Speech

Journal 4

How to become a better version of your academic self. I will connect to the audience by adding personal touches to my speech. Sharing personal experience lends you credibility and can show that you’re not so different from the speaker, either. Making eye contact is also a good way to connect with an audience. It’s important to not make eye contact with one person the whole time because that’s very offputting. Slowly going from one side of the room to the other is a good way to make sure you make that subtle connection with the entire audience. Trying to appear relaxed and confident can ease the tension or awkwardness in the room while you’re presenting (easier said than done). I chose to talk about how to become a better version of your academic self because I’ve had a complicated relationship with academia my whole school career. I was a high-nineties kid all the way until the end of eighth grade, which was when I failed my first test. In no way am I saying I had the most difficult time in school, I was lucky to be as independent as I was in school. I feel like I can relate a lot of my experiences in school and I still have a lot of room to become a better version of my academic self. I want to start with my experiences more specifically in high school and currently in college. About how I went from a student who got those academic achievements awards to a student who without remote learning and the internet, probably wouldn’t be in college right now. Covid had a big impact on everyone’s academic success I’d say, the whole learning process was disrupted. People say how much they loved online school better, but after more than a decade of in-person learning, it’d be surprising to see someone (honestly) drastically improve in their academics.

Dry-dry run (9/22)

During my first year in college, I was not the academic weapon I wanted to be. I skipped classes, did work late, and barely studied aside from finals. I got behind in class which stressed me out, and when I’m stressed I’m not very productive. Somehow at the end of the year, I managed to pass all my finals and classes. For how much I pay for this school and how many years I’m going to be in student loan debt, I knew I needed to shape up and not only get my money’s worth but also help future me be successful in life. I created a document on my laptop with all my course names and I started to write all the assignments I had and their due dates. This can help determine how assignments are prioritized and give you a general idea of your workload. You could fill it out with all the assignments for the semester, but I found it better for me to quickly jot down at the end of class whatever is due next class or a project that’ll take longer to complete. Getting enough sleep is a crucial part of academic success. If you go to bed at 3AM and have to wake up in 5 hours, your bed is going to feel comfy when your alarm goes off. Many times I’ve woken up to my first alarm and turned off all of them so I could go back to bed. It’s very easy to get into the habit of sleeping in and skipping your morning classes. If you go to bed at 10, you can get a solid 9 hours of sleep and wake up in time for breakfast and your 8AM. I try waking up an hour or an hour and a half before my first class so I can shower, eat, and have coffee. Not rushing in the morning makes me feel better the whole day.

Best given and received advice

The best advice I offered my peers was telling someone to connect the conclusion of their speech back to their introduction. They were talking about their personal experience in the introduction but didn’t continue with it in the speech. I suggested that going back to the topic of how they’ve personally become a better person would make the speech flow better. I felt it was helpful to suggest this to strengthen their speech and giving it a more personal touch tends to them credibility and empathy. I believe they did follow my advice, so I feel as though it was helpful. The best advice I received from my peers was to not switch between different perspectives during my speech. They pointed out that I went back and forth between first and third-person perspectives. They said that making it all first perspective would help with the theme of my speech and consistency. I totally agreed,  once I changed it all to first person the speech felt much better. This helped me round out my speech and make it more polished/finished.

Dry run

During my first year of college, I was not the academic weapon I wanted to be. I skipped classes, did work late, and barely studied. I got behind in class which stressed me out, and when I’m stressed out, I’m not very productive. For how much I pay for this school, and how many years I’m going to be in student loan debt, I knew I needed to not only get my money’s worth but also help future me be successful in life. One of the ways I became better organized was by creating a document on my laptop with all my course names and writing all the assignments I had and their due dates. You could fill it out with all the assignments for the entire semester, but I found it worked better for me to keep it to the assignments due in the next one or two classes. This can help determine how assignments should be prioritized and give you a general idea of your workload. Getting enough sleep is also a crucial part of academic success. Countless times I used to wake up to my first alarm, then turn off all of them so that I could go back to bed. This caused me to fall behind in a lot of classes and not do well on my exams. It’s very easy to get into the cycle of sleeping in and skipping your classes, so creating a routine is key. Having a rough idea of what time you should be falling asleep on a school night will help you plan out what work you can get done before then and during your time outside class. Something else that helped me was allotting time for breakfast, as it’s beneficial for your energy levels and concentration for the day. Another strategy I used to help my academics was to do my work in parts throughout the week. Nothing is worse than a Sunday night with a long list of assignments due at midnight. What’s been working for me is generally focusing on my Monday/Thursday classes’ work on Tuesdays/Fridays, and vice versa. Taking it little by little can be overwhelming to some, but sometimes it’s all you can manage. Keeping your mental health in mind and taking care of yourself can only help you succeed. I still have some ways to go in working on my academic self, but taking a step back and evaluating how I can be efficient and effective with my time has helped me greatly. Making good habits and sticking to them can take a lot of time and effort, but looking back, you will be so thankful that you did.

Journal 7

I thought the way my speech is composed is working for me, as it’s a little silly but at the same time it’s on topic and reflects my humanity. I don’t think the speech should sound like research, but rather from a personal perspective turned into general advice. I didn’t finish the last bit of my speech, so it’s still open-ended. It seemed like everyone else in my group was nervous to share their rough-rough draft, which made me feel better about being shy to share mine. I feel like a lot of my sentences are run-on and wordy. I had trouble trimming them down and making my thoughts more comprehensive. Reading it out loud helped me see which parts sounded better written down, but odd in speech. I’ll continue speaking the sentence out loud to hear if it needs to be rewritten to flow better.

Final

During my first year of college, I was not the academic weapon I wanted to be. I skipped classes, did work late, and I barely studied. I got behind in class which stressed me out, and when I’m stressed out, I’m not very productive. For how much I pay for this school, and how many years I’m going to be in student loan debt, I knew I needed to not only get my money’s worth but also help me be successful in the future. One of the ways I became better organized was by creating a document on my laptop organized by course name where I can write all my assignments and their due dates.  I found it worked best for me to keep only the assignments due in the next one or two classes. This helped me determine how assignments should be prioritized and gave me a general idea of my workload. I also found getting enough sleep is also a crucial part of academic success. Countless times I woke up to my first alarm and then turned the rest of them off so that I could go back to bed. This caused me to fall behind in a lot of classes and not do well on my exams. It’s very easy to get into the cycle of sleeping in and skipping your classes, so creating a routine is key. Having a rough idea of what time I should be falling asleep on a school or work night helped me plan out my days more effectively. Something else that helped me was allotting time for breakfast, as it’s beneficial for your energy levels and concentration throughout the day. Another strategy I used to help my academics was to do my work in parts throughout the week. Nothing is worse than a Sunday night with a long list of assignments due at midnight. Taking it little by little can be overwhelming to some, but sometimes it’s all you can manage. Keeping your mental health in mind while taking care of yourself can only help you succeed. I still have some ways to go in working on my academic self, but taking a step back and evaluating how I can be efficient and effective with my time has helped me greatly. Making good habits and sticking to them can take a lot of time and effort, but looking back, I’ll be so thankful that you did.

Journal 8

I thought the content of my speech worked for me, being that my experiences can/are relatable to other college students (my audience).  I thought I paced myself well and went through the speech with only a few hiccups. Someone commented on how they thought my speech was fluid, which was encouraging to hear. It made me a little less nervous and self-conscious about speaking in front of the class. Another person said that I could work on my projection, which I agree with. To me, I thought I was projecting well, so I’m glad someone said something. It’s hard to gauge how loud you need to be to reach the back of the room, but not too loud that it’s grating. I think more practice will give me more confidence to deliver my speech and keep in mind the pace and how loud I’m speaking.

Journal 10

For someone who shivers at hearing the word “speech,” I thought this project went well for me. I liked how we transitioned to standing in front of the class and speaking. Speaking out loud in small groups at first felt like a small safe place which made it easier to share my very first draft of a piece of writing. I thought having people share what they thought someone could change or did well on in their speech was productive. I feel getting peer-reviewed by the whole class can be daunting, but you have so many more people hearing your speech to give advice. One person could’ve suggested something nobody else thought of. I thought it was nice to see how people’s speeches changed and improved from previous drafts, and how each person took the advice they were given. I felt like everyone was respectful and constructive with their advice, I didn’t think anyone was being overly critical or rude. Peer review is a valuable way to improve the effectiveness of a speech (or whatever it may be).