Elijah O'Bryant
Professor Christovich
Comm 100-016
10/19/2015
Cultural Artifact Speech Self-Evaluation Form
Instructions: Download a copy of this form from Blackboard. Watch the video recording of
your speech. Afterward, type your answers to the following questions. Save your work as a .doc
or .pdf file and upload it on Blackboard. For each question, your response should include at least
a full paragraph (4-6 sentences) and the time stamp of a specific portion of the speech video to
which you are referring.
1. After re-watching your speech, do you think you clearly communicated the way that your
artifact is used and what is represents in your culture? Why or why not? How could you
have done this even more effectively?
I do feel like I communicated how my artifact was used because they were a pair of shoes.
However, I do not feel like I communicated what it represents in the culture. This is mainly
because it is hard to talk about something abstract such as freedom because it is a subjective
topic. I could have possibly linked the running spikes to something else to make it easier.
(2:30)
2. Were you able to represent your culture and yourself in the way that you had hoped to do
with this speech? What did you do effectively, and what was not effective in representing
your culture and yourself?
Yes I felt I was able to represent my culture and myself the way I wanted to. I feel like most
runners have the same type of ‘freeing’ experience that I recalled in my story when they first
put on a pair of running spikes. The story was what I did effectively. However, what I didn’t
do effectively was make the connection between spikes and freedom clearer. (1:30)
3. How effective was the organization of this speech? Are there ways that you could have more
effectively communicated the organization of ideas to the audience? Why or why not?
I felt that the organization of the speech was very effective. I do not believe that I could have
effectively communicated the organization; I had fairly good transitions and signposts. For
the type of speech it was and the nature of the topic I feel that the way I organized the speech
worked well for it. (:45)
4. What are two things that you did well and two things that you could have done better in the
delivery of this speech?
One thing that I did well in the delivery of the speech was that I spoke clearly. Another thing
that was done well was that I did not speak too quickly; I made sure I was understandable.
One thing that I did not do well is that I did not maintain strong eye contact with the
audience. Also another that I did not do well is that I referred to my half sheet too much.
(:46)
5. What have you learned from the process of developing and giving this speech? How can you
build on this experience and improve before your next speech?
One thing that I learned from preparing this speech is that you can’t force things. I was so
focused on making this amazing speech connecting running spikes with something complex
as freedom that I made it hard to write and hard to deliver. However, I did learn for future
speeches that if it gets too difficult to write then it is probably too difficult to say in a speech.
And at that point it is time to rethink the speech. (4:14)