EN.663.618 Chap.5 Delivery Skills and Video Self-Review
Delivery Skills and Video Self-Review
Delivery is the heaviest line on the first rubric
Professional Presentations grades how you speak, not only what you say. On the Presentation Zen speech rubric the delivery section carries 30% of the grade, and on later speeches such as the group pitch and the self-reflective speech it carries 25%, alongside slides, story and content, and the criteria specific to each speech.
The delivery lines stay almost identical across the semester: connect emotionally with the audience, enunciate clearly with enough volume, keep an audience-friendly pace, sound conversational rather than theatrical, robotic or memorized, and show preparation by not swivelling to the screen.
A habit fixed early keeps paying on every later speech.
Your recordings are the teacher
Every class is recorded and kept in Canvas, and those recordings drive the weekly observations, worth 5% of the grade. Each week you rewatch your last presentation and answer a short-answer quiz in Canvas at least 12 hours before class.
The assignment packet gives the reason plainly: memory and reality often disagree, and video is an objective lens.
The quiz asks for positive observations, constructive observations, goals, tactical strategies and self-awareness exercises that build emotional intelligence, so the useful answer links a moment on the tape to a drill you will actually run.
Judging a professional speaker
The speaker critique paper, also 5%, sends you to a live talk on campus scheduled for late October.
You take detailed notes on the speaker, the speech, the slides, the venue and the logistics, then write 800 words, 12 pt and double-spaced, with the word count at the top. The paper evaluates voice, pacing, delivery style, speech skeleton, WIFFY, slides, eye contact and emotional connection.
It does not retell the talk or the speaker's life story, and its rubric rewards specifics, analysis of effects and connections to the class.
Turning the lens on yourself
The semester ends with a self-reflective speech of 5-7 minutes about your own growth, perseverance and performance, prepared with excerpts of the book Grit.
The rubric asks for honest insight, links to course themes, creative risks, concrete examples of change, and no solipsism, narcissism or clichéd ideas. The weeks of observations you have written become its evidence.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The delivery lines on every speech rubric
- 02
Why memorized delivery reads as robotic
- 03
Using class footage as an objective lens
- 04
The five prompts in the weekly observation quiz
- 05
Writing a speaker critique that evaluates rather than summarises
- 06
Planning the self-reflective speech and its evidence
- 07
Memorable openings and endings that rhyme
Worked example · free
Turn one recording into a weekly observation
- 1Record a specific positive observation from the footage.
- 2State the constructive observation and its effect on the audience.
- 2Set one goal and one tactic that could be rehearsed before the next class.
Key terms
- Weekly Observation
- A short-answer Canvas quiz, due before class, in which a student reviews their own recorded speech and records strengths, weaknesses, goals and tactics.
- Screen Swivel
- Turning away from the audience to read a projected slide, a habit the delivery rubric penalises as a sign of weak preparation.
- Conversational Delivery
- Speaking in a natural, prepared but unscripted voice that sounds like talking with the room rather than reciting to it.
- Speaker Critique Paper
- An 800-word written analysis of a live professional speaker that evaluates delivery and performance rather than content or biography.
- Grit Test
- A self-assessment taken in the first week and taken again on the day of the self-reflective speech to compare before and after.
Delivery Skills and Video Self-Review FAQ
Why did my reflection quiz score drop or change after I submitted it?
Canvas needs a set correct answer even for questions where you judge your own performance, so some reasonable responses are marked wrong automatically. The instructor or a TA then reviews each reflection by hand and changes the score, so the figure you see on submission is provisional.
Can I share my class recording with a friend in another section?
No. The syllabus says the class footage exists for your reflection assignments and must not go to students in other sections. Sharing it counts as academic dishonesty and is handled that way, so keep the recording inside your own course site.
What should I leave out of a speaker critique paper?
Leave out a retelling of what the speaker said and the details of their career. The rubric rewards only relevant material, with no theory, biography or repeated speech content. Spend the words on delivery evidence: what the speaker did, what it caused in the audience, and how it links to class ideas.
Does the self-reflective speech need slides?
The sources disagree. The assignment packet marks slides as not required, but the syllabus lists slides as required and the self-reflective rubric includes a slides section worth a quarter of the grade. Confirm with the current Canvas instructions or ask the instructor before you build or skip a deck.
What if public speaking makes me really anxious?
The syllabus says the course will not remove every nerve but will help you get comfortable with discomfort. It also invites students with speaking-related stress to ask the instructor or TAs for techniques, and points to the free, confidential university counseling service for broader mental health concerns.
Assessment move
Within a day of each class, rewatch your recording with the sound off, then again with sound on. Timestamp a strength, a weakness and a moment the audience reacted. Turn the weakness into a single drill, rehearse it before the next class, and check next week's footage to see whether it held.
