What I Have Learned

This class has taught me more than I originally thought it would. I was always one that was extremely anxious and would rather do anything than give a presentation in front of a class. I was always somebody who was so envious of the people that could go up and present and look like they had no nerves up there. One thing this class has taught me was confidence, before I would always find a way out of presentations, or not look up from the page or powerpoint I was reading from. I went so far to almost drop out of my major so I wouldn't have to take speech class, as crazy as that sounds. By practicing and gaining more confidence and courage after each speech I realized that it wasn't as bad as I assumed it was. It helped me step out of my comfort zone and I am very appreciative of that. There are obviously things that I still need to work on like engaging the audience I am giving the speech to, more eye contact, etc but I feel that I have improved a tremendous amount from my first speech and I am very proud of myself. As we went forth with the speeches, each analysis was different. In the first couple of speeches I was focusing more on how the person was giving the speech and the areas they did good in and areas they could improve in. The last speeches to me, really focused on the content of the speech along with the way they gave it, everyone was doing a lot better when it came to the last speeches, so there wasn't really focus on how they gave the speech in my case.