Experience is Everything

My "Who am I" monologue- 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=zxYVHo8EZzE 

(me playing field hockey- one of my favorite sports- talked about in "Who am I" monologue) 

After watching my “Who am I” Monologue, I recognized some aspects of my monologue that I thought were great and other that I thought could use a little work/ that I can improve on. Some of the strengths of my monologue were that I wasn’t fidgeting or swaying when I talked. Another important aspect of my monologue that I though I did well with was projecting my voice and having a steady pace. For the most part, my voice was loud during the duration of the time I was talking for. Additionally, my speech was only two seconds over a minute long. I feel like when I talked, I had a steady pacing of words throughout my whole speech. Yet, I still had some weaknesses. Even though I didn’t fidget while giving my monologue, I felt like I could have been a little less stiff and a little more relaxed when I was talking. Plus, I was a little hesitant at one point when talking about what I was going to say. I should have worked on memorizing that part of my monologue more. Lastly, I could have looked around at the audience more. For the most part, I was looking at the camera of my ipad. Occasionally, I would look left or right at the members of my audience. 

(A women making eye contact while giving a presentation to a buisness) 

In my next monologue, I will work on making more eye contact with my audience. I will also try and be more relaxed when I talk instead of just standing still like a statue. I feel like I can be more relaxed when I talk if I am confident about what I am saying. Furthermore, the better I memorize my speech, the more confident I will be when I present the next monologue and the more relaxed I will apear when giving my monologue. 

Lastly, from watching my peers give their “Who am I” monologues in class, I learned that you need to project your voice a lot when speaking. When one of my classmates was talking, the window blinds were clashing against each other. On top of this sound, you could also hear the lawnmower cutting grass outside. All together, it was very difficult to hear and understand what the speaker was saying. Words were muffled by the sounds in the environment. Therefore, a very loud and projected voice is needed when publicly speaking, otherwise it can be hard for an audience to hear what you are saying. Also, even if there are no lawnmower sounds or rustling window blinds, if a speaker is not talking loud enough, it is challenging to comprehend what they are saying. 

(person projecting their voice) 

Overall, this “Who am I” monologue assignment opened my eyes to what parts of public speaking I am good at and which parts could use some work. I have to admit, this assignment challenged me. I didn’t think it would be possible for me to memorize this speech and then be able to perform it in front of an audience (my public speaking class). I definitely underestimated how difficult it was to memorize a speech and then perform it. However, I feel like I am getting more comfortable with public speaking and I hope by the end of this course, I will develop skills to help me become better at memorizing speeches.