Glossophobi Personal Narrative

There is no question that after giving about four speeches, I have become a much better overall public speaker. In the beginning of the semester, I would tend to get nervous during some of my speeches and consequently the delivery of my speech would be greatly affected. If I had made a mistake, my level of nervousness would drastically increase and I wouldn’t know how to correct it. Although today I have improved on these aspects. Normally in order to control my nerves I try to think as positively as possible. This is critical because when I start to think even a little bit negatively then I severely hurt my chances of giving a good speech. Instead today, my main priority is to stay very confident and tell myself that I’m going to perform fine.

Public speaking used to be a daunting task that I would try to avoid as often as possible, often I would be the last to present a project and would refrain myself from having to read outloud. When I would speak my head would fill with thoughts of how other were perceiving me and how easy it would be to mess up. With this nervous mentality my speaking was stuttered and confusing.

If any class I’m taking requires a speech that must be presented in front of others, I immediately dread the due date for that assignment. While the student, whose turn is before mine, is reciting his or her speech, I cannot help but feel my heart race and the palms of my hands begin to sweat. No matter how many times I take a deep breath and tell myself to relax, I still feel anxious. My anxiety towards public speaking has been happening to me since as long as I can remember. I was eager to take the PRPSA questionnaire to determine where on the scale my level of anxiety towards public speaking falls. To my expectations, my results for the questionnaire, a 98, was right where I figured it would be. I found my score to be accurate because yes,

One of my more vivid experiences of public speaking was when I was taking a class at a community college. While taking this class I would often have to give speeches and demonstrations in front of the class. As I was waiting for my turn to give my very first speech, I was very certain that I would have no problems at all, it would a piece of cake, or so I thought. All of a sudden, I hear my name being called as it was my turn to deliver a knockout performance, but as I stood in front of that small class of people I just blanked out. An overwhelming amount of anxiety came over of me. I could feel my heart beginning to race and my hands starting to sweat. I could not for the life of me remember what I was going supposed say. In addition, the

One beautiful Monday morning, everything was calm (for now). I woke up very fresh, excited, and ready to go to school! It was a nice and sunny day, the best way to start a week. I woke up at 6:00 a.m and had a lot of time to get ready for the school day. After that I wore my clothes, did my hair, and brushed My teeth. Next, I had breakfast that included cereal, milk, and apple juice. My sister and I went outside and saw that my dad was waiting for us to get in the car, so that he can take us to school.

As I walked out of my dorm that morning for my 9am class, I checked my schedule to see where I needed to go. My first class was public speaking in room 232. My stomach instantly dropped. The calmness I once felt left my body in a rush. Public speaking was my worst fear. I stuttered and mumbled and shook each time I entered a crowded room. Speaking in front of a whole classroom has never been on my bucket list. I fretfully continued my journey to room 232. I attempted to give myself a pep talk along the way to help calm my nerves, but nothing was helping. I told myself that this was not

This paper will go over the three main goals I would like to achieve in my public speaking career. My first goal is to improve upon the structure of my speeches to ensure that the topics that I discuss are in an order that will make sense to the audience. My second main goal I have for improving my public speaking skills is to improve on my confidence before, during, and after my speech. Finally, my last goal is to raise my delivery skills when I am giving my speech to assure the audience that I am confident and that I am a credible person. Together, these goals will help improve my public speaking skills.

I have terrible stage freight. I would love to overcome my fear of speaking to and in front of large groups of people. I have taken a public speaking class in the past and it helped a little so I believe taking another public speaking class will be helpful along with practicing breathing techniques.

I always stress myself out before, and during these experiences. I'd love to say that having my first oral-only presentation got me over my fear of public speaking. But it didn't. Today, though, I can say that I remember the days leading up to the presentation much better than I can remember actually presenting. While this experience didn't change my fears, it did change the way I will go into future presentations or public speaking requirements. Maybe the nerves going into something like this will die down slightly if I think about how short the thing I'm dreading will actually be. I think that this presentation experience sort of sums up my first semester of high school. I came into this school terrified. Even though there have been struggles in the time I have been here, they haven't been nearly as bad as I initially

From the moment I clicked on the test I had chills because I knew that I have average self-esteem. My test results agreed with the view I have on myself. They stated that I did not have a low nor high self-esteem, but that there was room for improvement. I knew this because the way I view myself changes everyday. For example, on Thursday I felt low, but on Wednesday I felt superb about myself. I believe that I should work on improving my self-esteem because if I do then I will have better relations with the people that are closest. The results from this test got me thinking about how my self-esteem affected my personality. I took the personality test both days and to my surprise, I got two different results. The day I had high self-esteem my personality resulted to be the Loyal Friend, and the day I had low self-esteem my results showed that my personality was The Shy Worrier. I agree with these results because looking back at the past my personality shifts from day to day. For example, last Friday my mother asked me if I wanted to go to my cousin’s birthday party the next day, and I said that I was not in the mood to go to a party. The day of the party she asked me again and because I felt good I stated that I wanted to go. Now I realize that I have to work on my self-esteem because it affects major parts of who I

In the first speech for this class, my main goals were to gain confidence to voice my ideas and use speech to make a difference in peoples’ lives, and to practice overcoming my speech anxiety therefore be able to use my nerves to focus myself. Overall, I believe that I did improve in both of these areas as a result of information from the book, mini speeches, and the larger speeches.

For more minor cases of public speaking anxiety, preparation and practice are common methods of overcoming the problem. Just like many tasks, the more able a person feels about completing the task, the less anxiety they experience. This sense of being ready and able to complete a task is achieved by being prepared. Practice is also important, since this makes the individual

This really helped me to find my confidence and taught me how to get rid of the nerves that comes with public speaking. There is always room to improve and through the speech classes I took throughout high school I feel like I improved in my speaking skills. One of my strengths is being good at preparation. Preparation is a very important factor in making a good speech. Knowing your audience, your topic, and knowing how to organize a speech properly is something I find to be a strength. Another strength of mine that I previously stated is knowing how to get through any nerves that I have. My weaknesses of public speaking include my newly developed stutter, talking too fast, and not speaking super clearly. With speeches I am much better at putting the speech together rather than actually giving

This public speaking course has taught me alot by helping me to become a better person and by growing me into something I never thought I could be.Speaking out loud always made me nervous, even when I was just reading a sentence from a book to some of my closest friends. Even though we are not even halfway through the school year, I have learned and improved so much. One of the first things this class had taught me was all about body language and how to present yourself to make an impression. Little things that we do can make us seem small, such as slouching, crossing our arms and legs, and looking at the ground, while others make us appear big, for instance, stretching, sitting up straight, and taking up alot space. Properly presenting yourself is important and can make a big difference in your life, whether it is for a job interview, meeting new people, or speaking in front of your peers. I have also learned to control and overcome my nervous habits, for example, playing with my hair, rocking back and forth, and moving my hands. Habits like these show the audience that you are nervous and it may turn their attention away from your speech and onto your actions. The audience-speaker relationship was also a great thing to learn. This relationship shows cause and effect, for example, when you lose the attention of your audience you may begin to second guess yourself leaving you to becoming nervous and self conscious. You then may start to panic and your speech may become a

For as long as I can remember, public speaking has always been one of my greatest weaknesses. Whether it’s a simple in-class presentation or a speech in front of an auditorium filled with people, I can barely get my words out from the anxiety and