In life, we rarely have the chance for a do-over, but I feel like returning to college is mine. Throughout high school, my grades were never above average and until about a couple of years ago I considered myself to be unintelligent. What I failed to see was my level of commitment. Once I began applying myself, the grades earned reflected that. This concept coincides to my public speaking ability. Many students, including myself, walk into a speech class thinking that it will be the Easy A of the semester and quite frankly I devoted a good amount of time and hard work to earn my A’s and B’s for this course. Overall, my public speaking growth in terms of listenability were influenced by the following: the strategy keys in correctly engaging the audience; the structure keys appropriate for a speech versus a paper; the support keys by continually engaging the audience; and finally the style keys by practicing the use of body language and reducing the verbal junk.
At the beginning of the semester our class was introduced to a new term, listenability. The level of listenability is at the mercy of the speaker, not of the audience. During our semester, we were taught to harness the listenability keys of strategy, structure, support, and style in order to achieve a high level of listenability. Examples of listenability include when a speaker engages the audience by asking questions, using narratives or stories that people can relate to, and has stimulating visual support and content. These are only a couple of keys used to create a listener centered speech.
The word strategy reminds me of war and a way you can conquer your enemy, but in public speaking it means much more. These keys are informally taught as the brains of the speech and ...
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...mbled. I do not feel I possess the charisma that some my classmates have, but I do know that I did come a long way as far as the style keys are concerned.
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.
Few people are fearless speakers. As students, we generally feel the rumble of butterflies in our stomachs, but the most we have to lose is a good grade.
Public Speaking or Small Group Communications? That was the question during class registration of my spring semester. Neither sounded intriguing. The thought of speaking in front of an audience did not sit well with me. After a mental debate on whether I preferred to stand up in front of an audience by myself or with a group of students, the group scenario won. Truthfully, the reason behind this debate and my participation in any communications class was simply because it was a required course that needed to be completed. I had no idea what this class had in store for me. The quality and necessity of the information provided throughout the course were unknown to me at the time. Looking back, I realized how much I had missed in the first weeks of this course because of my attitude towards a class I was not particularly interested in. After I changed my outlook of this course, everything changed. I finally understood what an enormous advantage I have over other people who have never taken a small group communications class. Now I have the knowledge that will help me throughout my future career and everyday life. Through the completion of this course, I now understand the principles of group communication, know how to be an effective participant in a small group, and have the skills that assist in making group decisions that are both effective and appropriate.
A vital aspect of interpersonal communication is the style in which one listens. While every individual possesses their own preferred method of listening in communication, it can be enlightening to analyze our own strengths and weaknesses so as to maximize effectual communication. Within the confines of four main listening style categories, I have chosen those which best describe my own personal listening style.
The skill of listening according to Dr. Robert Bolton (1979) extends beyond simply hearing sound as a physiological sensory process but instead requires and involves interpreting and understanding the sensory experience or what is being heard (p 32). It also is an active experience wherein the listener is fully engaged and has absorbed the information of the speaker while showing interest and providing feedback all while demonstrating that they have heard and understand the message. It is a fair assertion that most people in varying relationships and environments listen in what is considered a passive capacity or only digesting and processing bits and pieces of the speaker’s message. This type of listening lends itself to frequent miscommunication, mixed messages and overall misunderstandings. Effective listening on the other hand provides concise communication, decreases interpersonal conflict and mistakes and also...
I finally have the power! After a semester of taking a course about hiding glossophobia as best as I can, while juggling critical thinking and persuasion skills in a public speaking setting. I have finally been given the power to judge others, who have set out on the path of becoming a great public speaker, on how well they can hide their own fear of public speaking. Countless minutes have I spent throughout the semester looking for a good speaker to write my critique paper on; someone interesting, speaking about an interesting topic. Someone I deemed the perfect victim of my judgement! In the end I found no one was actually worthy, and I had to resort to the speech intramurals at DVC (also the extra credit was very enticing).
Some strengths that I use while giving a speech are the use of different pitches, the use of different volumes, the use of different facial expressions, and good posture. Some weaknesses that I have while giving a speech are the use of vocal fillers, the too fast of a rate at which I speak, the lack of eye contact, and the nervous movement from my body. I know that I have a lot to improve on when it comes time to get up and speak in front of others. However, I do feel that only after three speeches in my public speaking class, I have grown and become a better public speaker. Each speech that I have done, have gradually gotten better, but I do believe my dramatic reading speech was my
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...
As a professional in today’s society, it is greatly important to be able to communicate effectively with other professionals, with clients, and with those that are encountered in daily living. In order to communicate in a proper manner, not only is talking and non-verbal communication, but a large aspect is the ability to listen. Listening is a vital task in order to build a relationship and find meaning in someone else’s words. In order to find this meaning one must follow the characteristics of active listening, face the challenges to listening, and reflect upon one’s own listening skills.
As a public speaker, I recall the late nights where I recited my piece within the confines of my church's dimly lit basement. My zealous grandmother, an internet web designer, had become aware of the New Jersey Orators, a public speaking organization, by her client and quickly made up her mind that the N.J.O was precisely what an aspiring young scholar like me would need to participate successfully in academic and social activities. "Honey, imagine what becoming a powerful and sophisticated public speaker will do for you!" she exclaimed, while she continued, through phone calls, emails and personal recommendations, her search to learn more about the organization. I admit, I was enchanted by the program, even more so by my grandmother's irresistible charm and optimistism. Besides, she had always been more right than wrong in any advice she had gave me. At the time, I was only four years old and could barely grasp the implications of what it would be like to
Those not thoroughly educated in communication tend to confuse the terms “hearing” and “listening.” Although they appear to mean the same thing, utilize the same body part, and are both required for functional communication, there is a great difference between these two actions. Hearing involves the perception of sound using the ears, while listening is based upon giving attention to the sound being perceived. Additionally, because these concepts are different, there are also several different ways of improving hearing and listening. Thus, there are several differences between these two concepts, and it is important to signify these differences in order to practice effective communication.
Let’s explore why listening is so critical. “Adam listened to Eve. In that first spoken word message and all since, no communication occurred until there was a listener. It follows, then, that there has become a much-heightened need to listen. We must understand the fundamental relationship involved, we cannot escape it” (Mills 1). The characteristics of good listening skills can be best understood by using the acronym MASTER. The “m” refers to mental. Mental is the ability to slow down and strategically control our ability to listen. “A” refers to active. Being active utilizes constructive listening responses and constant practice can keep this sharp. The “s” refers to sustaining attention. Experienced concentration is crucial for sustaining attention. “T” refers to target. There are four types of potential listening targets; responsive listening, implicative listening, critical listening and nondirective listening. Responsive listening is the agreement between listener and speaker. Implicative listening involves carefully understanding what is implied by hearing what is said. Critical listening is the process of coming to the point of a subject by clearing away all the non-important information. Nondirective listening is fully hearing the speaker out. The “e” refers to eliminating t...
In all aspects in life effective listening plays an important role in our lives, both professionally and personally. As many of know from experience listening is never easy in fact it can be difficult to understand what is being said by the speaker. Because of laps in attention we tend to misunderstand some of the messages that are being relayed to us or disregard them altogether. Effective listening is important for receiving the correct feedback from those you’re speaking with and requires a focus that should be central to what is being said or what topic is being discussed.
The most important thing I am taking away from this class would be the extemporaneous delivery skill. I think it 's important to use to the 7 x7 rules while using the extemporaneous delivery skills to present the speech. I felt that this skill is commonly used in the real world. This skill can be used for various purposes like selling consumer products and other projects. I have used this delievery skill for minor and major speeches for this class. Overall, I’m glad I took this class because I improve my public speaking skills and I overcame my fear of public
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.
The student outcomes for this course are to incorporate and learn different forms of material that will help the student deliver a structured speech. In order to deliver logical and organized speeches. As well as learning to speak with confidence and to understand how to control their own individual body movement when delivering a speech. A student also has to learn how to apply concepts such as language, organization, support, and delivery. In order to effetely deliver an informative, persuasive, entertaining, and commemorate speak. Lastly, a student has to learn how to analyze individual speaks and the understand perspectives from all members of the community. All these outcomes in the syllabus are meant to prepare us to become better public