Marriage should no longer be a legal matter.
3 sweet moves presented by my classmate’s radical speeches:
- Connor =Back to Barter: throwing the change
Effective because: Connor played on the senses of the audience. It was loud, and shiny things were bouncing everywhere; It was a well executed attention grabber. After he dropped that change, it was impossible not to be compelled to hear what Connor had to say. All drifting thoughts were brought to a halt and my attention was all on Connor.
- Jake=Value our Vets: emotionally charged
Effective because: Jake’s emotional pauses and thought provoking questions (that actually guided one to the answers he wanted the audience to come to) had a lot of persuasive power. I could feel his passion about the subject, and because it meant so much to him, it pulled me in, because anyone who cares that much about anything deserves an audience to at least hear the man out.
- Ben=Criminals go to College: very informational, but not boring.
Effective because: Ben’s approach of using interesting, hard-hitting facts drew me in. I felt like I was learning, and being invited to really think about the problem, rather than someone just posing their opinion. This way, Ben was presenting me with the power of coming to my own conclusion based on the facts, but in a way that I came to the same conclusion that he was presenting.
Start:
Being calm and confident:
I don’t know if I will ever get over the stage fright, but what I want to learn most from this class is to be confident while presenting in front of an audience. I have always had a problem presenting to the class as far back as show-and-tell days of elementary school. I used to be really shy, but I have really come into my own through my adolescence, and have become very comfortable talking to people, mostly due to practicing. (This transformation can be explained by a long story, but the abridged version is that my best friend in 3rd grade helped me learn that talking to people really isn’t that scary, and after a few skills she taught me, I can’t seem to shut up.) Stage fright seems to be my biggest hurdle for this class. I feel as though I am a very confident person, but something comes over me when I stand up to present. I have anxiety, and I have worked very hard to battle my triggers as I have grown up, but something about presenting sends me into panic mode. I have a whirlwind of thoughts attacking my mind, and they seem so chaotic and I can’t seem to hone in on any one thought in particular. I know that talking is easy, but as soon as I have a script to remember, I freak out. I try to rationalize and calm myself down logically, but this only leads me further into the black hole of overthinking and angst. This is the only time in my history of anxiety that I have felt like, “damn, maybe I really do need xanex to calm my crazy-ass down”. I have always just tried to battle my anxiety without a prescription because, let’s face it, drugs are fun, and I don’t have much self discipline. All joking aside, I felt so much better this last speech. I had a shaky start, but after about halfway, I felt the tension ease up as I felt myself on the downhill slide to the end of my speech. If only I could start my speech with that kind of serenity, then maybe presenting wouldn’t be so scary for me.
Stop:
Um/ Uh:
It only takes 7 seconds into my speech for me to falter and hit an “um”. I counted 12 “um’s” or “uh’s”, which is unfortunate, because that was the number one thing I wanted to avoid in this speech. Even though I was trying hard to remember not to use those space holders, I ended up using them when my mind was turning a million miles a second. They don't sneak in there when I am actively engaged in the presenting of the speech, but more when I am nervously trying to gather the information in my mind for the upcoming subject change. When I am on a roll about a certain segment of my speech, there are no “uh’s” present; It is when I am changing gears into my next thought that I am going to present.
Tongue clicks:
We approach my first trademarked tongue click at 1:23. Before, when analyzing this click, I thought it was because of discomfort, or maybe used in place of a sigh due to a lack of confidence. In this speech, I think it is just a way I am trying to get more comfortable and to feel more real in the moment. I’ve been paying attention to when I click my tongue, and I have noticed it is often followed by a head tilt, and what I have noticed is it is usually a reaction due to something funny, cute, or a comedic let down (ie: trying to fill the puppies dog dish and when I picked up the bag the bottom broke and kibble went everywhere= true story while puppy sitting this week.. the tongue click and head tilt followed seconds after the incident). It’s almost like a self coping mechanism that I have installed as a way to bring humor into situations that I would like to turn from uncomfortable, to humorous. When this tongue click happens in this speech, I am approaching a serious matter that I would like to view as funny, being: consensus of wanting to get married changes when we view divorced individuals. Serious subject matter, but with a humorous take on it.
Looking at the screen (when I don’t need to be):
I tend to look at the screen a lot. I believe this is because every time I have presented a speech thus far, I have missed entire segments that I felt were crucial to the speech. In case you were wondering, I did miss a chunk on this speech as well. It was about people choosing to marry for reasons other than love. The big focus of this chunk was on people marrying for financial stability and status and not for love. I keep checking the screen to keep on track, but I purposefully try to make my slides minimalistic because I do not want to depend on looking at the screen. Obviously this tactic does not work, because I still cannot manage to look away for the screen for more than thirty seconds at a time.
Continue:
An action that I had practiced a lot for this speech was utilizing more space. In this video I am happy to see myself turning my body from left to right as I face the audience for a better, more comfortable stage presence.
On the same point of utilizing space, I tried walking back and forth from the computer to the more open floor. I wrote about this in my previous speech analysis. I wrote about how this was a move I really liked of Daisy’s. I really wanted to incorporate that move into my next speech, which I tried, although I do not believe it looked as smooth as when she did it.
I like how I use my hands to gesture to the screen, or to emphasize a point. Shows that the wheels are turning, and seems like a more natural speaking approach than in previous speeches, where I bring my hands together. I have noticed in my previous speeches that I nervously hold my hands when I speak. I only revert back to this behavior when I played my Chris Rock clip, and I believe that was due to standing up there and trying to calm down. It is a bit weird to be up there and not talk while a clip is playing. I can just hear my inner monologue: “What do I do with my hands?”, like in Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights. When I realized that I was holding my own hand, I tried to correct myself smoothly. But I wasn’t very smooth. The camera caught me holding my chest and trying to calm my nerves.
My favorite part about looking back on my speeches is that I smile a lot. I don’t intentionally do this, but I like it because it makes it appear as though I am having a good time presenting. I think that is a good quality to have as one is presenting a speech; That the presenter is interested in actually presenting the information to the audience.
Although I did not feel as if I nailed this speech, I am very proud of myself. When I look back at my other speech reflections, I can say that I am hitting all of the points I have made in my “start” sections. I am speaking up and enunciating. I am making better eye contact, although there is still plenty of room for improvement in that department. Also, I am moving around more and using more space while presenting, which I could also improve more on as well. My point is, I am making steps in the right direction, even if they are baby steps. I am still working on more confidence though, but I believe that aspect is slowly improving as well.
