What I Learned In Public Speaking

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Making a successful public presentation or speech to an audience was a very big task for me before I joined the public speaking class. I was always frightened and very nervous. Since then I now understand the process of making a speech or a presentation including coming up with a topic and from this topic develop the main points of the speech, research, organize my points, revise them, edit and make a magnificent presentation to any audience. People in the audience might sometimes agree or disagree with my opinion or points, it was therefore necessary to communicate my information clearly to the audience without making any judgments since every person was entitled to a different opinion and views about things. I have also learned about different types of audiences and speeches including persuasive, informative, entertaining and delivering special occasion speeches. It came to my attention that whenever I was making these presentations or speeches, I needed to do so with confidence, consistence and practice before the actual presentation and completely eliminate the element of panic. It was also clear that capturing the attention of the audience and engaging them in the whole process, it was necessary to have a very strong introduction and also try and use visuals to deliver the message. It was therefore vital to respect each person’s diversity and cultural values (Lucas, 2011). 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... ... middle of paper ... ... information from different sources to support my speeches a have been equipped with vast experience in research. My mind has been opened to a wide range of diversity as a result of being a listener to many different types of speeches from classmates some of which touched on culture during our presentation practices in class. From various practices we carried out I was taught how to use my voice appropriately in delivering my message, how to organize my thoughts logically and how to develop confidence on stage. In conclusion when delivering a public speech it was vital to leave time for questions and answers. This helped to know if the message was clearly understood by the audience and would be remembered. This section also empowered me to handle questions and answers section since some questions asked by audience were challenging and needed critical thinking.

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