I would definitely say that I still get very nervous around public speaking. The night before our second speech I had a nightmare that I totally forgot what to say and that I wasn’t prepared at all. However, I certainly think my nerves have decreased significantly. We didn’t do our presentation until the second half of class, meaning there was a long period of time where we were sitting and waiting to get ready to go. The first time we gave speeches this would’ve made me incredibly nervous and overthink the whole presentation, but this time I didn’t feel nearly as anxious going into it. I think this is in part because we felt very prepared but also in part because I am slowly starting to feel more comfortable speaking in front of this group. Again, this could be because I’m becoming more comfortable in my public speaking skills but I think it also has a bit to do with just getting more comfortable with this specific group of people. There is an interesting dynamic between the groups of people in this class, most of us didn’t know each other before taking this course but repeatedly doing something very challenging each week with each other creates a cool relationship and sense of trust. Going into the next speech I definitely want to make a point to practice just as much, if not more, than I did with this second speech because it definitely made me feel much more confident going into it. Something I haven’t done yet but would definitely like to do is present my speech in front of another person in my life, outside of class time, so that I can get another, one-on-one reflection on my speech and presentation skills. There is no question I have grown my confidence as a person and a presenter since the beginning of this class but there is certainly still room for improvement.
When I did my first speech, I felt like my confidence had grown. Before I went up I thought I would do terrible and somehow end up going quiet because I wouldn’t know what to say next. Once I finished presenting my speech, however, I got a lot of positive feedback and it made me feel good about myself and confident for the next speech. It helped me feel more confident to speak up in front of the class because no one was judgemental in the way I spoke. I don’t fear public speaking as much as I had before. I still do get anxious about going up and talking to a huge crowd but I’ve come to understand that the audience is not as focused on me as I am on myself. Even though I hadn’t practiced a lot for the first speech, I made myself an outline and went off of that and whatever came off the top of my head. It worked well but for my next speech, I want to practice more so that I won’t have to improvise when things get tough. For the second speech, it showed me the importance of practice and rehearsal. I want to be able to practice more and have others engaged in my speech so that they don’t zone out during it. These two speeches helped my confidence grow and helped me become more comfortable with the people in our classroom.
After delivering two speeches, I feel like I still have progress to make toward becoming a stronger public speaker. For both speeches, I spent a lot of time practicing to the point where I had it memorized, but when I was standing up in front of everyone, I panicked that I didn’t know it. However, I have seen some improvements in which usually leading up to a speech, I feel my heart racing the entire time. With Speech 2, I didn’t feel my heart racing until I stood up in the front of the room. I also felt more comfortable standing in front of everyone because I feel like we have gotten more comfortable with each other and understand that we all have our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to public speaking. I do feel more confident in my abilities to deliver a speech and know that I am capable but I still want to see improvements as we move toward our next speech. As much as I practice, I want to deliver it to a group of friends rather than just saying it to myself in my room. I think this may help me feel more comfortable speaking in front of other people. In addition, practicing without an outline may help build trust in myself. I hope that by the next speech, I will be more confident.
From the beginning, I always thought I was a good public speaker. This opinion of myself was slightly changed though when I was put in front of a room of people I did not know. I’m not sure if it was a comfort thing or the fact that I knew everyone at my high school, so speaking in front of them was not hard. With this being said, I believe the second speech went way better than the first most likely because I was more comfortable with the people I was talking in front of. I have spent the last 6 or so weeks getting to know them. I realized the people I was speaking in front of were very friendly, and they were also just as nervous as I was. Additionally, I am very grateful I have been taught the proper way to write speeches. I wish I had this planning process and outline when I had to speak at graduation or the many leadership conferences. As we move toward our next project, I will continue to remind myself I can do hard things and speak in front of all these people I met a month or so ago. Furthermore, I will practice more and find my rhythm so that when the final speech day comes I do not freeze up like I did the first time.
Even after giving just two speeches I feel like my feelings about public speaking have changed. I was so nervous to have to take the class but now I am not nearly as nervous as I was. I liked how the first speech was short to start us off and give us an idea of what it would be like to speak in front of a class. I learned from that speech that most people were feeling pretty similar to me and it was okay to feel nervous but nothing was going to happen to me. After that speech we gave positive feedback to everyone so that made me feel good about what I had said. Going into the second speech I was more excited because it was collaborative which, for me, took away some of the nerves. I liked how we had to do a dry run for the second speech because it allowed us to get some constructive feedback and change some things that were not working. After giving that speech I definitely felt more confident in my ability to prepare for a speech and deliver a speech. Even after the first speech I felt more confident once it was over with. I have learned that preparation really helps me to feel the most confident before the speech. Going into the third speech I do feel confident that I am able to put together a meaningful speech. I definitely think that I could always improve and want to try to prepare even more than I did for the second speech. I believe that that would give me the best results and especially since this one is alone again I will only have my ideas to work from. I want to make sure that the speech flows well and practice it out loud frequently. Overall, I have learned a lot about public speaking so far and it is an important skill to have. There are so many different ways to deliver a speech and organize a speech which allows it to be more versatile and makes it more interesting.
In the first speech, I was more nervous than in the second. I do not know if that is because I had a partner, so all the attention was not necessarily on me, or if it was because I am becoming more comfortable speaking. Either way, I am getting better at the process of creating a speech, and as much as I hated watching myself speak, the recording of the dry run did help me to see my body language and the parts of the speech that needed more practice. I think the anxiety around standing in front of a crowd alone is still there and something I need to work on not showing in my next speech alone. However, I have come to see that the more practice I do the less nervous I will be. I like getting constructive feedback from my peers. It helps me to better see things that I may not think of or not necessarily be aware of. For our next project, I will continue to move through the process of developing my speech, rehearsing it often, and asking my peers for feedback. I will focus on making my words clear and looking up at the audience more. I tend to keep my head down or try to avoid eye contact when it comes to crowds, but I want to change that. I want to continue to work on speaking confidently without showing the anxiety I feel.
As I said before, in journal #12, I feel I have become a little more confident in public speaking. Now that we have done two speeches I feel more comfortable, especially in front of the class. We are all going through the same thing so it helps to know we have the same experiences and thoughts about it! Something that I will continue to do for future speeches is rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. I think having a partner was a lot easier because I had someone else holding me accountable and not just myself. While rehearsing I am going to work on giving the speech without the outline at all. I think this helped me to memorize the speech a little bit better so that it’s me talking more rather than reading it to people. Yes, when doing this I do have to sometimes peek at the outline but I would try to not do as much as possible. Something that I won’t do for future speaking projects is procrastinate rehearsing it. Like I said before I noticed a huge difference when my partner and I rehearsed a lot at different times rather than a couple of times before the speech.
One of the biggest takeaways I have gotten from public speaking so far is to be comfortable with who I am and what I am saying. From the past two speeches, I have noticed that my ability to control my breathing has gotten much better. In speech one, I went kind of fast and I would get out of breath very quickly, however, with speech two I took my time and remembered to breathe. I have noticed that my confidence in my ability to speak has improved and that I am starting to have confidence before I even go up for the speech. For the upcoming presentation, I want to continue working on controlling my breathing and pacing myself. I even noticed when I would time myself on practice runs by myself I would get almost a minute longer than I get for my regular run in front of everyone. This shows how my nerves make me talk faster, which makes me get out of breath faster. I want to continue improving my breathing but I also want to work on my body awareness and language. I have a hard time using my body language to draw people into the speech.
After delivering 2 speeches and putting in the work for each, I still look at public speaking with similar anxiety however now I see it as more of a needed anxiety. I can now see how everyone experiences the same struggles when speaking publicly, even if they claim to be “good public speakers”. This brings a sense of comfort for me going forward in this class. My sense of confidence was definitely much higher during the second speech delivery. This could be because I had completed the first speech and knew what to do to make the delivery of the second speech go more smoothly, or it could be because I had a partner for the second speech making it so I didn’t feel alone and like everyone’s attention was focused solely on me. Going forward with my next speech I will try to take the confidence level I have established and try to grow it even more to feel as comfortable as I can with the delivery of speech 3. Another thing I will do similarly for this speech is draft multiple outlines for my speech. I feel like starting with a more scripted outline and then working on condensing it from there helps to learn your speech and eventually not even need to read off the outline as much. Overall there aren’t many things I’d do differently for the next speech besides working to rehearse alone instead of with a partner. Another thing I’d do differently is to try to practice delivering my speech in front of a group of people to get a feel for how it will be delivered to the class.
Journal 13
After delivering my first two speeches I feel really good about how I delivered them and the things I did them on. They weren’t as bad as I thought they were gonna be. I have always been fine with public speaking when it comes to talking in front of a class or maybe one of my sports teams but talking in front of big crowds like a graduation speech or just something like that I would definitely get a lot more nervous and probably not want to do it. I have never really liked doing it though because I always thought I would say something stupid or just something that wasn’t right. I would also say my confidence was not always the best when I was up there speaking. I think by doing these last two speeches my confidence has definitely gone up. I think this is because all the practice I have done is living up to the speeches I have had to deliver. For the last two speeches that I am going to have to deliver, I think I am going to keep a lot of the stuff the same. I’m going to keep using the skills that I have been taught. I’m also going to practice my speeches so I can really nail them when I’m up there speaking.
I feel miles ahead in terms of confidence and speech knowledge then I was before giving the first speech in week two. I definitely look at public speaking much different now then I once did. I certainly don’t dread it as much, and I learned how much rehearsal helps. My mind used to view public speaking as a certain form of public humiliation because I was insecure of my abilities and knew that I might stumble and get nervous. Now I view myself as someone who has an upper hand when it comes to giving presentations in class because I have the knowledge and experience. Moving towards my next public speaking project I will make sure to do a lot of things the same as I did for the partner project. Such as rehearsing multiple nights a week and studying up on what subtle improvements I could make each time. If I could do something differently, I would work on making my outline a little bit more efficient so it’s easier to graze over while I am presenting in case I do need to reference it. Other than that, I am going to follow the process of my partner project very similarly because it went very well.
After delivering two speeches I have noticed many changes in myself. When delivering the first speech, my outline was more like a script to which I held onto with my life because I was so nervous about messing up my words and making a fool out of myself in front of a class I met only the week prior. After delivering my second speech, my outline was more bullets and I didn’t need to hold onto it for comfort in fear of messing up. A few things I noticed I still need to work on is definitely moving around less as it can be distracting to other people, so maybe when it comes to presenting having sort sort of squish ball or even a pencil just to fidget with in my hand where nobody can see might help with moving around less. I have noticed a significant improvement in my sense of confidence between the two speeches but nothing I am completely confident in not fixing even more. With this being said I know now I could easily get up in front of our class and give my speech without the fear of messing up and being judged for it but I think if I were to go outside of the classroom and give a speech to a different large audience I don’t think I would be able to do it without going back to my “um” and “like” and moving around a bunch sense of comfort speaking.
During the process of creating and presenting the first 2 speeches, I have noticed that I feel comfortable if I’m doing something that is a little bit out of my comfort zone. Making slime in front of the class was something that I never imagined myself doing, which I think made me more comfortable with the idea. In my mind, I told myself people will be paying more attention to the props rather than me messing up a few words or stuttering in my speech. Also, I felt that for my first speech I put a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect whereas with the second speech I told myself to just go with the flow and whatever happens, it will be ok. I feel that as I continue to give more speeches and talk in front of more people, I need to be nicer to myself mentally and realize that it’s ok to mess up the little things and that I just need to practice and work on a few things before I do anything. I need to really brainstorm and work on the layout of the speech rather than just writing the simple information down. For the next speech, I’m not going to put as much pressure on myself as the first speech. I’m going to really work on brainstorming ideas and working on a good outline which will help me when I present, I need to also make sure I practice a lot more to work on getting words out of my mouth and not saying words such as like or as.
Now that I’ve given two speeches, one that was bad and one that went a lot better, I can say I have gained a little more confidence in public speaking. I think what helped the most about the last one was not having to be up there alone. Also, having a partner leads to being held accountable for actually practicing the speech and making time to try and make the speech the best it can be. When I did my speech alone I didn’t practice because there was no one there to hold me accountable. I think another thing that adds to my recently gained confidence is that I am more comfortable with the class. I feel like I know everyone a little better and it makes it easier to talk in front of them. I think overall my view on public speaking has changed a bit. I’m not as nervous to do it as I was on the first day of class. I definitely don’t love it, but I don’t hate it as much.
Now for what I plan on doing for this next speech. I plan on definitely practicing it a lot. I think it may be helpful to practice in front of some people or even just one person. I definitely am going to practice it while recording myself so I can see what parts I need to work on more. I know this next speech won’t be easy because it is a very personal speech and emotional. With that being said, I think I will get out of this speech as much as I put in.
Now that I’ve completed two speeches, it has most definitely impacted how I approach public speaking. The first speech was very anxiety-inducing, as there was only one week of preparation and I was still trying to get to know the environment of the classroom. The second speech helped break down the stress of giving a presentation in front of the class. Working with a partner helped get comfortable with my classmates, as I learned they are also nervous public speakers. I found that the more that I practice my speeches, and put myself in front of my peers, the more comfortable I am doing so. Now, I feel more confident when speaking in the classroom because I know the practice that I have put in has prepared me for the moment. Repeated practice is something that I will carry with me into the next assignment to help me build confidence and calm my nerves.
At this point, after looking at how I prepared and felt during my first speech and this entire process for the second one, I noticed a lot more stress and prepping for it. I believe that usually, I am someone who is quick to take on the leadership role and I try my hardest to be a strong team player, but these past few weeks have been the most stressful of my life. I think I have learned that public speaking is not as easy as I thought it would be. I didn’t expect to encounter so much planning and strict criticism, which I know are big parts of planning, but I didn’t expect everything to be as hardcore as it has been. I think I have noticed that when it comes to the idea of public speaking, I am someone that works best on my own because even though I am a team player, it is tough to come up with an idea that me and partner can both agree on and actually be confident in. When I am on my own, I have access to any creative freedom, and I can do what I think is best for my performance. I guess I also put everyone else before me in partnerships or group project all the time, so that causes me to lose focus on MY end of the bargain and makes me not put in 100% into my performance. I want to try to take a step back during group projects going forward so that I don’t make the same mistake, I want to be more flexible, and I want to continue using my creative freedom to my benefit but making room for improvement and others suggestions. If I do this, I should be good to go.
This public speaking process has opened my eyes to the fact that I will never ever voluntarily speak in front of a group of people. I understand the the importance of having people do it, I understand the amount of work and preparation needed in order to deliver an impactful speech. I just also understand myself. I know as soon as I graduate with my doctorate in pharmacy I will promptly move up north, to a rural town in or around Greenville, Maine. To live a quiet life helping my future patients get the medication they need to stay as healthy as possible. I’m going to have a library and a farm of animals inside my house, it’s going to be peaceful and amazing. Back to the main part of the journal entry; my confidence, I can portray and look like I’m confident. I’m pretty fantastic at it, to tell the truth, given everything I deal with on a daily basis. It’s a mask, you just have to learn how to wield it effectively and not let your nerves show. Which is not easy, I’ve had practice, but I still, at times, have difficulties. But speaking about something I’m passionate about like books, card games, crocheting, my humongous sea/lake glass collections…I could go on for hours without being nervous at all. I think the most important thing I’ve learned is that I have to be invested and knowledgeable about what I’m speaking about, or I’m worried that everyone is judging me and knows more about what I’m talking about than me. For the next public speaking project I will be doing most of the same things, outlining, scripting, memorizing, and more outlining. I will make sure to try practice more, with my limited amount of free time I haven’t been able to practice much, but I’m thinking I could pause my audiobook for a few minutes and practice my speech on the 35-40 minute drive to campus every day.
Looking back at the two speeches I delivered I think there were some things I already did better than my first speech. I think that during the second speech, having another person up there with you takes the load off you a little bit and lets you take some of the pressure off yourself. WhileI think that is true, I think regardless of that I found myself to be more confident. I found myself to be confident in the things that I am saying as well as how I hold myself while presenting. Which in speech 1 I don’t think I did any of those things. Moving on to our third speech, I would say I have more confidence to deliver a good speech but I think that now I am back to myself. Those nerves may come back. For our next speech I need to really focus on making sure everything is organized in a way where all my points are going to be made and I don’t miss anything that will make my speech sound disorganized. I also need to allow myself time to get a couple practices to be sure that I can confidently go up there and deliver my speech up to what I think are good standards.
The process that we’ve taken to become public speakers in class has definitely changed my views on speaking as a whole. The kind of public speaking that I’m used to is more “unprepared” for lack of better words. We are expected to answer random questions without any preparation of how to answer or what the question will be, so all of the rehearsing and background work is new to me. I also have done conferences and speeches where I know what to say, but I never have used a script or an outline while doing my speeches. I think all of the things we have done in this class will not only help me succeed throughout the semester, but also in all future endeavors where I will have to publicly speak.
Since, I have delivered 2 speeches, one by myself and one with a partner. And after rehearsing many times and receiving a lot of feedback I think I started to understand public speaking, how it works and how I should be giving speech and which manner. After going through these many things, my confidence before the first speech and after the second speech has changed a lot, it started to increase. As we started to moving toward our major speech i think i will do what i have been doing since the first speech such as rehearsing lots of time and other thing but thing i want to improve is my outline of my speech which is major aspect of the speech.
After the delivering of speeches one and two, I feel as though my skills of engagement and clarity have increased. However I have not noticed significant change in my confidence levels. This is true especially for the anticipation leading up to speech three. This speeches topic means a lot to me, and I want to make my friend proud of it, even though she’ll probably never read it. We have only known each other for a few months so we do not have nearly as long of a history has most people have. I thought it would be much easier to talk about but there is just so much to cover, and I get too excited, which in the end, makes me very jumpy and I fidget even worse. Perhaps during rehearsing the speech I can work on standing still and organization. Other than that I think a lot of my skills have improved including not talking as fast and making more eye contact. I am quite proud of that, and I know they still need a lot of work. I think that over time it will get much better. I suppose the only way to improve my skills is to practice. That is where I personally think I stand.
21 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 13”
I would definitely say that I still get very nervous around public speaking. The night before our second speech I had a nightmare that I totally forgot what to say and that I wasn’t prepared at all. However, I certainly think my nerves have decreased significantly. We didn’t do our presentation until the second half of class, meaning there was a long period of time where we were sitting and waiting to get ready to go. The first time we gave speeches this would’ve made me incredibly nervous and overthink the whole presentation, but this time I didn’t feel nearly as anxious going into it. I think this is in part because we felt very prepared but also in part because I am slowly starting to feel more comfortable speaking in front of this group. Again, this could be because I’m becoming more comfortable in my public speaking skills but I think it also has a bit to do with just getting more comfortable with this specific group of people. There is an interesting dynamic between the groups of people in this class, most of us didn’t know each other before taking this course but repeatedly doing something very challenging each week with each other creates a cool relationship and sense of trust. Going into the next speech I definitely want to make a point to practice just as much, if not more, than I did with this second speech because it definitely made me feel much more confident going into it. Something I haven’t done yet but would definitely like to do is present my speech in front of another person in my life, outside of class time, so that I can get another, one-on-one reflection on my speech and presentation skills. There is no question I have grown my confidence as a person and a presenter since the beginning of this class but there is certainly still room for improvement.
When I did my first speech, I felt like my confidence had grown. Before I went up I thought I would do terrible and somehow end up going quiet because I wouldn’t know what to say next. Once I finished presenting my speech, however, I got a lot of positive feedback and it made me feel good about myself and confident for the next speech. It helped me feel more confident to speak up in front of the class because no one was judgemental in the way I spoke. I don’t fear public speaking as much as I had before. I still do get anxious about going up and talking to a huge crowd but I’ve come to understand that the audience is not as focused on me as I am on myself. Even though I hadn’t practiced a lot for the first speech, I made myself an outline and went off of that and whatever came off the top of my head. It worked well but for my next speech, I want to practice more so that I won’t have to improvise when things get tough. For the second speech, it showed me the importance of practice and rehearsal. I want to be able to practice more and have others engaged in my speech so that they don’t zone out during it. These two speeches helped my confidence grow and helped me become more comfortable with the people in our classroom.
After delivering two speeches, I feel like I still have progress to make toward becoming a stronger public speaker. For both speeches, I spent a lot of time practicing to the point where I had it memorized, but when I was standing up in front of everyone, I panicked that I didn’t know it. However, I have seen some improvements in which usually leading up to a speech, I feel my heart racing the entire time. With Speech 2, I didn’t feel my heart racing until I stood up in the front of the room. I also felt more comfortable standing in front of everyone because I feel like we have gotten more comfortable with each other and understand that we all have our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to public speaking. I do feel more confident in my abilities to deliver a speech and know that I am capable but I still want to see improvements as we move toward our next speech. As much as I practice, I want to deliver it to a group of friends rather than just saying it to myself in my room. I think this may help me feel more comfortable speaking in front of other people. In addition, practicing without an outline may help build trust in myself. I hope that by the next speech, I will be more confident.
From the beginning, I always thought I was a good public speaker. This opinion of myself was slightly changed though when I was put in front of a room of people I did not know. I’m not sure if it was a comfort thing or the fact that I knew everyone at my high school, so speaking in front of them was not hard. With this being said, I believe the second speech went way better than the first most likely because I was more comfortable with the people I was talking in front of. I have spent the last 6 or so weeks getting to know them. I realized the people I was speaking in front of were very friendly, and they were also just as nervous as I was. Additionally, I am very grateful I have been taught the proper way to write speeches. I wish I had this planning process and outline when I had to speak at graduation or the many leadership conferences. As we move toward our next project, I will continue to remind myself I can do hard things and speak in front of all these people I met a month or so ago. Furthermore, I will practice more and find my rhythm so that when the final speech day comes I do not freeze up like I did the first time.
Even after giving just two speeches I feel like my feelings about public speaking have changed. I was so nervous to have to take the class but now I am not nearly as nervous as I was. I liked how the first speech was short to start us off and give us an idea of what it would be like to speak in front of a class. I learned from that speech that most people were feeling pretty similar to me and it was okay to feel nervous but nothing was going to happen to me. After that speech we gave positive feedback to everyone so that made me feel good about what I had said. Going into the second speech I was more excited because it was collaborative which, for me, took away some of the nerves. I liked how we had to do a dry run for the second speech because it allowed us to get some constructive feedback and change some things that were not working. After giving that speech I definitely felt more confident in my ability to prepare for a speech and deliver a speech. Even after the first speech I felt more confident once it was over with. I have learned that preparation really helps me to feel the most confident before the speech. Going into the third speech I do feel confident that I am able to put together a meaningful speech. I definitely think that I could always improve and want to try to prepare even more than I did for the second speech. I believe that that would give me the best results and especially since this one is alone again I will only have my ideas to work from. I want to make sure that the speech flows well and practice it out loud frequently. Overall, I have learned a lot about public speaking so far and it is an important skill to have. There are so many different ways to deliver a speech and organize a speech which allows it to be more versatile and makes it more interesting.
In the first speech, I was more nervous than in the second. I do not know if that is because I had a partner, so all the attention was not necessarily on me, or if it was because I am becoming more comfortable speaking. Either way, I am getting better at the process of creating a speech, and as much as I hated watching myself speak, the recording of the dry run did help me to see my body language and the parts of the speech that needed more practice. I think the anxiety around standing in front of a crowd alone is still there and something I need to work on not showing in my next speech alone. However, I have come to see that the more practice I do the less nervous I will be. I like getting constructive feedback from my peers. It helps me to better see things that I may not think of or not necessarily be aware of. For our next project, I will continue to move through the process of developing my speech, rehearsing it often, and asking my peers for feedback. I will focus on making my words clear and looking up at the audience more. I tend to keep my head down or try to avoid eye contact when it comes to crowds, but I want to change that. I want to continue to work on speaking confidently without showing the anxiety I feel.
As I said before, in journal #12, I feel I have become a little more confident in public speaking. Now that we have done two speeches I feel more comfortable, especially in front of the class. We are all going through the same thing so it helps to know we have the same experiences and thoughts about it! Something that I will continue to do for future speeches is rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. I think having a partner was a lot easier because I had someone else holding me accountable and not just myself. While rehearsing I am going to work on giving the speech without the outline at all. I think this helped me to memorize the speech a little bit better so that it’s me talking more rather than reading it to people. Yes, when doing this I do have to sometimes peek at the outline but I would try to not do as much as possible. Something that I won’t do for future speaking projects is procrastinate rehearsing it. Like I said before I noticed a huge difference when my partner and I rehearsed a lot at different times rather than a couple of times before the speech.
One of the biggest takeaways I have gotten from public speaking so far is to be comfortable with who I am and what I am saying. From the past two speeches, I have noticed that my ability to control my breathing has gotten much better. In speech one, I went kind of fast and I would get out of breath very quickly, however, with speech two I took my time and remembered to breathe. I have noticed that my confidence in my ability to speak has improved and that I am starting to have confidence before I even go up for the speech. For the upcoming presentation, I want to continue working on controlling my breathing and pacing myself. I even noticed when I would time myself on practice runs by myself I would get almost a minute longer than I get for my regular run in front of everyone. This shows how my nerves make me talk faster, which makes me get out of breath faster. I want to continue improving my breathing but I also want to work on my body awareness and language. I have a hard time using my body language to draw people into the speech.
After delivering 2 speeches and putting in the work for each, I still look at public speaking with similar anxiety however now I see it as more of a needed anxiety. I can now see how everyone experiences the same struggles when speaking publicly, even if they claim to be “good public speakers”. This brings a sense of comfort for me going forward in this class. My sense of confidence was definitely much higher during the second speech delivery. This could be because I had completed the first speech and knew what to do to make the delivery of the second speech go more smoothly, or it could be because I had a partner for the second speech making it so I didn’t feel alone and like everyone’s attention was focused solely on me. Going forward with my next speech I will try to take the confidence level I have established and try to grow it even more to feel as comfortable as I can with the delivery of speech 3. Another thing I will do similarly for this speech is draft multiple outlines for my speech. I feel like starting with a more scripted outline and then working on condensing it from there helps to learn your speech and eventually not even need to read off the outline as much. Overall there aren’t many things I’d do differently for the next speech besides working to rehearse alone instead of with a partner. Another thing I’d do differently is to try to practice delivering my speech in front of a group of people to get a feel for how it will be delivered to the class.
Journal 13
After delivering my first two speeches I feel really good about how I delivered them and the things I did them on. They weren’t as bad as I thought they were gonna be. I have always been fine with public speaking when it comes to talking in front of a class or maybe one of my sports teams but talking in front of big crowds like a graduation speech or just something like that I would definitely get a lot more nervous and probably not want to do it. I have never really liked doing it though because I always thought I would say something stupid or just something that wasn’t right. I would also say my confidence was not always the best when I was up there speaking. I think by doing these last two speeches my confidence has definitely gone up. I think this is because all the practice I have done is living up to the speeches I have had to deliver. For the last two speeches that I am going to have to deliver, I think I am going to keep a lot of the stuff the same. I’m going to keep using the skills that I have been taught. I’m also going to practice my speeches so I can really nail them when I’m up there speaking.
I feel miles ahead in terms of confidence and speech knowledge then I was before giving the first speech in week two. I definitely look at public speaking much different now then I once did. I certainly don’t dread it as much, and I learned how much rehearsal helps. My mind used to view public speaking as a certain form of public humiliation because I was insecure of my abilities and knew that I might stumble and get nervous. Now I view myself as someone who has an upper hand when it comes to giving presentations in class because I have the knowledge and experience. Moving towards my next public speaking project I will make sure to do a lot of things the same as I did for the partner project. Such as rehearsing multiple nights a week and studying up on what subtle improvements I could make each time. If I could do something differently, I would work on making my outline a little bit more efficient so it’s easier to graze over while I am presenting in case I do need to reference it. Other than that, I am going to follow the process of my partner project very similarly because it went very well.
After delivering two speeches I have noticed many changes in myself. When delivering the first speech, my outline was more like a script to which I held onto with my life because I was so nervous about messing up my words and making a fool out of myself in front of a class I met only the week prior. After delivering my second speech, my outline was more bullets and I didn’t need to hold onto it for comfort in fear of messing up. A few things I noticed I still need to work on is definitely moving around less as it can be distracting to other people, so maybe when it comes to presenting having sort sort of squish ball or even a pencil just to fidget with in my hand where nobody can see might help with moving around less. I have noticed a significant improvement in my sense of confidence between the two speeches but nothing I am completely confident in not fixing even more. With this being said I know now I could easily get up in front of our class and give my speech without the fear of messing up and being judged for it but I think if I were to go outside of the classroom and give a speech to a different large audience I don’t think I would be able to do it without going back to my “um” and “like” and moving around a bunch sense of comfort speaking.
During the process of creating and presenting the first 2 speeches, I have noticed that I feel comfortable if I’m doing something that is a little bit out of my comfort zone. Making slime in front of the class was something that I never imagined myself doing, which I think made me more comfortable with the idea. In my mind, I told myself people will be paying more attention to the props rather than me messing up a few words or stuttering in my speech. Also, I felt that for my first speech I put a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect whereas with the second speech I told myself to just go with the flow and whatever happens, it will be ok. I feel that as I continue to give more speeches and talk in front of more people, I need to be nicer to myself mentally and realize that it’s ok to mess up the little things and that I just need to practice and work on a few things before I do anything. I need to really brainstorm and work on the layout of the speech rather than just writing the simple information down. For the next speech, I’m not going to put as much pressure on myself as the first speech. I’m going to really work on brainstorming ideas and working on a good outline which will help me when I present, I need to also make sure I practice a lot more to work on getting words out of my mouth and not saying words such as like or as.
Now that I’ve given two speeches, one that was bad and one that went a lot better, I can say I have gained a little more confidence in public speaking. I think what helped the most about the last one was not having to be up there alone. Also, having a partner leads to being held accountable for actually practicing the speech and making time to try and make the speech the best it can be. When I did my speech alone I didn’t practice because there was no one there to hold me accountable. I think another thing that adds to my recently gained confidence is that I am more comfortable with the class. I feel like I know everyone a little better and it makes it easier to talk in front of them. I think overall my view on public speaking has changed a bit. I’m not as nervous to do it as I was on the first day of class. I definitely don’t love it, but I don’t hate it as much.
Now for what I plan on doing for this next speech. I plan on definitely practicing it a lot. I think it may be helpful to practice in front of some people or even just one person. I definitely am going to practice it while recording myself so I can see what parts I need to work on more. I know this next speech won’t be easy because it is a very personal speech and emotional. With that being said, I think I will get out of this speech as much as I put in.
Now that I’ve completed two speeches, it has most definitely impacted how I approach public speaking. The first speech was very anxiety-inducing, as there was only one week of preparation and I was still trying to get to know the environment of the classroom. The second speech helped break down the stress of giving a presentation in front of the class. Working with a partner helped get comfortable with my classmates, as I learned they are also nervous public speakers. I found that the more that I practice my speeches, and put myself in front of my peers, the more comfortable I am doing so. Now, I feel more confident when speaking in the classroom because I know the practice that I have put in has prepared me for the moment. Repeated practice is something that I will carry with me into the next assignment to help me build confidence and calm my nerves.
At this point, after looking at how I prepared and felt during my first speech and this entire process for the second one, I noticed a lot more stress and prepping for it. I believe that usually, I am someone who is quick to take on the leadership role and I try my hardest to be a strong team player, but these past few weeks have been the most stressful of my life. I think I have learned that public speaking is not as easy as I thought it would be. I didn’t expect to encounter so much planning and strict criticism, which I know are big parts of planning, but I didn’t expect everything to be as hardcore as it has been. I think I have noticed that when it comes to the idea of public speaking, I am someone that works best on my own because even though I am a team player, it is tough to come up with an idea that me and partner can both agree on and actually be confident in. When I am on my own, I have access to any creative freedom, and I can do what I think is best for my performance. I guess I also put everyone else before me in partnerships or group project all the time, so that causes me to lose focus on MY end of the bargain and makes me not put in 100% into my performance. I want to try to take a step back during group projects going forward so that I don’t make the same mistake, I want to be more flexible, and I want to continue using my creative freedom to my benefit but making room for improvement and others suggestions. If I do this, I should be good to go.
This public speaking process has opened my eyes to the fact that I will never ever voluntarily speak in front of a group of people. I understand the the importance of having people do it, I understand the amount of work and preparation needed in order to deliver an impactful speech. I just also understand myself. I know as soon as I graduate with my doctorate in pharmacy I will promptly move up north, to a rural town in or around Greenville, Maine. To live a quiet life helping my future patients get the medication they need to stay as healthy as possible. I’m going to have a library and a farm of animals inside my house, it’s going to be peaceful and amazing. Back to the main part of the journal entry; my confidence, I can portray and look like I’m confident. I’m pretty fantastic at it, to tell the truth, given everything I deal with on a daily basis. It’s a mask, you just have to learn how to wield it effectively and not let your nerves show. Which is not easy, I’ve had practice, but I still, at times, have difficulties. But speaking about something I’m passionate about like books, card games, crocheting, my humongous sea/lake glass collections…I could go on for hours without being nervous at all. I think the most important thing I’ve learned is that I have to be invested and knowledgeable about what I’m speaking about, or I’m worried that everyone is judging me and knows more about what I’m talking about than me. For the next public speaking project I will be doing most of the same things, outlining, scripting, memorizing, and more outlining. I will make sure to try practice more, with my limited amount of free time I haven’t been able to practice much, but I’m thinking I could pause my audiobook for a few minutes and practice my speech on the 35-40 minute drive to campus every day.
Looking back at the two speeches I delivered I think there were some things I already did better than my first speech. I think that during the second speech, having another person up there with you takes the load off you a little bit and lets you take some of the pressure off yourself. WhileI think that is true, I think regardless of that I found myself to be more confident. I found myself to be confident in the things that I am saying as well as how I hold myself while presenting. Which in speech 1 I don’t think I did any of those things. Moving on to our third speech, I would say I have more confidence to deliver a good speech but I think that now I am back to myself. Those nerves may come back. For our next speech I need to really focus on making sure everything is organized in a way where all my points are going to be made and I don’t miss anything that will make my speech sound disorganized. I also need to allow myself time to get a couple practices to be sure that I can confidently go up there and deliver my speech up to what I think are good standards.
The process that we’ve taken to become public speakers in class has definitely changed my views on speaking as a whole. The kind of public speaking that I’m used to is more “unprepared” for lack of better words. We are expected to answer random questions without any preparation of how to answer or what the question will be, so all of the rehearsing and background work is new to me. I also have done conferences and speeches where I know what to say, but I never have used a script or an outline while doing my speeches. I think all of the things we have done in this class will not only help me succeed throughout the semester, but also in all future endeavors where I will have to publicly speak.
Since, I have delivered 2 speeches, one by myself and one with a partner. And after rehearsing many times and receiving a lot of feedback I think I started to understand public speaking, how it works and how I should be giving speech and which manner. After going through these many things, my confidence before the first speech and after the second speech has changed a lot, it started to increase. As we started to moving toward our major speech i think i will do what i have been doing since the first speech such as rehearsing lots of time and other thing but thing i want to improve is my outline of my speech which is major aspect of the speech.
After the delivering of speeches one and two, I feel as though my skills of engagement and clarity have increased. However I have not noticed significant change in my confidence levels. This is true especially for the anticipation leading up to speech three. This speeches topic means a lot to me, and I want to make my friend proud of it, even though she’ll probably never read it. We have only known each other for a few months so we do not have nearly as long of a history has most people have. I thought it would be much easier to talk about but there is just so much to cover, and I get too excited, which in the end, makes me very jumpy and I fidget even worse. Perhaps during rehearsing the speech I can work on standing still and organization. Other than that I think a lot of my skills have improved including not talking as fast and making more eye contact. I am quite proud of that, and I know they still need a lot of work. I think that over time it will get much better. I suppose the only way to improve my skills is to practice. That is where I personally think I stand.