to set the ground rules for class.

Hello. My name is Erin O’Riley and I from Marietta, GA, a suburb of Atlanta.  I have lived in many different cities throughout my life, most in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.  I graduated high school in 2002, and then went on to college at the Florida State University.  While at FSU I rushed a sorority and played lacrosse for the university.  I had an amazing four and a half years there and I graduated in December 2006 with a bachelor of science degree in family, child and consumer sciences, with a minor in communication.  After graduation I had no clue what I was going to do, so I moved back home to Marietta and began coaching lacrosse at a local high school.  I have always enjoyed being involved in sports, and realized then I wanted to make a career out of it.  I decided to go back to school to get a degree in sport management, which brought me here to Bowling Green.  This is my second year at BGSU and I will graduate this year with a degree in sport management, and then back out into the real world.  This time, I am actually looking forward to it, I am definitely ready to finish school.

I have always been involved in sports. For three years I played goalie for the FSU women’s lacrosse team.  I also the treasurer for the team.  I am a member of a sorority, and I also held positions within the house. Currently I work for the BGSU football team as a recruiting coordinator assistant.  Last semester I was able to do my practicum with the BGSU football team, with the director of operations.  I was able to gain a lot of experience and learned a lot about the business.  I enjoy working with the football team and being involved with the program.  

This is just a little background information about myself.

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