Start, stop, continue

Steven Barela 

The Pre-speech

My pre speech was good because I was able to get my point across to the audience and also set up the rhetorical situation I would be in. The Pre-speech was that I would be in the Macy’s elevator and I would run into my roommate Joey. I saw that Joey was buying a frying, which gave me an opportunity to talk to him about cooking safety and being cleaner around the house. 

Start:

• I would like to start using my hands more when I am talking
• It would be better if I was more energetic when talking, especially if it was supposed to be a conversation with my friend. I didn’t have enough passion when I was speaking even though it was something that really effected me. 
• Since it was a conversation, it would be better if I talked faster and hit my points quicker.
• I need to start using an opposing perspective so I can better communicate with my audience as to why I am right. 
• I need to do that so I can defend my point better. It will also help me to think about what they will use against me. This way I can really think about whether or not I agree with what I am actually saying. 
• I need to start using better transitions between my thoughts so that I can develop a proper flow for my speech. 
• I need to change up how I use my tone. I talked the same way throughout the entire speech and it started to get boring towards the end. If I don’t change my tone it would have annoyed my roommate instead of really informing him. 
• I need to start making more eye contact with the real audience. I used a person to stand in for my roommate. Even though this helped for my nerves it would have been better practice to actually talk to the whole class. 
• For my next speech I should work on trying to make it go well over the time limit so I am not as worried about my limit. When I think it may be to short it causes me to feel more nervous and messes with my pacing. When I was watching myself I noticed that I was talking much slower than I really would be to my roommate. 

Stop

• I need to stop being so motionless when I am presenting. I noticed that when I was talking, my left hand only left my pocket once. The other one was usually by my side. I also stood in one spot throughout the entire conversation. It looked very mechanical and nervous. 
• I also need to stop making my argument into a list. I didn’t like how all I did was tell my roommate all the things he was doing wrong. It creates a more hostile atmosphere and there’s less of a chance that the issue would be resolved. 
• I need to stop talking so quietly. I struggled to hear myself when re-watching the video. Even though I was the main subject of my video, the class room laughter was louder than myself. 
• I should not have used my other roommate as credibility unless he was there with me. 
• I used far to many filler words while giving my speech. I kept saying “umm” and “like”, but the one that bothered me the most was how I kept saying “you know what I mean”. It was very noticeable and kind of annoying after the first couple of times. I was aware that I was saying it during the speech, but I couldn't seem to stop. 

Continue

• I would like to continue speaking clearly so that everyone can understand me. Usually when I get nervous I start to stutter or slur my words. This is one of the first times that I was able to speak clearly throughout the whole presentation. 
• I would like to continue making my speech long enough. Nearly every speech I have ever given has been to short, because I forget certain points due to nerves. I was very prepared this time and only forgot to say the opposing viewpoint.
• The audience laughed during certain parts of my speech and I felt like they were engaged. 
• I liked how I was able to refrain from using my notecard. All the points I was trying to make where outlined on the card, but I was able to remember most of them. I only had to glimpse at the card once, but it surprisingly did not affect the pacing of my presentation. 
• The main thing I would like to continue doing is adapting the language to my audience’s needs. The way I was speaking made sense in the context of the situation and I would like that to continue in later speeches.