Self-Evaluation for Informative Speech

  When I gave my Informative Speech about the Electoral College I felt that I did a pretty good job on explaining the Electoral College to the audience.  I think that I did a better job of giving historical context that helped explain the reasons behind why it was created the way that it was and a less good job of explaining the way that it works today.  I felt very confident leading up to and during the speech, but felt less comfortable than I normally do in public speaking situations.  I think that part of this was because in my previous speech I had trouble staying within the time limits because I become very rigid when giving a speech about making sure that I include all of the information that I had planned to.  In an attempt to make my speech more extemporaneous and less rehearsed, which I though would give me the opportunity to adapt as it went and cut things out as need be, I ended up feeling flustered toward the end because I was running past my time and had trouble adapting on the fly.  I also think that because my speech was less structured I ended up repeating several of the points that I made.

  I think that the content of my speech was well researched, well planned, and that I didn't leave out anything important.  If anything I think that I may have included a few unnecessary details that obfuscated my audience.  I think that the introduction was good and that the conclusion was good overall, but didn't provide very good closure or have a strong finish.  I don't think that I did anything distracting during the speech, except for maybe looking down at my notecards.  I think that my eye contact wasn't too bad, but I did look down at my notecards more than would be desired because I had rehearsed my speech less than I normally would like to.  In my last speech I only cited two of my four sources, which I improved upon in this speech by mentioning four or five of them (I think it was five, but I may have missed one, not 100% sure.)  I think that was another reason I looked at my notecards too much, because I didn't want to forget to cite a source.  I would rate my eye contact as a 7 out of 10, but hopefully I'm being too hard on myself and it was better than that.

  Overall I would say that this speech was less good than my last speech.  I did a better job of the technical aspects by citing all of my sources and being closer to the time limit for the speech, but I still went over the time limit.  I think that this speech was the least interesting speech I have given so far and my audience seemed bored and disinterested.  I have only used Power Point once in my life and it was about 15 years ago, which showed.  My use of Power Point was the worst of anyone in the class.  I think that I would give myself a B- on this speech.  I still think that I did a pretty good job.  I put a lot of work in to my speech and I think did a better job than just satisfying the requirements, but nothing special.

My Cousin's Wedding

  The last time that I remember viewing a speaking event that made use of presentation media was in a personal setting, rather than formal.  It was at my cousin's wedding reception., so I suppose that in a manner of speaking it was a "formal" event, but the presentation was more casual and was amongst friends, families, and peers.  My cousin was married at a very small church at Notre Dame that could only accomodate somewhere around 80 guests.  Because of this they decided to have a second reception in California for all of his friends and family members that he could not invite or could not make it to the wedding itself.
  At this wedding reception he showed a slide show of different stages in their relationship and a lot of pictures from the actual wedding.  I thought that it was an especially effective use of the visual media because it made everyone there feel as though we were at the wedding, without actually being there.  When I look back at his wedding reception I can picture the ceremony and the church vividly in my mind, as well as the bride in her wedding dress.  I also thought that the earlier part of the slide show was excellent because he told the story of his proposal and included pictures taken shortly before and after and pictures of the place where the proposal took place.  Because he and his wife (fiance at the time) lived in North Carolina prior to their marriage many of his family in California had not spent much time around his wife and had not seen them together during the earlier stages of their relationship.  I felt that it helped me to picture the two of them as a couple more and less as the individual of my cousin whom I had known for a long time and the individual that was his wife whom I had spent almost no time around.  I would say that it was a perfect use of presentation media and I don't think that I would have changed anything that he did.

Check Out My Slides

  In the reading this week the topic that I found most interesting was the over-arching idea of why you should consider using presentation media at all.  I always want to do a good job at everything that I do, but I also prefer to not add extra work to assignments or to make anything harder than it has to be.  I feel as though I usually do a good job in my speeches and have seen many effective speeches throughout the years (and even just this semester in our class) that have not used any sort of presentation media.  When making a speech in a very small window I think that the opportunity to add another element to the speech can make the preparation more complex.

  While it is true that the use of presentation media can ad more work to your speech, there are reasons why people do use it.  In many cases it can be an effective way to share information.  The sentence in the book that really stuck with me was the bullet point that, "You can use presentation media to illustrate an idea that can't be fully described by words alone."  I think that a power point specifically, since that is what we will be using in our next speech, can be a very effective way to illustrate an idea that I can't fully describe in a way that my audience will completely understand.  I also think that power point is an excellent way to graphically display facts and figures.  When you say numbers to people I think that they often tune out or don't fully absorb their impact.  When you see a number represented visually it can often have more impact and stick with you more.

"There's blood in my mouth 'cause I've been biting my tongue all week." -Rilo Kiley

Less is More

I think that the biggest thing that I gleaned overall from the Speech Buddy Videos was the importance of simplicity in visual media that accompanies your speech.  There is a tendency to want to convey as much information as possible to your audience, which can have a negative impact when you clutter slides with too many images or words.  I also took note in the video that showed a girl giving a presentation about Sikh culture of the point that was made when she put five images on one slide and none of them stood out or could be clearly seen.  On the video they said that it would have been better for her to use five individual slides to show each element.  My upcoming speech is too short to show numerous slides, but I did think it was important that if there are specific things that I want to give a visual aid for I should not try to cram them all on to one slide.  If anything it would be better to choose which image is the most helpful to my audience or most key to my speech and discard the other images altogether.  When giving a speech you always want to be concise and not add superfluous information that is going to confuse your audience or make them lose sight of the main elements of your speech.  The same is true for any visual media that you use to accompany your speech.  It should emphasize your main points, not add new and possibly unnecessary information.

"I'll know my song well before I start singing." -Bob Dylan

For Starters

  There are a few important components of any well written introduction and conclusion. To begin with the introduction, the important components that you want to include are an attention getter (which may include an audio or visual clip), a clear indication of your purpose and thesis, something that establishes credibility, and a preview of the main points of the speech. I plan to use a power point slide with a representative map of the electoral votes and to say something that very briefly explains the electoral college in a way that sounds complicated, followed up by a promise that I will explain it within my speech in a way that will make perfect sense to everyone. Something along the lines of,
"The electoral college grants a total of 538 votes, with 2 granted to each state and the District of Columbia representing their 2 Senators and an apportioned amount of the remaining 436 electorates based upon population data gathered during the census directly proportionate to the number of Representatives granted to that state. Got all that? I know it sounds complex, but I am going to do my best to help all of you understand...."  I will establish credibility by utilizing my first oral citation of the Federal Election Commission and will preview the main points at the end of the introduction to prepare the audience for the upcoming structure of my speech.
   In my conclusion I will make sure to review the main points that I have outlined throughout my speech that were originally previewed in my introduction. I will also make sure to clearly reinforce my purpose of educating my audience about the process of the electoral college so that they clearly understand it. I will also try to provide closure by stating something that may have been confusing to them at the beginning of my speech and then draw attention to the fact that they now understand it which shows that they have learned something during my 5 minute speech.  Subject to change, I am planning to say, "So now when you hear on election night for example that “Barack Obama captured the swing state of Florida,” I think you will fully understand what it means and why it is important."

"Man plans, God laughs." -Yiddish proverb

Speeches About Processes

  In chapter 13 I thoroughly read and re-read the section pertaining to Speeches about Processes because my Informative Speech is a speech about a process. I am speaking about the electoral college and will be attempting to explain how it began, how it functions today, and what the importance and purpose of it is. Because my speech is about a topic that is somewhat more of a macro concept, it will not be as easy to imply a sense of impotence to my audience as a topic that is more personal or simple. If I were talking about the process of voting it would be easy to stress the importance to my audience because they can go out and vote, whereas they will not ever engage in any sort of action in relation to the electoral college. I think that will be one of my biggest challenges in this speech. This means that I should have a clear understanding going in to my speech that I am speaking with the goal of helping my audience to understand the process, rather than how to enact it themselves. Another aspect of my topic that I think will lend itself toward keeping the attention of my audience is that it is a topic that I feel most of my audience does not currently fully understand. The book says to avoid topics people already feel they have a firm grasp of because if they think that they already possess full knowledge of the subject they will not be paying close attention to you because they will not feel as though they have much to gain by doing so.

Starts and Finishes

  I think that the videos to accompany chapter 9 did a good job of reinforcing the importance of the introduction and the conclusion of a speech to me.  While every part of a speech is important and should be given ample attention, the introduction and conclusion carry particular weight.  The introduction is important because if you do not get the audience's attention and interest to start things off they are unlikely to pay close attention to and absorb the information that you relay to them throughout the body of your speech.  I think that this idea within the context of our class which emphasises extemporaneous speech made me realize how important it is to have a tight, well rehearsed introduction.  It also makes sense to me why we are required to write out our introduction and conclusion, while we only outline the body of the speech.  The conclusion bears special importance because it is the final impression that you leave your audience with and it can effect the way that they remember the speech as a whole.
  In the videos for chapter 13 where they had examples of infromative speeches I found some helpful insights to be gleened by viewing the videos.  Evan made good use of his power point slide, even though there was only one of them.  He did not just put it up on the screen, but directly referenced it and pulled the attention of the audience toward his slide at multiple points during the speech.  Janine's finale to her speech was good because it was concise, interesting because of good use of a prop, and provided obvious closure.  The third of the speeches was alright, but I felt was for the most part lackluster and reminded me of the importance of knowing your speech topic well and maintaining a good level of energy throughout your speech.

"Put that coffee down!  Coffee's for closers only." -Glengarry Glen Ross