Brainstorming (Journal #4):

For my “lone wolf speech,” I am going to talk about how to be a better version of one’s professional self. Connecting with the audience will probably be my biggest challenge, as I am soft-spoken and I get anxious in most situations. To combat this I will need to work on projecting my voice so that I am speaking evenly and with volume. On top of that, I will have to work on eliciting emotions with my tone, facial expressions, and hand gestures. This includes making eye contact with the audience and maintaining a casual, yet in-control demeanor. Another important aspect of connecting with my audience is my language. I have to remember that I am speaking to (mostly) college students who would rather be anywhere else. Keeping a casual level of diction and possibly including a few jokes may help in this situation. Overall I will have to make sure that what I say makes sense, gets to the point, and is captivating, or else I’ll lose my audience. I selected “how to be a better version of one’s professional self” because of some struggles I’ve experienced in my professional life. I tend to be a very open person, wearing my emotions on my sleeve. However in a work setting, I can’t be crying, yelling, or (overly) laughing, so it can be hard for me to maintain a “professional demeanor.” I think it is important for me and others to learn how to regulate and rephrase so that emotion can be managed within a business environment. That is not to say I want to give a speech on how to be a robot, more so, I want to give a speech on how to communicate frustrations, excitement, and a range of other emotions so that the audience can understand how to express themselves in every step of life. I plan to begin my speech with a short explanation of why it is important to maintain oneself in the workplace. I would like to follow this with examples (capturing the audience with some humor here) of right and wrong ways to conduct oneself. One example I hope to use would be phrased along the lines of “There was a time in my life when I had to deal with one coworker I particularly disliked. I was in charge at the time, and he openly did something against company policy, something I had asked him seconds before not to do. Honestly, I wanted to report him and give him a piece of my mind. As satisfying as it would have been to let him know how I really felt, I had to keep my composure. At that moment in time, he was the one at fault, but if I were to begin yelling and screaming, then my job would be at risk as well.” I would then follow the story with examples of ways to communicate in that situation and why it is so important to not lose your temper. The rest of the speech would cover other emotions with the same template (story, why you shouldn’t, what to do instead). 

Reflection After Dry-Dry Run (Journal #7):

Journal: After The Dry-Dry Run, I am feeling a little bit more confident about my speech. My peers seemed to like my writing and they seemed to understand the point my speech was trying to make. I was told that I need to remove some unnecessary details from the story in my speech, which I think will be beneficial in getting my main points across better.

My Best Advice: The best advice I offered to another peer was to re-organize their speech. Although the evidence and lessons were thoughtful, they had them organized in a list format. By combining some of the examples and moving the lessons to the end of the examples, the point will come through clearer, and the speech with sound more organized.

Why it Was My Best Advice: I consider this my best advice because it doesn’t ask them to change any of the content; it just helps suggest a way to explain it more straightforwardly. This clarity will help with the vocalization aspect of this assignment by moving the content into a reader and listener-friendly format. This advice is also two-layered, as it begins with a compliment ( thoughtful evidence) and then follows with a suggestion (a way to clarify); therefore, they understand the triumphs and challenges of the piece from a listener’s perspective.

The Best Advice a Peer Gave Me: The best advice a peer gave me was to shorten my evidence/story. Although others told me not to shorten the story, I can see where my details become monotonous and unnecessary. By keeping the overall story but cutting down my language, I can make my point without losing my audience’s attention.

Why it Was Their Best Advice: I consider this the best advice because it reminded me that I am writing for/speaking to people with a short attention span. It doesn’t matter if my speech is the most exciting thing in the world; if my details begin to take away from my point, then I have lost my audience. This suggestion allowed me to trim my speech into a more straightforward presentation.

Reflection After Dry Run (Journal #8):

After the dry run, I feel so much better about my speech. Initially, I thought that seeing a recording of myself would make me more nervous for the final presentation. However, after looking at the video, I feel slightly more confident about how I will look while presenting. I purposefully stance myself so that I was not trying to make myself look smaller, and I moved my hands and body in a way that made me look more dynamic than I had expected. That said, I either moved my hands a lot or clasped them in front of myself. I need to ensure that when I give my speech, I don’t stop moving my hands halfway through my speech but also that I am not flailing my hands all around. I’m not sure how to fix this yet; however, I plan on practicing in front of a mirror, so maybe that will help me understand how to move with my speech.

Another thing I noticed was that my speech was just under the time limit. Cutting down on some of my speech may help make the whole ordeal less stressful while also helping me stick to the project guidelines. A second way to shorten my speech is to ensure I am not using filler words such as “um” and “like.” During the middle portion of my speech, I noticed that the transition between points on my outline led to me using some of these fillers. I think that by clarifying my outline and practicing the speech more, I will be able to remove “like” and “um” from my vocabulary while I am presenting. 

Reflection on The Overall Project (Journal #10):

Now that I have finished this project, quite honestly, I just feel relieved. Although I enjoyed drafting, reviewing, and practicing my speech, I dreaded the final presentation. When the project was first presented to the class I felt a pit form in the middle of my stomach, I had no idea what to write about, how to write it, or how I was going to present it. I went home and just began to type “word vomit” into a Google Doc. By writing my direct line of thought, I hoped to make my language more conversational. Once I was done I read my piece out loud multiple times, until I liked how it sounded. When it came time for peer review, I was excited. I have always enjoyed peer review because it gives me an opportunity to see my writing through the eyes of readers/listeners. During both dry runs, I received mostly positive feedback, which I found disappointing. I knew that I could cut out a lot of my speech, improve my body language, and expand on my points more, but I had been hoping to receive more constructive feedback from my peers. However, I took my positive comments and used them to decide what parts of my speech worked, and what parts could be more like the areas that worked. When it came time to record ourselves, I saw myself as more confident in front of strangers, and I was proud of myself for that. Overall, even though this project was intimidating and hard, I’m proud of the speech I wrote and I’m proud of myself for presenting it (even if my presentation wasn’t perfect). Going forward, I hope to use some of the power-posing techniques the class practiced coupled with the knowledge that I am capable of doing this type of thing (and maybe someday I’ll even be good at it!).