Monday, June 22, 2009
Self critique-Evening
This last post to the blog is all about you. Discuss with details what your strengths and improvements are in the completion of this course. What ways have you turned your improvements into strengths? In what ways have you improved? What places do you still know that you have to be continue to practice? Improving as a speaker requires that you remain conscious of your weakness or necessary improved habits to improve upon them. What habits do you know that you have to stay conscious so you can become a better speaker and communicataor? You must post with details. I am looking for quality and quantity in your post.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
At the start of this semester, I was very anxious and unsure about speaking to a room of my peers. After this class, I am a little more sure of myself as a speaker, but I also am aware of some of the things that I need to be conscious of when I do speak in public.
I learned a lot about how to properly research and construct my thoughts in order to make a plausible and valid argument. With this research and outlining, I am able to not only learn my material and master it, but I am able to pull up information and recover if I fumble during my speech. I have learned to be more prepared when I come to speak. I can not just pull random information out my hat and have it make sense. It has to be arranged in a sensible, easy to understand format. Before this class, I would have just pieced information together and hoped that it worked.
My voice is still very robotic when I speak because I get so nervous. I can know all about what I am going to talk about, but I manage to psych myself out and create my own insecurity. I know now not to cross my ankles and to not move my hands when I talk. I am a very expressive talker and usually do use my hands and body, so to not use them as I speak was a challenge. I am more conscious of my “um’s” although the hesitations in my voice are more pronounced than they were in the beginning so I need to really work on that as I evolve as a speaker.
When I first walked into class I was initially nervous just to be in the class let alone speak in front of a group. With completing this course I really improved on my confidence when in front of a group. I would be fine doing my speech by myself but when it came to actually going up in front of the class I would loose all confidence and second guess myself. After we completed our first speech I realized it was not as bad as I thought it would be, as long as if I knew my stuff and practiced the techniques of continuing my speech if I messed up and not showing people I am nervous it really gave me a big boost in my confidence. Also when we first began the class I was in the habit of trying to memorize my speech word for word and sounding not very conversational when I would present my speech. Again with the practice of knowing my stuff and taking deep breaths and realizing that everyone in the room is a person it made it a lot easier to just talk like I would to a friend in a conversational way. I know that I still rely too much on my note cards because I feel the way I have it on the note card sounds really good and I would like it to come out that way but then I end up stopping and looking at the note card for a few seconds so my speech has a stop in the flow of the whole thing. One habit that I need to stay conscious of is saying too many umms I get nervous and try to get the speech over with so I start to talk faster and my brain doesn’t have a chance to catch up so all that comes out of my mouth is umm. I need to slow down and know what I am talking about so when I present it won’t come out fast and with a lot of umms. This class has been a great learning experience to help me in the real world with interviews or what ever life has to throw at me. I know I will be confident and ready for whenever I have to speak in public.
During the last five weeks I learned a lot about public speaking and how to correctly research and organize ideas. In my speaking some improvements I felt I made were making better eye contact when talking to a group instead of being in my comfort zone and talking to a piece of a paper or looking down. In doing the research I feel that being in this class helped me improve researching a lot now a know how to correctly use an academic search engine. Before this class I didn’t really know that they existed now I know how easy they are to use and how much better they make you project. I will use those for the rest of my student career. Also I improved on networking this is a skill I will take with me throughout my life before being taught the correct way to do this I would probably not say anything and miss out on a great opportunity. Now that I know a convincing way to do this with the “me, my friend and you technique” I will never let an opportunity go by. A strength that I got from this class is my confidence level is a lot higher when speaking in front of a group. On the first day of class when we had to introduce a class member I didn’t have a ton of confidence and I felt shy. Now I feel great when I go up to the front of the class to speak and I feel confident. I need to improve in a eliminating all of the um’s in my speeches and start using better transitions, also I need to now cross my legs when I’m talking and keep my feet on the floor. These are two habits I can be conscience about keeping both feet on the floor it’s not a difficult thing to do and I know I can do it. Also I can make myself really conscience of using transitions by practice using them more when I practice my speeches at home. I think I made a lot of improvements in my speaking and researching, however I still have a long way to go and I know my experiences from this class will help me.
The begining of class when we first introduced another class mate. I was very fidgity and moved around alot. Now I tent to stand still and hold my ground. My eye contact was always my strongest aspect of giving a speech. However, through out the whole semester i learned many knew tactics of public speaking. I learned how to properly research and cite evidence to my thoughts. I do believe I need to work harder on finding stronger citations to go with my work. I learned t organization is the key to presenting a great speech. Having an organized outline and notcards is a big booster on helping you present your speech more smoothly. I never seemed to use to many uhms, and uhs, instead I feel as if when getting caught up I tend to just blurt out what is next on my mind. This is where the organized notcards would come in handy. I feel now as a speaker I am more comfortable infront of a group of people. I speak more confidently as well. This class has prepared me for my career. As a police officer you will be giving speechs and talking infront of other and even just interacting with many individuals. I feel confident do to this class that I now will be able to hold my own ground and sound professional when i am ether just having a conversation or giving a speech
At the beginning of the semester I was nervous and did not want to talk in front of people. By completing this 5-week public speaking class I have improved myself so much. I do not feel so nervous when I get up and speak anymore. I also use more eye contact and my body language has improved since day 1. Now I am aware of how many times I say “ums.” In the beginning, I never knew I was saying “um” but now that you pointed it out to me I am always making sure that I do not say it. One place that I still have to work on is sounding more conversational. When I present sometimes it sounds like I memorized my material. Another thing I have to work on is my citing. I feel that this class helped me with using academic search engines. Also I learned how to organize my ideas and get research to back it up. I really liked using power point throughout this semester. I never knew how to use power point until this class and it will benefit me in the future with my teaching. I know when I have to speak in front of people I will be ready.
The day I set foot in the classroom I was a little apprehensive because I had no idea what to expect. The first day was a very intense one and I wanted to head for the hills, but I am very glad I stayed. This public speaking course taught me much more than I ever expected it to. As the course went on, I quickly realized that there were many lessons I could apply to my everyday life. I feel because of this class I am much more confident when speaking to people now. I also learned a lot about researching and using the database OCC provides for us. That was extremely helpful to me and I have already begun using those techniques for my other classes. Because of the critiques I found that some strengths I have are my conversational voice and eye contact. I have improved by being more conscious about not saying um and ah during my speech and also about not crossing my legs when I stand. I need to be more conscious about standing still because I pace too much. I also need to improve on where I’m standing while I show power points because I ended up blocking the visuals while I was pointing them out.I know that down the line if I ever have to do a speech or interview I will be more prepared and less nervous.
At the beginning of this course I was intimidated by speaking to large groups of people especially people I did not know. This class has made me more comfortable speaking in front of groups of people but the most important thing I’ve learned is to “know your stuff”. Knowing what you are speaking on make you feel like an expert on what it is you are talking about which can help you be more confident which in turn can wash away any public speaking fears you may have. I also learned a lot about how to use PowerPoint and that research is very important when you want to know exactly what you are talking about. Citing was also a key point of looking like an expert; if you have someone else backing what you say up it makes your argument look more convincing. One thing that I have most improved on through out this five weeks is mainly just being comfortable in front of a crowd while speaking. The only real way to do this is by continuously speaking in front of large groups but by the end of the five weeks I made more eye contact and was smiling while speaking. One thing I would like to work on for future public speaking would be bringing more detail into what I am saying so I can back up all my opinions with actual facts. I would also like to slow down and concentrate on what I’m talking about so I can lose the ums and ahs. But other than those few things I think this class has given me the keys to be a successful public speaker whether it’s in front of a large group or in an elevator.
Post a Comment