Frannie Torres

I feel that my group did well in organizing and delivering a unified presentation. We were able to present our individual parts of the presentation, yet connect our ideas together as one whole presentation. In order to improve the cohesiveness of our presentation, we should have worked on transitioning between our different parts. We should have also focused on spending more time analyzing the paintings we discussed during the speech. We used visual aids in order to emphasize the certain qualities about Magritte’s paintings while we were discussing them. For example, when we said that Magritte usually incorporated the same objects in his paintings, we presented visual examples of these objects. I believed we used the visual effectively at the beginning of our presentation in order to get the attention from our audience.  We could have used it more effectively in analyzing the paintings we were discussing about. Regarding my own physical and vocal delivery, I feel like I was a little less nervous this time. However, I need to focus on slowing down more because I definitely talk too fast while presenting. My goals regarding delivery include being a more confident, louder, and less anxious speaker who doesn’t ramble on too fast. The qualities that kept my attention during my classmates’ presentations would definitely have to be the visuals and their unique choice of topics.

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.

While reflecting on my group for the informative speech regarding immigration and the tenement museum, I believe we did a pretty well job at delivering a solid, unified presentation that properly introduced the topic and informed the listeners. As I reviewed our recorded video, I believe our group as a whole could of improved our presentation by providing more smooth and strong transitions to go from one topic to the next. Other than that I felt like we did a good job. The only slight issue I saw was that from time to time, some of us had a tendency to look at our flashcards to gather any more information we wanted to tell the listeners. This causes the presentation to seem less professional and it distances the listeners to the presenters. There was also some swaying in our stances when we presented which we should learn to eliminate for future speeches. However, we all had great, supporting information to tell to the listener. We properly backed up our facts with images on the presentation to give the listeners a sense of perception of the time-period.  If I could of changed something now that I had seen our presentation, I would of removed some text from the PowerPoint and incorporated more images. I feel like images are a lot more interesting to the audience now. My own personal delivery I found to be strong and at a good volume. However I would like to get out of the habit of swaying during the presentation for my future speeches. I would also like to improve on giving presentations without the dependence of the flashcards at certain times, which will make the speech look more serious and professional. I believe that everyone did a great job on the presentations, everyone had their own way of getting the audience involved and interested through the use of questions, videos, music, and images. I personally found that the use of music during one presentation was unique and definitely made me more intrigued to listen.

Maurice Studer

Mark Komar

Overall, I think my group did well in the way we presented our speech. We were organized in the way that we knew who had to go at what time and transitioned from each other’s topics well. One thing that would have made the presentation better would have been better synchronization of the slides to the speaker. We used the visual aids to not only show the paintings and photographs that we were referencing, but also the time period we covered. I think that helped the audience more in understanding exactly how the time period influenced the artwork. One time that I could have used more visual aids was when I began speaking about Homervilles. I could have had a picture on what one actually looked like and compared it to the painting of the rich women. Upon looking at my group’s speech, I noticed that at some parts during my speech, my posture became a nervous stance. I began to go back to my old habit of leaning on one of my legs. I did try to use hand gestures and referred to the power point a few times to point out what I was saying. What I wasn’t satisfied with was the way I actually delivered it. I did get the content out, but it times I stumbled on my words and paused for too long. I feel like I made it too obvious when looking at my notes, and I felt like I didn’t look at the audience as much as I should have. My goal is to work on my delivery skills and try and use more vocal variety. What I enjoyed about all the speeches is the actual content. I like the history involved and the research that they put in to find out more about an artist.

In my presentation, I believe my group was organized and delivered a unified presentation. We would have a good chronological order explaining our individual topics while providing good transitions from each one. The unification is from the order and the transitions between the topics. I believe I could have changed mine a little by expanding my topic a little more. I could have explained more history within the times of the segregation unit. The only improvement in cohesiveness that my group could had changed was adding more stronger transitions. I used the visual aids effectively in each of my slides explaining the change. The most effective moment would be when I mentioned the beginning before the image while leading up to the visual aid. The moment that I believe that I could have improved was when I involved class involvement in my visual aid. During my speech, my physical and vocal delivery was different compared to my previous presentations. I was swaying more than usual, but I believe my eye contact was applicable. My vocal delivery could had improved in the tone and loudness through the room. I would put more confidence in my words while keeping a strong physical stance. Now, other presentations in class kept me entertained by their way of speaking. For instance, they would have some humor plus distinctive facts that relate to modern day history. Well, these facts personally keep me entertained since I could relate the understanding in humor. Overall, the qualities had to be the verbal delivery in tone while having the best physical posture.

Will Ng

Watch your group’s speech video and reflect on the informative speech:

• To what degree do you think your group organized and delivered a unified presentation?  What do you think you could have done differently to improve the cohesiveness of your presentation?
• How did you use visual aids?  What is one moment during which you think you used the visual particularly effectively?  What is one moment during which you think you could have used it more effectively?
• Comment on your own physical and vocal delivery.  How does it compare to your previous presentations in our class?  What are your goals in regards to delivery for the final speech of the semester?
• What qualities were the most influential in keeping your attention (or not) during your classmates’ presentations?

Sanjay Gurung

I found that presenting to my classmates either through a monologue, or a personal speech was challenging but rewarding. The main difference in my experiences between the two different presentations was how I prepared for each one. For the monologue, I had to put myself into the character’s shoes and present to my classmates, in a way such that they saw me as the character I was portraying and not as me. So I tried and had to show fabricated emotions that went with the monologue. On the other hand, for my personal speech, my emotions were real and authentic. Everything that I said came from heart and this made it easier for me to present than the monologue which I had to “fake” myself through the assignment.  Watching myself presenting my personal speech was weird but the things I saw me do or not do was valuable. For example, I thought I had eye contact with my audience for most of the speech.  However, the video showed me that I did not have as much eye contact as I thought . I also saw that i was a little too reliant on my index cards and fidgeting several times during my speech. Nevertheless, apart from my flaws, I also saw my strengths. I noticed that my pace was consistent, and my volume was at the right point. I felt that my conclusion was effective as I managed to end my speech on the tone that I wanted. Therefore, I am quite satisfied with my presentation, but I know I can do even better. Improving my stance and having more eye contact are aspects of my presentation skills that I want to improve.  Some effective and good qualities in my classmates’ personal speeches that attracted my attention were their vocal variety, attention grabbers, and the use of emotions. In a lot of their speeches, the progress of their stories kept me engaged and made me want to know what happened next.

The image above is of Oprah Winfrey in her commencement speech at Spelman College. Her palms are faced outwards and towards the audience. She is using this physical motion to keep the audience engaged in her speech. This image relates to my point of keeping the audience engaged in our speech and the above motion is one of many methods to do so.

• The difference I saw between the monologue and the personal speech was that I could play a lot more with the emotions of the monologue, making the character sound like anything I wanted to. In the personal speech, I lived through the event so there was no point in pretending to be anyone but me. I also found myself approaching the two speeches differently, for the monologue, making sure I had everything memorized so it sounded good, while for my personal speech I could  rearrange the words and change how I wanted them delivered because, I came up with them.
• I have terrible stage fright so watching myself give my speech was a whole new level of nerve-wracking. At first I could only pinpoint the bad things in my speech like the fact that my voice sounds so much weirder on camera.  I realized later, that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. There are things I need to work on, but it wasn’t tragic. It really does help a great deal to see oneself and pick apart the speech to work on the mistakes.
• I think that a lot of the classmates are too self-deprecating when it comes to their performances. We’re not professionals, but I think it’s an easy group to be comfortable around so a great quality of many is that their deliveries have great eye contact and gestures. What I think that many of us have to work on is  the speech fluidity, so if we forget something or make a mistake, we don’t let the audience know of the error, and just continue.

• The picture below, pretty much explains what is going through my head as I am presenting.  I want to come off confident and sure of myself, but on the inside I am just hoping I don’t make a mistake or pass out.  “What I think I do” is a good example of how silly I feel going up with the audience looking at me, waiting for me to start. The reality isn’t really that scary, as represented in the picture,  and it’s a good thing to remember when the nerves kick in.

• Before presenting my personal speech, I thought that it would be much easier than the monologue because it was my own story. However, I learned that this was not true. In the end I actually found the monologue to be somewhat easier because what we had to say was written for us. Where the personal speech, we had to think of everything to say, ourselves. It was also much more nerve-racking to present the personal speech because I didn’t want people to think that I was telling them to look for sympathy.

Alex Abramov

The main difference between the monologue and personal experience for me came down to the point of view. When practicing the monologue, I’d try to imagine myself as the character. It would pretty much be me reading straight off the page. In the personal experience, it came down to getting my message across in my own words. As I practiced I’d try to limit myself from looking at the index card.

After watching the video of me, I have to say that I was under-prepared. I caught a bit of this while I was presenting, in the form of me not being able to speak smoothly and without glancing at the index cards.  I definitely needed to practice more. I also noticed my speech was a bit monotone. Once again, I can trace this back to the fact that I wasn’t delivering a message, but instead just repeating words.

The biggest factor in catching my attention was the passion displayed by my classmates’ for their experience. When they read like it was important, it made me just want to keep watching. A few of the speeches had moments where they went off point, and that formed a sort of block in the message.

  This picture resembles the mental blocks that happened while I was presenting. The road is the message, and the wall is usually me freezing up trying to remember the next point. Hopefully next time,  I could remove, or at least decrease the size of, the wall by practicing more.