Self-Evaluation for Cultural Artifact Speech

The cultural artifact speech I did was about the Bandurria, a Philippine musical instrument. Overall I think I achieved the purpose of my speech pretty well. I was able to communicate to my audience what thy Bandurria was and the importance of the instrument in my culture. During the speech I would have to say that I was a bit nervous. Going into a room where not everyone was familiar to me made me feel a bit apprehensive towards presenting in front of my audience. However, I did pull through it with as much confidence as I had. I could have been a little more confident toward my subject matter though. While watching my video on my presentation I noticed that I looked a lot at my note cards and even paused to try to regain my thoughts. For the next speech I deliver I want to improve my confidence by not relying on my note cards that much and to make sure all my ideas flow. To improve the content of my next speech I wish to cite my sources in which I got my information in order to gain credibility, and validity.

After watching my video there was many things I noticed about my delivery. The most notable was looking down too much. Even though I knew all the information on my note cards and in the outline I looked down excessively. Sometimes I even paused to regain my thoughts and think about what the next thing I had to say was. I also noticed that I could have added a little more dynamics to my presentation or the way in which I presented the material. I don’t think that I did anything distracting in my video tape however more importantly I didn’t do things that would make my presentation more interesting to the audience. For example more eye contact. I would rate my eye contact for this presentation as a 6 on a scale of 1-10. Even though I managed to look at my audience I still looked down a lot to make sure the information I was telling my audience was correct. After watching my video of my speech I also noticed how many source citations I mentioned during the course of my speech. During my speech I managed to do an oral citation once. I did have other sources to cite on my note cards but what held me back from mentioning them in my speech was trying to keep under the time limit.

Overall I think I did a good job on the cultural artifact speech. As an introductory speech for a public speaking class I felt as if my speech was a good starting point to continue to grow as a public speaker. On a scale from A to F I would give myself a B based on what I noticed from the video tape. Overall I did a good job following an organizational pattern and overall informing my audience about my cultural artifact however I was lacking in several areas such as dynamics, eye contact, and citations. I also was lacking in confidence especially in the introduction and conclusion of my speech where I should have been prepared more for that aspect of my presentation. If I had to do this speech process over again I would make several changes. In my preparation namely I would go over my speech several times out loud to make sure I was comfortable saying it out loud. In my delivery of my speech I would particularly focus on maintaining eye contact with my audience and having more dynamics to my presentation.