End of the Quarter Reflections

Going in to this class, I wasn’t very confident in my public speaking abilities due to the fact that English is my second language. I was always a little self-conscious about speaking because I would have moments where I couldn’t effectively communicate what I was trying to say. I would often have to repeat myself. My hope was that this class would help me get better at effectively and clearly communicating my ideas. After numerous speeches and a lot of feedback and reflections, I definitely feel that I am more confident standing in front of an audience than I was at the beginning of the quarter. I am very glad that I took this class, as it was more than just an ordinary class. I actually got to know my classmates as well as my group levels. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I will miss this class, because it really grew on me. I think Professor Truch did a great job with the layout of the class, and was easy to talk while maintaining effective constructive criticisms at the end of each speech. It was a great quarter and I will definitely be missing a COMS class next quarter!

Final Team Meeting

Our final team meeting took place the night before our group panel speech. We went to subway after our classes and then went to the library to discuss our group panel presentation. After we finished the project, we were all a little sad that it would be our last meeting. Over the quarter, we definitely got to know a lot more about each other. It was a great experience overall, and I am glad that I got to make two new friends. Although this was the end of our COMS group meetings, I’m sure that it won’t be the last time we see each other.

2nd Team Meeting

We had our second group meeting after doing our hike up to Madonna Peak. It was a great day for a hike and we got to bring two of my friend’s dogs with us. After the hike we went to Tacos de Mexico to get something to eat. We talked about what we were all doing for our speeches and what we were doing to prepare. It was a great day and we got to learn a lot about each other.

2nd Round Reflections, Feedback, and Video

I chose to do the long informative speech so that I could prepare properly to give just one, solid speech. I spent a long time doing research and making sure that my outline did a good job laying out my speech. Because my topic was vaping, I felt that it was appropriate given my audience of 1st year college students. It was a little difficult giving the speech in a conversational manner because it was meant to be informational. I thought I practiced it enough so that I didn’t rely on m speaker notes, so that was good. I though that I got my three points across pretty effectively, and wrapped it up in the end by relating it back to the introduction.

Team Feedback: I remember that Ryan pointed out that I did a good job keeping eye contact throughout the room. He also liked my introduction and how I used my statistics. Kien pointed out that my visual aid was effective for most of the pictures, but it could have blank slides between the points that I made.

Professor Truch Feedback: Nina pointed out that I did a decent job on trying to make the informational speech a little more conversational. On top of that, she noticed that I had practiced the speech and that I didn’t rely on my speaker notes. She agreed with what Kien said, that my visual aid could have been improved a little bit. Another thing she suggested was to relate the issue back to a community level, instead of a local level.

1st Round Reflections, Feedback, and Video (Current Event)

I thought that I did a good job on the current event speech. Because of the topic, it was harder to connect with the audience through a conversational tone. I would say that this speech was more informational than conversational. I thought that I had a good introduction, and the audience seemed to agree. I struggled a little bit with keeping even eye contact throughout the room, and I still struggled with natural hand gestures. I was within the time limit, so that was a plus. I wrapped up the speech effectively I thought, by pointing out that instead of causing uproar, the scare of the Coronavirus should act as a wake-up call, urging nations to work together.

Team Feedback: Ryan pointed out that my conclusion was effective as it left the audience on a hopeful note. Kien said that I did a good job hooking the audience in the introduction with the connection between Coronavirus and Ebola.

Professor Truch Feedback: Nina agreed with Ryan, saying that it was a good connection to the audience and globally. She added, however, that it could have been even better if I had tried to tie it all together on a smaller, community scale. In this way, I could have related how the spread of a disease is especially scary for college students, and it is our time to band together to fight a common enemy.

1st Round Reflections and Feedback (Family Tradition)

I thought that my first speech (Family Tradition) went well because it was easy for me to keep a casual and conversational tone, while describing the various foods that my family and I prepare for Christmas. I liked the topic of the speech because it allowed me to branch out and use descriptive words to make the audience picture exactly what I was describing. Overall I thought I had a good pace and tone, but I was lacking on gestures. I didn’t really get nervous before the speech because I knew that I could describe a Danish Christmas even without the note cards that I had prepared. I tried to keep the text minimal on my note cards so I could practice an extemporaneous speaking style.

Team Feedback: Ryan said that I did a good job keeping eye contact evenly throughout the audience. Kien liked how I used descriptive language for the food preparation so the audience could imagine what I was saying. Josh noticed how I stuttered a little bit and said “and uhm” a couple of times.

Professor Truch Feedback: Nina pointed out that even though I used descriptive language, I could have used a little bit more on certain aspects of my speech, such as describing the various spices which go in the cider. On top of this, she added that the introduction was a little shaky, likely because it was my first speech of the year, but as I got into the main points it smoothened out.

1st Team Meeting

For our first meeting we had pizza and pasta while we watched the 49ers run over the packers. We discussed our speeches for next week and shared where we all at. We went over the E-portfolio and made sure that we all knew what to do for the assignment.

My Plan of Action

I plan to write everything that is going into my speech down on paper. By doing this I can engineer my speech in the best possible way I can. I think that one of my struggles with public speaking is not being able to express my ideas in an effective way, so I plan on having my speeches peer-reviewed by my room mates and class mates. I also think that I could use a little more time practicing before every speech. Practice makes perfect, so I plan on going over my speeches enough times so that I can remember what I’m talking about and go up on stage confidently. Body language is another aspect of public speaking that I need to improve. Engaging with my audience is important to keeping them interested in what I am speaking about. By improving my body language, I can make up for some of the other aspects of public speaking that need improvement. Since English is my second language, I mumble sometimes, and my pronunciation of certain words can change from time to time. I hope that with practice, this can improve.

My Goals For Public Speaking

1. I would like to improve my public speaking abilities by becoming better at expressing my ideas in a clear way.
2. I would like to improve the way I speak by eliminating any mumbling.
3. I would also like to become better at engaging with my audience, by keeping better eye contact as well as using better body language.

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