My growth as a speaker during this semester has been unimaginable.

At the beginn ing of the semester I was simply afraid to give a speech in front of classmates that I have known for years, but as the class progressed my butterflies disappea red. I can now confidently say that I have no butterflies when it comes to givin g a speech of any kind in front of any audience. This class has taught me to foc us on four key areas of my speech: content and organization, verbal quality, bod y language, and my poise. As the year progressed the content and organization properties of my spe eches became more focused on the topic at hand and less on the idea of appeasing the audience at hand. The organization of my speeches at the beginning of the year was the most generic form as if I was following a formula. As the year went on I found that there were new ways to deliver a speech such as my Root Beer Fl oat speech; where I gave the audience a chance to feel the same sensation I did as I told how I experienced my first Root Beer Float. At the very end of the yea r my organization and content priorities were right where I needed them for my l ast speech: The Olympics Future. As I watched my speech I got a good vibe from the organization of my speech that my point was put out there for everyone to unders tand and think about. My verbal quality during the first speech was horrible; I had no control over what I was saying and continued to add filler words in the speech. As the year progressed, I was able to become more comfortable with my speech pattern an d from this I learned that I could speak without all the filler words. The class s p rogression of longer and longer speeches taught me how to fill in parts of my pr esentation with my own general knowledge of the topic when I lost my place. I sa w that my voice level at the beginning of the year was very timid, but as I watc hed the videos I became more comfortable with hearing my own voice. My body language at the beginning of the semester was all over the place . Not only did I have no control of my hands, I was not able to stand in one pla ce for a long time. My first speech showed I had decent eye contact as I looked around the room, but my problem was keeping the rest of my body still as I did t his. My use of moving my body only come in handy when I gave the Root Beer Float speech as I was able to show what was going on in my past, and also I found it much easier to talk and doing something with my hands, like make the drink. My body language itself was quite timid at the beginning of the year as I did not u se the fact I was a big guy to my advantage, but as the year progressed I used m y body to show how important each part of my speeches were. I found this helpfu l when I was trying to get a point across as many people look to me for leadersh ip. Overall my body language evolved over the semester. My poise, or how I carried myself, evolved over the semester. I held mys elf completely scared and not level headed at the beginning of the year as I gav e my speeches. The audience could tell from my first speech that I was a complet e nervous wreck on the first couple of speeches. As we progressed into the year, I was able to become more energized and level headed upon the presentations we were assigned to give. My poise itself was just nervous at the beginning of the year, but as the year came to a close my poise was very level headed and calm. Over the course of the class I became much more accustom to my body and all that I could do as a speaker. With the techniques I learned from Mrs. Boyd i n this class I believe I will be never have a trouble of giving a speech as long as I focus on the four main areas of speech: Content and Organization, Verbal Q uality, Body Language, and my Poise.