Speech Class: The Do's and Don'ts Of Public Speaking.

Author:  Sabrina Blasini

This is a detailed description of my experience as a Miami Dade college student and everything I've learned amongst my classmates and more importantly, what we taught each other through a presentation-styled crash course on all the tricks and tips there are to public speaking as a whole. 

 For starters, I have taken about three different speech classes in my time as a student from high school through college, and each time I leave having learned something new that I didn't learn from the previous class. Throughout the years I have learned to view public speaking as an art form within itself, it's a performance and skill required in nearly any and every career path. With the right tips and tricks along with a lot of practice, you can elevate your speech from just speaking to a group of people and information being lost in translation, to impacting a group of people.

The impact that a well-executed speech can have on a group of people can shift opinions, change perspectives, and personalities, or offer some form of confidence that all relies on you (the speaker) and how you implement certain skills into your thesis. With the right guidance, I am certain anyone can curate a great speech and confidence can carry you all the way through to encourage your audience to create change. 

My Relationship With Stage Fright

I am no stranger to stage fright by any means. Stage fright plays a huge role in why so many people absolutely despise public speaking. I completely understand how easy it is to format a speech on index cards and spend hours on preparation beforehand, only to completely freeze once faced with the judging eyes of an audience that's all ears waiting to see what you have in store. The fear of stuttering or seeming uninformed on your own topic is an awful feeling that is harder to shake off for most. Luckily I had access to different outlets that guided me on how to conquer that fear. FBLA, Speech and debate, and business classes are a few things that I have partaken in to get over that phobia of public humiliation. However, this year I took a class that was a little different than what I'm used to.


Speech Class On Zoom?

Yes! Although unconventional, I did choose to take my speech class over Zoom. There were so many benefits to choosing the online version of a class that requires a lot of presenting, definitely avoiding the most complicated part of presenting which is standing in front of a group of people, not only that, I have the opportunity to replay classes and review on my own terms topics that were covered and instances that stood out to me personally.


The First Project 

As my first assignment in my Introduction to Speech online class, each student was assigned one given chapter from our book and was directed to create a PowerPoint based on what was learned. My particular topic covered the art of creating a strong argument and incorporating those factors into a speech. From what I previously stated, the idea of public speaking isn't entirely foreign to me, yet this project allowed me to refresh my memory on crucial aspects that make or break formatting an argumentative speech, along with learning through my peers what their chapters contained.




What I Enjoyed About Creating My Project And My Peers 

The capability of learning information on a given topic and teaching those things you learned to another person personally helps engrave the new information into my memory. It was exciting to help others understand what I had learned and practiced and seeing them integrate that into their own presentations felt rewarding. Most of my classmates produced fascinating and eye-catching presentations that included interesting points, videos, and pictures so we weren't overwhelmed with too many words on the screen. The visuals assisted in helping understand what the speaker was trying to portray and highlighted key details to remember. As each class member went by turns to present, I was clued in to see if what was being said could help me in my presentation when my turn came around. One of my classmates stressed the importance of being confident and as comfortable as possible each and every time you presented and pointed out a significant fact, we all find the most comfort in being somewhere we felt was home, so there shouldn't be any reason not to be comfortable. In this specific instance we were all given the upper hand in that our speeches weren't presented in front of a live audience, so why worry? Up until this point, I was battling the nerves of something that felt far too similar to the stage fright I had faced at other moments in time, but luckily I was in the comfort of my own home, it wasn't until my classmate made that fact apparent did I ground myself and gained the confidence I needed to present everything I had learned.

Things That My Classmates Taught Me 

The environment of the overall project felt appropriately casual, it felt open to asking questions and sharing ideas over what we thought to be cardinal in each chapter. Every presenter had their own approach to each topic and felt free to each learning type while still effectively explaining the dos and don'ts of speech. Some that stood out to me were the classmates who chose to include videos and gifs into their corresponding topic, I thought of it to be a comedic approach that certainly was embedded in my memory even once class had ended.

Every style of speech imaginable was covered, from occasional speeches to persuasive speeches. Some students spoke on body language and others explained the importance of effective evidence and how to properly avoid using fallacies in their argument, each time it was another student's turn to present I had learned something drastically different from the last and felt as though the short writings and pictures used in each slide was straight to the point and at no point did it feel overwhelming. 


Thoughts?

I was pleasantly surprised with the effectiveness this project had on teaching each student, including me, the art of public speaking. It was all in all interesting to create my own and watch what each student had up their sleeve on how they were going to approach their chapters in their own creative right.

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