Persuasive Speech - Child Soldiers

                I feel like the delivery of my persuasive speech about child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was not very well done. When I began the speech, I seemed like I hadn’t quite gathered my thoughts, so the attention getter was not as effective as it could have been. Without a strong attention getter, the audience was not pulled into the speech and it was hard to get them to listen, let alone persuade them. There was also some shifting and filler words such as “um”, “like”, etc. I think that, with the absence of these words and clearer, more put together notes, I would have definitely brought my point across stronger and more successfully. Unfortunately, because I had to stand closer to the computer to go through the power point, I was only partially in the video, so it was hard to tell whether any shifting continued. I generally didn’t sound very confident or, I guess, persuasive enough. I think that more practice and better notes would have made a big difference in the presentation of the speech. Although it went okay, one or two more times running through it would probably have made it smoother, clearer, and I would have been more confident with the content of the speech. Overall I was really disappointed when I was watching my speech. I really am passionate about this topic, and I really want people to start doing something to help, and I don’t feel that my speech did a good job of persuading anyone to action. The content may have all been there but the assurance and forcefulness was not. It is pretty obvious to me what I would have needed to do to be clearer and generally have a better presentation. I hope that people were still touched by the stories and topic, and that they will do what they can to help child soldiers in the Congo, although, from the performance I gave, I would not expect much of a response.