For my S4 Presentation, I think I was probably the most nervous I have been for any of my presentations. Before, I had always used flashcards to help remind/remember my speech. But, after my meeting/conference with Professor Hunt, I decided to go the extra mile and try to memorize my speech. I practiced/re-read my speech a number of times, so I felt pretty confident when it came to familiarity. But, I was still nervous that I would forget something while I was presenting. So, I decided to bring my phone up with me–and have my speech open on it. But, to my surprise I did not really need it. I actually surprised myself while I was presenting because I had memorized a lot more than I thought I would have, I also was able to just flow when I was talking.
I think this had a lot to do with my speech topic. I was really interested in what I was talking about–the first amendment/freedom of speech. I also think I liked my topic more because I was able to relate to it, it was about my past experiences, participating in the Trump protest on Market etc. which I think was really helpful.
I was also a bit nervous about my presentation being too long. Before, while I was doing my practice presentations, all of my videos were going way over three minutes. So, I was nervous and thought that I could have potentially made a five to seven minute speech. But, I decided to do some cropping and instead of reading each individual slide piece–like what we can and cannot do under the first amendment, I decided to just have the audience read the slides themselves. This helped cut my presentation down to the perfect time–around three minutes.
I always also get a bit nervous about correlating my speech to my powerpoint slides. I feel like slides kind of draw the audience in, so I enjoy using them. But, sometimes I forget when to change slides or maybe forget to say information that is in my speech because I do not see it in my slides. But, this time while presenting I practiced a lot more than I had before. So, I feel like I was able to correlate my speech and my powerpoint together nicely. i feel like practicing definitely does wonders for me. Practice definitely makes perfect and it even helped raise my confidence when performing. I feel like my presentations have definitely gotten better and better. I feel like in the beginning–during my S1 Presentation, I was confident and still managed to give a good presentation. But, I think as I progressed into the semester, my presentations have become even greater. Stopping the use of flashcards definitely helped transform my presentation–in a good way. I feel like the class as a whole has all increased and I think everyone can say that their presentations have greatly improved from S1 to S4 and I can’t wait to see what the future will bring with public speaking.
