Ranillo, Alleana Sotera B.

ACMCOMM
12124893 Ms. Pia Manalastas

Oral Presentation Critique Essay

After how many terms of not having any public speaking classes, to be honest, I was
quite scared. Although I was good at speaking, I cannot say the same when it comes to public
speaking in front of a large audience. I am not particularly bad at it, rather I just get very nervous
and extremely anxious. This speech presentation really helped me to rekindle my confidence in
speaking and my ability to deliver speeches well. With that, in this paper, I would like to discuss
and reflect on the things that occurred or did not occur in my pitching speech. Overall, I believe
that I did pretty well in my speech, however, there were a few mishaps that I encountered and I
need to work on. These included talking too fast, going over time, and interchanging some
words.

On the days leading up to my presentation, I had a really bad sore throat that disabled
me from properly practicing my vocal delivery for two days. In those two days, I was only able to
mouth my speech in order to preserve my voice and hopefully hasten its healing process. It is
due to this that I believe the volume of my voice was too loud during the presentation as I wasn’t
able to practice my speech that much with my voice. However, despite the cons, it actually
enabled me to focus on my facial expressions, and hand and body gestures. Another thing I
took note of was that during the whole presentation from start to finish, I was talking too fast.
When I was practicing, the duration of my speech always came out to a little over 2 minutes.
Thus why I tried to cut some parts off and talk a little bit faster. However, despite those, when I
practiced my speech still came out to a few seconds shy of 2 minutes. This then leads me to my
second point, which is overtime.

Another area I need to work on is time management. I went a little overtime during my
actual pitch, despite the fact that I was already talking a little too fast. This goes to show how my
speech needed a little polishing like the better organization of my points so that I could have
presented them in a more concise manner. For future presentations, I need to make sure to
allocate my time wisely and stay within the allotted time frame. This will enable me to work and
deliver tasks more efficiently and effectively when there are certain time constraints.

In addition, I need to be more careful with the language I use during my speech.
Interchanging words or using incorrect terminology can be quite distracting for the audience and
can detract from the overall effectiveness of my pitch. An example of this would be during the
start of my presentation, I accidentally used the term manager instead of intern. It happened
thrice throughout the presentation and I was deeply disappointed as I had practiced my speech,
pronunciation, and delivery a lot. Although towards the end of my speech, I was able to calm my
nerves and end it successfully.

In conclusion, I learned that there are several areas I need to work on in order to give a
more effective and polished pitch. By focusing on slowing down my speech, managing my time,
using the right language, and maintaining confidence and enthusiasm, I believe that I can give a
much stronger pitch in the future.