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.