Option 2

Nowadays, public speaking is one of the most important skills a person can develop. It doesn’t only influence your career development as a professional but also impact the social aspects of your life as a human being. One of my goals for this semester is to improve my communication skills because I’m a terrible public speaker. I know it’s not an easy task for me to achieve since I’m a non-native English speaker. I believe nothing it’s impossible with hard work and dedication. Confident, persuasive, and energetic are some of the qualities valued in the context of the classroom. Professors are the perfect examples being that teaching is all about communicating information to others, especially in the classroom. My current communication skills are awful. For instance, when I participate or do presentation in class I’m so nervous that I start to tremble, sweat, and even sometimes experience a dry mouth. It’s a sad but true situation and I have the desire to enhance these skills. I would like to learn how to become a confident and persuasive speaker. Without question I would do all my efforts to be prepared, organized, and knowledgeable of the subject as possible. But the problem arises when nervousness and fear come into play. And the question is how can I control these nerves? For me this is the hardest obstacle to accomplish. Once I overcome this matter, I believe I can be a good public speaker not only inside the classroom but also have the capacities to face a large groups of people.

option 2

I really would like to improve my communication skills in front of the class because when I do presentation I get really nervous that I frequently start shaking my feet , get tongue twisted, and my hand starts sweating it’s a very horrible feeling. For starters I believe that communication in front of the class will help enhance the ability to do public speaking in large crowds but for me I know it’s impossible if I’m not confident enough (especially when it has to do with job interviews to look professional in appearance and speech). I don’t have the quality, I freak out very easily. The quality for a class presentation would be extemporaneous both planned with research and memorized but also scripted too (a fair balance in speech). My current communication skill right now is apparently horrible, I remember doing class presentation when it came to projects and group work I had severe tongue twisting problems I end up forgetting the major facts/points of the topics (my heart rate also increases that’s how much fear I developed just by standing in the front of the class with at least 25 students). I am in a horrible situation and I do plan to improve on that. Of course I want to decrease my fear when facing a crowd but also I want the tone of my voice to be powerful/strong enough for the people to understand what I am trying to say (strong persuasive speech), I have to have courage , I want to speak clearly pronouncing my words correctly and using the right words. When you’re nervous you tend to speak in a fast pace that the audience will be in a confused state so I want to speak in a way that the people will understand. For me the biggest obstacle exist in achieving this communication skill is just by standing in the front of the classroom, making strong/sharp eye contact, and raising your voice as high as possible that the other classrooms can also hear you. This is an obstacle where I rather hide under my bed because this is the part where you face the actual challenge.

Our first round of posts will respond to your choice of the following prompts.  Blog posts should be between 250 and 400 words (longer isn’t always better!), and should include an image that relates to your writing.  

Option 1: Post an image (photographic or otherwise) that conveys a speech situation you have encountered in which you think a speaker has a powerful and positive impact on an audience or individual listener.  What is the nature of the speaker’s impact?  How does the speaker achieve this impact?  What does this image demonstrate about the nature of the relationship between audience and speaker?

Option 2: Describe a particular kind of situation in which you want to improve your communication skills, and post an image (photographic or otherwise) that reflects this situation.  It might be a community you’re involved in, a job, a class, etc.  What qualities of communication are valued in this context?  How would you describe your current communication style in this context?  What communication skills would you like to develop in this context?  What obstacles exist on the path toward achieving this communication style?

We’ll use this site to share thoughts and experiences related to public speaking and the power of effective communication over the course of the semester.

You can find important documents for the course under the tab “course documents” above.

I look forward to our semester together!

-Julia