Public Speaking, referred to as COMM 101, satisfied the aesthetic expression pillar and the Cormier Honors College requirements. This course focuses on creating and evaluating presentations and delivering oral messages appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context. Students explore and engage with different types of speeches with this course, such as informational, persuasive, and special occasions.
Before taking this course, I was nervous because I was not confident in my public speaking abilities. I have a timid personality, and the idea of speaking in front of a crowd was something I was still not comfortable with. After taking this course, I have learned about the different components of public speaking and how I can become an effective speaker. With the knowledge I have learned, my confidence in myself and my public speaking abilities improve. The skills I have acquired through this course enable me to give presentations and speeches to a diverse group of individuals as a prospective special education teacher and a student at Longwood.
The artifact I select to exhibit the work I have done in this course is my informative speech speaking outline. An informative speech was one of the first speeches I prepared and presented in public speaking. For the information speech, I focus on how individuals can use music to learn a foreign language. During this speech, I research my topic and gather essential information associated with how music can help with language learning. Once I gathered the necessary information, I developed my working outline, a detailed draft of the informative speech. With the speaking outline, I took what I wrote in my working outline and turned it into a bulleted list that references the key points that I want to address during my speech. It was challenging to write the speaking outline because I had to think about the important keywords I want to reference during the delivery and not including the whole speech in the outline. It was a good challenge because I learned how to focus on the main details, understand the significance of these details, and help me deliver the speech. I have included my speaking outline of my informative speech.