Public Speaking Class : Overcoming My Fears

Public speaking is a must needed skill in today’s business environment that, much like any skill, requires discipline to master. Public speaking classes have many benefits, including gaining confidence through practice to advance professional goals (O'Hair, Stewart, & Rubenstein, 2015). Additionally, oral and written communication skills are the most highly sought after skills from organizations seeking to hire college graduates (O’Hair et al., 2015). The Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) is a self-assessment consisting of 34 questions regarding communicating with others (CSU-Global, 2016). This paper will explore the results of my PRPSA self-assessment, analyze the results, and opine on how the results of the assessment may

The fear of public speaking can prevent people from attending events that focus on individual attention and can limit the opportunities required for the progress of their career. According to Pillay (2016), “Fear is your brain's alarm system that is triggered by sudden motions, sounds, or anything that could threaten your safety or survival (para, 2). Fear is not always bad. Primitive reaction to fear is to either take flight, meaning avoid the situation that causes fear or to fight, meaning stay and face the situation to the best of one’s ability. There are mainly two reasons why people fear speaking, first is when they are not prepared and second is that are too concerned about themselves

When it comes to public speaking, I tend to fumble my words. I do not always communicate my thoughts as I would like. In the past, I was hindered from public speaking due to my intense stage fright. Oddly enough, I am heavily involved at my church, and they have asked me to speak on several occasions over the course of this year. I did not ask for this, but I suppose it is God’s calling for me. I preached my first sermon at age seventeen in front of over 700 people. Shortly after, my high school asked me to speak in chapel for over 400 students around my age. Those are a few examples that have gotten me to this point, today. I have had very little professional instruction with public speaking, so I anticipate learning a great amount this year, including: word flow, different tactics, memorization, and gaining more confidence. I do not enjoy public speaking but I feel it is necessary for my career. I truly am a living, breathing paradox.

Public speaking is the number one fear in the world, which shows that the number one fear is really a deep fear of rejection from the connection of others. The narrator in “Typical First Year Professor”, who had a fantastic education and experience, has public speaking issues. She explains how her fear physically affects her in, “Ten minutes before my first class, I run to the bathroom and vomit. I’m afraid of public speaking, which

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.

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

I was a very shy and quiet kid compared to others growing up. Submerged among my peers and lost in the crowd, I felt more at ease and found myself mostly at home where the attention drifted far away from me. However, when teachers asked me to speak before the class or answer questions, uneasiness flooded me as though I stood before hundreds of strangers. While speaking, my different bonds of friendship to each and every person sitting in the room disappeared as apprehension controlled me and my voice shook with fright. This fear of public speaking came from my experiences during the first few years elementary school. When I attended Mission Park Elementary School, in 5th grade unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy reading. After a few months in class

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.

Claudia Stepanovich gave me a message through power point that I completely agree with and that is that public speaking is not a skill you are born with; it is something that you have to learn and get better at. This message spoke to me, because I am extremely nervous about public speaking and I always avoid it when I can; when I can’t avoid it I always get nervous and start to stutter and forget information.

positive experience, feeling different, and being the center of attention. People who are new to

Public speaking is a fear faced by over 75% of the Earth’s population. In fact, 5.3 million of Americans today face social phobia and speech anxiety. Commonly referred to as “glossophobia”, speech anxiety is fear people face when delivering speeches and/or lectures to large audiences. The article, “Conquer Fear of Public Speaking through Emotional Intelligence”, written by Gleb Tsipursky, provides people with expert advice on how to conquer their speech anxiety. As someone who presents ideas and projects on a daily basis, I have started to conquer my speech anxiety. When I first moved to Hillsborough in 2013, I was petrified when delivering my student council speech. No one knew me, and I only had a scant amount of friends. I patently remember being extremely

A worst fear to hit above all aside from death: public speaking. Having to talk in front of an audience otherwise in my words, the talking itself. I don’t recall on how I became “that one quiet kid” in school, but it’s a personality that I sometimes, irritate myself also. It’s like having an invisible barrier, it shields on what might seem dangerous ahead. After a while, the curiosity grows yet, the barrier blocks leaving the interest unsatisfied. Although, it’s not always like that, it’s very different at home. It’s more like I’m the one who needs to be hushed from the talking. From my perspective, talkative at home while, at school the silent treatment. So, what is the problem here? Freshman to Junior, I stayed the same. Some students even

During my academic journey, public speaking has always been an extreme fear. When I enrolled at Thomas Nelson Community College, the first question that I asked was do I have to take Public Speaking. My experience with talking in front of people resulted in hot pepper colored face, blacking out, dizziness, or nausea. In Spring of 2016, I went ahead and enrolled in Professor Fotinos’s class just to get it over with. As class day one approached, fear and anxiety started to rise. When the first speech day came, I volunteered to go with the first group so that I was done and the anxiety wasn’t building up. As I was doing my speech, I thought of what Professor Fotinos told the class to do and calmed down. The more speeches that I did, presenting

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

I used the search engine Google with the search term “public speaking fear” and it brought up a great deal of interesting websites pertaining to public speaking. The first one I decided to peruse was 5 Tips to Reduce the Fear of Public Speaking on Psychology Today’s website. I learned that public speaking is the number one fear in America, while the fear of death is second in line. This means that we’re more afraid of speaking in public than we are of dying. I also learned five tips on how to reduce public speaking nervousness.