Persuasive Speech Reflection

Susan Lim

Persuasive Speech Reflection Blog

November 2, 2014

While preparing for the persuasive speech, I found it much easier to research my topic because I was very interested and somewhat passionate about. In the process of preparing my speech, it was very important to keep in mind the counter arguments that people may have regarding my topic. However, since my speech was regarding the high cost of education and the need to lower tuition and interest rates, I thought that it would be appropriate to mention the flaws in the policies that were created to alleviate the issues with high education costs. While giving my speech, I found that it was important to make eye contact with the audience, as this may allow me to seem more credible to the audience. Also, making eye contact with the audience helps them to be more engaged during my speech.

            My persuasive speech topic regarding the burden of a higher education is important to me because I am actually dealing with student loans and tuition. It is also something that most of my classmates also deal with therefore I thought that speaking about high tuition and interest rates would be relevant and interesting to them. I made sure to research my topic thoroughly and made sure to use credible sources throughout my speech. Although I prepared for and practiced my speech many times, I  felt extremely nervous while giving my speech and noticed that I started to speak faster. During my visual aid speech, I will make sure to calm down and talk at an appropriate pace and sound less mechanical. Another thing that I can improve on is organizing my speech better so that I can remember the transitions and main points more easily. Some challenges I faced while giving my speech was making sure that I did not look at my notecards often. I realized that I subconsciously kept reading off my notecards to cope with my nervousness.

            One speech I really enjoyed that informed me as well as persuaded me was the speech about conservation. I really enjoyed the organization of Riley’s speech as she started out with debunking myths and counterarguments about waste/recycling and then stated her main points afterwards. The statistics about how much America as a nation actually wastes resources and materials was very interesting and eye-opening. It really got me to think twice about wasting any resources- I even started using less paper towel after washing my hands! Riley’s speech was also very relevant to the class, as everyone must be aware and conserve as much as we can. Especially living in California, we must conserve water as California is currently in a very serious drought. Riley successfully persuaded me to conserve and think twice about waste.

            Another speech that I enjoyed was Sunny’s speech about donating to charities and questioning the distribution of the donated funds. Sunny’s speech was very convincing as she used statistics of charities that are well known such as Invisible Children. She also made sure to make eye contact with the audience and gave the speech in a more conversational way, which made it less boring and more engaging. Overall, her speech was very well-given which played a huge role in successfully persuading the audience.