Rosie, a senior at Baruch College, is finally taking her required Speech Communication course! Although she didn’t intentionally avoid taking the course throughout her two years at the school, she was not eager to include it in her schedule either. Being an accounting major does not provide many opportunities for her to gain experience as an effective public communicator. She has had to participate in about a handful of assignments involving presentations and speeches throughout her college career, but mainly in groups. While working with others was a great way to improve her communication skills in general, it does not prepare you for the same amount of pressure you are under when giving a speech individually. This course will be her chance to improve those skills she is lacking in.

During class, Rosie is carefree about participating in group discussions. She feels that there is much less pressure when you are seated and discussing amongst your classmates. However, when she is placed in front of the room with all eyes on her, her nerves skyrocket. No matter how much she prepares, she still can’t help but feel the pressure of everybody staring at her. When she begins her presentations, she tends to mix up what she’s prepared to talk about, causing her ideas to be much less concise than she had originally planned. Her cheeks sometimes get a bit rosy in front of everybody because she worries she won’t be able to make the point that she was supposed to.

Despite these setbacks, Rosie tends to be good at projecting her voice to ensure that the entire audience can hear what she has to say. Once Rosie can maintain the confidence of an effective public speaker, her quality research and ideas will be become much more persuasive and meaningful than they currently are.

Jackson is currently an undergraduate student at Baruch College. Jackson has good interpersonal skills, but is not so great in giving public presentations. He does not have much experience with public speaking aside from a handful of presentations for classes in the past. Jackson tends to start off strong while giving presentations, but starts stuttering and repeating the same statements later on in the speech. Jackson has a neutral feeling towards public speaking. While it’s not his favorite thing to do, it’s not something he hates either.

In class, Jackson is an active listener. He likes to listen to other’s inputs to the discussion first before participating. Sometimes Jackson participates a lot because he is interested in the topic being discussed. Other times he won’t really participate much because he doesn’t really have much to say on the matter. Jackson has good speech communications skills in personal situations but needs refinement in professional situations. While interacting with others, Jackson tends to use body language to get his message across. He also utilizes repetition, where he will repeat the same idea twice or more in a different way to ensure that the other party understands him.

In terms of oral communications, he is the best when the situation is not high in pressure; i.e. social gathering with friends. Jackson is at his worse when there is a on the table. Such a situation would be a job interview. Jackson starts to get anxious which causes him to stutter and lose track of his thoughts. Overall, Jackson enjoys speaking and wishes to further his communications skills for his professional career and for his own personal benefit.

Simpson, a student at Baruch College is an undergrad. He always attends all his classes and takes notes. He is good at working on the class assignments, making PowerPoint’s materials. But the problem with him is that he gets little nervous while presenting to the public. He does not feel much comfortable speaking to the mass but he does well in a group projects. He has done presentation before but still he has to build more self-confidence in him. He works hard to prepare every presentation materials and he practice his presentation as well. The good thing is that he is improving his presentation habit slowly. Only the thing is that he has to remove is his nervous behavior and start using his calm and assertive energy, which will build more confidence in him. If other people can do it then of course he can do it as well.

He does participate in the class few time but he is always focused in the class. It looks like presentation is not a problem for him but since English is his second language; he feels that he might not find the right words when he expresses his ideas. He did not had any public speaking course back in his country which is why he feels little awkward speaking in public. But he has done some nice presentations in a small groups where he can use his native language time to time while giving a presentation. That means speaking in public should not be his main problem. He is good at group meeting where he shares his thoughts to other members but may be he is little shy in front of the crowd.

He likes doing Internet research before any assignments or presentations so that he will have general knowledge on the topic. If he understands the topic very well and does not have to memorize, then he does well. And if someone starts asking questions then he might gets stuck for a while and then he will continue. He understands the importance of public speaking and he will go for it.

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!

Blog posts should be between 250 and 400 words (longer isn’t always better!).

Reflect on your own skills and habits as a public communicator, by describing a made-up cartoon character that embodies these characteristics (if you wish, in an exaggerated way). Give your character a name.  Use the following prompts to guide your writing:

• What are your experiences with public speaking (for example, giving class presentations or presenting something at work) generally like? Have you ever enjoyed them?
• What kind of participant do you tend to be in class?
• How would you describe your general speech communication skills in professional and personal situations? What kinds of habits and characteristics do you demonstrate in getting your ideas across?
• In terms of oral communication, when are you at your best? Your worst?