Right off the bat, I realized what you were talking about Julia. I do tend to end sentences off at a higher note and it makes me  sound less confident. I definitely need to work on that in the future. That’s something I did in my last speech, too. I feel like this time around, I used my index cards less. I spoke more extemporaneously. I had a stronger stance during this speech as opposed to older ones. I feel like my volume has been consistently fine throughout. My gestures have gotten better. I didn’t awkwardly hold my arm this time. I believe my speech was successful, but it probably persuaded more girls than guys. It directly affected the ladies in the room so they were probably much more persuaded by it. After watching everyone’s speeches, I noticed a few things. I liked to hear about more social issues as opposed to other ones. I liked learning about interesting thinks I had no idea about. Some speeches did not effect me at all because the speaker’s points and arguments seemed invalid to me. I had a strong stance on many of the topics from before, therefore I instantly agreed or disagreed. The skills I learned in this class will definitely help me in both the near and distant future. Here at Baruch, I know I’ll have to give many speeches, so I will definitely be using these skills. Later, as I graduate college and begin to work professionally, I know I’ll have to do a lot of public speaking. The most important skill I took away from this class was being able to speak confidently. Before, I used to be scared to give presentations and I would be nervous. I had to step out my comfort zone many times in this class and ultimately that ended up helping me.

I believe that my group was successful in organizing and delivering a unified presentation. Honestly, it was fixed up last minute and I felt that just based on that fact, we did very well. If we had worked on it a little earlier, practiced  together, and went through it together, we could have improved the cohesiveness of our presentation. We used visual  aids from the exhibit we chose. We took pictures of parts of the exhibit and used that in our presentation. I think my visual aid with the signs from the rallies were effective. It showed a real life example of what happened. However, I regret not putting in a visual of Park51 right now. I believe it’s gotten easier to present in front of the class. Before, I used to be much more nervous and stiff. My physical stance could be a little stronger. As for vocal wise, I realized I stumbled on a few words and I do not want to repeat that in the final speech. I  want to focus on my index cards less. During my classmates’ presentations, the content was most influential in keeping my attention. If the topic was interesting, I wanted to listen thoroughly to the whole thing. Visual aids played a big factor in this too. However, if my classmate spoke for too long, I realized that I had been trailing off from paying attention.

Personally, I liked the personal speech better than the monologue. I think the monologue was a little more intimidating to do. This is because we had to memorize it and on top of that, we had to act it out. The personal speech allowed us to have index cards to help us. It was easier to talk about myself than to pretend to be someone else. Theater is not my thing. Had I not watched the video of my speech, I would never notice the things I did wrong. It gave me a new perspective. I realized what things worked and what didn’t. Firstly, I realized that I wasn’t as “awkward” as I thought I was. I thought I looked at my index cards too frequently, but upon watching my video, I realized it was fine. But, I noticed I didn’t have a strong posture. I had one leg kicked back and it didn’t look professional. I sounded scared to be speaking and I don’t want that to happen in any future speeches. Also upon watching my speech, I realized what posture, gestures, and tones would be better. I am definitely going to use that for future references. The personal speeches of my classmates that were either I could connect to or really personal were really engaging. Good introductions also kept me engaged. If the speaker was passionate, it made me want to listen. Any speaker who mumbled or didn’t have a strong introduction turned me away from listening. Also, if the topic of the speech was something I didn’t enjoy or I could in no way relate back to me, I didn’t really want to listen. One thing I found interesting about my own presentation was I had prepared to look at my friends, but I ended up making eye contact with people I barely speak to. It made it much easier to speak. I won’t lie, I was extremely nervous about speaking. However, once I got up and began my speech, it just flowed smoothly. I felt the same way about to monologue as well. I’d rather give a speech than perform a monologue though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRiHSaIQ8oQ

SHAMRIN HASAN.

Everyone who knows me, or at least knows of me, knows one thing: I am a social butterfly. I can go up to anyone and spark a full blown conversation. I don’t hesitate to speak to people I don’t know. I love meeting people and conversing with people. I am just that  person. However, my hear will drop to my stomach at the thought of giving a speech or presentation. I would really would love to get rid of this fear of mine. It’s so contradictory to my personality. I love speaking and being heard, but when I’m put in a situation where I’m going to be graded and criticized, I can’t do it. Every presentation I’ve given in high school, I have been petrified. I start playing with my hair, my voice starts shaking, and I refuse to make eye contact with anyone. I would really like to most past this because it’s simply not professional, and it definitely won’t get me an A in this class.

Everyone who knows me also knows that I am J. Cole’s number one, die hard fan. For those of you that don’t know, he is a main stream rapper. A phrase that people commonly associate him with is “cole world” – hence the title to this. His music is my biggest inspiration and I’ve watched through his interviews, performances, and speeches over and over again. He is just such a motivational person in my eyes. The link I put up is part of a speech he gave at Harvard. I want to be the speaker he is in that video. It’s like once he’s up speaking, he doesn’t have a single worry. He just speaks and connects with his audience. All through out the speech, J. Cole is calm, smiling, looking around, using his hands, and making his audience laugh. Now that is the type of speaker I am looking forward to becoming.