Reference no: EM133725933

Now that you've completed a major speech, it's helpful to step back and reflect on your performance, the process you relied on to write your speech, and what the final product reveals about your identity. This assignment provides you a chance to do that.

Summary: The assignment has three stages.

First, you will watch and evaluate the delivery of your speech.

Next, you will reflect on your process of speech preparation and how to improve it.

Finally, you will analyze what your speech reveals about your identity.

Focus: All three sections of this assignment should focus on your own speech. However, you are welcome to reference peers' speeches-for example, to highlight positive examples you might emulate or discuss how others' stories shaped your understanding of your own message.

Length: Each section should be between 250 to 350 words, for a full reflection totaling between 750 to 1050 words. (About 3 to 4 pages in double-spaced Times New Roman font.)
Part I: Evaluating Delivery

While it can feel cringey and strange, one of the most helpful ways to improve as a speaker is to watch a recording of yourself speaking. For this reflection section, you need to review a video of your This I Believe speech and assess your own delivery. You might consider questions like:
Were there particular gestures, mannerisms, vocalized pauses, or other tendencies you noticed on video that you otherwise may not have noticed? How might awareness of those tendencies be helpful?

Identify some specific moments where your delivery was especially effective or ineffective. Drawing from the Keyword on Speaking Powerfully, what made his moment particularly effective / ineffective?

Were there moments in the speech that went well in practice, but were influenced by public speaking apprehension (PSA) during the speech? Drawing from the Keyword on Managing Nerves, what factors might have caused PSA to influence the performance in that moment?
For purposes of grading, you need to prove that you did, in fact, watch the speech video. That means quoting yourself, making note of precise movements or changes in tone, etc. You need to focus on details that you could not have noticed without actually watching yourself.

Part II: Reflecting on Preparation

In this section, you will turn your attention to what you did before the speech. The goal here is to reflect on the choices you made as you prepared and to develop a plan to improve your next speech. Questions you consider here might include:

Which of the Five Canons did you prioritize in preparing your speech? Which could you have spent more time working on to enhance the final performance?

What strategies did you use to rehearse the speech and internalize your ideas? What did you learn about the process of "planning spontaneity," and how will you continue to build on that skill?

Did you try any of the specific strategies outlined in Keywords on Managing Nerves to help you relax and/or mentally prepare yourself for the speech? Did they help? Why or why not?

For your next speech, which aspects of preparation and delivery strike you as the most important? How will you prioritize them during practice?

What are your biggest strengths as a speaker? How can you play to those strengths in upcoming speeches?

This section should conclude by laying out a specific plan to prepare for your next speech. What specific steps will you take in rehearsal? How long will you spend on various aspects of preparation? What mistakes from your previous practice will you watch out for next time?

Part III: Analyzing Identity

Part of the goal of the This I Believe speech is to bring your ethos into alignment with your identity. That is, the story you told should have helped a room of people learn something fundamental about who you are. This section asks you to consider whether you met that goal. A few questions to consider include:

Sometimes people say watching themselves speak is a surreal, almost "out of body" experience. What does seeing yourself give a speech teach you about your identity? If you were a stranger watching yourself speak, what perceptions might you have? How do those differ from your self-concept?
Which layer(s) of identity did your This I Believe speech spend the most time discussing? Did the speech highlight any "identity gaps" that you've had to learn to reconcile? Did the process of developing a narrative help with that process?
The process of negotiating identity involves using narratives to make sense of elements of our past. How did your speech use elements of narrative? Rewatching your speech, do you believe the story still has narrative fidelity (that is, it "rings true") with who you are? What elements would you change about it, if you were to do so?

Think about some of your peers' speeches. What other beliefs or stories resonated with the experiences conveyed in your own speech? How might the ways other folks told their stories inform the ways you think about your own identity?