Eminent was a 5-week long project where we chose a person, researched them heavily, wrote a presentation and speech on them, memorized and presented the speech in front of two classes, and then made an “exhibit” to go with our project, bringing items that relate to that person. I chose to research Carl Sagan, and my exhibit is shown below, speech right here –>(Eminent Speech Link). We had to write the speech from the perspective of someone close to the person we chose, and the speech was to be 4-5 minutes maximum.

I already knew how to format speeches, and I would like to think I’m pretty good at endings, but I didn’t know how to do a lot of things I learned throughout this process. I used my researching skills, finding reliable resources, speech formatting, listening, voice projection, and creative writing skills. I learned how to vary sentence structures, keep a certain perspective throughout, present speeches, and more.

I faced large writing blocks while writing the speech, and I had major difficulty with choosing a person and keeping the speech interesting without just rambling. I also had problems with keeping it below the 5 minute time limit, and I learned that 5 minutes is a lot less time that you think. The biggest stumbling point for me during this project was how hard speaking in front of a large group of people is for the first time. Even if they’re people you know, doing it for the first time with something you worked your hardest on can be very nerve racking and difficult.