Informative Speech Reflection

I was really nervous about this first speech because I honestly did not feel prepared at all.  I spent way more time researching for material than actually forming my speech and practicing the speech. Researching was critical in forming my outline, but having researched too much in the beginning, when I was outlining my speech, I struggled because I was so overwhelmed with information.

After reflecting on it, I think I went about preparing my speech in the wrong order. My original outline provided too much historical background and not enough information on the current state of the over development occurring in Irvine. I don't think I was ever too clear about the purpose of what I had wanted to convey to my audience which is why I also had difficulty in finding information. I had wanted to have enough information in hand before I approached Cynthia about what I wanted to convey on this particular topic, but by then it was a little bit too late. I learned the hard way; but now I know that it is important that I know what I want to express and the direction/angle that I want to take in regards to my topic before I start researching. Of course, I can backtrack, but to prevent rewriting everything again, I have to know my argument!

While there are many things I could still improve on, I'm happy with how my speech went (partly because I thought it was going to go terrible). I thought my visual with the map and text in the background may have been a little bit distracting. I was hoping that the map of the master plan would give my audience a sense of how detailed city planners and developers can be, and thereby giving my audience this contrast between the positive and negative aspects to city planning.  I also realized that I started stuttering and looking to my cheat sheet near the end of my speech because I started feeling flustered as I realized I was running out of time. As a result, I wasn't really able to convey "why this topic is relevant and important." It's interesting however, I caught myself entering into panic mode. Once I realized I was getting super nervous, I calmed myself down and slowed down my speech (there may have been a lot of "ums"), and once that happened I actually heard myself talk. Even though I didn't memorize the speech, I think when I'm speaking in front of a large group, I often times don't really know what I'm saying. When I'm unaware of what I'm saying, it's highly possible that I'm not making much sense to my audience. So for my next speech, not only will I practice more but also be more conscious of what I'm saying.