Self Evaluation: Cultural Artifact

Sitting in my chair, waiting for my turn to go up, my anxiety rose every minute. Finally, my turn has come… Yes! I have finished my speech! No more anxiety, but it’s time to self-evaluate to better prepare myself for the next speech.
I believe I did pretty well to achieve the purpose of my speech. I clearly stated all my main points to the audience and presented all the information I expected to. I thought I was going to be comfortable once I stood in front of my class, but right when words began to flow out of my mouth I felt as if I was trembling in my voice. I felt as if everyone noticed. If I had to do the speech over again I would definitely make some changes. For preparation, I would practice WAY more so I don’t have to rely on my note cards. I thought I was well organized in my speech, but for delivery, I would practice in front of at least 3 people so I can boost my confidence when presenting in front of a larger audience.
I need to set higher goals for my next speech, so one goal I have for improving the content in the next speech is to be more in depth and to use information that I believe, to keep the audience’s attention. One goal I have for improving the delivery in my next speech is to have more eye contact. I did look around a lot (wandering eyes?), but not so much personal eye contact. I also need to make sure I don’t feel that I am trembling in my voice and speak slightly slower. The funny thing is that when I practiced my speech the timing was just a little over 4:30, but when I did my speech my time was 4:03!
After watching the video, I saw multiple things that were in need of improvement. The first thing I noticed about my delivery was I needed to let things come a little more natural, which a couple wrote on the cards. I don’t think I did anything distracting the video, since I didn’t do much hand gesture or awkward postures. I did present myself with energy in the beginning, but it seemed that energy left from the middle to end of the speech. From a scale of 1-10, I would have to rate my eye contact a 7.5. I think I started well in the beginning with eye contact, but after I began to look to my note cards. Mostly every comment of improvement I received was to work on eye contact and make it last longer. While watching the video, I listened for the number of source citations I mentioned. The number added up to seven.
On a scale from A to F, the grade I would give myself based on what I noticed from the video tape would be a B+. People commented about good things such as good attention getter, energy, projection of voice, and that I clearly identified the main points. I also presented a visual aid, but a few said I need more while others mentioned what I had been fine. Overall, I think I did pretty good for the first speech :).