I signed up for Public Speaking because I always felt anxious to deliver a presentation. Before the class, I set out three goals I that wanted to accomplish by the end of the class. The first goal was to get comfortable with public speaking. I did not know much about how to make a convincing presentation, so delivering public speeches is a skill that I lacked and felt distressing about. My second goal was to overcome public speaking anxiety. As an introvert, I get an anxious feeling when surrounded by a large group of people, and hence delivering a speech in front of a crowd was always something that I was afraid of. And finally, my last goal of the class was to get an A. Getting an A may not have many applications outside of class, but this is my way of saying to …show more content…
One of my major weakness is that I was not able to stay calm during my speeches. As Jennifer and many others have pointed out, my Persuasive and Informative (expository) speeches were not as clear as smooth as they should be. After receiving comments from everyone, I learn that was because I did not practice presenting out loud enough times, and therefore could not present my topics naturally. After learning about my shortcoming, I spent more times practicing my speech, and consequently, my Commemorative Speech was much better. Another flaw that I find when preparing for presentations was the lack of concentration on transitions. Before the class, I did not put a strong emphasis on making good transitions and only regard them as a minor part of a speech. However, Jennifer’s comments on my speech about soccer made me realize that they were also an important factor that could help the audience follow the topic more easily, and therefore should not be neglected. This advice gave me a lot of insights on the elements of a good speech and taught me to prepare every element of my speech
One of my greatest strengths pertaining to education is my ability to complete my work in a timely matter. I only turned in late work at least two times in my high school career. Another strength I possess is being a respectful, erudite student. I can understand the lessons quickly and listen to my teacher in a considerate manner. Although one can discuss their strengths indefinitely, weaknesses must be told to understand a person. One of my main shortcomings is public speaking. I find it hard to present myself in front of a large group of people. Once I begin to know my peers, it is easier for me to speak in front of them during
Public speaking is a topic that most people dread. The anxious feeling of getting in front of people and presenting is avoided by many people at all costs. Although public speaking has a bad reputation, when done right, it can be a very valuable skill to have. Recently, I attended a presentation that was given by Ann Walker, a member of the National Alliance for Mental Health (NAMI). This presentation was focused on making more people aware about mental illnesses and the effects of them, which was using the method of an Informative Speech. As said in it’s name, the purpose of this kind of presentation is to “Increase your audience’s knowledge of a particular topic or teach them something new” (Hosek & Crawford, 2016, p. 74), which is stated in our student guidebook. It was held in a very casual setting, consisting of a college classroom holding about 50 seats. Before Walker started presenting her speech, she asked the audience what most of us were majoring in.
Knowing what I can do well is just important as knowing what needs improvement. My strongest attributes are being able to perform under pressure and multitasking. This is necessary to sell products and perform services that benefit the customer. The value of getting the job done correctly and on time correlates to returning customers and repeat business. My competitive advantage over others in the same industry is the high level of service we offer. I don’t just push a product on a client. I listen to what they want and need, make suggestions for the best available solutions; and I also help them with cost savings and environmentally friendly alternatives. One weakness I have and need to work on is public speaking. As I grow in my career and move into managerial leader positions, I will have a lot more opportunities to give speeches. I plan to work on my public speaking skills by practicing and making incremental changes to constantly improve. It’s not a matter of being shy in front of a group. It’s more of a point to be well prepared for the occasion and motivated to do a good job. To stay prepared for opportunities and change, I plan on continuing my education in the business field, and learning as much as possible about my job. I will also need to stay up-to-date with current issues in my external and internal
To continue, public speaking frightens me because everyone is watching me. If I elaborate, when I presented my Martin Luther King Jr speech I got nerves once I noticed everyone was watching me. I feel as if I am getting negative vibes from all the looks I would get. Plus, me being under pressure, I start to overthink everything. In effect to my overthinking it makes me even more nervous than before. Another one
As I said before, I was never an outgoing child. This class helped me, through experience, develop into a person that can confidently deliver a speech. After I was able to get over my extreme fear of public speaking, I was able to focus on my verbal and nonverbal skills. For my verbal skills my volume has always been a problem. Since I am a quiet person, I am constantly challenged to talk louder so everyone will hear and I can convey my thoughts with confidence. In my first couple speeches I received plenty of feedback that said to talk louder. When I felt more comfortable about my speech deliveries, I was able to focus on projecting my voice. For my nonverbal skills it was very difficult for me to have a good posture and keep eye contact. I got a lot of feedback saying that I should straighten up my posture and not sway as much. I forgot about this many times but for my final speech I actually wrote on my outline to not sway. This helped me remember to stand straight in order to present a more formal speech delivery. Finding the balance between memorizing my whole speech and only the main points was difficult for me. In my first couple speeches I wasn’t comfortable enough in my speech to be able to make frequent eye contact and not read off of my outline but in my final speech I wrote only the main points down and tried to deliver it as extemporaneously as possible. This is important because
After reviewing my speeches back to back, I realized that my public speaking skills have evolved dramatically. While I would like to have changes to my projects if I had the ability to time travel, but overall I am more than satisfied with my progression in public speaking. My level of listenability is still not flawless, but with some more practice and time I am confident that I could become a decent public speaker. Whether I will do anything as a public speaker is yet to be determined, but I do know that I walked into this class with the simple expectation to acquire my honor credits, but was fortunate enough to part with experience that will be applied to the rest of both my academic and occupational careers.
Chapter eight of “A Concise Public Speaking Handbook”, is about how to develop one’s speech. Selecting a topic to speak about is the first step to developing one’s speech. Analyzing the audience will help the speaker choose which topic to speak on and how to present the topic to them. The speaker also needs to have purpose for speaking on the topic in order to develop their speech. This is because having purpose for speaking on the topic will help the speaker organize how they’re going to speak their topic and convey their message to the audience. Knowing the purpose for the speech will help create and clarify the central idea and main ideas of the spoken topic to the audience. When I have presented in the past, I have tried to state my purpose and central idea on what I was speaking on to the audience. By knowing my purpose and central idea about the topic I was speaking on, it has helped me a lot with being able to
During my demonstration speech, I was affected by my speech anxiety. Some of the viewable symptoms were the shaking of my hands and also the stuttering of speech. I was able to control myself and relax after I started getting into my information. I did use some of the suggested relaxation techniques to relieve my anxiety. Before I got up to speak I thought confident of myself to help give me courage and confidence.
When I was presenting, I looked in my note cards and my powerpoint first before I looked at my audience and I noticed that I had less eye contact with my audience at this speech compared to my last speech. To improve next time, my goal is to practice with my note cards rather than just going through my powerpoint the weekend before the speech day rather than just practicing on the day I have to do my speech.
Coming into speech class, I mentally and physically prepared myself for what was in store. I never really like giving speeches, especially impromptu speeches. Signing up for speech was hard for me to do because I absolutely did not want to take it and was considering not taking it in high school and wishing that I would never have to take it. My fears for COMM 101 was being judged. I am not really one to care about what people think about me, but something about public speaking gives me a fear that people will judge me if I stutter or not be able to complete a speech. I just wanted to do my best in this class and just breeze through this class and get it over with. Getting up in front of the class for my first speech, was petrifying for me
The class helped me learn how to overcome fear of public speaking which was brought about by anxiety and fear which was mainly contributed by lack of exposure. During this class I learned many ways of overcoming this menace, the class groups that served as the audience helped in practicing and getting over the anxiety and fear I also got positive critic...
I like communicating with other people, and much of my life consists of me with my friends. Communicating with people is a good way to become social and comfortable around people. Public speaking is my least favorite part of communicating but I feel if I go into business, it will be one of the most important things to learn. If I have to give a big speech, it could be the first time several upper management bosses really hear what I have to say, and if I give a poor speech and look frightened, it could make them think I am incompetent and cannot communicate.
In public speaking I learned many types of concepts, theories and terms of communication. In concepts of publicly speaking there’s, relaxation, practice, credibility, attention getters, attire, organization, volume, emotion, audience relation, and movement. In my first speech, “The any old bag speech” I quickly learned the do’s, don’ts and concepts of my speech performance.
Throughout the semester I became a more confident public speaker. The first assignment that we had to do for our education class was to introduce our self. I practiced what I was going to say and how I was going to say it that weekend. However, when I got up to present my mind went completely blank. Throughout the course of the semester I learned what I need to have up with me when I present do that I do not blank on what I wanted to say. In the beginning when I got up to present my heart was racing and my hands were shaking. Now I make sure I breathe and tell myself that I know what I am going to talk about. So I still don’t talking in public but I feel more comfortable doing it. I need to work on being more confident when I have to present a topic. Talking to Mrs. Nealy after my mini lesson I have more confidence when I am talking about a math concept than any other topic. Throughout the semester my writing skills have greatly improved. The thing I need to work on is managing my time better so that I have more time to edit my papers.
At first I thought I would never make it to be a motivational speaker. However, this class has really altered the perception and understanding about me as a public speaker. It has enabled me discover the potential I had in this field. At the commencement of my classes in public speaking, I thought I would be a boring public speaker, less convincing, less persuasive and would freak out if asked to offer an impromptu speech. But it has come to my light that in fact this is the field where I would want to pursue my career in, it is the field that my dream lies in. I realized that I could make excellent speeches, entertain my audience and always keep them eager to expect my next words.