Persuasive Self Critique

Persuasive Self-Critique Prior to giving this speech, I felt both nervous and prepared in regards to my presentation. I felt nervous simply because I dislike being under pressure, and I felt prepared because I had a completed outline which served as a plan for the delivery. I also had notecards to aid my performance. The goal that I had in mind for this speech was to better my delivery. I have a tendency to speak too quickly when presenting, and I also tend to stay rather flat and monotonous in tone. Stuttering/stumbling over my words also tends to be an issue. I tried to improve my chances of doing well by reciting the speech aloud a few times before recording as practice. I also made sure to write down what information went with each source on my notecards so that I would not pause in an attempt to remember which

My topic choice is one that gets attention, as many people are struck with an empathetic response, especially in regards to children. I had sources for each of my main points and sources to back up my supporting statements. Particularly, I think I did well by using statistical information, such as the number of children that go without education worldwide and the poverty rate comparison between the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa. I also remembered to cite each of these sources verbally throughout the presentation. When it comes to weak points, I believe I still struggled with my delivery. Though I did succeed in slowing down and talking at a better pace, my tone still remained an issue. Inflection was lacking, and there was little to no variation in my voice. And though I do think that I improved on the stuttering/stumbling aspect, the problem was still present. You can see this problem surface a few times, such as when I was citing poverty.ucdavis.edu and when I accidentally said “unresolved resources” instead of “a lack of