SELF EVALUATION EXERCISE

Assignment description:  Three of your speeches will be videotaped.  You will provide your own videotape (VHS) to be used for this assignment.  You will watch the tape and analyze and compare your speeches and your growth.  The purpose is to allow you to experience your speeches as the audience might.  More specifically, produce a two-page comparison of your observations in which you respond to the following questions:
 

• How did I open and close the channel of communication?  Were the introductions and the conclusions effective?  Were those effective strategies for gaining attention? How did I improve from the first speech?  How might I continue to improve?

• How did I organize and support my ideas?  Did I establish credibility to speak on the topics?   How?  Was the organizational pattern clear?  Were the main ideas distinct?  Did my supporting material adequately develop each main idea?  Were my supporting materials appropriate and sufficient?

• In what ways did my use of language enhance my ideas or distract the audience?

• To what extent did the audience experience this speech as a unified idea that was important and interesting?

• How effective were the presentations?  Were my gestures appropriate and effective?  How did I improve or grow as a public speaker?

• What do I need to do to improve my public speaking?  How might I go about that?

• What is the most significant change in my presentations?

Evaluative Criteria:  This assignment will be evaluated as follows:

1. To what extent is the evaluation precise and concrete (uses many specific examples from the actual taped speech)?
2. To what extent is the evaluation thorough (comments on all dimensions of the speech and draw from the full range of text.)
3. To what extend does the evaluation reflect use and understanding of the principles of effective speaking as presented in class and the textbook?
4. To what extent is the evaluation neat and free of presentation errors (typos, spelling, grammar, etc.)