Informative Speech: The Different Types Of Swimming

In my public speaking class, I wrote and performed an informative speech about the different types of swimming. This speech was recorded and upon watching it I learned that I am not perfect at giving speeches and there are things I need to continue to work on. In this paper I will address the credibility, delivery, content, and the goals of my speech.

Starting with credibility, I believe that I did a good job of stating my credibility for informing the class of the different types of swimming. First, I believe this because at 0:49* I stated that “I was a competitive swimmer for a long time”. Second, I also continued to explain that competitive swimming is not the only kind of swimming I have participated in. I have also swam for a neighborhood

I believe that my speech was organized and contained good information. My speech was organized according to the guide lines of the assignment. I started with an introduction complete with a hook, ethos statement, and a thesis from 0:25- 1:08. After my introduction I transitioned into my first topic and talked about learning to swim from 1:09- 3:30. I continued in this pattern throughout my speech only talking about one topic at a time and I did not jump from topic to topic and get lost in my information. I believe that, for the most part, my information was quality supporting material. When talking about learning to swim I included the statistic of the number of kids that take swim lessons each summer (2:00), which was provided by the American Red Cross Association. Also, although it was a fun fact, I explained the academic swim team (5:00), which had information from the Missouri Valley Swimming Association and provided the class with information that was not commonly known about swimmers. However, as previously stated the content I used to support the topic of masters swimming was not the best because of my lack of verbal citation. In total the content of my speech was well organized with good reliable information, but some parts lacked the necessary citations which creates room for

First, to improve both my credibility and the content of my speech I will be sure to verbally site all information. In order to accomplish this goal, I will make notes on my note card to remind myself to verbally site my sources, also I will start doing this when I practice my speech because I tend to leave those out because I already know them and forget I have to verbally site all of my sources. Second, to improve the delivery of my speech I am going to stop saying “like” so much. In order to do this I am going to practice my speech 10 times in the mirror so I have a better idea of what I want to say and how the speech is going to flow. Third, I am going to stop using my hands so much in my speech. This creates a distraction and takes away from the information in my speech. The practicing 10 times in a mirror will also help me achieve this goal because I will be able to see myself and notice when I start using my hands. It is important to set goals because there is always something to improve on; nobody is