Milly is still having trouble with eye contact and still gets nervous before and during speaking. Another bad habit that Milly realized she had is stuttering and relying too much on her note cards or presentation slides. Maybe that is why she has so much trouble maintaining eye contact with the audience. Also, she doesn’t show a very strong stance; she sways around a lot and even ended up leaning on the table during the last speech. However, with all these bad habits still lingering, Milly has found what she is good at. That is preparing for the speech. She finds topics that she has a strong interest in and tries her best to deliver her message with confidence. Although it may not always work out, Millys’ old habit of striving to do her best has not failed. Milly also realized that as you spend more time with the audience, going up there is not so scary.

The most important part of a speech is confidence; to really know and care about what you are talking about. If you don’t show that you are passionate about your own topic, will your audience be interested in it? Even if you are terrible at everything else, confidence is key. Of course some other important components of an effective speech are being prepared, nice volume, and eye contact. The one thing that surprised me the most is I actually got through it! I delivered the speeches!

Being able to communicate effectively is definitely an important tool to have. Even just having casual conversations, you obviously have to be able to get your points across.