Nuria Loayza Post 1

 From the group and project manager presentations, I learned that an effective speech is about much more than just talking to an audience. There are some things that you can do to prepare a good presentation. I listened to each presentation and was interested in the importance of knowing your audience, preparation, managing your nerves, organizing your thoughts, and using presentation suggestions well. Several things caught my interest. One presentation that stood out to me was the importance of thinking about the audience.

Before I heard the presentations, I thought it was important for a speaker to talk about what they had to talk about. But I also realize now that it is crucial to pay attention to the audience. The speaker should also consider the expectations of the audience, what they expect from the speech, their requirements and their background. This point was interesting to me, since the same topic can be approached differently depending on the audience. In the future, I will consider the audience more and how to make my topic attract their attention.

Understanding my audience will guide my choice of examples and how I present my message. That depends on the demographics and psychographics. This can help to keep the audience’s interest and make the presentation more relevant. Another important lesson I learned was the importance of practice. I learned that practice for a speech can include many steps such as reading through the speech, practicing on your own, recording yourself, and finally, presenting it to an audience. I believe that recording myself will be beneficial because I can look back on it later and see things I might miss while performing. For example, I can notice if I am going too fast, constantly glancing at my notes, or staring people in the eye.

In the past, I have spent more time writing a speech than rehearsing it. I also spend more time practicing my introduction and conclusion, since the quality matters to the entire performance. The more familiar I am with the information, the easier it will be to focus on communicating rather than worrying about what comes next.

Another area that I could relate to extremely well was dealing with speech anxiety. Public speaking may be intimidating and stressful, especially if you don’t know how an audience will respond or if everything will go as planned. Listening to several ways to deal with anxiety. Still, the most effective ones I thought were 4-7-8 breathing, meditation, and visualization. Of these three strategies, I found the visualization the most attractive. I can see myself doing this well instead of thinking of all the things that could go wrong before giving a speech. I believe this change in thinking will help me to focus on what I can control, rather than assuming I will make mistakes.

I also learned how important the structure of a speech is to how it works. For example, a good speech needs an introduction, body, and conclusion, all with a certain function. A speech should keep the audience interested. The body should briefly explain the important arguments and provide evidence to support them. A good conclusion is a strong way to end the whole presentation and leave the listener with a strong last thought. The talk on transitions was also really useful. Without good transitions, a speech will sound like a bunch of ideas instead of a connected presentation. I will work on my transitions for future speeches to make my ideas sound better and to flow better. A solid structure will also help me to stay on track during my presentation. Another idea I found appealing was storytelling.

Numbers and statistics can help, but a story can make a subject more intimate, more memorable, and bring it closer to a person. Stories make a presentation more interesting because they give the audience a relatable experience. A little personal example can make the speech less robotic, more genuine. For example, I saw a movie where the main character gave a speech with a joke and personal story, and the audience was intrigued. For future speeches I can tell stories relevant to my topic, not just state facts and statistics. When I speak personally, it will help me explain myself and relate to the audience.

Also, the presentations changed my view toward visual help. Images, videos, charts, and other resources, such as presentations, can make content easier to understand but should not dominate the presentation. Instead, they should add to the speaker. If the speaker reads pages of material off a slide for most of the presentation, it can get annoying fast. I want to make sure that demonstrations in future speeches are simple and purposeful. I also want to practice with my slides before my presentation, so I’m more comfortable going through them and less distracted by the technology. The difference between talking and just reading was one of the biggest things. A speech is not meant to be read out loud like an article, but spoken to the audience like a conversation. I think I depend on the script too much, and that makes me sound generic and robotic. However, it makes it hard for me to make eye contact with the audience and connect with people. Starting to use speaking outlines with keywords and short phrases that have everything I want to talk about in a speech but shouldn't be on a screen/ presentation. I think that will help me to sound more confident and natural but still have enough information to stay put together.

Finally, the group’s lectures taught me what makes an effective public speaker. The skills I need to learn include knowing my audience, managing nerves, organizing my ideas and moving from one topic to another, telling stories, and giving visual demonstrations when needed. I need to learn more about my topic for future speeches or presentations and practice more on how to deliver my presentation.