Informative Speech Self-Evaluation

The purpose of my speech was to inform the audience of the dangers of Fetal Alcohol

Syndrome. I feel that for the most part I pulled that off and got my main points across. I was

able to state all the dangers and side effects of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and hope that

having my slides with a list of bullet points helped the audience to absorb the information I

was presenting. 

Before my speech I was actually feeling more confident then the last couple of times

I’ve presented a speech. I practiced some of the breathing techniques that were explained in

the book and felt that they helped considerably. Unfortunately once I got up in front of the

class I realized that my notecards were completely out of order and started my speech

without organizing my cards. Because of this I missed lots of information and became more

nervous knowing that I was not giving transitions, and was unable to mention my citations

because they were now out of order.

If I were to give this speech again I would have numbered my notecards so that if by

accident they were mixed up I would be able to recover faster and not feel so lost once I got

up in front of the class. I feel that I wasted a great deal of time trying to figure out where I

was in my speech what I had already covered, and what I needed to talk about next. Having

practiced with my notecards and using them as roadblocks, sort of speak, should have kept

me on track and focused on my main points but once everything was out of order I felt that I

could not recover and began to mainly focus on presenting from my slides rather then from

my notes. 

For my next speech I hope that I can compose myself more and be more confident in

the fact that I know the information I am presenting. I tend to let my nerves get the best of

me and once I have messed up it is hard if not impossible for me to recover. If  I can learn to

control my fears I feel that delivering the content of my speeches will improve. My problem

isn't so much about having enough information as much as it is my nerves getting in the

way of presenting this information to the class.

My delivery for the informative speeches was the worst so far; because my cards got

mixed up there was a lot of time spent not talking and trying to think about where to go

next. My main focus was no longer presenting the information about Fetal Alcohol 

Syndrome and was more about me trying to get my speech back on track. I began to focus

more on the time and was trying to just get it over with before I started mumbling and

stuttering so badly I would be completely not understandable. I am not sure if other people

could notice how bad I felt like my voice was shaking and I was just trying to keep that

under control. Next time I will have to make sure that I have all of my materials together

and organized before my speech so that my delivery can be more understandable and

maintain transitions and stay on track with the original order of the speech.

My demonstrative speech lacked clarity and I don’t feel that I presented all of the facts

that I wanted to present because I did not fully understand the importance of notecards. This

time however my notecards were thorough and concise. I wrote down all the main points

and transitions for my speech and left a lot of information open ended to adjust for the time 

constraints. However with the informative speech I did not number my cards and when I got 

up in front of the class this proved to be a problem that I had trouble recovering from.

While presenting my speech I could feel myself moving back and forth and this

was because of the note cards once that was off I began to panic. Even though I was trying

very hard to stop myself I couldn’t I just became overcome with nerves. I shifted back and 

forth in my last speech as well but I am hoping that as long as I am completely prepared that 

I will be able to improve on this for the next presentation.

This speech I did not do as well on the eye contact although I know that I did make 

contact multiple times. But because I was so focused on my notecards I lacked on the 

eye contact this time around. So on a scale from 1-10 I would give myself a 7.

If I had to give myself a letter grade I would give myself a C to a low B because while 

I had all the information and presented all the most important information I failed to 

mention all of my sources, my transitions were off, and I had multiple moments of silence 

when I was trying to gather my thoughts.

During my speech I can only remember citing 2 of my sources. I had written all of my 

sources with quotes on my notecards for my presentation, but once my cards were out of 

order it was impossible for me to go back and mention my sources because it would have 

been out of order and not made sense.

I don't think that this speech was better then my last speech. For my last speech I was 

more nervous but was at least able to stay on track and keep a steady pace while presenting 

my speech. But with my informative I was way more prepared, and had much more 

information but was unable to shake my nerves and felt a lot more nervous this time around.

Media

Whenever a person is presenting information and ideas it is a great idea to research your topic and get information from other sites to support your ideas. One way to do this is to add visual aids and video to help support your idea and also gain creditability with the audience. Like with any information used in a project if it is not one's original thought then it needs to be cited properly to avoid plagiarism. This goes for any visual content used as well, whether it is a picture or a video it is the responsibility of the speaker to cite the source properly to give credit to the person or organization that created that information in the first place. Also allowing your audience to know that you researched your topic helps to build your credibility. If the audience is able to See that you used credible sources they are more likely to be engaged in what you are saying because they will be able to trust that what you are saying is true and accurate.

Public Speaking

Recently I have been attending a moms support group and every week we have the opportunity to listen to different speakers. Each speaker has had their own ways of delivering information and each way is effective in different ways. One of our speakers used PowerPoint slides with simple bullet points to help enhance her speech. I found this to be very helpful since I was taking notes and the simple bullet points made it easy to take notes while keeping up with the speaker. It was a great way to present the information in a way that the audience could take the information away with them. It is so easy to forget what the speaker has said but to have important points written down make it easy to remember parts of the speech. While I do not remember the entire speech simply writing down the speakers bullet points allowed to me to take notes and add any key points from her speech. Now when I look back at my notes I am able to recall various parts of her presentation and am able to use my notes to inform other people as accurately as possible.