Public Speaking

Throughout this course I think the most important thing we did was every single class we had some sort of speech/presentation. This was quite anxiety-inducing at first, but as time went on it really took the stress out of public speaking. Instead of some big event, each speech was just any other day. Over the course of the semester in COMM 101, I’ve come to realize how important it is to plan and organize speeches and projects. Notoriously, I’m regularly known to procrastinate on everything from studying, to assignments, to projects. This might work fine for a simple worksheet but when it comes to presenting a speech, how much you prepare makes a world of a difference. Firstly, when trying to organize your thoughts on a speech topic, it is very helpful to start with a short outline, where you can brainstorm and gather your ideas before actually writing out the speech. In addition, considering your audience when planning a speech plays an important role in tailoring ideas in an argumentative or persuasive speech to best relate to and/or convince your peers. The most important thing I have learned is to “TELL ‘EM WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO TELL ‘EM; TELL ‘EM; THEN TELL ‘EM WHAT YOU TOLD ‘EM.” It’s important to have a strong structure to your speech so that people in your audience can follow what you’re saying, that way if somebody wasn’t paying attention or listening and missed a part of your argument, they can still jump back in and follow along. This also serves to really hammer in your point so that people remember the most important points of a speech. 

For me, in addition to presenting my own speeches, being in the audience of other peers’ speeches and actually filling out written peer reviews for classmates was really helpful. In evaluating the strengths and weaknesses in others’ presentations and delivery, it helps us to see what parts of a speech stand out the most and which organizational structures seem to flow the best. It makes you realize how much affect things like confidence, assertiveness, and passion have on the quality and ability of a speech to keep an audience’s attention. In evaluating other students, you realize what you need to work on to improve as well.

Linked below is the visual portion of a controversial topic speech I did on assault rifles: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HEsqsJ11VIe68UT8zXioxv0RFZ6gxWYjtHuFBTkXeK8/edit?usp=sharing