Speaking Development (508)
I was never really exposed to formal speeches in high school. When coming to college having to do speeches was a different atmosphere for me. I was open to learning about how to prepare for a structured speech because I had never done that before. Our professor taught us how to write a speech outline which was also new to me. If we did prepare for a speech in high school, it was not as formal like how it is in college. Speech outlines were hard for me to write at first. Our professor helped me a lot with understanding how write an adequate speech and how to preform a speech well. At first, my speaking was not very good. I was very scared to talk in front of a class of almost thirty people. Throughout the year, I improved a lot with my speaking and I did not look as nervous when talking in front of everyone. I saw the improvement when I watched my first speech (family narrative speech) compared to my last speech (persuasion speech). In the family narrative speech, I noticed that I had a lot of awkward pausing and I looked off of my notecards a lot. I avoided eye contact a lot because I knew that would make me more nervous. To overcome my nervousness, I have to tell myself that I will not be up there talking for that long and that it is really not that bad. I have to trick my brain into thinking that giving a speech is not nerve wrecking at all. In my persuasion speech, I looked a lot more comfortable in front of the class. I noticed that I still looked off my cards but I did not have very much awkward phrasing which is huge improvement. I realized after first semester something needed to change about my speaking habits. I changed my preparation strategies by practicing my speech in front of others. This helped me a lot because I could have others tell me what I needed to fix before I actually gave my speech in front of the class. I also used my webcam on my computer to record myself so I could physically see the mistakes I was making within my speech. I also did not prepare very much for my speeches very well first semester. I realized that I need to start practicing at least a week in advance before I speak in front of the class. Otherwise, if I do not prepare at least a week in advance then my speech with look very unprepared and I will not be ready to talk in front of the class. I feel so much more comfortable with not only preparing for a speech but also performing the speech in front of a group of people. I think this class has well prepared me for future speeches that I will have to give. I understand how to write a well written introduction with the detailed body and a good conclusion.