My Best Advice

I think the best peer review I gave to a classmate was one that even they knew the audience would pick up on. This criticism has to do with their lack of creativity and effort towards this class. An example would have been their second speech which has to do with teaching a skill. They seemed uninterested in the topic at hand even though they practiced what they wanted to say, and I can see that but I wanted for them to work on their creativity a little bit more. I could tell that they didn’t put much work into coming up with something creative, but they might have put effort into presenting the speech or maybe it came easier for them. So, I wrote that I didn’t know what feedback to give because there wasn’t much that I could give, more so for the lack of creativity and me not wanting to hear the same thing I’ve been hearing since the beginning of school.

Why It’s My Best Advice?

I told them this, because I wanted for them to take this course seriously. I also told them that because I felt as if it was something that they thought about at the last minute as contradicting as it sounds. From them, I’ve learned that the audience knows when you’ve placed effort into something and when you’re just doing something to get by. I also picked up that as an audience member, we really won’t remember much unless the audience’s attention has been captured. I also wanted for them to dive into their minds, because I feel as if they are a very outspoken individual and have good interpersonal relationships. I want to hear whatever topic that they have to share. As tedious as they might think this course is, they really do have more create things to share other than what they had presented.

Best Advice From My Peers

There was a lot of advice that I received from this glass that has helped me reach where I am at the moment. However, I think the best advice I got was to practice before hand and to not overthink. I feel as if they know that I know what I want to say but often times I end up forgetting things or going too fast out of nervousness. They could see how nervous I was, and a lot of them corrected me on things that were “easily” fixable like maintaining eye contact which I think is really weird. Even though they pointed out the things I needed to work on, they also complimented me on the things I worked hard on. For example, the teaching a skill project or speaking about someone I’m passionate tends to reach my audience. In the end, they reminded me that we are all human and we face the same struggles.

Why It’s Their Best Advice?

The best advice I got from my peers helped showed me that I made a lot of progression in public speaking. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to improves from these challenges that I faced I couldn’t see it but my classmates pointed it out in their comments. Even though I still get nervous speaking publicly to a large group of people, I think I’ve come a long way compare to when I first started. I think it’s just a matter of me not being nervous, slowing down, and being able to get what I want to say out there in a way that my audience understands. If I fall back on something I improved on last week, they’d point it out.

Big Reflective Moments (BRM)

I didn’t expect the crowd to laugh at my jokes, because I have a dry sense of humor and a lot of it is dark humor. This was from my first speech where I noticed that I didn’t really rehearsed and I kind of let go of whatever fear I had. I just went for it. It felt very natural with the limited prep I had put towards my first speech.

For speech three, I commemorated my mom for coming so far in life despite the setbacks she’s faced. This was my best speech I gave I think. I say that because I spent the most time prepping for this speech that I memorized everything. The only thing is that I went too fast and I messed up the closing part of my speech. I knew a lot about my mom, but I had also spent a lot of time translating events that happened in the past so that everyone could understand why I chose to talk about her.

Why These Reflective Moments Matter?

I think these speeches highlighted parts of my personality. On one side I could do impromptu speeches which is informal like birthday parties or weddings. I could nail that. These speeches also highlight things that I struggle with like conveying my ideas to a large crowd. I could present what I wanted to say to a small crowd if it was somewhat on a broader topic of discussion like why the ebola epidemic broke it. A group of three people where I was trying to get my reason across would be fine, but if I were to try and reach a large audience it would be rather different. The one thing I would share is that I’m not afraid of telling my stories, because I believe that I have a lot share. It’s more so conveying them, not being nervous and maintaining eye contact.

My Biggest Strides

I would say either speech four or speech three. Speech three is when I realized the importance of practicing and planning ahead to make sure the everything made sense. I practiced that for three and a half hours at most. In speech four, I had made flashcards to read from for the dry run. I had looked over the scripts so I had this general idea that I was setting the stage for what’s to come. It wasn’t as stressful. This prompted me to rehearse like 10 minutes before I came in to class and I made flashcards just in case I forgot anything. The final video went a little smoother, because I knew what I wanted to say. I had spent 2 hours rehearsing and I recorded without reading from the script that my classmate printed. I felt as if I kind of went fast when I was speaking, but I don’t think it was noticeable. There were a few slip ups, but news anchors face the same thing as well. I think practice made my biggest strides possible and having a feeling that I know what I was presenting. As long as I don’t sweat it, I should be fine. Practice is the key to my success. I just feel like no matter how hard I try, I will not be comfortable with the idea of looking people in the eye.