SPEECH:
BRAINSTORMING:
I chose to do the speech about how to become a better version of your academic self. I decided to do a speech on this topic because I think it’s something that is beneficial to every student no matter how good of a student you are, there is always room for improvement. I also think that through doing this speech it will also help me give advice to myself. I was always a really good student in high school and in the first semester of college I really struggled to balance being a student and living with my friends. Second semester I turned it around and figured out a good balance. Because I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum I think that I will be able to give a rounded perspective and that way I will also be able to connect with my audience. I think this speech is also something that would be interesting for the people in the class, where all students and I’m sure we all desire to be better students as everyone does. It’s human nature to want to be better at whatever you’re doing. So a speech about how to be a better student is something that would be intriguing to me to listen to. I also think that it would be important to include personal anecdotes to make myself more relatable because I believe that a very important part of an interesting speech is being able to relate to the speakers.
Rough Outline:
Introduction
- I will introduce who I am, what my major is and also give background information about myself as a student, this is when I will describe the different ways that I’ve been a student. How I’ve been a really good dedicated student as well as a student who didn’t necessarily care.
Meat and Veggies
- This is where I can talk about my struggles in the past and things that I’ve done to help better myself as a student. I also can do research and talk about studies that go along with my topic. I also think it’s important to use anecdotes in order to be relatable.
REVISED OUTLINE:
- Good afternoon, my name is Natalie Gray and I wanna talk to you about how to be your best academic self.
- Who here has procrastinated their work? Who hasn’t given it their best effort?
- Everyone in the room has felt this way, learning how to push past
- Who here feels really accomplished when the finally finish a tough assignment and they know they tried their best? Who feels happy and excited when they studied for a test and ended up getting a really good grade?
- feeling after work is done*
- Background- high school / first semester
- Being on both sides of the academic spectrum
- Asking for help- professors want whats best for us
- Studying in groups
- Procrastination – starting an assignment an hour before its due
- The next time you think to yourself “I’m gonna wait to do that assignment til when its due” or “theres no way I can ask my professor for help” think of how rewarding it will feel to do it early and have a firm understanding of what you’re doing and completing this project to the best of your ability.
DRY-RUN VIDEO:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/180STzlVIshwxTy_kR_3XLmCbHFHv5_ne/view?usp=sharing
MY BEST ADVICE:
The best advice I gave to my peer was about body language in order to be more open and inviting.
WHY IT’S MY BEST ADVICE:
I think this is my best advice because having good body language can change an audiences engagement completely. If you are cold towards the audience, not only is your message hard to receive it is also a good give away to people that you are nervous. It’s similar with eye contact, if there is a lack of eye contact it seems to the audience that you aren’t confident. Body language is a very crucial part of a speech.
BEST ADVICE FROM MY PEER:
The best advice I received from a peer was to slow down, annunciate and to watch my filler words.
WHY IS IT THEIR BEST ADVICE:
This was the best advice for me to hear because this is something I do subconsciously. When I get nervous I talk very quickly and I can tend to mumble, but when I do it I fail to notice that I’m doing it. Having someone else call me out on it helps me to realize Im doing it. Also my use of filler words was highlighted which is something I struggle with in every day speech. When I film my final version of my speech I will be sure to think about what Im going to say before blurting it out in order to minimize my use of filler words, I will also work to speak slower so my audience can keep up with me.
REFLECTION AFTER PEER REVIEW:
The first thing I noticed when I rewatched my dry run of my lone wolf speech is that I need to speak louder which typically is not an issue for me. I think the way I am going to solve this is going to a study run to record my speech because I was worried about my roommates hearing me do my speech and being embarrassed, so by going to a study room I will eliminate the fear of people hearing me and I think that’ll allow me to talk louder. Also as I rewatch my speech I think that there are a couple ideas that I have that in my head are solid ideas but I don’t necessarily explain them well enough. A lot of the time my brain moves faster than my mouth, I think that by reworking my outline along with practice more so that I am speaking fluidly through my thoughts and not stumbling over my words I will be able to fix this. Lastly my biggest issue is using filler words when I am thinking through an idea, in order to fix this I will practice my speaking before recording as well as pause to think about what I want to say instead of stumbling through.
REFLECTION OF PROJECT AS A WHOLE:
I really enjoyed this way of doing a project and a speech. The ability to have my original ideas, think about them for a week produce a product get a response from my peers about what they though worked and didn’t I think really allowed me to produce my best possible product. This is also a very weird time so the ability to actually see my class mates faces was nice. I think that through listening to everyones speech’s I found a lot of things that I can pull and try to apply to my own life. I think from now on I will work on starting project way before they’re due so that I will have the ability to sit on my thoughts and ideas for a week or two in order to add and take away ideas.
