Informative Speeches

I thought the speeches went very well on Monday. The energy of the speeches differed greatly from the narratives due to style differences and perhaps lack of confidence. I have to say that I am quite nervous for my speech tomorrow. I am somewhat apprehensive in using the my intended visual aid. I plan on using a photograph up on the white screen. Part of me would rather have something a little more imaginative, as mostly everyone had a 2 dimensional visual aid. I really observed how a person's stands affects the strength of their speech. It is interesting how I did not make the correlation with acting. It makes sense. For singing, dancing and acting it is crucial to be centered in order to perform the craft at its fullest potential. Having a strong base while speaking one is able to project their voice with greater force and ease, catch the audience's attention and all the speaker to feel grounded in their words.

Narrative Critique

I found Gina's speech about her grandmother very compelling. She chose a topic somewhat out of the ordinary. She had great structure to her speech with a clear beginning, middle and end. Her confidence and her devotion and commitment to the story she was telling came across to be very powerful. It was very easy to picture her grandmother has she gave a detailed physical and vocal description from dialogue portions of the speech. Honestly, I found it hard to give her critques for her speech. It is only the small things that are a little hazy. Sitting in the back row, it was challenging for me to see her feet. She gave a very strong posture in her upper body. Based on comments in class, she could work on having an even more firm stands while speaking without nervous quarks dancing in her feet. I think Gina gave an excellent speech. I feel I have a good sense of who her grandmother is and her relationship with her. Gina painted a picture for the class that we could easily step into.

Narrative Speech

I was rather nervous for the speech and am surprised how well it went. It almost felt like show-and-tell for me by sharing two of the most memorable days of my life. I felt at ease infront of the class and allowed myself to really tell the story without letting nerves create obstacles. I was also worried that I would loose a lot of the details in the story although they were set-up on my outline. The outline was rather challenging for me to use having the podium set at a weird and angle and distances to the speaker. I trusted myself and my experience. While delivering the speech I felt like I was walking back through my hike, reliving each moment I described. I did feel my projection was off kilter. I am told in my acting class that the ending is more important than the beginning when addressing an audience. I felt my attention getting was weak because I did not try to grab their attention with a little whispered voice. Eventually I eased onto my voice and projected well into the audience. I feel I did not close the speech as well I could have though. I became a little paniced when I was given the signal for the last five minutes. Next speech I plan on working on these two elements specifically. Overall I think the speech went well, even without the intended visual aid.

What I want to get from the class

Hi my name is Rachel,

I would like to become more comfortable and confident in my public speaking skills in this class. Last semester I was at the castle program in Europe. I found myself to be extremely apprehensive in speaking infront of my peers. This was very awkward and new for me. I am an acting major, and usually I have no problem speaking infront of people in general. I found myself running into brick walls because I was unsure of how I should deliver an educated speech. Mainly this problem pertained to my Philosophy class, which without our knowledge was changed to an ethics class apon our arrival to the castle. Our work consisted primarily of reading from the text in the book and discussions in class based on the text. My biggest struggle was creating a good argument, non biased for persuasive topics. Our spontaneous speech coming up holds a bit of pressure for me. The pressure does not result necessarily from expectations. I am a perfectionist. This project will obviously not be perfect being on whim. Coming back to the States however, my confidence has changed in the classroom, getting back to what are familiar teaching methods. We shall see what happens.