Persuasive Speech: Texting while Driving

I went into this speech not very prepared but I was very familiar with the topic of Texting while Driving. As always, I got nervous before going up in front of the class but that was to be expected. After I finished my speech I thought it had been a big train wreck but when I watched the video it turned out to not be as bad as I imagined. Overall, I think the speech went fairly decent, there are some things that could’ve been improved but there are also things that went well.

To prepare myself to give this speech I basically did all of the research a long time in advanced and then used the information to put the whole speech together in one sitting. I then edited the speech as I rehearsed it to make it sound the way I wanted to.

When I reviewed the speech on the video I noticed that I was talking really fast, as usual. I talk super fast on a normal basis so I wasn’t surprised when my speed only increased a little bit when giving the speech. It resulted in me not reaching the time limit by only a few seconds and only about ten seconds short of when I practiced. I also noticed myself stumbling over my words more than once but my stance and use of hand motion and volume were pretty good.

Intro Speech

My first speech went pretty well. I was really nervous going up in front of the class to give the speech but I think the "Reading A Story" speech helped because it prepared me for talking in front of the crowd. I was also well prepared before giving the speech and basically had the whole thing memorized.

                Some of the things I need to work on are speed, enunciation, and fidgeting. I am generally a really fast talker all the time so my speeches in front of the class are usually the same length as when I am practicing the speech beforehand. I need to work on slowing down while speaking in public and in return it will also improve my enunciation. By improving my enunciation my speech will be more clear and more effective with more vocal range. While watching the video on my speech I noticed that I move my hands around a lot and flip my hair more than necessary especially toward the end of my speech when I started to get more nervous.

                Overall there were some good things to my speech too such as loudness, length, and feet placement. My voice was loud enough for everyone to hear and wasn’t too loud. The speech had to be between two and three minutes long and mine was exactly 2:30. At times I would rock or pick up my feet during the speech but overall I was standing shoulder length apart with my feet planted to the ground.

                I’d give myself a good grade for this speech while knowing that there is still plenty of room for improvement as the semester continues. If I continue to work on the things that need to be improved on and start to perfect the things I already do well then my speeches will significantly get better over time.