How I've Improved My Speaking Skills and Giving Speeches

Working in small groups is either welcomed with excitement by individuals or dreaded with apprehension. However, group work is a fact of life. Whether in a classroom setting or workforce collaborating within small groups are experiences many will interact at some point or regularly participate in. According to the 2010 third edition of the book A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking by Dan O’Hair, Hannah Rubenstein, and Rob Stewart, small groups can be defined as “a collection of between three and twenty people” (321). Small groups, though, are interesting in that while a small collection of people communication role is imperative to the success of the group, but also demonstrates individual’s behaviors when interacting. During small groups, they way in which the member communicates with each other illustrates how individuals perform by taking on specific roles as well as exposing their leadership style. During participation in group work, there is a set of expectations individuals hold for themselves as well as members of the group. Individuals will subconsciously take on a specific role as to how they will help the group achieve their goal, whether that be cohesively or disconnected. Subsequently, the recognition of these acquired roles provides an insight into the individual’s corresponding leadership style. Depending on roles and leaderships style group work can be a consistency of either individual challenging or complimenting one another.

Improvements can help any person no matter their experience with public speaking. I need to practice timing my animations with my PowerPoint. In terms of improvements, I need to be able to introduce a brief history of the

Also, there were some difficulties that came about during my speech, one of those difficulties being inadequate direct eye contact. During the length of the speech there were not many time where I looked up and talked directly to my classmates. Something I could have done better to improve this would be to practice even more to ensure that I wouldn’t need to look at my notecards and slides as often. I also could have practiced when to look up and have a successful glance at my audience to have improved eye contact.

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.

- What I did well during my speech was looking at my audience. I was always facing my audience and have a quick view to my PowerPoint. I believe I did well on these aspects because I wasn’t like the other students always looking at the PowerPoint and not even facing the audience. I know this is a public speaking class and the point is to talk to our audience while facing them.

The third chapter of a Pocket Guide to Public Speaking is about anxiety in relations to

According to Peter Doolittle's Ted Talk working memory is limited. There is only so much our working memory can take away from the information we learn. This is why it is important for me to construct my speech in such a way that it helps keep my audience engaged and leaves them remembering the topic long after my speech is over. I could do this in a couple different ways. I plan on engaging my audience by sharing a story connected to the topic early on to make it personal to the audience and keep their attention on the topic throughout the speech. Besides telling a story I will arrange my main points into clear patterns that help my audience follow my speech easily. This means I will make sure my main points are easily understood by the audience.

I did a lot of preparation before my actual speech. First, I planned the outline several times and made many changes to it. Then, I would look at myself in a mirror, and started talking about the topic. I simply divided the speech into three parts during my preparation; intro, instruction on how to set up a skateboard and conclusion. I practiced each part several times, and I would try to present the whole speech again and again. Also, I presented the speech to my

I have given quite a few speeches in the last few years, even at such a young age. Though I was proficient when I started this class, I have improved even more in these last six weeks. My strengths definitely fall in my organization and content. However in my delivery I often lack in vocal variety and volume, mostly due to nerves, and I often rushing my conclusions. Due to the rank I have in organizations like the National Honor Society, I will often have to speak in public or address my peers so I plan on continuing to practice for my speeches out loud and hopefully I will improve.

As an overview of my speech, I didn’t put enough effort on my speech that I would liked to have done. After finishing my outline I only look at my paper a few times just going over what I would be saying for my speech. The reason that I didn’t spend too much time practicing with my speech was because I was very busy where as my other classes are demanding when it comes to time manages meant. As a result for not practicing, I have notice a huge difference on my second speech in comparison to my first. Whereas my first speech I had spent the proper amount of time going over the material and practicing my rehearsal with my girlfriend (Cassie). Conversely to my first speech I felt confident on what I wanted to talk about, but one huge difference was that I didn’t practice my rehearsal. As a result of not putting the time to practice my speed I had verbal clutter and not being

My preparation for my speech was simple. First, I used the method of cognitive restructuring, which “transforms negative self-talk into positive self-talk (Schwartzman, 2014, pg. 37). I used positive self-talk and a positive self-concept of myself to help boost my confidence for giving my speech. I also used systematic desensitization to reduce communication apprehension, which describes the feeling of anxiety about oral communication with others, according to Schwartzman (2014), to harness my nervousness and anxiety about presenting the speech in front of an audience (pg. 35). In addition to this, I rehearsed my introductory speech several times to make sure I was ready to present in front of my class and used the concept of visualization

When I gave my speech, I felt confident. I don't exactly have a fear of public speaking- anyone who knows me could tell you that. I looked out to the entire audience for the entire speech because I didn't use note cards. I also kept my energy up throughout the speech which helped keep the audience focused on the speech. I made some jokes, and the audience laughed at most of them, which was a good feeling. But because I failed to fully memorize the speech, there were times that I was left trying to figure out the exact phrasing, which took away from the performance slightly, even though I don't believe it was that big of a deal. I also made a pun by ending my speech with "My speech is all ogre now" and very few people caught it. This was probably due to my poor

I have shown huge improvements on delivering speeches. This process helped me to understand different kinds of speech and their expectations. The only way I can think of improving is that to get myself be confortable and to do more preparations. Therefore, the mistakes I made in this will help me to improve on the next

My plan is to rehearse my speeches more, and to become comfortable with speaking to strangers in a professional manner. I believe if I become more confident when speaking to strangers one on one, it will increase my confidence speaking to multiple strangers. This will improve my stance, and could help me speak more slowly and clearly. Increasing the amount of times I rehearse a speech before presenting it may help me remember what I need to say. This could decrease the amount of times I must look at my notes, and help me make more eye contact with my

Throughout life we express ourselves through words. The way we present ourselves through speech says a lot about our character. The way one speaks to others can jeopardize the amount of respect and trust others have for them. From the way one pronounces a word to their posture can affect the way an audience interprets what is being said. Personally, I am not confident with my speaking skills at this point. I would like my audience to fully comprehend the concepts or facts that I would present to them. In order to do so I must improve my speaking skills I believe that a problem most people, including myself, have when giving speeches is facing an audience. Just looking out to an audience of a mere ten