Why Do I Deserve an Excellent Mark in My Oratory Class?

PERSUASIVE SPEECH

Why Do I Deserve an Excellent Mark in My Oratory Class?

At the very start of my talk I want to raise a question: Can excellence be achieved at all? How do you understand that you`re just excellent at doing something, for example, presenting in public?

The task of our oratory class professor made me think a lot. That’s a tricky and very complicated question to answer: Do I deserve an excellent mark in the class?

Self-evaluation is no easy matter. We tend to trust other people in that – our peers, our mentors, our friends and family – we want to know their opinions and very often depend on them. I`m very interested in the opinion of my group mates and my professor, but still I have to assess my merits and weaknesses, and I hope I won’t overestimate or underestimate them.

What are the criteria to assess my progress in the class? I came across some wise thoughts about that:

ü  Excellence is a continuous process and not an accident. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

ü  Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better. Pat Riley

ü  Excellence is not a destination; it’s a continuous journey that never ends. Anonymous))

Can’t agree more. I wouldn’t say I reached the peak of excellence. I dare say it`s impossible to do so. But I definitely made much progress. I struggled to be a bit better than I am; I brought that effort into every single class. I changed as much as I could, and change is the end result of all true learning.

Let me give you the arguments.

On completing my oratory class I learned the following new things.

I know perfectly well now what a good presentation structure is, as well as the methods of getting and keeping my listeners’ attention and interest. (logical argument)

I understand that every single speech should be well-prepared so as to be worth listening; it should be relevant to the audience, convincing and thought- or emotion- or action-provoking. 

I realize that my ideas should be well-grounded with statistics, or true-to-life stories and personal experience. (logical arguments)

I try to think about and control my body language, my gestures, posture and eye contact. That’s the most difficult part for me - to be self-confident when delivering a speech, but I did and do my best to overcome my fears. (emotional argument)

Making mistakes is a part of the learning process, I guess I am still making some mistakes talking to you, but as you know “Practice makes perfect”. I have so many presentations to make in my future career and I hope my skills will improve with every other try. At least I know the theory rather well and I am able to understand what my weaknesses are in order to make it better next time. (personal argument)

I learned how to start a blog and write blog posts and I liked it most of all. I think I am more of an author than a presenter)) (logical argument)

Also I should say that recognition is of great importance for me. Some people are encouraged to become better when they hear someone criticize them. I don`t know whether it is good or bad, but my heart and soul are always in search of praise and kind words from other people. For me these words are the greatest stimulus to work harder and harder. So, an excellent mark is very important for me personally, as recognition of my struggle and overcoming psychological barriers. (emotional argument)

So, my strengths as a learner are keeping deadlines, completing all the tasks we were given, commitment and focused effort.  And it's not about being perfect. It's about the desire to learn and try hard. That's where transformation happens. That's how change occurs.

I hope I managed to convince you that I definitely deserve an excellent mark in the class!

Here you can see a video of this speech. Unfortunately, the video is divided into two parts, because I have technical problems with my mobile phone.

Part 1

Part 2