My dry run on Tuesday went a lot better than I expected. It felt very fluid and informative about me. Something I found myself during the speech was adding things in that I did not even have written down. For instance, when I said, “make my mom proud” and “when I walk across the stage, I want to have them say those Latin words after they say my major.” I feel like those two phrases really added a lot to my speech even though they were just things that just popped into my head on the fly. The feedback I received was very good as I found out that my speech was comical as it cracked laughs for the rest of the class. This gave me a sense of relief and also a sense of connection with the rest of the class. Some other advice I got was good and will help me move towards my final production of my speech. The main piece of advice that I got was pointing out the fact that I was swaying a lot. This is something that I could feel as I was talking but for some reason it was something I could not stop. Hopefully by my final run through I will have that figured out. Another instance I had during my speech was reaching out to the audience for help. This is something that I need to make sure the person I ask (Daruan) makes sure he knows what he is supposed to say. Personally, there was one thing I want to change that no one pointed out to me and that was that there were a couple times where I was stuttering, or it did not sound like I knew what I was going to say next. All in all, I feel like I had a very solid speech for my first dry run.
Last class I gave my dry run presentation to the class. And to be honest, this felt way better for me than the dry dry run did, I think because I finally realized what I wanted to talk about in my speech, from listening to my classmates speeches and taking notes. But there are definitely a bunch of things that I could work on to make sure that the real deal speech is much better. The feedback that I got from class was really helpful. The positive feedback that I got was really helpful, just knowing and feeling confident in myself was a lot of the information that I heard. But also the things to work on that my classmates told me were things that I knew needed to be fixed. For my entire life, I have been told I am a fast talker. Whether it be in a regular conversation or a presentation of some kind. I always talk really fast, and for some people that works for them to understand and comprehend what I am saying but for others it is so hard because my words are going by the so fast. This critique I have gotten for years and I have learned how to speak slower, and personally I thought I was talking really slow but looking back on the video that really isn’t the case. So making sure that I am completely conscious of my speed and pace is really important. Another thing that I need to work on, from critiques and rewatching my video, is to make sure I have information to back up what I am saying. All of the points are there and the ideas are there but now I need to show why they are there and why this type of prompt means something to me.
After watching the video of my dry-run of my speech, I have realized there is a bit I need to work on. I have always struggled with the anxiety of public speaking, and while this isn’t really something I can simply get over, I think that by practicing my speech more until I am confident with it will help. Taking deep breaths during my speech, and trying to calm myself down doesn’t always help, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try. Also, I used filler words such as “like” and “um” quite a bit, so I will cut down on that. I went on a tangent at the beginning about my previous experiences with school in elementary and middle, and I’ll cut down on that a bit to focus more on the topic of how to improve academically. Also, adding more about things “you” or “the audience” can do to improve themselves academically would be beneficial based on some peer feedback I received. Making more eye contact with the audience would also benefit me, however that is also something I struggle with even outside the context of speeches. Overall, I think my dry-run went better than I expected, but there are still things I can work on before my final presentation of the speech next week.
Overall, I think my in class dry-run went very well, not only was I good on timing, but also did not act as fidgety as I thought I would and didn’t really stutter, which I was afraid of. I also got some very well needed constructive criticism from my peers after my presentation. The most important takeaways were to make the start of my speech, specifically when I talk about keeping a planner, a little more fluid and coherent because I ended up repeating myself a lot. Another big takeaway was to work on the memorization of my speech. During the dry-run I ended up relying on my computer to be able to present my speech, however since then I have been running through my speech at least twice a day, so I can memorize my speech and be able to keep my eyes on the audience and not my computer. The last takeaway was to work on my pauses in between paragraphs of my speech. I believe the biggest reason for this was because I kept losing track of where I last read and then would take a couple seconds to find it and get back on track. Since I have been working on my memorization, I have noticed that the transition between paragraphs is becoming a lot more fluid. All in all, I think my speech is really coming together thanks to my peers and am excited to present my final draft.
The speech that I gave was well done, but it was very long. Part of the problem was I hadn’t rehearsed my speech enough. I ended up repeating points that I had already made. My peers’ feedback helped me to understand that I need to organize my thoughts in a more straightforward way. As well as repeating myself I also used a lot of filler words such as “like” and “umm”. This slows my speech down quite a bit and makes me sound less professional. I also struggled with looking at my computer screen. There were certainly several points when I stopped speaking to look at my computer, this is not only unprofessional but when I take these pauses I begin to lose the attention of the audience. I made a good effort to connect with the audience using words such as “us” and “ourselves”, this can help the audience relate to my personal opinions. I need to do most of my improvement with the delivery of my speech and the organization of my points. I need to be more concise and simplify my body paragraphs, hopefully this will help me eliminate some of the repetition. My introduction and conclusion were my strong points, they brought my audience in and kept them interested to end the speech. I really liked how I mentioned my role models this was unique to my speech and I find role models are very influential to our personal selves.
I believe my dry run went very well for me on Tuesday. For me I don’t mind public speaking but at first I had to take a deep breathe to relax. I believe the best advice I got was have a game plan while I’m speaking so that when it comes time to speak for on final presentation I’ll be confident. My goal in the end is to give the audience a personal feel and have them relate to my speech. https://wchandler.uneportfolio.org/2023/10/01/lone-wolf-speech-2/
https://jdecrisantis.uneportfolio.org/lone-wolf-speech/
My Best Advice:
The piece of peer review advice I had to offer was to try to avoid going off on side tangents. The speaker, who was very confident, would get side tracked and start talking about something unrelated to their speech. My advice was simply to stick to the key points of the speech and minimizing unnecessary details or sub-stories.
Why It’s My Best Advice:
I think this piece of peer review advice was helpful and hopefully useful because it allows the audience to stay engaged and not lose focus. When a speaker goes off on side stories on multiple occasions, I feel like it’s hard for the audience to follow a long and remain focused on the central topic of the speech. Avoiding these side tracks will allow for the speech to flow smoother as well.
Best Advice From My Peers:
My dry-run speech was very quick and speedy. I think it was the shortest speech in our class, time-wise. The best advice my peers gave me was to add more content and information. Also they suggested using longer vocabulary words just to “fluff” it up a little. Overall, my speech needs to be longer and contain more depth.
Why It’s Their Best Advice:
This peer review advice was valuable to me because I do need to make my speech longer. A speech that goes by too quickly will leave the audience thinking they might’ve missed a key point or thinking to themselves, “that’s it?” Also the use of longer vocabulary words is helpful to me because it’s such a small adjustment that will help my speech out greatly.
For my Dry Run I was so nervous to actually go up and present, but at about a minute in I felt more at ease as I was getting accustomed to the amount of eyes on me. When I presented in Professor Miller’s public speaking class last year, I found that what always eased me was that five or ten minutes after you present, no one will even remember since the speeches aren’t that significant compared to other things that people have going on in their lives. Taking a step back has always helped me secure my footing when giving speeches, but I still felt that my pacing and lack of eye contact was a problem. With more practice I hope to improve, and I need to get better at breathing techniques so I know when to slow myself down. I didn’t sway as much as I did last year, but maybe that’s because I was so dependent on looking at my paper and getting my speech right. I felt that I projected nicely with my voice since most times I’m rather quiet, but I wasn’t that charismatic with my hand gestures, so I feel that body language improvement could help.
Last class I read my dry run speech to the class. This run proved that there is much for me to improve upon. The first thing I should be focusing on is improving my body language. I felt while speaking and heard from criticism from my peers that my body language was poor. Examples of this are that I was fidgeting with my hands and with my belt while presenting, something that should not be done as it may distract the audience. The second thing I should focus on is getting into the mindset that this is more formal than what I acted like in my first presentation, I broke the 4th wall a few times within my speech while I made comments about what I would improve on in my next speech. The last thing I should focus on improving is just having a better idea of what my written speech was. My plan all along was to mainly just go off of what I wrote down but not stick to the wording completely but in this run I definitely suffered from forgetting what I had written. Two things that I think I did well on was the content of my speech and my timing. The content of my speech I felt was very strong and I did really like the points I made. The timing thing was interesting as I went over the required time by quite a but. Not sure if this is totally a positive but it is nice knowing I can cut some stuff down.
After giving my speech to the whole class some of the best feedback I received was that I needed to be more loose in presenting because I was too tense and nervous. I do agree with this and this will help me because I was able to feel how tense I was. After watching the video of my speech I was able to see that I did not meet the time requirement and needed to add more details into my speech. I was told I had the audience engaged a good amount but I need to share more to have them entertained. What worked for me was the backstory I gave about my personal experience but I need to add more into the importance of why I want to better my personal self and if I am able to do that I will have a lot stronger of a speech and my speech will flow more smoothly. With my speech flowing smoothly after it is fixed I will hopefully be able to deliver it the best I can without being as nervous as I was the first time I delivered it.
Altirique McElveen
Professor Miller
Journal 8 Communications
29 Sep 2023
The first thing that was noted from my speech was that I spelled “patience” wrong which has to be fixed immediately. My peers also shared with me that I was swaying back and forth ; so I will have to pick another mechanism that’s not distracting to the audience. I have to pick filler words that can replace “umm” and “so”. I would definitely say take my hoodie off while I’m trying to get the audience’s attention ; I feel maybe that’s a little rude. Other than that my peers really didn’t criticize me that much. I just have to work on the small details like, for example; make sure I have my thoughts ready and don’t think in front of the audience.
For this dry run, as I am with any public speaking event, was very scared to speak up. When I got up there, it took me a bit to get into a good flow but once I got going, I really got going. Everyone mentioned it when giving feedback after the speech but I want to say that is a common thing with me. I have difficulty starting things but once I get going, I can’t be stopped. It is most definitely in character. But in this case it really seemed to be beneficial, or at least that’s what everyone made it sound like.
Another thing about this dry run specifically was that it came from the heart. A lot of it was on the spot me venting my frustrations about both myself and the school system. But it really seemed to resonate with people. I think I’ll stick with that approach going forward (of course I’ll refine the speech itself). There was one person in paticular, I forget his name, (I am very bad with names do forgive me if you are reading this) but he told me not to be ashamed of who I am and that who I am as a person is perfectly valid and beautiful. It meant a lot to me, especially coming from someone I don’t know. It feels more truthful that way.
I came into this dry run horrified. Worried I was going to make it look like I never even took your public speaking class a few years back. But now that it’s done? I think I’m going to be okay. I came out of that room with more self-assurance than I did when I came in.
16 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 8”
https://bmulcahy1.uneportfolio.org/speech/
My dry run on Tuesday went a lot better than I expected. It felt very fluid and informative about me. Something I found myself during the speech was adding things in that I did not even have written down. For instance, when I said, “make my mom proud” and “when I walk across the stage, I want to have them say those Latin words after they say my major.” I feel like those two phrases really added a lot to my speech even though they were just things that just popped into my head on the fly. The feedback I received was very good as I found out that my speech was comical as it cracked laughs for the rest of the class. This gave me a sense of relief and also a sense of connection with the rest of the class. Some other advice I got was good and will help me move towards my final production of my speech. The main piece of advice that I got was pointing out the fact that I was swaying a lot. This is something that I could feel as I was talking but for some reason it was something I could not stop. Hopefully by my final run through I will have that figured out. Another instance I had during my speech was reaching out to the audience for help. This is something that I need to make sure the person I ask (Daruan) makes sure he knows what he is supposed to say. Personally, there was one thing I want to change that no one pointed out to me and that was that there were a couple times where I was stuttering, or it did not sound like I knew what I was going to say next. All in all, I feel like I had a very solid speech for my first dry run.
Last class I gave my dry run presentation to the class. And to be honest, this felt way better for me than the dry dry run did, I think because I finally realized what I wanted to talk about in my speech, from listening to my classmates speeches and taking notes. But there are definitely a bunch of things that I could work on to make sure that the real deal speech is much better. The feedback that I got from class was really helpful. The positive feedback that I got was really helpful, just knowing and feeling confident in myself was a lot of the information that I heard. But also the things to work on that my classmates told me were things that I knew needed to be fixed. For my entire life, I have been told I am a fast talker. Whether it be in a regular conversation or a presentation of some kind. I always talk really fast, and for some people that works for them to understand and comprehend what I am saying but for others it is so hard because my words are going by the so fast. This critique I have gotten for years and I have learned how to speak slower, and personally I thought I was talking really slow but looking back on the video that really isn’t the case. So making sure that I am completely conscious of my speed and pace is really important. Another thing that I need to work on, from critiques and rewatching my video, is to make sure I have information to back up what I am saying. All of the points are there and the ideas are there but now I need to show why they are there and why this type of prompt means something to me.
After watching the video of my dry-run of my speech, I have realized there is a bit I need to work on. I have always struggled with the anxiety of public speaking, and while this isn’t really something I can simply get over, I think that by practicing my speech more until I am confident with it will help. Taking deep breaths during my speech, and trying to calm myself down doesn’t always help, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try. Also, I used filler words such as “like” and “um” quite a bit, so I will cut down on that. I went on a tangent at the beginning about my previous experiences with school in elementary and middle, and I’ll cut down on that a bit to focus more on the topic of how to improve academically. Also, adding more about things “you” or “the audience” can do to improve themselves academically would be beneficial based on some peer feedback I received. Making more eye contact with the audience would also benefit me, however that is also something I struggle with even outside the context of speeches. Overall, I think my dry-run went better than I expected, but there are still things I can work on before my final presentation of the speech next week.
Ryan Kelly
Prof. Jessie Miller
Communications 110
29 September 2023
Journal 8
Overall, I think my in class dry-run went very well, not only was I good on timing, but also did not act as fidgety as I thought I would and didn’t really stutter, which I was afraid of. I also got some very well needed constructive criticism from my peers after my presentation. The most important takeaways were to make the start of my speech, specifically when I talk about keeping a planner, a little more fluid and coherent because I ended up repeating myself a lot. Another big takeaway was to work on the memorization of my speech. During the dry-run I ended up relying on my computer to be able to present my speech, however since then I have been running through my speech at least twice a day, so I can memorize my speech and be able to keep my eyes on the audience and not my computer. The last takeaway was to work on my pauses in between paragraphs of my speech. I believe the biggest reason for this was because I kept losing track of where I last read and then would take a couple seconds to find it and get back on track. Since I have been working on my memorization, I have noticed that the transition between paragraphs is becoming a lot more fluid. All in all, I think my speech is really coming together thanks to my peers and am excited to present my final draft.
Sawyer Ohman
CMM110-A
9/29/23
Journal #8
The speech that I gave was well done, but it was very long. Part of the problem was I hadn’t rehearsed my speech enough. I ended up repeating points that I had already made. My peers’ feedback helped me to understand that I need to organize my thoughts in a more straightforward way. As well as repeating myself I also used a lot of filler words such as “like” and “umm”. This slows my speech down quite a bit and makes me sound less professional. I also struggled with looking at my computer screen. There were certainly several points when I stopped speaking to look at my computer, this is not only unprofessional but when I take these pauses I begin to lose the attention of the audience. I made a good effort to connect with the audience using words such as “us” and “ourselves”, this can help the audience relate to my personal opinions. I need to do most of my improvement with the delivery of my speech and the organization of my points. I need to be more concise and simplify my body paragraphs, hopefully this will help me eliminate some of the repetition. My introduction and conclusion were my strong points, they brought my audience in and kept them interested to end the speech. I really liked how I mentioned my role models this was unique to my speech and I find role models are very influential to our personal selves.
I believe my dry run went very well for me on Tuesday. For me I don’t mind public speaking but at first I had to take a deep breathe to relax. I believe the best advice I got was have a game plan while I’m speaking so that when it comes time to speak for on final presentation I’ll be confident. My goal in the end is to give the audience a personal feel and have them relate to my speech.
https://wchandler.uneportfolio.org/2023/10/01/lone-wolf-speech-2/
https://wchandler.uneportfolio.org/2023/10/01/lone-wolf-speech-1/
https://jdecrisantis.uneportfolio.org/lone-wolf-speech/
My Best Advice:
The piece of peer review advice I had to offer was to try to avoid going off on side tangents. The speaker, who was very confident, would get side tracked and start talking about something unrelated to their speech. My advice was simply to stick to the key points of the speech and minimizing unnecessary details or sub-stories.
Why It’s My Best Advice:
I think this piece of peer review advice was helpful and hopefully useful because it allows the audience to stay engaged and not lose focus. When a speaker goes off on side stories on multiple occasions, I feel like it’s hard for the audience to follow a long and remain focused on the central topic of the speech. Avoiding these side tracks will allow for the speech to flow smoother as well.
Best Advice From My Peers:
My dry-run speech was very quick and speedy. I think it was the shortest speech in our class, time-wise. The best advice my peers gave me was to add more content and information. Also they suggested using longer vocabulary words just to “fluff” it up a little. Overall, my speech needs to be longer and contain more depth.
Why It’s Their Best Advice:
This peer review advice was valuable to me because I do need to make my speech longer. A speech that goes by too quickly will leave the audience thinking they might’ve missed a key point or thinking to themselves, “that’s it?” Also the use of longer vocabulary words is helpful to me because it’s such a small adjustment that will help my speech out greatly.
For my Dry Run I was so nervous to actually go up and present, but at about a minute in I felt more at ease as I was getting accustomed to the amount of eyes on me. When I presented in Professor Miller’s public speaking class last year, I found that what always eased me was that five or ten minutes after you present, no one will even remember since the speeches aren’t that significant compared to other things that people have going on in their lives. Taking a step back has always helped me secure my footing when giving speeches, but I still felt that my pacing and lack of eye contact was a problem. With more practice I hope to improve, and I need to get better at breathing techniques so I know when to slow myself down. I didn’t sway as much as I did last year, but maybe that’s because I was so dependent on looking at my paper and getting my speech right. I felt that I projected nicely with my voice since most times I’m rather quiet, but I wasn’t that charismatic with my hand gestures, so I feel that body language improvement could help.
adarcangelo.uneportfolio.org/blog-proj/
adarcangelo.uneportfolio.org/cmm-110/
https://dwhite30.uneportfolio.org/speech/
Journal 8:
Last class I read my dry run speech to the class. This run proved that there is much for me to improve upon. The first thing I should be focusing on is improving my body language. I felt while speaking and heard from criticism from my peers that my body language was poor. Examples of this are that I was fidgeting with my hands and with my belt while presenting, something that should not be done as it may distract the audience. The second thing I should focus on is getting into the mindset that this is more formal than what I acted like in my first presentation, I broke the 4th wall a few times within my speech while I made comments about what I would improve on in my next speech. The last thing I should focus on improving is just having a better idea of what my written speech was. My plan all along was to mainly just go off of what I wrote down but not stick to the wording completely but in this run I definitely suffered from forgetting what I had written. Two things that I think I did well on was the content of my speech and my timing. The content of my speech I felt was very strong and I did really like the points I made. The timing thing was interesting as I went over the required time by quite a but. Not sure if this is totally a positive but it is nice knowing I can cut some stuff down.
After giving my speech to the whole class some of the best feedback I received was that I needed to be more loose in presenting because I was too tense and nervous. I do agree with this and this will help me because I was able to feel how tense I was. After watching the video of my speech I was able to see that I did not meet the time requirement and needed to add more details into my speech. I was told I had the audience engaged a good amount but I need to share more to have them entertained. What worked for me was the backstory I gave about my personal experience but I need to add more into the importance of why I want to better my personal self and if I am able to do that I will have a lot stronger of a speech and my speech will flow more smoothly. With my speech flowing smoothly after it is fixed I will hopefully be able to deliver it the best I can without being as nervous as I was the first time I delivered it.
Altirique McElveen
Professor Miller
Journal 8 Communications
29 Sep 2023
The first thing that was noted from my speech was that I spelled “patience” wrong which has to be fixed immediately. My peers also shared with me that I was swaying back and forth ; so I will have to pick another mechanism that’s not distracting to the audience. I have to pick filler words that can replace “umm” and “so”. I would definitely say take my hoodie off while I’m trying to get the audience’s attention ; I feel maybe that’s a little rude. Other than that my peers really didn’t criticize me that much. I just have to work on the small details like, for example; make sure I have my thoughts ready and don’t think in front of the audience.
https://youtu.be/NCH3AoX-ag8?feature=shared
For this dry run, as I am with any public speaking event, was very scared to speak up. When I got up there, it took me a bit to get into a good flow but once I got going, I really got going. Everyone mentioned it when giving feedback after the speech but I want to say that is a common thing with me. I have difficulty starting things but once I get going, I can’t be stopped. It is most definitely in character. But in this case it really seemed to be beneficial, or at least that’s what everyone made it sound like.
Another thing about this dry run specifically was that it came from the heart. A lot of it was on the spot me venting my frustrations about both myself and the school system. But it really seemed to resonate with people. I think I’ll stick with that approach going forward (of course I’ll refine the speech itself). There was one person in paticular, I forget his name, (I am very bad with names do forgive me if you are reading this) but he told me not to be ashamed of who I am and that who I am as a person is perfectly valid and beautiful. It meant a lot to me, especially coming from someone I don’t know. It feels more truthful that way.
I came into this dry run horrified. Worried I was going to make it look like I never even took your public speaking class a few years back. But now that it’s done? I think I’m going to be okay. I came out of that room with more self-assurance than I did when I came in.
https://youtu.be/3dFouoI0Ksg