Speech 4 Refleciton

#4 Post-Speech Reflection; Start, stop, continue

Performance live vid: LIVE ACTION

Start

·      Using hand motions. Zack mentioned this in his feedback, I really need to figure out how I can incorporate hand gestures or body language to enhance my message. I could have used them during this past speech when I set up the rhetorical situation, or described the overview.

·      Transitioning smoothly between every idea, slide, or person. From now on I am going to specifically identify every point in the speech where I transition between ideas, and try to come up with phrases that can smoothly link ideas. Transitions were addressed in detail in one of our assigned readings but I haven’t done a great job of implementing them yet.

·      Interacting with the audience on a deeper level. Maybe address them directly or ask a question, volunteer, or show of hands. Throughout the year different people have don’t this in different ways, but overall I think it mixes things up and keeps the audience engaged. It’s also a good way to take up time, and present information with a different approach.

·      Dividing media such as youtube clips, into more, smaller segments placed throughout the presentation. Makes it easier for people to connect and get what you want them to. Shows that you aren’t just including media for kicks but that you actually understand it and have drawn clear connections in which the video adds to, enhances, or supports your argument/point. Media should be used intentionally and with purpose sometimes I just put it in to have it.

·      Using a hook—I have before, but in his feedback Zack pointed out that our group didn’t really have one. I think one of the challenges of group work is that with group think some things are easily forgotten. The hook is the first thing the audience hears so its super crucial and needs to be incorporated in the future.

·      Outlining my specific goal in giving my speech so it’s clear to the audience and they may feel convinced of it. Perez asked about this after our speech so we obviously didn’t do a good job of conveying our goal. Zack also pointed it out—How could anyone help us if they don’t know what we want.

Stop

·      Going off script-can’t stress this one enough…it never works out. For some reason even though I’ve practiced my lines one way, when I get in front of the class I want to do them a different way.

·      Falling into monotone—this maybe has been my biggest challenge throughout the year. I think that I did show a lot of improvement in my last presentation but when I watch my presentation I realize that I still fell into monotone at some points.

·      Rushing through parts I am uncomfortable with. Parts that I have less practice with or am less passionate about I tend to sort of rush through. I think this makes this un-comfortability super obvious and hurts my overall performance. Need to practice the things I’m uncomfortable and change the things I don’t like—Before I’m in front of the class!

·      I too cringed during the animal video. I’m not sure if it was effective, I think it may have been more emotionally tolling than the situation warranted.

Continue

·      Adding acting into my speaking performances. I think the comedy is a super powerful tool to get an audiences attention and further it also helped me avoid some monotone. My thinking of the performance more like acting I felt more natural to really embrace it and I think it showed in my performance compared to past speeches.

·      Explore and incorporate appropriate moves in accordance with typical conventions of genres. Ever since we learned how to classify genres and identify conventions and moves I’ve been trying to use this skill to prepare my own speeches. When in the research phase it is super helpful to identify typical moves I see. Later when I draft my speech, it helps keep me on track and know what I need to include. Stealing the state farm commercial move was super effective for our group and really easy.

·      Introducing myself to audience, I think this sort of breaks the ice and puts a personal touch on the presentation. My introducing myself I seem more human and less robot and therefore more relatable and engaging.

·      Using engaging visual media. Our prezi was very affective I hope, Prezi makes things fun and helps link/organize ideas in a custom layout. I think the commercial that Daisy and Courtney made was very well done also. Zack pointed out one way we could have improved our prezi is if we had our facts on a slide (it would also have helped us remember) So I will continue to try and use visual aids to support my speech.

·      Practicing a lot has really helped me improve my speeches. The first speech I didn’t even feel comfortable at home let alone in front of the class. Part of this is just based on the number of speeches I’ve done, but also practicing a lot and just like the real thing. Videoing myself so I have to commit and can’t stop in the middle, and also using a timer, forcing myself to get a smooth pace down.

·      I really enjoyed working in a team. We all brought different ideas to the discussion and worked together to come up with our final presentation. Certainly there were parts of the presentation I could have never thought of but also there were things that none of use could have done on our own. I also think synergy is the key to making group projects work, no one was shooting down ideas and it really helped our creative process. I think each one of us felt safe to share any idea we had.

·      Using other individuals to lend credibility to my presentation, this was Courtney’s idea to use her roomies in the video. I think it was super effective for people to see someone they didn’t know talking about our product I know it did in Jakes AI video.

Classmates moves and how I will try to incorporate them in the future

1.     Team March: several moves I loved from this group. The ‘man of many hats’ bit was amazing, super funny and affective. But the move I want to incorporate was just the general move of answering audience questions. As they said afterwards in explaining their move, it was a way to explain information from a different approach, perhaps this information would have been awkward if just stated outright. My group could have incorporated this move to make some features of our product more natural to explain. Like for example our giving money back to the community, or our packaging. Also this move seems to add to the argumentative power, or credibility of the performance because they stood up under questioning, and had material prepared that was not the primary focus.

2.     Team Taka: Did an amazing job branding themselves. “AI” It was simple, clever, catchy and they repeated it over and over. Their AI thing was fun to say, and clever because Artificial Intelligence is often referred to as AI. They acted with confidence and like they new their brand was already badass. The confidence and seeming established sense of their brand made it more powerful. I will try to come up with catchy and effective slogans or other forms of brand establishment in the future. Sometimes developing out little aspects of your idea can really make a difference. Also they did an amazing job with their video.