Informative Speech: Self Evaluation Essay – Free Essay Example

The speech-related skill that I acquired and valued the most during the course was my speech delivery. Before learning how to competently deliver a speech, I was shaky and scared before every presentation. I didn’t even get past the first sentence of my speech before losing my audience’s interest and engagement. My palms would grow sweaty as I would deliver a speech with no second thought. However, after learning the various ways I can improve my speech delivery, I employed pitch variation, persuasive techniques, eye contact, hand gestures, and humor in my speech – overall making my speech more effective. Now, I know how to effectively convince and keep an audience’s attention in a speech – which has a lot of value to me, as the speaker. To me, speech delivery is extremely important because it can make an adequate speech seem great to the listeners. In fact, an excellent speech may fail to reach the listeners if the speech delivery is ineffective. I would also always make sure to practice my speech at least twenty times before officially presenting it.

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The greatest area of growth in my public speaking was my ability to make myself credible to my audience and hook their attention in my speech introduction. While giving a speech in high school, I used to state my thesis as my first sentence of the speech and then dive right into the main points. The content of my speeches had no depth or employed speech techniques. However, after learning the various strategies of speech introductions, I employed attention-getters with questions, included a relevant story to show my narrative power, and created remarks of introduction. I also established a clear thesis/purpose statement, topic significance, and credibility, and previewed the main points. Introductions are extremely important because it clarifies your topic and purpose, sets up the reason why your audience should listen to you, and sets a precedent for the rest of the speech. It overall serves as an opportunity for the speaker to gain the interest and trust of the audience. For example, in my inspiration for ballet, I established a narrative in the beginning by claiming that “I have been dancing since the age of 3. I remember the day I slipped on my first pair of pointe shoes and felt like I was unstoppable.” By explaining how I danced since I was three ultimately proved my credibility on the topic of dance with the audience.

Overall, I believe that the most important concepts in a speech are how to effectively outline a speech, how to deliver a speech well, and how to incorporate persuasive techniques in my speech. No matter if you are giving a speech at a wedding or at a graduation, all of the same rules for an effective speech apply. I acquired the most value in the course with my speech delivery and achieved the greatest area of growth in my speech introduction. Even though I once was a shaky and stuttering third-grader, delivering that SGA election speech in front of a crowd of an extremely large audience – I can proudly say that I gained much more confidence in my speaking skills since that period of my life. The fact that your conversations and interactions may also benefit from public speaking gives it much more value and can even greatly increase your personal relationships with others. When giving a speech, your audience may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.