Dizney Court

Comm 1020-03
Shirene Mckay
Video Self-Evaluation

Appearance
I honestly thought that my dress was very professional, but after looking back at the
video it looks a lot more plain in front of the class. My blazer is a stretchy fabric so its not as
professional looking as I would like. The dress also was a soft cotton so it hung very casually.
Next time I will wear dress pants and a real blazer. I also am not a fan of my shoes, they were
wedges and made me taller than I needed to be. Next time I will wear character shoes which
have a small heel, or plain black shoes. The tights did look nice though, I think it would have
been less professional if I didn't wear them. My hair seemed fine, even though I had it down it
didn't seem to get in front of my face and didn't distract me at all. Also over all, I look down at my
notes a lot which gives me a double chin, and Id like to avoid that.

Organizational Pattern
Normally i'm not organized in my writing whatsoever. In writing this speech I did really
well in introducing the topic clearly, keeping each point very organized and in a good order, and
in concluding smoothly as well. The outline focusing on intro, body, conclusion, and transitions
really helped me stay organized and deliver my speech in an order that made sense.

Vocal Qualities
As much as anyone hates listening to their own voice, but this speech wasn't so terrible.
I think I do a great job of keeping my voice active and interesting. It may be from all of my
highschool years in theatre, but I have no problem using pauses effectively, keeping my voice
from being monotone, using pitch variation to emphasis points, and keep the audience
engaged. When I know what i'm saying, I have to problem pausing, and speaking clearly using
annunciation. Sometimes when I go off script I tend to drag on sentences and i'll almost run out
of breath and mumble a bit more. That's also when I loose traction and can't use those pauses
as effectively. Overall I don't think I have major problems with volume or pitch, again because of
my training in theatre i'm sure that helped.

Delivery
Now here is where I can fall, and fall hard. Even though I had a great outline, I didn't
practice well enough so I improvised some of my material. I should have stuck to my script
because when I do I sound like I know what i'm talking about, and because I wrote it in advance
I know it means. So unfortunately because I didn't practice well enough. When I did deliver the
information as previously intended I did well. When my points came across clear, I could take
my time with pacing and clearly voicing the information. When I improvised how was I going to
say something it came across more messy and unclear. So again it is unfortunate that even
though I had a great outline, all it took was for me to second guess the way I had something
written and it just wasn't presented as well as the rest of the speech.
Visual Aid
Out of all the categories, I think this is the other I didn't do so well in. I thought a long
time about what my visual aid would look like, and this is what I ended up with. It was very plain,
and easy to read, and not too busy, so those were the pros of the visual aid. I also added a
border to make it more professional. Most of my statistics were really simple, so I didn't know
exactly when to bring the visual aid in. I decided to make a bold statement buy using it right at
the beginning. I now realize that I left it up for the whole presentation, and that could be very
distracting for the audience.

Audience Connection
I personally don't see any problems with the way I connect with the audience. I do a
good job in keeping my eyes up at the audience, and not locking eye contact with one person
too long. I didn't linger on my cards too long when I did look down at them, and that allowed me
plenty of time to engage with my audience with my eye contact.

Strengths
Because of my background in theatre, I still get the jitters right before a presentation, but
once I get up there and begin I feel much more comfortable and confident. One thing I almost
never do is pace, which is good because I'm not distracting. Again this is something I learned in
monologuing, and that's to have purpose in your movement. Because of this I stand very strong.
I also have very good projection. I'm never shy to raise my voice and it gives me focus to work
on pitch and eye contact. Besides this presentation, i'm normally a very sharp dresser. This is
because I am very self aware, and have spent the last year really trying to dress for the job/life I
want and not the one I have. I like to reflect how I feel, and most of the time I feel very girly,
strong, professional, and I like to dress like that.

Areas to Improve
There are lots of little things I need to work on like not crossing my legs while standing,
not improvising my quotes, not keeping track of time, and being more prepared with my outfit.
The biggest thing I need to improve from this speech is to be more well prepared. When i'm not
well rehearsed I do not perform very well. Because of this I need to make sure i'm finished with
everything sooner so it gives me more time to practice before the delivery.