Half Way Down, Half Way to Go

This marking period, I have learnt a lot from my Public Speaking class.

Firstly, I have become more familiar with speaking-related vocabulary and how each factor in a speech could alter the effects that the speech could bring up. This has allowed me to scrutinize my speech and my performance for what was effective and what needed more work on to enhance the piece. Along with comments and suggestions from my peers and my teacher, I was able to put up in my mind a performance that I would be satisfy with, which boosted my confidence when I actually presented in front of the class. I also applied the lessons I learned in class about the basic of public speaking and how the components would vary depending on the audience and the purpose in real life situations. Such knowledge helped me to prepare suitable speeches, which made me more confident and comfortable when I talked to the large crowd as I knew I had a good speech to present. In short, through theories and practice, I have become more confident and comfortable with speaking in the public.

Secondly, I have gained more knowledge about various forms of public speaking, ranging from monologue to debate. It was interesting to see the differences between each of them regarding style, components and expression, and then to apply those differences into the performance. And even though it was not initially one of my main goals for the class, it was certainly a great piece of knowledge that I have accumulated through the class.

Throughout this marking period, I have been focusing a lot on my style and expression for each of my performance because I thought that these two factors could significantly help connect the audience and draw them into the pieces. I worked a lot on my projection, my tone and my body language in order to best convey the messages and the emotions of the pieces. As I received comments and suggestions from my class and practiced with my friends or on my own, I was able to adjust my projection and my tone as well as picking proper hand gestures and facial expression. As the end of this marking period approaches, I feel more confident about my style of presenting as it has made some progress. I would continue to work on my style to make it even better during the next marking period.

I have also been working on my articulation. I often found myself having troubles pronouncing clearly some words, especially if I was speaking at a relatively fast speed. Fortunately, I had keen teachers and classmates who would point out the words that I need to articulate better and also how fast or slow I should perform a piece in order to make those words clearer. Thanks to those insightful comments, I was able to improve my articulation and my pacing so as to make my performance more compelling. Still, I would put a lot of effort into fixing my articulation during the next marking period, because I know if I could enhance my articulation, I would be even more confident when I speak publicly.

This next marking period, I would want to continue with my three old goals of becoming more confident and becoming better at expressing, in both oral form and written form. I would also want to explore more types of public speaking so that I could compare and contrast them in order to see the connection and the complexity of the performing world. I would also shift my focus from style to articulation because I know that is one of the big problems that I need to work more on. Last but not least, I would try to make each of my performance more “me” than the previous ones.