Self Evaluation Assignment # 3

Recently I did a persuasive speech on voluntary euthanasia. The main reason I choose this topic was to raise awareness with my audience the importance behind supporting the legalization of voluntary euthanasia. I feel that I was able to achieve my purpose for the most part. I felt that my attention getter was effective in capturing my audience attention t listen to what I had to say. I was still a little nervous standing in front of the class, however, I felt that I was my most comfortable when giving this speech as apposed to my other two speeches. If I had to do it all over again, I would probably include some recent cases involving voluntary euthanasia. I feel by having these cases to reference to might have helped me to persuade my audience more to understanding the importance of being able to make the decisions to die instead of suffering or living in a vegetation state. Nobody wants to think of him or herself as dieing, but unfortunately it is a fact and it can happen to anybody at any time.

My persuasive speech differed from my last speech, which was an informative speech in a crucial way I now can see. During my informative speech, I had more facts and information to share with my audience, and I had utilized my entire time allotted for the speech. During my persuasive speech, even though I had done extensive research, I had a hard time organizing all my ideas and information, therefore, not providing much fact or information to help support my position on voluntary euthanasia. In addition, because I felt more comfortable during my persuasive speech, I was able to maintain eye contact with the audience a lot more and better than what I had done during my informative speech. I would have to rate my eye contact with a nine. I do not feel that I had done anything distracting during my persuasive speech and I could be wrong but from what I reviewed, nothing stands out to me.

Based on my performance in regards to body language and eye contact, I would give myself a B. I was not fidgeting or playing with my hands behind my back and even better, I was not cracking my knuckles, which is a bad nervous habit I have. I thought my eye contact was great and my hand gestures were good. In regards to the presentation of my speech I would have to give myself a C only because my visual aid was not great, in fact, it was an after thought when I remembered that I had to have at least one visual aid for my speech. Another flaw in my presentation was the lack of facts I could have shared with the audience to better persuade them to understand my position and in addition to the lack of facts, I forgot one of my main points while I was speaking. I cannot expect my audience to remember important details of my speech when I cannot remember them myself. It is because of this reason I feel I did better with my informative speech than with my persuasive speech. I had a lot of information I was able to share with my audience and I did not forget any of my main points or important information in regards to my informative topic.

Even though I had only verbally cited two sources, I did inform my audience that the research material I used could be found in the database CQ Researcher which has all the full articles I referenced to in order to try to put some facts and information together for my speech. Should any of the people in the audience get curious and want to learn more about what voluntary euthanasia is they will be able to find all the information they need in the CQ Researcher database.

It has been a long semester and a learning process as well. Preparing and giving a speech is never easy, at least not for me. This semester I gave three speeches and I would have to say I performed my best during my second speech. I base my decision on the grade I received for my second speech. Even though I might have gotten my best grade doing my informative speech, I do have to comment that I did have good qualities in all speeches that I did not consistently show in every speech.