After a speech intensive semester (I'm in a business public speaking class as well), I have learned so much when it comes to speaking in front of an audience. I'm still working on controlling my nerves, but I think that will come with being fully prepared and confident. For this speech in particular, I did not feel as prepared as my previous speeches because I felt that there were so many facts to keep track of and I kind of freaked myself out, but I think that having a visual aid definitely made it more interesting for the audience to follow my topic. I like to pick topics that are relevant and relatable, and the California Drought is something that I think a lot of us don't know too much about. We might acknowledge that it's a serious problem, but maybe not the details of what is contributing to our water shortage.
Researching this topic was interesting because I was surprised to find that a lot of the food I eat used so much water. I tried to incorporate charts and pictures to illustrate this fact, and I think my powerpoint overall was fairly engaging and straight-forward. For my speech, I think I did a decent job of organizing my message, but at times I struggled to articulate certain points and I had a tendency to look down at my notecards or at the screen. Compared to the beginning of the semester, I think my tone and pace have improved, but I'm still working on being more relaxed with my gestures.
Overall, I thought all of the speeches went really well and it's pretty awesome to see how much everyone has grown since the beginning of the semester. I definitely feel so much better going into speeches (I used to be beyond terrified) and I have a more positive mindset when it comes to speaking in front of people.
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