Soare 1

Alexa Soare

Coach: Scott Black

R110

02/21/2019

How to Speech – reflection paper

The “How to speech” is vital for me since it is practice in order to master the ability of

being precise and explicit in my communication. The whole reason for this speech is to educate

my peers about a specific idea, in my case – tying a tie, to make sure that they can recall that

teaching and apply later. What I liked about this speech is that I had to take into consideration

several aspects when it came to select my topic, such as my audience and what interests, age

group and setting. Considering firstly the context of the speech, I have decided to approach the

“tying a tie” subject because most of my peers are young professionals that have just a couple of

semesters under their belt and that will probably want to branch out and start looking for a job

soon. By wanting them to succeed, especially since I factored in the demographics and having a

class made 90% of male students in their first year of college, I have adapted the speech in order

to keep it simple. The use of props was necessary since I considered that going through the

motions will create at least a hint of muscle memory for the future. And I must also admit, it was

fun spending a full day at Goodwill trying to find all the ties necessary for this speech.

When it comes to improvement, I need to find a way to memorize my speech because I

had relied on the power point presentation more that I would have liked it. I also need to find a

way to time it in order to be able to be more visible in front of my peers when I am delivering

that speech. I need to make sure I keep my voice clear and give up on my “uhmmm” verbal tic

that I have noticed upon watching my speech on Kaltura. I have already employed strategies for
 Soare 2

the areas of improvement that I have identified in my first reflection paper. So, I have made a

better outline, I added a power point presentation that I used as a crutch and stuck to the plan and

structure that I have established. I have also started rehearsing in front of a mirror since my face

cannot hide an emotion to save my life and, in this way, I can observe myself when I speak and

make sure that my face and body are enforcing the message that my voice is trying to pass along.

As future strategies that I intend of using are to also record myself while I rehears both

visual and audio. I believe that the video recording will allow self-coaching on posture and

movement, while the audio will help me memorize and stay on track with my speech. I also need

to make sure I work on my diction in order to shed all traces of accent and be as explicit as I can

be. Currently I am working on catching myself and removing the word “like” from my

vocabulary. I found that it bothers me so much hearing in other people and then I caught myself

doing the same thing, so that is one of the things that I am currently working on when it comes to

my communication. I am also actively working into incorporating more fun in my speeches since

that is a rising trend in our class. I understand that is impossible to have perfect communication

with everyone since our concepts are defined and filtered through different perspectives, but I am

happy to be able to share and experience the honor of having them listen to me and actively

participate in my speeches.