Reflection

I am very proud of my portraying culture speech because I noticed that I

improved a lot since my personal speech. My personal speech was under time; I
would stumble and fidget a lot. I had received a low grade on that speech. I received
an 89% on this speech. I improved two letter grades; therefore I believe I did very
well. I had talked about Mormon culture but instead of a history lesson, I talked
about Mormon stereotypes. I started with a strong introduction with a quote from
one of John Greens novel that was related to religion. My main points were
developed and clear. I then discussed two Mormon stereotypes: Racism and
Mormonism. Thirdly, I connected the stereotypes to modern day examples in the
media; for example, I used the Book of Mormon: the Musical because it displayed a
lot of stereotypes that people have about Mormons. The musical showed that
Mormons are homophobic and racist. I explained that Mormons are associated with
homophobia because the Mormon Church does not support gay marriage. Religions
that follow the Bible can be associated with homophobia. I also used the movie Yes
Man that showed Mormon missionaries. I did not say everything I rehearsed but I
was able to say most of the things I wanted to say. My transitions have developed; I
now can use effective transitions to allow my audience to know when Im going on
to a new subject. I did need some strengthening of my connectives but they have
improved since last speech. I would always get positive feedback about right hand
gestures but in this speech, I did not use as much. I feel like I have controlled my

body language well during this speech. I did not fidget as much as I have in past
speeches. I was able to make more eye contact due to more practicing of my speech.
It was down at the beginning but I had a significant amount of eye contact. My
PowerPoint really connected with my speech. I had light text on dark background
so it was easy to see, my pictures were credited to the places I got them, and I put in
blank slides when I was going into more detail about different stereotypes, so my
audience would not be distracted. For my personal speech, I only had one slide and
my audience could have been too distracted to pay attention to my speech. At the
beginning, I would be very nervous while giving speeches. Therefore, my time was
under by minutes and my voice was shaky. I would jump around to different ideas
and fill in silences with ums. My portraying culture speech was more prepared and
organized. I filled in my time with important and relevant information. I was less
nervous. My time was not under or over; it was just right. In conclusion, I am really
proud of my portraying culture speech; although, I did not get an A on it, a high B is
still really good for my first major speech.