Speech Evaluation
One way or another, we all have to speak in front of a crowd. Sometimes, the avenue for such an occasion will consist of dignitaries as guests or simply our peers. Making a speech in front of a huge crowd can be an intimidating experience, but if one will prepare hard for the event, anyone can be a great public speaker. Of course, this also means one has to understand the rules in public speaking in order to engage the audience and keep them interested.
On March 23, 2013, Rose dela Cueva graduated as the high school valedictorian of class 2013 of the Academia de San Ignacio de Loyola School during the last commencement exercises. The graduation ceremony was held in the school's gymnasium attended by almost 400 fellow graduates, school officials, families, and friends. The hall was well decorated for the event, complete with streamers welcoming the parents and guests. Plants in pots lined up the sides of the hall to add a feeling of festivity to the occasion. The stage was decorated with the school flag standing alongside the American flag on the left side of the stage. In front of it was the podium where speakers delivered their speeches. At the center of the stage was the single row of chairs allotted for key school officials and other guest speakers.
Being the top student of her batch and class representative, dela Cueva presented a motivational speech before the graduating class as she encouraged each one to study harder as they prepare for the next phase of their lives, that is, their college education. She began by telling a story as she outlined her experiences during Freshman year, including her fears of whether she would get along with her new classmates. She detailed her triumphs and misses during the whole high school years and emphasized that each success pushed her harder to attain her goals, while the defeats encouraged her to pause and plan her moves.
Dela Cueva delivered her piece by reading her well-prepared speech. This form of delivery sometimes fails when the speaker fails to get the attention of the audience, considering that some speakers simply focus on reading the prepared document. However, in this case, the speaker maintained eye contact with her audience, paused at the right moments to give emphasis on what she just delivered, and used humor to capture her audience's attention. She had a soft, melodic voice that was pleasing to the ears. Despite having a soft-speaking voice, she varied her intonations a lot and spoke in a voice with conviction where she needed to emphasize her points. She paused at the appropriate moments as she gave her audience enough time to absorb her ideas, which were funny, evocative, and motivating at the same time. Listening to her as she delivered her notes, she sounded relaxed and at ease, thus, her delivery was easy to listen to.
All throughout the speech, she had to use the microphone so everyone in the venue could hear her. Technically, she sounded good considering that at first, she did not seem at-ease with the microphone set up. There were some background noises in the beginning, but soon enough, the noises were drowned out by her manner of delivery. Thus, the audience soon forgot about the minor technical glitches. In addition, the microphone was set up to high volume, which was obvious since the first time she used the microphone, the sound that came out was so loud despite her soft speaking voice.
What further added to the effectiveness of her speech was her flowery vocabulary. Considering that her target audience was her fellow graduates, she used words common to her generation, thus, everyone in the crowd was able to relate to what she was saying. She also used a lot of verbs to prompt the graduating class to action, including many adjectives to paint an even better and more visual picture of her stories. She made use of short sentences or phrases to send her point across as well as for dramatic effect. She also used rhymes at the beginning of her speech, which, I think, was a good way to capture the attention of the audience as she sounded like she was rapping with a soft voice. She also took advantage by using humor, which made the graduating class laugh and clap their hands from time to time as they recalled funny moments that occurred in high school. She made use of self-deprecating humor, too, which left the speakers in stitches.
As a whole, the speaker was effective in delivering a funny and thought-provoking speech. She was able to maximize the use of eye contact and facial expressions, but would have been more effective had she used some slight body gestures to vary her movements. Overall, the speaker did a great job in her speech delivery as she was able to cover the basics of delivering effective speeches.
