Preliminary Self- Evaluation Comm 101

PRELIMINARY SELF-EVALUATION

I had absolutely no idea that Communications 101 was a public speaking course. Nowhere had I heard previously that we would be giving speeches and developing speaking skills to this extent, but after the first few days of classes and learning that I was in the fast paced group, I was ready for the challenge.

The Impromptu speech that I gave was just over the three minute mark. I was surprised that I could extend my persuasion of why vegetarian dinosaurs are superior and should receive more credit for that amount of time. The original topic, “Dinosaurs,” was just broad enough that I had time to think specifically on what I wanted to focus on during my ten minute preparation period. So, I chose something that students mostly all my age could relate to. When I discussed the media’s influence as a subtopic I made sure to use movie’s that most all of us had seen as children, like Jurassic Park, Fantasia and Land Before Time. I tried to remember the characters’ names to bring a sense of reality and passion to my argument. I could generate a few laughs and nods of agreement when I stated specific parts that supported my topic, so I could be sure the audience remained interested. Also, by using a louder voice I was able to keep them listening at all times.

The organization of my speech was seemingly easy when it was written down on my outline, but as I learned through experience, it was much harder to verbally indicate my thought process to the audience. The first half of my speech seemed to be the strongest in my opinion because it was the ideas that were still fresh in my head and I already knew how and when to say them. However, towards the latter half of the speech, I found my notes on my outline confusing and it seemed harder to remember to always repeat what I had just spoken about. I was about to conclude my speech when I realized I had skipped the review part and didn’t want to lost points, so I jumbled my words around and that...