Communication apprehension (as covered in chapter one) is your fear about talking to other people about things - and is often most manifest in public speaking situations. More people are scared of speaking than they are dying!
In that light, just how bad was it? Take for a moment to tell me how you felt in the spotlight (and for some of you, on camera!) - I won't give you your grade until you tell me what things you think you did and were aware of - which is especially important since we didn't have the dvd for the first half.
go for it. and if you start out saying you looked fat like i did, that doesn't count.
I was definitely really nervous when giving my speech. Even though I was really interested in my topic and had a clear idea of what I wanted to say and had good outlines with supporting facts and information, when it came time to present I felt that I became really nervous, and I could tell my hands and voice were really shaky. I was unsure of where to look and of how I was positioning myself. It is really odd especially since I am not a shy person at all, except for when it comes to public speaking...I seemed to lose my place, repeat myself a lot, and I left out a couple of things. My speech seemed too short, but I was relieved that I got it over with when I did. Hopefully for the next one I will be more confident in myself!
ReplyDeleteOverall, I was surprised at how comfortable I was giving my first speech. I definitely hyped it up way more in my head while I was preparing for the speech, but once I got up there, I felt plain and simple, okay. I think that I've become way more comfortable opening up and talking in front of my classmates.
ReplyDeleteWhile speaking, however, I realized how I really need to work on timing my speech. I had to quickly edit my speech while presenting once I realized I was already half way through the time limit. In addition, I need to work on my hand motions because there were a few times where I caught myself making unnecessary and often distracting hand gestures. As for content, I felt I could work on my transitions. I don't think I really spelled out my speech and guided the audience as well as other classmates did. Nonetheless, I felt I maintained a conversational-type tone throughout as well as solid eye contact, which is always really difficult for me.
I was anxious during the whole classroom as to when I would be chosen to present my speech. I think my anxious energy and nerves came through when I was moving from side to side in the speech and my body language was not always as firm and poised as it needed to be. Also, my subject was an extremely serious subject matter (serial murderers) so I really attempted to stay focused and serious without ever lessening the degree and importance of my subject but I don't know if my seriousness came across as strongly as I would have liked. I do also tend to speak fast when I'm nervous so I think I need to slow down for my next speech a lot. The main problem I think I have is using hand gestures frequently when I am talking which takes away from what I am saying. I need to tone down my physical actions when presenting. Next time hopefully I can work out all these kinks and perform a wonderful public speech with less errors.
ReplyDeleteI was really nervous prior to my speech. However, I felt more comfortable when I got there. Perhaps, too comfortable because I started expanding more on my points which led me to exceeding the time limit. The first half of my speech went well in my opinion. I thought my voice was loud enough for everyone to hear and my posture and my delivery wasn't so bad as well. But the 2nd half was just a mess. I saw Brynn giving me the sign that my time was already up and at that point, I wasn't even in my conclusion part yet. So I kind of panicked and I thought it really showed. So I had no choice but to summarize my entire speech in just a sentence or two. But overall, I didn't think it was that bad. I honestly expected it to be so much worse. For the next speech, I am definitely going to practice more and make sure that my speech will be perfectly timed.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I went way too quickly, at least during the introduction. I was worried about staying within the time limit, so I tried to speak a little faster than usual, but I believe I may have overcompensated by just spitting out words. I was so nervous, and I sensed that I was frozen in place, and my feet were rooted to the same spot the whole time, so whenever I tried making eye contact with people, I was just turning my upper-half of the body, and so my head probably looked like the chick's from The Exorcist. I just felt very awkward in general standing up there in front of everyone, and when I talk, my voice naturally goes up and then I feel incredibly self-conscious. I just need to remember to relax and remember that the people to whom I'm speaking are just as nervous as me, yet want to see me do well because they also want to do well when they're in my place.
ReplyDeleteI was a lot more nervous than I thought I would be once I was in front of everyone. I really wanted to very my eye contact, but found this to be a challenge when everyone was spread out horizontally. I hope that I was loud enough, and that my voice did not shake like it sometimes does when I get nervous. Overall I am pretty happy with how it went. It was different to actually signaling to me where I was in my timing, so I feel like my conclusion was not as strong as it had been when I had been practicing. It was also kind of strange to look up and see myself reflecte in the mirror, and knowing that I was recorded, I hope to be more confident in my next speech and for that confidence to be apparent to the audience.
ReplyDeleteEven though I don't like being filmed, I think watching a tape of myself would have been really helpful. I was so nervous giving my speech, I did not pay much attention to my hand gestures and body position, so it's hard for me to evaluate in retrospect. I tried to work on eye contact, but I am not sure if it was effective. Also, when I get nervous, I always get really thirsty and my voice becomes airy. Next time I definitely want to consciously work on my volume because I did not project enough during this speech. I was upset because I left out a couple of points and definitely stumbled over my words in a few places. But, I was happy with the timing of my speech and tried to structure it the way we learned in class. Overall, it went better than I expected. For my next speech, I want to think positive things before it's my turn and work on being loud and engaging.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else, I was pretty terrified prior to giving my speech. That morning, it was all I could think about and I was really nervous that once I got up in the front of the class, I would forget everything! Surprisingly, once I began my speech, my nerves slowly went away and I felt more confident as I maneuvered through my points. Looking back however, I feel like I may have repeated myself during a few moments in my speech; working on remembering how to phrase different sentences better or separating my ideas more may have helped me here. I also need to be more aware of my time. I was so into my topic and trying to make sure I covered everything, that I completely missed my sign for time. As I was talking, it didn't even realize that I had been talking for that long, and there were certain points I felt like I didn't talk about enough! Overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Next time, I just need to work on calming my nerves before I give my speech so that I can move through my points more clearly.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I enjoyed my topic and was feeling ready to present today in class, as soon as I got up to speak I got extremely nervous. I recognized that I messed up early in my introduction and I think that that kind of threw me off for the rest of my speech. I felt like I lost my place within my speech a lot. I think that the my information was good and organized well, but my nerves got the best of me. I realize that I was moving around a lot and caught myself playing with my hair a couple of times (I will have to wear it up next time we have a presentation). I need to work out being more calm and practicing a lot more before the speech because I recognized that most of the time I find myself messing up, it is because I have the idea of what I want to say in my head, but can't find the right words for it. I think if I slow down and take my time though, I can be better for the next speech.
ReplyDeleteI usually enjoy speaking in front of groups and I especially class presentations. Nonetheless, I have realized that most of these speeches are stream of consciousness or they involve PowerPoint slides. Therefore, I have never been more nervous or stressed about presenting a speech before this week. This might be because the requirement was to have it written out, thought out, and practiced. I think this added immense pressure to have to say everything that I had written down and present in the same way that I had done while practicing. However, when you actually have to present before your audience, your nerves cause you to forget or add things you had not practiced.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I think I did a pretty good job presenting an informative speech, I realize that it was not the exact speech that I had practiced or written down. There where times when I would get really comfortable and expand more on points but times when I would have to shorten other points in order to make sure that I stayed within the time limit. The best thing I learned is to be flexible when speaking and to adapt to my environmental constraints.
Another thing that I wish I did better was slow down, pause, and transition into my next points. Since I had a lot of information to share, once I started presenting before the class and saw my time slipping away, I began to talk faster in order to attempt to get as much of my content into the speech. I think next time I need to try making my points more concise so that I get everything I need to say across while giving the audience time to digest.
I think I had good eye contact and gestures. Normally, I don't do so well in my nonverbal department, but for this speech I tried to practice so that I could improve in these areas. I also think that my voice was loud and clear for most of the speech.
Overall, I'm proud of myself for surviving. I still can't believe how nervous I was this entire week to present, so I want to work on calming my nerves for next time so that I don't psych myself out. I'm also really glad I got to listen to all my classmates present. They did a FANTASTIC job. I am an observational learner, so I learned more from watching how they present than from reading about it.
I was very nerve-raking trying to prepare for my informative speech for two reasons:
ReplyDelete1. I kept on making my speech sound more like a persuasive speech every time I kept on revising it. Therefore I had to continuously focus on the fact that it was informative and I was just telling people facts.
2. As something as big as Health Care Reform, there is so much information to cover it was a challenge trying to figure out what material to include in my speech and what material to leave out. I first intended on talking about how the bill affected young adults and how the the bill was being paid, but the latter proved too complex and filled with big political and economical terms I could just not get myself to simplify.
Overall, I felt relatively confident at the beginning of my speech. I did have some jitters right before and I feel like they came back around the middle of my speech and I think this may have affected me.
Two things that I believe I did wrong and I need to improve upon are:
1. speaking more slowly. Because I thought I was running out of time, I started to feel anxious and nervous halfway in my speech, therefore I began speaking fast. I went through my sentences fast trying to cram in big pieces of information.
2. I think I have a tendency to eat my words or to not enunciate completely. I need to make sure I'm putting the right emphasis on certain sentences and certain parts of sentences but I also need to make sure I'm enunciating every word and making sure my audience at least comprehends what I'm saying.
It definitely was not my greatest speech and at the end I was just happy it was over and that i hadn't been recorded. But I think with practice I'll be able to improve.
I will say that I did get to see some real good speeches given by my peers so kudos!
After and during my speech, i felt like it was definitely not my best performance. It wasn't that I was nervous to speak to in front of the class, but I was nervous that I would not remember to say all the points and stories that I wanted to say. I felt that I had so much information in my head and wanted to say so much that sometimes I would lose my train of thought and just repeat myself or go off on a tangent. When I look back at my speak, I wish I could have been a little more animated, as well, as more organized. I think I relied too much on remembering what exactly I had on my outline rather than just speaking about my experiences. I think I had good eye-contact and didn't gesture too much. The thing that bothered me most was that all I could think of was the words I had on my outline. I feel like my speech would have gone more smoothly if did not try to memorize so much.
ReplyDeleteI felt that this speech wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It really helped making the outlines and knowing the basic structure of our speech. I believe the beginning of my presentation was much better then the closing because I practiced it much more. I felt like I was doing really well and following the format until I looked over and saw I only had a minute left. For some reason I thought a minute was a lot less time then it really is and I rushed the closing. I wish I stayed composed and finished my speech the way I had practiced, even if I went over the time limit. Overall I think I did pretty well.
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ReplyDeleteI think that I was more nervous than I expected. I knew the information and had a lot of really interesting things I wanted to say...but with the pressure of the speech I don't think it came out exactly how I wanted. I also was a little uneasy about the camera. Overall I think I did good because I did include all the parts of the speech and thought there was some very good information. I just need to focus on the information I knew and stick to the speech I planned instead of stretching it out a little too long. Next speech I need to practice shortening my speech and being a little more concise.
ReplyDeleteI think overall my speech went well and the content was informative. I spent a lot of time researching and may have put too many statistics in my actual speech but I tried my best to pick the most shocking numbers and integrate them into my content. I think the topic was relevant to our class because we all live in downtown LA so I felt more comfortable sharing because I thought people were interested. Most likely I talked too fast which I do naturally and is something I definitely need to work on. Standing without a podium was a little awkward for me and I'm not sure I held a strong stance the entire talk. I think I did a good job with voice inflection and letting the audience know which points were important. Overall I am happy with my performance and I think I did a good job informing the class about gang violence in Los Angeles and the role of A Better LA.
ReplyDeleteI thought I carried my introduction of my speech well. I spoke with a lot of tone and enthusiasm at the start. But as I went deeper into the speech, I became nervous. One thing I noticed that caught my attention away from my speech was the width of the room. I tried to keep eye contact with the entire audience, but because the room was wide (unlike the other room orientation in the past), I found myself moving my head from one side to the other constantly. Also, because I had too much information on my head, I lost the interactive and conversational aspect of my delivery. I found myself midway that I was more focused on speaking everything in my mind and delivering my message. Had I planned to focus on less information, perhaps I could have used the audience's nonverbal feedback and change my speech accordingly by adding pauses and the like.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I realized that I was running out of time, and I actually had to cut to the chase during my speech which made me mentally disheveled. The speech was great because I learned what kind of impact keeping your speech concise can have on delivery.
I was caught off-guard when I heard I was going first because I rarely get chosen first, but I tried to approach this speech with a more casual mentality to make sure I was more comfortable as I presented. Of course, I still felt nervous but overall, I think the past informal and practice speeches helped me a lot because I felt more comfortable talking in front of the class than I had before. Also, I tried to memorize my speech less than during the introduction speeches, and memorizing less ironically helped me remember more of my speech. Even though I did feel more confident about the delivery aspect, I felt that I lacked coherence and transitions within the content my speech. I think I could've been more clear in leading the audience on very explicitly spelling out what I would talk about and how they all tie in together. After hearing everyone else go, I felt that I could definitely improve with the transitions and other aspects of the speech including thesis preview as well as my conclusion. I was stumbled on my words a bit as I saw Alexis hold up the time signals, so I would also like to improve on being more smooth as I deliver.
ReplyDeleteI was for some reason very very nervous for this speech, which is weird when I first thought about it. In high school I was very comfortable giving speeches; I gave them all the time. Now I realize that all those speeches were memorized, and should be considered more a performance than an extemporaneous speech. Not that the two don't have many things in common, but i am very unpracticed in extemporaneously speaking, and when i was practicing the speech in the days before the actual event, I kept on falling into the trap of wanting to memorize something, and then pulling myself out of that trap to realize that I didn't know how to put it on the spot. THe night before the speech, I stayed up very late, and di not have a very positive attitude, which probably contributed to my apprehension greatly.
ReplyDeleteI was expecting to be called when I was called, which did put me in a slightly better position to deliver the speech. There were times when I felt very certain during the speech, and times when, not due to the audience, but because of the size of my message, I freaked out and paused extensively. I think that with some more extemp experience underneath my belt, I'll feel much more comfortable in the future, but maybe due to a lack of simplicity to my message and a sense of anxiety that I had the night before, my apprehension was very high this time around.