A Report on The Improvement of My Speech as a Public Speaker Through Self-assessment

In choosing my topic, I wanted to talk about something that I was passionate about alongside something that just about everyone would be interested in knowing more about. With the history of Pokemon video games and their initial popularity based on the statistics, I wanted to make sure people who did not know much about the franchise were well informed and those that knew a lot about the franchise were able to stay interested in something they could relate to not only as a child but as a young adult. After watching my Panopto video, I was very satisfied with my presentation. I also was able to notice specific places and aspects were I can improve to present an even greater speech the next time around. Following my first speech, I plan to give a better speech by speaking more slowly and engaging the audience more efficiently.

To start off, I will first go over the strengths included in the feedback from my peers. Many of my peers were pleased with my execution of the speech, through the projection of my voice, my natural body movements, eye contact, and overall evidence of passion in the subject. I also received positive feedback about the overall organization of my speech, mainly based on the use of visuals and bullets on the slides as I spoke. The feedback tied in with the Panopto recording, as I could see how clearly I spoke, how organized my presentation was, and how naturally relaxed I was. I was very satisfied with these general aspects of my speech that the audience not only enjoyed, but was able to keep up with.

Alongside the positive feedback, there are some fields that I would like to and need to improve in. Feedback on improvements included more eye contact at times, needing to let the questions sink in/letting the audience answer, and overall slowing down in order to have some members keep up with my speech. Overall, I generally agree with the improvements needed. There were times where I would look down at my notes longer than I should, such as when I would talk about the statistics or go over an extended aspect of history. When asking my questions to engage the audience such as in the introduction, I never did pause to let the questions sink in or to have some peers answer the questions; that aspect is specifically what I need to work on. The pace of my speech is really fast; based on some of the feedback, some peers were unable to keep up with my topic, especially when I would reference to the statistics aspect of my speech. I know that one of the reasons for my fast-paced speech was the time limit, but for future speeches I could possibly use less information to be able to speak at a reasonable speed and still stay within the directed time limit.

In general, the informative briefing speech has helped me be more aware of my strengths and weaknesses as a public speaker. Receiving feedback from peers that have to do the same informative briefings gives me a different perspective as opposed to just a teacher giving me feedback. Watching my speech on Panopto gave me a personal insight on what I need to improve on alongside my individual strengths as a public speaker. Before my next speech, I plan to pace myself alongside keeping up with how long my speech is. I will also focus on memorizing certain subjects in my topics so I won’t have to rely too much on my notecards. Engaging the audience more efficiently is something else I will focus on for my next speech. These techniques will fortify the aspects I already excel on as a public speaker, and will initially improve my speeches and presentations.