Self- Critique Essay

When I first found out that I would have to take a Public Speaking course I was enthusiastic and nervous at the same time. I have never had to stand up, in front of a group of people and talk about anything before. I am a bit of a shaker, do not use hand gestures, and I do not like looking at people I barely know. This class made me focus on my strengths and weaknesses. My expectation for this class was to help me communicate better, because if I become an Administrative Assistant I will need excellent communication skills. I thought delivering a speech would be an excellent improvement for me. I thought it would just take time but would be easy to do once I practiced it a lot. I found out it is a lot harder! It is harder because with delivering a speech your audience can tell right away when you make a mistake. I have accomplished during this course how to write a speech, deliver the speech and how to communicate better. I am very satisfied with my progress in communicating better, writing speeches and delivering speeches. I am especially satisfied with my progress in delivering speeches. My Introduction speech was my very first speech. I did a decent job for my first speech. I was very organized, I did however leave out information in that speech. Also, I did not look as nervous as I felt. What I didn’t do well was I did not start with my attention getter and I rushed through the conclusion. This speech was a huge help for me feeling comfortable giving speeches. I felt like if this was how the rest of my speeches were going to be than they wouldn’t nearly be as hard as I thought they would be. My Informative speech, which I did as a make-up, was the worst speech to me in my opinion, because I had to go first and I also was extremely nervous. What I did well was I started with my attention getter and accomplished my purpose of the speech. What I did not do so well was that I didn’t use hand gestures, was too dependent on my note card, and I didn’t use much eye contact—I guess cause the class was smaller and that weirded me out also. While giving my speech I noticed that I was nervous, when I received my feedback my fellow classmate thought the same. I really learned a lot about the topic of my speech and I learned how to write an effective introduction with all the elements. In the Persuasive speech, I enjoyed delivering that speech. Also, when I got lost in my speech my note card helped me find my place and I kept going even though I made a mistake. I really enjoyed making a cereal box and trying to persuade others to buy it. For the Commerative speech I did a eulogy for Lisa Lopes. I did well on this speech but I forgot to include my work cited, use hand gestures and look at the class. However, my class know how amazing my role model was. Also, I shared personal details candidly. In the Group project, I learned how to build my creditability and how to use surveys to help me persuade people. I realized that you can solve a problem without using brainstorming techniques but that they really do help. My strengths where I attended almost every meeting we had and I kept up with a lot of the required information. All of us had a role and we did an amazing job. Working with my group was a wonderful experience even after we lost a group member. The feedback I received from the peer evaluation forms were very helpful! The peer evaluators were completely honest with me and yet very sweet about pointing out things I needed to work on. I learned through my audiences that I needed to calm down and to slow down. They also were very encouraging telling me that I always had interesting topics and that they could see improvement in my delivery. I believe that from the hard work I put into this course and how well I did on all the homework, that I have earned an A in this class. I kept working hard in this class even when I got behind. I have grown and achieved many things. I have accomplished how to write different speeches and deliver them. I also have learned how to communicate better, which will help me in the future. I still wish to improve my confidence, poise, hand gestures, eye contact and enunciation in public speaking. I really did enjoy this class and I am very thankful that I took this course with you.