Personal and Public Speech Skills Essay

In the eleven chapter of A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking, the authors talk about

During her TED presentation, Dr. Amy Cuddy’s use of voice was inconsistent. Her volume was easy to hear, but her words were difficult to understand due to the rate at which she spoke. Although Dr. Cuddy was articulate, she spoke incredibly fast, which could easily be misconstrued as mumbled speech. Her vocal variety could use improvement, but overall, it was not monotone the entire presentation. Dr. Amy Cuddy’s passion was evident in her tone; however, she faltered in the delivery of her speech. Rather than being an eloquent, smooth presentation, Dr. Cuddy repeatedly stumbled and used filler words. Moreover, some of her stumbling seemed to cause a few awkward pauses when she lost her place. Not all of Dr. Cuddy’s pauses were ill timed, though. She effectively paused when using visual aides, as well as when she recounted the story about one of her Harvard students.

Notwithstanding Treasure’s use of vocal coach jargon, he does not go so far as to assume his audience fully understands their meaning as they relate to the topic. He therefore provides definitions and oral examples that connect listeners to the idea. As Treasure used lists, supporting points, and definitions, he does fail to provide much testimony regarding the success of these tactics – other than simply stating what is positive and negative. This is likely a sign of understanding his audience’s common knowledge. Clearly there is a tremendous amount of practice and awareness involved in aptly utilizing the tools Treasure discusses, far and beyond splattering them within one’s speaking. Treasure notes this perfectly, as he states: “First of all, I think absolute honesty may not be what we want. I mean, my goodness, you look ugly this morning. Perhaps that's not necessary. Tempered with love, of course, honesty is a great thing. But also, if you're really wishing somebody well, it's very hard to judge them at the same time. I'm not even sure you can do those two things simultaneously,” (2013). The same rings true with the use and understanding of register (depth), timbre (smoothness), prosody (melody of voice), pace, pitch, and

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.

The speech that I will be discussing was given by Dr. Robert Kleinhenz who is the Chief Economist at the LA Economic Development Corporation. He was discussing the the recent and future trends at the port of Long Beach and Los Angeles. He used a PowerPoint which had multiple graphs and important information that related to the topic of his speech. Throughout the speech he would use hand gestures, and had a good voice. While comparing his speech to other speeches I saw that his was different from others but all had some things in common they were epideictic, had multiple numbers and statistics. His included all this and had other components such as the power point.

The audience has made up their mind on David?s presentation in the initial 7-10 seconds in front of the high school staff (Bretag, Crossman and Bordia 2009, p. 195). After five minutes of David?s presentation; he noticed that most of the audience was looking bored on his sales pitch. What turned out badly with David's presentation is that he did not have a clear structure in his speech with appropriate signposts and transitions to keep his audience on track (Laws 2000, p. 67). He did not interact, and a lack of rapport with his audience. David forgets that he also communicate without speaking (Bretag et.al., 2009, p. 204). David was not able to convey his approaches through his body language, and non-verbal communication such

The audience generally understands me. I may have some hesitations or unnatural pauses when I speak.

It is my opinion that people have strong public speaking abilities naturally. I think a major portion of this comes from appearing confidant when you give a speech, combined with appearing passionate when giving a speech. If someone goes to give a speech and does not appear like they want to give the speech I feel that they rob them self of giving a truly spectacular speech. This is relevant as I with every speech I try to interact with my audience near the beginning of my speech as a strong introduction ropes people in and once I have their attention I have faith I can keep it until the end of my speech.

In the presentation skills classes that our firm coaches, we begin with what we call our "Benchmark" exercise. Participants, one at a time, stand in front of the group and tell us about themselves, speaking for no more that a minute or so. We tell them that we'll be observing objectively what they do with their eyes, what they do with their hands, and how they stand when they speak.

Something very common is how long these speeches can be. If it took me 15 minutes to accurately describe my business I don't think I could ever really be a success. What we want to be able to do is break down our business

After reviewing my persuasive speech, I personally believe my public speaking has improved. When watching this speech and comparing it to past ones, I noticed a great amount of improvement with my overall confidence in the way I spoke. This then made my audience actually enjoy my speaking because they too felt the energy I was giving off. All throughout the presentation, I spoke clear and for the most part without hesitation. Also, I met the visual aid requirements for this particular speech, and I believe they were introduced appropriately. Similar with my past presentations, I was focusing more on my notecards than my audience. Although, I do notice that it is still better than my first presentation of the semester. Likewise, I stumbled

I hate when public speakers do any of the following: are too specific, speak too fast, or apologize. The most annoying thing a public speaker is get down to every detail. This applies to any branch of public speaking; audience members attentions spans are only enough to grasp the big picture. This can come from a poor presentation or a distracted speaker. When a speaker talks too fast, it is hard to grasp what they are saying. It also appears to their audience that they are nervous and overall gives a negative vibe. Apologizing is another cringe worthy mistake. It halts all emotion and focuses on the mistake a speaker made whether they are late, unprepared, or mispronounced a word.

Throughout my entire childhood and even part of my adulthood, I have been a performer. I sung in choirs, performed in theater ensembles, and even sung solos. Because I have had so much experience on the stage, most people wouldn’t suspect that I am terrible at speaking in front of people to the point of nearly throwing up. I’ve never had that problem with singing or with speaking other people’s words like I do in theater, but I always have this problem when it comes to voicing my own ideas in front of an audience. Deep down, I know I’m not an unintelligent person, but I fear that if I say the wrong thing, other people will think I’m not smart enough to listen to. Calming my nerves for this speech was especially difficult this time around because

The fear of public speaking is greater than the fear of death itself for the average American, and I was no exception. Succeeding in a public speaking course over at the local community college was by no means an easy feat. Throughout the majority of the semester, I struggled to speak well in front of my fellow classmates in the classroom: I was spending too much time reading off of my speaking outline and thus failed to maintain sufficient eye contact. This meant that my speeches were far from being presented extemporaneously (which combines the careful preparation and structure of a manuscript presentation with the spontaneity and enthusiasm of an unrehearsed talk).

In the past, I have given speeches, but never in the style of how we did it in this class. Previous speeches I have given have been read aloud directly from a paper I had written. I have never given a speech that required memorization or speaking based off of a key-word outline, so this experience was very new to me.