Try making speeches and then doing assessments of how you did.

I appreciated this improvisational speech since it pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to analyze my natural tendencies as a speaker.

The speech itself went well.  The opening, organization, clear voice, humor, eye contact and interesting nature of the speech all made it a successfully entertaining speech.  Some things I could improve on include movement and hand gestures, transitions, content and time awareness.

Opening the speech by writing “Marijuana” on the dry erase board gave the audience time to absorb the subject of the speech.  Questioning the class about their smoking habits served to engage the audience.  Also, the enthusiasm and confident stance helped to draw the class’ attention.

Stating my belief that marijuana should be legalized and my three points to support it right after the opening gave the speech an organizational frame.  Adhering to the structure I laid out enabled the audience to follow the rest of the speech.  I also closed the speech with a summary of the main points and a conclusion that recapped my arguments, signaling that I was finished.  Asking if anyone had questions after the speech gave the audience a chance to involve themselves in the topic.

The clear, loud and well-paced voice I used in my speech aided the audience in understanding what I was saying.  The audience could hear the words, as well as the tone and humor.  Humor kept the audience interested in and receptive to what I said.

By varying my eye contact with most of the room, I engaged almost everyone.  I let everyone know that I was speaking to them individually as well as the entire class.

Writing “Marijuana” on the dry erase board created interest in the audience.  I further interested the class through poking fun at a serious issue and relating the issue to the other students.  By commenting on how hard we work in the business school and the tendency for us all to party at night with friends created a connection between me and the other students.

In addition to the things I did well with this speech, there are many things I can improve on.  Movements and hand gestures show that I am comfortable speaking and help emphasize points.  Unfortunately for me, I paced back and forth and threw my arms in all directions so much that I distracted the audience.  In the future, I need to keep my movements concise so that they emphasize points and pull the audience through the speech, rather than distract them.

Between each of my main three points, I failed to use transitions that smoothly flowed into the next point.  This made the speech choppy, left the audience challenged in following where I was in the speech and left each main point without a close.

Although the speech assignment was improvisational, the arguments for legalizing marijuana did not persuade the whole class.  The arguments in future speeches need to be more developed and contain supportive evidence.

For this speech, I did not keep track of the time.  To make the situation worse, I asked Sang how much time I had left during the speech.  This interruption broke up the flow of the speech and damaged my credibility with the class.  In the future I need to take pay attention to the time I have left.

Overall, I did some good things that held the audience’s interest and entertained, but there are definitely ways I can improve for the next speech.