Christopher Manning

This speech was inspired by my Look at them Shoes! musing. A month before giving this speech, I attended the area speech contest. There I saw five of the best speeches I have ever heard one after another.
Those speakers inspired me reflect on all of my speeches and realize how much I can improve. From all of this, I committed to giving my best speech so far, and, in this speech, I accomplished that goal. The weakest part of all of my past speeches
has been my structure. This time, I wrote my speech in a way where the transitions were very apparent. I have gotten to a point where my speaking has much improved, and from now on, I can focus on the finer details and continue the journey towards mastery.

• 05/07/2009
• 0 Ah/um
• 7 minutes and 35 seconds from a recommended 5-7 minutes

I didn’t realize I was wearing the same style shirt as the Toastmaster until I uploaded this video. In the beginning I remarked ‘Thank you coach’ to the Toastmaster. This was a play on the March Madness theme where he was introducing the speakers as the starting lineup. This speech was the kind of improvement I was looking for over my last speech. I wanted to give a speech about a topic very sincere to me with a good bit of emotion. I definitely toe the line if not cross it when it comes to my energy level on stage. I am happy with this, because Toastmasters is not necessarialy about giving perfect speeches, but about practicing in a supportive environment where you can experiment with the exremes of your oratory. My transitions were not as smooth as I wanted since I didn’t have a framework in place to help the audience follow along; I will improve this in my next speech.

• 03/19/2009
• 0 Ah/um
• 6 minutes and 42 seconds from a recommended 5-7 minutes

As you can tell by the look on my face as I leave the stage, this speech was a real let down for me. I learned in this speech the importance of rehearsing and of not expecting responses or any other external input that you have no control over. Overall I had too much to say and not enough time to say it. The speech was unstructured and it felt like a rant without a destination. I will be sure to practice my speech at least twice, develop a solid structure, and aim for the 5 minute mark as opposed to the 7 minute mark in future speeches.

• 01/15/2009
• 0 Ah/um
• 7 minutes and 15 seconds from a recommended 5-7 minutes

My goal with this speech was to experiment with my assumptions about preparation. In my first speech, I over wrote and over prepared. In this speech, I wanted to have, what I considered, a very small amount of notes and prepared dialog. I am still working on the correlation of the amount of content I have prepared and the length of the actual speech. This time, I filled out four note cards, of which, I got through about three and my time was a minute and some over. From this, next time I will compile a light list of key phrases and continue my improvisational fills between those. I will strive to no longer use notes or turn away from the audience even when using visual props. Overall I was very pleased with my performance, the funniest and wittiest parts were not designed that way but evolved from the open nature of my speech’s structure. This was an excellent continuation of my progress and I am excited to give more speeches with what I have learned so far.

• 11/20/2008
• 0 Ah/um
• 8 minutes and 15 seconds from a recommended 5-7 minutes

The goal of this speech is to introduce myself to my fellow club members. I elected to give a summary of why I decided to join, a brief description of my life and what I expect to accomplish. I had a long speech prepared, but next time I will be sure to develop a speech that is composed of high level points where I can improvise the connections between them. My use of notes prevented me from constantly engaging the audience and forced me to pace back and forth. Feedback emphasized positively on my vocal variety, passion, stage presence, body language and eye contact.

• 10/16/2008
• 1 Ah/um
• 6 minutes and 22 seconds from a recommended 4-6 minutes