Speech #2 Evaluation

Self Evaluation #2

The second speech that I made for this course, was an informative speech. I chose to do my speech on Human Fear. This topic is very interesting to everyone, I think, because we all have fears and phobias that we deal with in our lives. My purpose was to inform the audience about the origins of fear, the many different kinds of fears that exist in the world today, and how fear can be dealt with. I did an excellent job of achieving my purpose. I gave some scientific and non-scientific background information about the origin of fear, and I backed it up verbally with a credible source. I also gave a personal anecdote citing my own phobia of birds and how it may have come about. This was effective in helping the audience relate to me, and better understand how fear can develop. I, then, gave examples of some common and uncommon kinds of phobias that exist today (with another verbal citation). And finally, I explained how fear can be fixed or dealt with, citing some methods that were backed by experts on the topic. As far as content and purpose go, I felt my speech was coherent, organized, and well-referenced (I had all 4 verbal citations). I wouldn't change anything for my next speech.

I also feel that I did a good job with the technical aspects of my speech. These would include, voice-projection, visual aids, transitions, and speech delivery. I was very confident when I gave my speech, in fact, I was more comfortable this time around then I was in the first speech. First of all, I think I had an amazing attention-getter! I really caught everyone's attention by starting my speech off with a LOUD SCREAM! I know I scared quite a few people, but it was effective and directly led into my topic about fear! For the rest of the speech I spoke in a clear voice, and felt that I projected well. Also, since I couldn't listen to my speech on the tape, I looked at the evaluations that the class had given me and quite a few said that I spoke loud and clear! My transitions were smooth, I think, and obvious because as I wrote them I remember thinking, "Ok people should be able to tell that this is a transition." My visual aids were good, except that I chose to hand them out instead of posting the enlargements on the board (which I printed and had with me!). I just assumed it would be easier for everyone to have a paper with all my visual aids. However, I lost valuable points due to my visuals being too distracting from the speech. I understand now that line of vision is important in maintaining the audience's attention. Once that breaks, there's no guarantee that the audience is still following your speech. So I suffered a little on visuals, but at least I had them, and I think they were also very effective. My speech delivery was good. I had good posture, I maintained eye contact (for which I would give myself a 9/10), spoke at a good speed/volume, and was within the time limit of 6 minutes. Overall, I did well in the technical aspects of the speech.

I was a little more confident making this speech, than my last. One obvious difference was that I didn't keep repeating "Basically..." as I did in my first speech. Filler words like that are usually used when the speaker is nervous. Also, I noticed in my first speech that I kept swaying back and forth a lot. This is very distracting and luckily I didn't do it this time around. I felt my second speech also flowed much better. It seemed that all the main points led into each other more smoothly. This could be because I tried making my transitions more obvious and they directly tied one point to the next.

The one thing I would change for the next speech is how much information I am including in my speech. I felt pressured for time in this speech, and had to cut out a few parts so that I would be within the time limit. And although I made it, I didn't like having this perpetual fear of going over the 6 minute limit. For the next speech I will make sure that I am speaking comfortably and still finishing 30 seconds short of the limit. Also, I will use a Powerpoint in my next speech. I have always used slide show presentations in previous classes, and they are quite useful when it comes to supporting your speeches with visual aides or even including a bulleted outline of your speech for the audience to follow.

Overall, I would give myself an A on this speech. I felt I did much better on my second speech than I did on my first. I was more comfortable, I was more confident, and I made all my points and transitions coherently.