Hennessy 1

Ryan Hennessy
Dr. Erin Dietel-McLaughlin
WR 13300
10 December 2014
TED Talk Reflection
When Dr. E first told us that we had to give a TED talk, I honestly thought she was
joking. When I found out she was serious, it felt like I had the weight of the world on my
shoulders, and I was unbelievably nervous. I absolutely despise public speaking, and, before I
started the process of preparing myself for the talk, I had no clue how to even approach the
project. I was all over the place and extremely disgruntled. However, once I wrote and handed in
my research essay, I knew that I could speak on the subject of Wall Street, post 9/11.
Once I calmed myself down, I gathered all of the information I had, and I realized that
this was not going to be that bad. I started the process of getting my TED talk together by
gathering images for the PowerPoint presentation. I then brought all of my information into one
space and organized it according to what I wanted to say during the presentation. After that, I
organized my thoughts based on what I wanted to say for each slide by using the notes section
that the PowerPoint software offers.
All of the information I used for my TED talk was information I gathered during my
research for my research paper, which made the TED talk ten times easier than it should have
been. It really did not take that much time to put together, something I am grateful for, as I am
coming down the home stretch for finals and am very busy. This was also helpful because I had
experience working with the subject material, as I had been working with it for more than a

Hennessy 2
month between the TED talk and the research paper. This made the presentation much easier to
give because of the amount of time I was able to spend learning the material.
Once I fully practiced my material day in and day out, I was completely prepared for my
presentation. I went into class and was very excited to give my TED talk, as I had seen the
students give their talks the class before. Once I stepped up in front of the camera, any nerves
that I had were gone and I just spoke. I spoke about the material I knew about, and it was much
easier than I expected.
This project was my favorite assignment of the year. It was the first time I have ever felt
comfortable speaking in front of people, let alone speak in front of people successfully. I was
extremely happy with my performance, and I also realized that everyone had very interesting
topics. The project may have seemed intimidating at the beginning of the semester when I first
heard about it, but, at the end of the semester, I realized that the project was a great showing of
the hard work I put in this semester. Overall, I am extremely proud of myself and my progress
over this past semester.