Self-evaluation

The purpose of my speech was not only to teach the audience how to make a healthy smoothie, but to be aware of what they eat and why they should choose healthier foods. I think I achieved my purpose because the recipe I used was simple and easy to remember, and I went into detail about the nutritional breakdown of the foods I was using. I made it clear that drinking fat free milk is healthier than drinking whole milk and that frozen fruits are healthier than using icecream. Although I was not one hundred percent confident while presenting my speech, I feel I gave more than enough information to achieve the purpose of my speech. I was the second to last person to present and I think this worked to my advantage. I was able to observe other speeches, chat with a couple classmates during the break, and felt a lot more comfortable with my environment by the time it was my turn to present.

I did not pay attention to the time cards and accidentally went over the time limit by more than 3 minutes. I believe this was due to a combination of a few things. When I rehearsed my speech, I spoke very fast and did not literally practice my demonstration of making the smoothie. I just quickly verbally went through the steps of the recipe. When presenting, my nerves choked my speed and I spoke very slowly. If I had to do it over again, I would practice my speech exactly how I am going to present it to the class, including practicing my demonstration, and speak much faster.

The content of my speech was too detailed for such a simple demonstration. I focused too much on my main point about nutritional facts rather than my actual demonstration. After watching my video, I noticed that I did not keep eye contact with the audience, constantly looked at my notecards, and talked with an unenthusiastic tone. I was looking at my notecards so much in the beginning of my speech to remind me of the details regarding nutritional value that I didn’t even try to keep eye contact with the audience. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would probably rate my eye contact a 4. I was afraid of getting so nervous by looking at the class that I would go blank and forget everything that I needed to say. I will definitely try to know my information 100% so that my delivery will be better. By knowing it instead of memorizing it, perhaps I will be more confident, speak faster, and not need to look down at my notecards before each sentence.

On a brighter note, I did manage to give credit to all four of the sources I used. Based on what I noticed from the video tape, you could tell that my topic was well-researched with valid information, and that I was really trying to tell the audience to make healthier substitutions to what they consume for the sake of their life and body. I had a good introduction and personal experience to get the audience’s attention, I had good examples of nutritious substitutes, I spoke loud and clear, my topic related to the audience, I used good transitions, and overall my speech was organized. However, my delivery and time management could have been much better. On a letter grade scale, I would give myself a B-. Out of all the elements we were graded on (Intro, Organization, Content, Conclusion, Delivery, and Time), I did good on the majority of them. I will take the constructive criticism from the audience and my professor and make my next speech stronger in delivery and time management.