Libertarians- Political Informative

Summary of Out-of-Class Presentation

I did not have a clue what a Libertarian was or what they believed, especially politically. After researching it I found that their purpose and beliefs were not much different than mine. With elections coming up I wanted to inform my family members about what I had learned of Libertarians.  

I gave this speech to fifteen of my family members on Sunday May 24. The audience included two sisters, three brothers and all of their spouses, my husband, mom, dad, and two of my nephews. Everyone was over the age of eighteen and identify themselves as republican. Children were also present, but I only addressed the adults and had only the adults fill out the Likert survey. I took about eight minutes to give the speech and felt as though I fumbled on my words quite a bit, honestly. However, I had to quiet my antagonizing brother that wanted to interrupt to ask questions, so that didn’t help my case much.

Overall, I feel as though the presentation went alright, but could have gone better. I didn’t really rehearse because with it being my family members I was not too worried about it. Big mistake! They were much more critical than expected. I cannot hold it against them, since this works in my favor. Now I know what to work on for the class presentations. My slide presentation was shown on a chrome-book, so I had to turn around to switch the slide. You will see with my survey questions that this did not really work in my favor. I got some good feedback, but two or three people did not understand what some of the survey questions meant so I had to explain them, and even then I wasn’t sure if they understood.

The Likert survey went as follows:

Likert Scale Survey for Amber Reid’s Out-of-Class Presentation

1-Strongly Disagree    2-Disagree    3-Neutral    4-Agree    5-Strongly Agree

1) The speaker defines and states a clear thesis, and identifies propositions to

   support their thesis?

1 2 3 4 5

Nine people gave me a 4, four people gave me a 3, and two people gave me a 5.

2) The speaker integrated (made good use of) the slide presentation without it

    over shadowing the speech?

1 2 3 4 5

Seven people gave me a 4, six people gave me a 3, and two gave me a 5.

3) The speaker articulated, used dynamics in tone rate, speed and pitch, and

   engaged the audience non-verbally through appropriate movement and eye

   contact?

1 2 3 4 5

Ten people gave me a 3, four people gave me a 4, and one person gave me a 2.

4) The speaker kept text at a minimum in their presentation?

1 2 3 4 5

Twelve fours, and three 5’s on this one.

5) The speaker kept self-checking at a minimum?

1 2 3 4 5

Ten people gave me a 3, and five gave me a 2 (I didn’t realize I had such a bad habit of looking back at the screen! Whenever I got stuck I would check the screen, even though it was not much help).

6) The speaker organized propositions logically or chronologically?

1 2 3 4 5

Eight people gave me a 4, four gave me a 3, and three gave me a 5.

7) The speaker transitions summarizing and/or relating information from one point

    to next, orally and visually?

1 2 3 4 5

Seven people gave me a 3, six gave me a 2, and one gave me a 4. It was usually during transitions that I was tempted to look back at the screen and find my place. Plus, I had to flip through all the slides to get back to my spot. Again, my family was much more critical than I thought they would be.

Overall, I thought the process was a good learning experience. I did thank them all for being there and for their support, which I will not do when presenting in class.