Being able to public speak will open more opportunities for people to make connections and accomplish their goals. It’s not a natural skill you are born with, public speaking takes time and practice to learn. It’s an important skill to master and there is a lot more than just speaking that goes into having a good speech. Rhetoric stood out to me because it’s a word I haven’t heard. It refers to making an effective persuasive speech using invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Invention is the basis of your speech, it’s the idea or argument you use to make your speech. Arrangement is the organization of your idea using evidence and other arguments. Style is the language you use to speak to your audience. Memory is practicing the speech. Last is the actual delivery of the speech, your vocal and nonverbal behavior. Depending on the audience that you are speaking in front of, you can make adjustments to connect with them. The speech should connect with the audience and be inclusive so people can relate to what you are saying. Speeches are responses to rhetorical situations and should have a specific purpose or goal being couvade. The audience is the receiver of the message the speaking is telling and it’s up to the audience to interpret it in their own way. This is important because everyone has different perspectives on life and your speech could change the way they think.
What are my big takeaways from chapter one? I think some of the most important things I took away from chapter one were that public speaking is a huge asset that everyone should be able to use in their profession, employers love people who speak confidently, being able to speak up can make a difference, being able to research effectively is important, style, memory, delivery, public speaking takes practice, and public speaking is interactive. These are just a few of the many important things that I took away from chapter one. I think reading this chapter really helped me realize how important this public speaking class is and all the benefits that can come from it.
I also thought that the communication process image was very interesting and informative. Being able to look at how word of mouth travels and how important it is to get that mutual understanding/ shared meaning. I’ve had my fair share of public speaking and my mom taught me how. But reading into this chapter really adds another perspective as to how important it is to really be good at it. It’s common for public speaking to be anxiety producing, but that is something that I can get over with practice and time. I think this class, and reading more of this book will be good. There is so much important information that I’m excited to learn and practice.
Chapter 1 of the Pocket Guide to Becoming a Public Speaker focuses on the basics of public speaking. As well as the benefits that come along with having the skills to speak in a public situation. To start, the pocket guide claims that being able to publicly speak is a crucial skill for anyone who wishes to pursue any form of leadership position or simply have an active role in life. In my opinion, being able to fluently public speak can be influential and impressive. With, taking the public speaking class is strongly recommended in your undergraduate years, as it looks good for future job positions or to post-grad schools. This point is highlighted throughout the text. One of the major reasons I took this course was because it looks valuable to Vet schools. Additionally, the ability to prepare public speeches can also give you the skills that are needed in other college courses. Throughout my other classes, I will have to educate my peers through presentations and speeches, and hopefully, I will improve in these areas due to this class. Towards the end of chapter 1, the author focused on public speaking as communication. Public speaking is the fourth form of communication in humans. The speaker must deliver a speech to present people, while also keeping their attention and sending out their overall message. This is not an easy skill. All in all, I am excited for what this class has to offer and I am hoping to learn a few things while taking it.
For me, I want to take away parts of the chapter that will actually help me become a better public speaker because I have a drive like no other human being in existence. I am extremely passionate about performing, giving oral reports and presentations to large groups of people and speech and debate sessions in general. One of the biggest takeaways from this entire chapter that I consider extremely important are the different tips and factors the book gives you on how to become a better public speaker because in life, I want as much experience and advice on stuff I am super passionate about to become better and better. Right off the bat on the very first chapter of the book, the book states something about how you can gain an extremely vital life skill out of public speaking because of the fact that it gives the person performing a big sense of empowerment and confidence to do anything in life. You gain courage and a sense of motivation when you get up in front of a crowd of people you may or may not know and give a performance because you then feel like you can overcome so many obstacles and do many things you never would have thought you could possibly do. Furthermore, practicing and giving these performances enhances your entire career not only professionally, but also academically, or as a student because no matter where you go, you are always a student. A student doesn’t require you to be in a place of learning, if you are learning any sort of experience or facts about yourself in life, it doesn’t matter where you are because you are gaining knowledge about yourself you may not have known was there to begin with. In order to gain any traction in your professional career, you need to be able to be willing to learn in life, and it doesn’t need to be strictly in classes or in schools. You can learn things when you put your mind into it and you can gain many personal and civic engagement experiences if you put your mind to it. Secondly, another big takeaway from this chapter is that you can’t be afraid and let the anxiety and fear take over you. Fear is the biggest mind killer on the planet and if you let the fear consume your mind, you’ll be too afraid to do anything in life. That is not only an extremely important life lesson that everyone should follow, but it is also a big personal connection with me because of everything I have been through in my life. I am a 19 year old overweight kid with ADHD and I am also on the spectrum, so I have struggled with anxiety and self doubt my entire life, especially before COVID. Fear overtook my mind every single time that I tried to talk to anyone or do anything, and I was emotionally shut down and I didn’t know how to communicate properly. Every single person hated me because I was emotionally unstable and didn’t know how to talk to anyone, and it hurt, but as time went by and COVID started to become more worldwide, I decided to hit a reset button and I found my calling. If I didn’t grow out of my fear and become more comfortable talking, I wouldn’t be in this class. For me everything important I took away from this chapter, every word, every tip, every piece of advice is significant to me in a personal way because of how much I’ve struggled socially in my life, and I want to use my new abilities in public speaking to not make the same mistakes I did before. I want to use these tips to grow mentally and spiritually, and nothing is going to make me back pedal.
One of the things that took me by surprise while reading the first chapter, was how the person giving the speech, who I assume is called the orator, has to be able to respect all differences. Whether it be in culture or identity. This surprised me because I remember speeches that don’t understand what others are going through or they are trying to make a difference so they can fix that. I’ve never seen someone be able to respect both opinions. This is significant to me because whenever I’m talking about something, I only see it my way. I never consider both sides. If I ever have to prepare a speech for one argument over the other, I will try and hear both out. Something else that stood out to me was how I can use public speaking for something other than my career. The textbook talks about how people use public speaking as a way to solve issues that the world is facing. I came into this class believing that this could only help me with my dream of reaching out to the public about marine life. However, I realize that I can put my voice out there for problems that bother me and find a solution on how to solve them.
My biggest take away from chapter one was a speaker should try to understand someone else’s point of view or someone’s interests when they speak. If a speaker was to make a speech on Abortion rights, it’s key to understand that some people may not agree with my opinion, therefore, I should try to hold back my stronger opinions and then adjust my speech based on the audience, topic, and the occasion. Another thing that I noticed while reading was that public speaking can be related to speaking to one person. In a speech, I want make the audience interested in my speech, like I want to make someone I’m talking to interested in what I’m trying to say or express to them. To make a speech organized, there must be a compelling intro, a clear thesis, supporting ideas that support my claim and the idea of the speech, and then a strong conclusion that closes off my speech as well as restates my opinion on the topic or idea of the speech. A speaker wants their speech to be simple, rhythmic, repetitive, and more interactive. Repetition is used in a speech to emphasize ideas or thoughts that seem key to the topic. If a speech is more interactive that means that it includes how the speaker thinks and how the speaker feels.
Chapter 1 gives a good introduction of becoming a public speaker. It begins by addressing how public speaking is a vital life skill and this resonated with me as I will continue to practice public speaking if I continue my education in order to become a pharmacist. When you know how to public speak the reading addresses how you can become more involved in social issues that are occurring. If more people begin to speak up then things could be subject to change. Public speaking began in Athens in the fifth century B.C.E. and then Greek and Roman teachers developed a process that includes five parts for preparing a speech. To learn to speak in public you want to keep having conversations with people, it practices the delivery of your speech although it doesn’t take as much preparation. It is important to be able to write because you may need to write down some aspects of your speech and have it laid out efficiently. You have to make sure that the way you deliver your speech sounds pleasing to the audience and is interactive. It is especially important that the speech being delivered has a purpose or a message that you want to share to the audience once you are finished. The skill of public speaking will never go to waste and it is something that can be practiced all throughout someone’s life.
One thing that stood out to me significantly was about how public speaking is just an overall good skill to have in your life whether you plan to have presenting be a big part of your career or not. This is something I have already started to understand throughout my life as my dad is a ghost writer and writes and presents for a living so it is expected that he would do a lot of it so he knew to work on the skill in college. On the other hand, my mom is an occupational therapist and a woman in STEM and wasn’t planning to have to present too much in her career and yet, every few months she has to do research presentations as a part of her job and that is a great example of where this skill would come in handy in places you wouldn’t expect. I also thought it was important that the section talked about how these skills have been being utilized since the Roman Empire (so a very long time ago) which I think emphasizes the fact that this is a fundamental skill that people need to have. The other big point being that there are a variety of skills that go into public speaking, it’s not just about the speaking itself but also learning about your audience and learning to connect with them without talking one on one and also developing overall oral skills. And in the same idea as developing relationships with your audience I realized while reading the chapter that when you’re presenting it won’t always be the same as you adjust with the audience and groups you’re working with so things are always needing to be adjusted. I also thought the different skills used in oral presentation helped to differentiate speeches and essays more in my mind as they must have more flow and dynamics to them to create engagement.
It is important to learn and practice public speaking as it will allow me to communicate effectively with other people in everyday life. Public speaking will allow me to become a better citizen because I can listen and effectively engage with people of other cultures. This is important for me as I want to enter the medical field, so knowing how to properly communicate with people of other cultures is important. Going into the medical field I have to know how to properly communicate with patients and other doctors. Public speaking will expand my ability to communicate my differences and how to handle conversations when others provide me with their differences. Most importantly, public speaking will allow me to become confident in my ability to speak with others. Not only will it provide me with oral communication skills but also proper body language. This is extremely important in the medical field because I need to communicate with my body that I am expecting and open. By doing these skills that public speaking provides me I will be able to not only just communicate with my patients but as be able to connect with them on a more emotional level.
From the first chapter, the last page was what resonated with me the most, other than the fact that I thought it was interesting that we use the same speech components that Roman orators did in the fifth century B.C.E. The last page of the chapter refers to speech as an “interactive communication process”, where a speaker wants to send a message to an audience but must use mostly nonverbal feedback to get the point across. Thinking about a speech as a sort of non-verbal conversation between the speaker and the audience is not something that I ever thought about before reading this chapter. When thinking about it deeper, the constant coding and decoding is something that I do in everyday conversation, so for me to incorporate it into my speeches will help me formulate a more interesting message. If I as a speaker can see that an audience is disinterested, I am probably going to think about taking a different approach to my speech the next time around. This would relate to the term “audience-centered perspective”, which is to keep the values and interests of the audience at the forefront of the message. To do this might help me with the awkwardness of presenting, because if I believe the audience is interested in what I have to say, I will hopefully become more comfortable.
Public speaking is an important life skill, not only to enhance your career as a student, but also in the “real world”. Public speaking, helps you express your ideas and concerns. You are most passionate about as well as influence others. Public speaking is an asset that will last you many years to come when you are able to thoroughly give a presentation or speak up in group settings, you are showing confidence and leader ship, well public speaking can help you tremendously in a learning environment. They can also open doors for you job wise whether it’s an interview pitching in a deer or just making your voice heard in meetings.
Public speaking skills, mean that you can communicate clearly and effectively it is not just about giving speeches. It’s about being able to explain your thoughts in a way that’s easy to be understood for me. I use this skill in this class as well as many other other classes, especially in small group, communication, and presenting in front of the whole class (mass communication). Additionally, I use this in my place of work. I showed my skills during the interview process as well as between my peers and customers (Dyadic communication).
Being able to public speak will open more opportunities for people to make connections and accomplish their goals. It’s not a natural skill you are born with, public speaking takes time and practice to learn. It’s an important skill master and there is a lot more than just speaking that goes into having a good speech. Rhetoric stood out to me because it’s a word I haven’t heard. It refers to making an effective persuasive speech using invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Invention is the basis of your speech, it’s the idea or argument you use to make your speech. Arrangement is the organization of your idea using evidence and other arguments. Style is the language you use to speak to your audience. Memory is practicing the speech. Last is the actual delivery of the speech, your vocal and nonverbal behavior. Depending on the audience that you are speaking in front of, you can make adjustments to connect with them. The speech should connect with the audience and be inclusive so people can relate to what you are saying. Speeches are responses to rhetorical situations and should have a specific purpose or goal being couvade. The audience is the receiver of the message the speaking is telling and its up to the audience to interpret it in their own way. This is important because everyone has different perspectives on life and your speech could change the way they think.
The big takeaway I took from chapter one was how beneficial this class can be for me. Public speaking can help me gain a vital life skill, enhance my career, advance my professional goals, and help me find new opportunities for civic engagement. As a nutrition major, I am hoping to later in my career be able to speak to many people about my knowledge. Whether that means sports teams, a school, groups of students, etc.
I also learned that there are a lot of different aspects of public speaking that I was not fully aware of. Some of these terms include encoding, decoding, source, receiver, channel, noise, etc. Analyzing the audience is something that I think I have not done in the past. I knew that it was important, but I did not spend a lot of time doing that before giving presentations. After fully understanding all of the vocabulary words, I have been able to gain a clearer understanding of public speaking as a whole. This chapter was very significant for me because it provided me with the base of public speaking. Having this base will help me out in the class as well as in future public speaking.
My biggest takeaway from chapter one is how important the ability to public speak is on a day to day basis. It is vital for an individual to know how to publicly speak no matter what occupation or career path they might be on. It is a life skill everyone should have, and the text reassured me that I’m lucky to have a class for it. As someone entering the healthcare field as a mental health specialist, I need to be able to speak well, and although most of my day to day will be one on one and on a more personal level, I still need to be able to speak strongly and confidently. It will also help when interviewing for future jobs and positions. When it comes to being a student, this class and these skills will be necessary. Most classes require things like presentations, and I will feel even more comfortable doing them. The civic engagement portion caught my attention the most while reading this chapter. As a mental health and suicide prevention advocate, I do a lot of talking and being involved throughout my community. Before reading this section, it never occurred how much a public speaking class could benefit me even in that aspect of my life. It also was a very noticeable portion of the reading because, as a young woman in today’s political climate, we need to be able to stand up for our rights and defend things from going backwards.
Chapter one was full of reasons why becoming an effective public speaker is a great tool. The one that stuck out to me the most was that verbal communication skills and written communication skills were listed at fourth and fifth most important skills rated by employers. This catches my attention because communication skills is something that humans are continuing to get worse at. Unfortunately, due to social media and phones, the upcoming generations are set up to continue the downwards trend. To me, this means that it is more important than ever to work on my communication skills which is what I hope to achieve in this course. As noted in the book, “A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking” by Dan O’Hair, skills in public speaking will give anyone an unmistakable edge professionally while enhancing my career as a student. Another point I found interesting was that every audience member wants to feel like the speaker has their needs in mind. Therefore, as a speaker the goal should be to establish a genuine connection with the audience by establishing respect for everyone’s differences.
Overall chapter one in A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking I think the biggest takeaway is that public speaking is like the base or groundwork for being an active, involved citizen. It mentions that whether you like it or not, public speaking will be a requirement for pretty much your whole life, so it is better to be comfortable with it and grow to enjoy doing it instead of it making you miserable. Public speaking and good communication skills go hand and hand, and having solid communication skills makes you stand out to employers when you’re applying for basically any job. I found this quite significant because typically people think having the best work ethic will get them any job but really good communication is much higher on any employers list. This would stress most people out however, good communication is easy to achieve by simply practicing. Once you become comfortable with the skill of public speaking it becomes like second nature. I think people who are able to publicly speak generally command much more respect from groups, so it is a great skill to master. I connected to this chapter personally because in order to be successful as a pharmacist in the future I will need to master good communication skills otherwise I may not be as respected by colleagues and patients. I may also have to compete more to get a job without that skill.
Communication skills are often the most important skills that employers look for. Public speaking also has the power to effectively communicate important information or findings which is why it is so important to employers. However, it doesn’t always come naturally to most. As someone who resonates with this, reading through the first chapter gave some helpful information when speaking publicly. I have always enjoyed writing, and I realized through this chapter that this can be used when composing a speech. Organizing the speech is similar to writing an essay with which I have more experience. What stuck out to me is that effective communication includes easy-to-follow sentences and familiar words to help the audience understand and that creating a connection with the audience is important. Public speaking allows the opportunity to speak about topics we care about, it gives us a voice. I look forward to exploring this idea throughout the semester. Of the four types of communication, I am best with dyadic communication which are conversations between two people and small group communication and I want to become more comfortable with mass communication. Creating meaning through the speaker and audience is something that I would like to enhance through my speeches. I hope to use this information to help me become a better communicator.
After reading chapter 1 I think Public speaking is a form of communication that involves a speaker and audience. A message and a channel. Public speaking can also help you develop critical thinking, research, organization and preparation skills as well as enhance your confidence and credibility. Public speaking requires you to be audience centered which means that you keep the needs, value audits and wants of your listeners in mind.
Public speaking has a long history and tradition dating back to Asian creation back to Greece and Rome where it was used for civic and engagement education and entertainment.
Public speaking can be classified into different types of purposes such as informative, persuasive, ceremonial and special occasion speeches.
I play on the club hockey team I practice every tuesday and thursday.I had stopped playing for a few years so i wasn’t the best, however i loved playing no matter how bad i was. I’ve come a long way since September. I’m a better skater due to practicing every week. Games I’m able to understand my position better and able to skate faster than I was able to. Being a visual learner it helped having drills and scenarios in practice so i was prepared for games
The relationship between preparation and public speaking is huge. There is no possible way to create an effective, interesting speech without having first prepared. Whether it is practicing the speech several times, editing your own or having somebody else help edit the speech or trying find ways to keep the audience intrigued, or all of them, not taking these actions is detrimental to the professionality and effectiveness as the speech. My personal experience with public speaking has taught me this in several different instances. Probably the most pronounced version of this would be my experience in my high school’s drama club. Memorizing the lines was difficult for me and so was the interpretation of how I though each line should be delivered. Nearly every single time I say the lines out loud, I change them to see what I like the best, what my director likes the best, and how the audiences would react. I also tended to give speeches in grade school when I was with the student council for a few years. I would stumble over my words because they were prewritten speeches that I had no time to read beforehand. Had I gotten time to prepare, I have no doubts that those speeches would have been much cleaner.
Personally, one of the biggest takeaways from chapter one was that the speaker must understand their audience. Simply speaking to them about a subject and rambling on will not do. People selectively listen to what they want to hear and tend to not listen to topics that bore them, me included. Instead, the speaker must make their message relatable. If their audience is familiar with a certain topic, find a way to incorporate that into the message. They must connect on a deeper level rather than just one person talking at an audience. Another good point brought about in this first chapter is being able to not only listen but to also respect the feedback and opinions of your audience. Many people are less willing to hear out another opinion that contradicts their own. Instead, we could compare the two and the speaker could explain why they think that one particular option might be better without having to diss the audience’s views. This would create not only a more effective speech but also make the speech more welcoming to the audience, so they are not immediately turned away by the speaker completely disregarding their own opinions and speaking over them.
I posted the wrong journal entry up top. I am so so sorry.
Public speaking is an important and vital thing to anything after the class you take in college or even high school. Regardless if you don’t like it, it is still one of the most important things to practice and master. If you don’t like it but still practice before the performance repetitively it will help you be able to fake the confidence you need and help to convince people of your point. It is one of the most vital things to learn. Most employers value it more than anything else. It also can help you find a voice in social conflicts and helps better you as a citizen. It requires other things like research of both sides to make arguments and to help you be prepared for counter arguments. In order to properly deliver your speech you must first understand the canons of rhetoric. The canons of rhetoric explains how to give speech and in what order. Public speakers should try and discover the audience’s interests and opinions before fully delivering their speeches. It has much in common with english, such as an essay with having a strong thesis and supporting arguments as well as a convincing conclusion to really get your point across to readers and listeners. The only major differences between an essay and a speech is that a speech is more repetitive and simple, but it also is more inclusive of the audience. The best way to get your audience on your side of the argument is to make it more audience-centered and diverse to address all audiences.
Chapter One really drove home the idea that when it comes to public speaking, the audience is everything. It’s not just about the message; it’s about keeping the audience interested and having a good time. The chapter stresses that public speaking is a skill everyone has to work on—no one’s a natural at it. It’s kind of comforting to know that even experienced speakers have their struggles and get nervous. It makes you feel like you’re not alone in this. The chapter makes public speaking seem less intimidating and more like something you can get better at with practice. And I think this class will help with that a lot.
23 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 1”
Being able to public speak will open more opportunities for people to make connections and accomplish their goals. It’s not a natural skill you are born with, public speaking takes time and practice to learn. It’s an important skill to master and there is a lot more than just speaking that goes into having a good speech. Rhetoric stood out to me because it’s a word I haven’t heard. It refers to making an effective persuasive speech using invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Invention is the basis of your speech, it’s the idea or argument you use to make your speech. Arrangement is the organization of your idea using evidence and other arguments. Style is the language you use to speak to your audience. Memory is practicing the speech. Last is the actual delivery of the speech, your vocal and nonverbal behavior. Depending on the audience that you are speaking in front of, you can make adjustments to connect with them. The speech should connect with the audience and be inclusive so people can relate to what you are saying. Speeches are responses to rhetorical situations and should have a specific purpose or goal being couvade. The audience is the receiver of the message the speaking is telling and it’s up to the audience to interpret it in their own way. This is important because everyone has different perspectives on life and your speech could change the way they think.
What are my big takeaways from chapter one? I think some of the most important things I took away from chapter one were that public speaking is a huge asset that everyone should be able to use in their profession, employers love people who speak confidently, being able to speak up can make a difference, being able to research effectively is important, style, memory, delivery, public speaking takes practice, and public speaking is interactive. These are just a few of the many important things that I took away from chapter one. I think reading this chapter really helped me realize how important this public speaking class is and all the benefits that can come from it.
I also thought that the communication process image was very interesting and informative. Being able to look at how word of mouth travels and how important it is to get that mutual understanding/ shared meaning. I’ve had my fair share of public speaking and my mom taught me how. But reading into this chapter really adds another perspective as to how important it is to really be good at it. It’s common for public speaking to be anxiety producing, but that is something that I can get over with practice and time. I think this class, and reading more of this book will be good. There is so much important information that I’m excited to learn and practice.
Chapter 1 of the Pocket Guide to Becoming a Public Speaker focuses on the basics of public speaking. As well as the benefits that come along with having the skills to speak in a public situation. To start, the pocket guide claims that being able to publicly speak is a crucial skill for anyone who wishes to pursue any form of leadership position or simply have an active role in life. In my opinion, being able to fluently public speak can be influential and impressive. With, taking the public speaking class is strongly recommended in your undergraduate years, as it looks good for future job positions or to post-grad schools. This point is highlighted throughout the text. One of the major reasons I took this course was because it looks valuable to Vet schools. Additionally, the ability to prepare public speeches can also give you the skills that are needed in other college courses. Throughout my other classes, I will have to educate my peers through presentations and speeches, and hopefully, I will improve in these areas due to this class. Towards the end of chapter 1, the author focused on public speaking as communication. Public speaking is the fourth form of communication in humans. The speaker must deliver a speech to present people, while also keeping their attention and sending out their overall message. This is not an easy skill. All in all, I am excited for what this class has to offer and I am hoping to learn a few things while taking it.
For me, I want to take away parts of the chapter that will actually help me become a better public speaker because I have a drive like no other human being in existence. I am extremely passionate about performing, giving oral reports and presentations to large groups of people and speech and debate sessions in general. One of the biggest takeaways from this entire chapter that I consider extremely important are the different tips and factors the book gives you on how to become a better public speaker because in life, I want as much experience and advice on stuff I am super passionate about to become better and better. Right off the bat on the very first chapter of the book, the book states something about how you can gain an extremely vital life skill out of public speaking because of the fact that it gives the person performing a big sense of empowerment and confidence to do anything in life. You gain courage and a sense of motivation when you get up in front of a crowd of people you may or may not know and give a performance because you then feel like you can overcome so many obstacles and do many things you never would have thought you could possibly do. Furthermore, practicing and giving these performances enhances your entire career not only professionally, but also academically, or as a student because no matter where you go, you are always a student. A student doesn’t require you to be in a place of learning, if you are learning any sort of experience or facts about yourself in life, it doesn’t matter where you are because you are gaining knowledge about yourself you may not have known was there to begin with. In order to gain any traction in your professional career, you need to be able to be willing to learn in life, and it doesn’t need to be strictly in classes or in schools. You can learn things when you put your mind into it and you can gain many personal and civic engagement experiences if you put your mind to it. Secondly, another big takeaway from this chapter is that you can’t be afraid and let the anxiety and fear take over you. Fear is the biggest mind killer on the planet and if you let the fear consume your mind, you’ll be too afraid to do anything in life. That is not only an extremely important life lesson that everyone should follow, but it is also a big personal connection with me because of everything I have been through in my life. I am a 19 year old overweight kid with ADHD and I am also on the spectrum, so I have struggled with anxiety and self doubt my entire life, especially before COVID. Fear overtook my mind every single time that I tried to talk to anyone or do anything, and I was emotionally shut down and I didn’t know how to communicate properly. Every single person hated me because I was emotionally unstable and didn’t know how to talk to anyone, and it hurt, but as time went by and COVID started to become more worldwide, I decided to hit a reset button and I found my calling. If I didn’t grow out of my fear and become more comfortable talking, I wouldn’t be in this class. For me everything important I took away from this chapter, every word, every tip, every piece of advice is significant to me in a personal way because of how much I’ve struggled socially in my life, and I want to use my new abilities in public speaking to not make the same mistakes I did before. I want to use these tips to grow mentally and spiritually, and nothing is going to make me back pedal.
One of the things that took me by surprise while reading the first chapter, was how the person giving the speech, who I assume is called the orator, has to be able to respect all differences. Whether it be in culture or identity. This surprised me because I remember speeches that don’t understand what others are going through or they are trying to make a difference so they can fix that. I’ve never seen someone be able to respect both opinions. This is significant to me because whenever I’m talking about something, I only see it my way. I never consider both sides. If I ever have to prepare a speech for one argument over the other, I will try and hear both out. Something else that stood out to me was how I can use public speaking for something other than my career. The textbook talks about how people use public speaking as a way to solve issues that the world is facing. I came into this class believing that this could only help me with my dream of reaching out to the public about marine life. However, I realize that I can put my voice out there for problems that bother me and find a solution on how to solve them.
My biggest take away from chapter one was a speaker should try to understand someone else’s point of view or someone’s interests when they speak. If a speaker was to make a speech on Abortion rights, it’s key to understand that some people may not agree with my opinion, therefore, I should try to hold back my stronger opinions and then adjust my speech based on the audience, topic, and the occasion. Another thing that I noticed while reading was that public speaking can be related to speaking to one person. In a speech, I want make the audience interested in my speech, like I want to make someone I’m talking to interested in what I’m trying to say or express to them. To make a speech organized, there must be a compelling intro, a clear thesis, supporting ideas that support my claim and the idea of the speech, and then a strong conclusion that closes off my speech as well as restates my opinion on the topic or idea of the speech. A speaker wants their speech to be simple, rhythmic, repetitive, and more interactive. Repetition is used in a speech to emphasize ideas or thoughts that seem key to the topic. If a speech is more interactive that means that it includes how the speaker thinks and how the speaker feels.
Chapter 1 gives a good introduction of becoming a public speaker. It begins by addressing how public speaking is a vital life skill and this resonated with me as I will continue to practice public speaking if I continue my education in order to become a pharmacist. When you know how to public speak the reading addresses how you can become more involved in social issues that are occurring. If more people begin to speak up then things could be subject to change. Public speaking began in Athens in the fifth century B.C.E. and then Greek and Roman teachers developed a process that includes five parts for preparing a speech. To learn to speak in public you want to keep having conversations with people, it practices the delivery of your speech although it doesn’t take as much preparation. It is important to be able to write because you may need to write down some aspects of your speech and have it laid out efficiently. You have to make sure that the way you deliver your speech sounds pleasing to the audience and is interactive. It is especially important that the speech being delivered has a purpose or a message that you want to share to the audience once you are finished. The skill of public speaking will never go to waste and it is something that can be practiced all throughout someone’s life.
One thing that stood out to me significantly was about how public speaking is just an overall good skill to have in your life whether you plan to have presenting be a big part of your career or not. This is something I have already started to understand throughout my life as my dad is a ghost writer and writes and presents for a living so it is expected that he would do a lot of it so he knew to work on the skill in college. On the other hand, my mom is an occupational therapist and a woman in STEM and wasn’t planning to have to present too much in her career and yet, every few months she has to do research presentations as a part of her job and that is a great example of where this skill would come in handy in places you wouldn’t expect. I also thought it was important that the section talked about how these skills have been being utilized since the Roman Empire (so a very long time ago) which I think emphasizes the fact that this is a fundamental skill that people need to have. The other big point being that there are a variety of skills that go into public speaking, it’s not just about the speaking itself but also learning about your audience and learning to connect with them without talking one on one and also developing overall oral skills. And in the same idea as developing relationships with your audience I realized while reading the chapter that when you’re presenting it won’t always be the same as you adjust with the audience and groups you’re working with so things are always needing to be adjusted. I also thought the different skills used in oral presentation helped to differentiate speeches and essays more in my mind as they must have more flow and dynamics to them to create engagement.
It is important to learn and practice public speaking as it will allow me to communicate effectively with other people in everyday life. Public speaking will allow me to become a better citizen because I can listen and effectively engage with people of other cultures. This is important for me as I want to enter the medical field, so knowing how to properly communicate with people of other cultures is important. Going into the medical field I have to know how to properly communicate with patients and other doctors. Public speaking will expand my ability to communicate my differences and how to handle conversations when others provide me with their differences. Most importantly, public speaking will allow me to become confident in my ability to speak with others. Not only will it provide me with oral communication skills but also proper body language. This is extremely important in the medical field because I need to communicate with my body that I am expecting and open. By doing these skills that public speaking provides me I will be able to not only just communicate with my patients but as be able to connect with them on a more emotional level.
From the first chapter, the last page was what resonated with me the most, other than the fact that I thought it was interesting that we use the same speech components that Roman orators did in the fifth century B.C.E. The last page of the chapter refers to speech as an “interactive communication process”, where a speaker wants to send a message to an audience but must use mostly nonverbal feedback to get the point across. Thinking about a speech as a sort of non-verbal conversation between the speaker and the audience is not something that I ever thought about before reading this chapter. When thinking about it deeper, the constant coding and decoding is something that I do in everyday conversation, so for me to incorporate it into my speeches will help me formulate a more interesting message. If I as a speaker can see that an audience is disinterested, I am probably going to think about taking a different approach to my speech the next time around. This would relate to the term “audience-centered perspective”, which is to keep the values and interests of the audience at the forefront of the message. To do this might help me with the awkwardness of presenting, because if I believe the audience is interested in what I have to say, I will hopefully become more comfortable.
Public speaking is an important life skill, not only to enhance your career as a student, but also in the “real world”. Public speaking, helps you express your ideas and concerns. You are most passionate about as well as influence others. Public speaking is an asset that will last you many years to come when you are able to thoroughly give a presentation or speak up in group settings, you are showing confidence and leader ship, well public speaking can help you tremendously in a learning environment. They can also open doors for you job wise whether it’s an interview pitching in a deer or just making your voice heard in meetings.
Public speaking skills, mean that you can communicate clearly and effectively it is not just about giving speeches. It’s about being able to explain your thoughts in a way that’s easy to be understood for me. I use this skill in this class as well as many other other classes, especially in small group, communication, and presenting in front of the whole class (mass communication). Additionally, I use this in my place of work. I showed my skills during the interview process as well as between my peers and customers (Dyadic communication).
Being able to public speak will open more opportunities for people to make connections and accomplish their goals. It’s not a natural skill you are born with, public speaking takes time and practice to learn. It’s an important skill master and there is a lot more than just speaking that goes into having a good speech. Rhetoric stood out to me because it’s a word I haven’t heard. It refers to making an effective persuasive speech using invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Invention is the basis of your speech, it’s the idea or argument you use to make your speech. Arrangement is the organization of your idea using evidence and other arguments. Style is the language you use to speak to your audience. Memory is practicing the speech. Last is the actual delivery of the speech, your vocal and nonverbal behavior. Depending on the audience that you are speaking in front of, you can make adjustments to connect with them. The speech should connect with the audience and be inclusive so people can relate to what you are saying. Speeches are responses to rhetorical situations and should have a specific purpose or goal being couvade. The audience is the receiver of the message the speaking is telling and its up to the audience to interpret it in their own way. This is important because everyone has different perspectives on life and your speech could change the way they think.
The big takeaway I took from chapter one was how beneficial this class can be for me. Public speaking can help me gain a vital life skill, enhance my career, advance my professional goals, and help me find new opportunities for civic engagement. As a nutrition major, I am hoping to later in my career be able to speak to many people about my knowledge. Whether that means sports teams, a school, groups of students, etc.
I also learned that there are a lot of different aspects of public speaking that I was not fully aware of. Some of these terms include encoding, decoding, source, receiver, channel, noise, etc. Analyzing the audience is something that I think I have not done in the past. I knew that it was important, but I did not spend a lot of time doing that before giving presentations. After fully understanding all of the vocabulary words, I have been able to gain a clearer understanding of public speaking as a whole. This chapter was very significant for me because it provided me with the base of public speaking. Having this base will help me out in the class as well as in future public speaking.
My biggest takeaway from chapter one is how important the ability to public speak is on a day to day basis. It is vital for an individual to know how to publicly speak no matter what occupation or career path they might be on. It is a life skill everyone should have, and the text reassured me that I’m lucky to have a class for it. As someone entering the healthcare field as a mental health specialist, I need to be able to speak well, and although most of my day to day will be one on one and on a more personal level, I still need to be able to speak strongly and confidently. It will also help when interviewing for future jobs and positions. When it comes to being a student, this class and these skills will be necessary. Most classes require things like presentations, and I will feel even more comfortable doing them. The civic engagement portion caught my attention the most while reading this chapter. As a mental health and suicide prevention advocate, I do a lot of talking and being involved throughout my community. Before reading this section, it never occurred how much a public speaking class could benefit me even in that aspect of my life. It also was a very noticeable portion of the reading because, as a young woman in today’s political climate, we need to be able to stand up for our rights and defend things from going backwards.
JOURNAL 1
Casey Jordan
Chapter one was full of reasons why becoming an effective public speaker is a great tool. The one that stuck out to me the most was that verbal communication skills and written communication skills were listed at fourth and fifth most important skills rated by employers. This catches my attention because communication skills is something that humans are continuing to get worse at. Unfortunately, due to social media and phones, the upcoming generations are set up to continue the downwards trend. To me, this means that it is more important than ever to work on my communication skills which is what I hope to achieve in this course. As noted in the book, “A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking” by Dan O’Hair, skills in public speaking will give anyone an unmistakable edge professionally while enhancing my career as a student. Another point I found interesting was that every audience member wants to feel like the speaker has their needs in mind. Therefore, as a speaker the goal should be to establish a genuine connection with the audience by establishing respect for everyone’s differences.
Overall chapter one in A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking I think the biggest takeaway is that public speaking is like the base or groundwork for being an active, involved citizen. It mentions that whether you like it or not, public speaking will be a requirement for pretty much your whole life, so it is better to be comfortable with it and grow to enjoy doing it instead of it making you miserable. Public speaking and good communication skills go hand and hand, and having solid communication skills makes you stand out to employers when you’re applying for basically any job. I found this quite significant because typically people think having the best work ethic will get them any job but really good communication is much higher on any employers list. This would stress most people out however, good communication is easy to achieve by simply practicing. Once you become comfortable with the skill of public speaking it becomes like second nature. I think people who are able to publicly speak generally command much more respect from groups, so it is a great skill to master. I connected to this chapter personally because in order to be successful as a pharmacist in the future I will need to master good communication skills otherwise I may not be as respected by colleagues and patients. I may also have to compete more to get a job without that skill.
Communication skills are often the most important skills that employers look for. Public speaking also has the power to effectively communicate important information or findings which is why it is so important to employers. However, it doesn’t always come naturally to most. As someone who resonates with this, reading through the first chapter gave some helpful information when speaking publicly. I have always enjoyed writing, and I realized through this chapter that this can be used when composing a speech. Organizing the speech is similar to writing an essay with which I have more experience. What stuck out to me is that effective communication includes easy-to-follow sentences and familiar words to help the audience understand and that creating a connection with the audience is important. Public speaking allows the opportunity to speak about topics we care about, it gives us a voice. I look forward to exploring this idea throughout the semester. Of the four types of communication, I am best with dyadic communication which are conversations between two people and small group communication and I want to become more comfortable with mass communication. Creating meaning through the speaker and audience is something that I would like to enhance through my speeches. I hope to use this information to help me become a better communicator.
After reading chapter 1 I think Public speaking is a form of communication that involves a speaker and audience. A message and a channel. Public speaking can also help you develop critical thinking, research, organization and preparation skills as well as enhance your confidence and credibility. Public speaking requires you to be audience centered which means that you keep the needs, value audits and wants of your listeners in mind.
Public speaking has a long history and tradition dating back to Asian creation back to Greece and Rome where it was used for civic and engagement education and entertainment.
Public speaking can be classified into different types of purposes such as informative, persuasive, ceremonial and special occasion speeches.
I play on the club hockey team I practice every tuesday and thursday.I had stopped playing for a few years so i wasn’t the best, however i loved playing no matter how bad i was. I’ve come a long way since September. I’m a better skater due to practicing every week. Games I’m able to understand my position better and able to skate faster than I was able to. Being a visual learner it helped having drills and scenarios in practice so i was prepared for games
The relationship between preparation and public speaking is huge. There is no possible way to create an effective, interesting speech without having first prepared. Whether it is practicing the speech several times, editing your own or having somebody else help edit the speech or trying find ways to keep the audience intrigued, or all of them, not taking these actions is detrimental to the professionality and effectiveness as the speech. My personal experience with public speaking has taught me this in several different instances. Probably the most pronounced version of this would be my experience in my high school’s drama club. Memorizing the lines was difficult for me and so was the interpretation of how I though each line should be delivered. Nearly every single time I say the lines out loud, I change them to see what I like the best, what my director likes the best, and how the audiences would react. I also tended to give speeches in grade school when I was with the student council for a few years. I would stumble over my words because they were prewritten speeches that I had no time to read beforehand. Had I gotten time to prepare, I have no doubts that those speeches would have been much cleaner.
Personally, one of the biggest takeaways from chapter one was that the speaker must understand their audience. Simply speaking to them about a subject and rambling on will not do. People selectively listen to what they want to hear and tend to not listen to topics that bore them, me included. Instead, the speaker must make their message relatable. If their audience is familiar with a certain topic, find a way to incorporate that into the message. They must connect on a deeper level rather than just one person talking at an audience. Another good point brought about in this first chapter is being able to not only listen but to also respect the feedback and opinions of your audience. Many people are less willing to hear out another opinion that contradicts their own. Instead, we could compare the two and the speaker could explain why they think that one particular option might be better without having to diss the audience’s views. This would create not only a more effective speech but also make the speech more welcoming to the audience, so they are not immediately turned away by the speaker completely disregarding their own opinions and speaking over them.
I posted the wrong journal entry up top. I am so so sorry.
Public speaking is an important and vital thing to anything after the class you take in college or even high school. Regardless if you don’t like it, it is still one of the most important things to practice and master. If you don’t like it but still practice before the performance repetitively it will help you be able to fake the confidence you need and help to convince people of your point. It is one of the most vital things to learn. Most employers value it more than anything else. It also can help you find a voice in social conflicts and helps better you as a citizen. It requires other things like research of both sides to make arguments and to help you be prepared for counter arguments. In order to properly deliver your speech you must first understand the canons of rhetoric. The canons of rhetoric explains how to give speech and in what order. Public speakers should try and discover the audience’s interests and opinions before fully delivering their speeches. It has much in common with english, such as an essay with having a strong thesis and supporting arguments as well as a convincing conclusion to really get your point across to readers and listeners. The only major differences between an essay and a speech is that a speech is more repetitive and simple, but it also is more inclusive of the audience. The best way to get your audience on your side of the argument is to make it more audience-centered and diverse to address all audiences.
Chapter One really drove home the idea that when it comes to public speaking, the audience is everything. It’s not just about the message; it’s about keeping the audience interested and having a good time. The chapter stresses that public speaking is a skill everyone has to work on—no one’s a natural at it. It’s kind of comforting to know that even experienced speakers have their struggles and get nervous. It makes you feel like you’re not alone in this. The chapter makes public speaking seem less intimidating and more like something you can get better at with practice. And I think this class will help with that a lot.