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

source I had used for the information that I was currently giving.
In terms of what I believe I did well on, my topic choice and supporting material were points of strength.

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

resources”.
To conclude this discussion, I will determine what grade I would give myself for this project. For my topic, I would give myself 5/5 points, because it relates to the speech assignment and is interesting. For my introduction, I would give myself 10/10, because I had an attention-getter, a thesis, and I stated my main points. For content, I would give myself an 18/20 because though I feel that I had good content, I could have used more information judging by the length of my presentation. For organization, would give myself a 19/20 because I lacked effective transitions. For the conclusion, I would give myself 10/10 because I restated my thesis, restated my main points, and ended with a call to action. For delivery, I would give myself 11/15, because I feel I had several issues with that, primarily with tone. I would give myself 10/10 for both the outline and the visual aid. My outline was fully completed, and my visual aid added interesting visuals that related to each part of my speech. This comes out to a 93/100. For future presentations, I intend to improve my tone and make it more interesting and to try and stutter less.