Everyone is staring at you. You look around frantically as you stand rigidly in front of the class. You suddenly forget everything that you have prepared for and you don’t know how to start. Suddenly, you find the courage to take a deep breath. Then, as your knees started to knock uncontrollably, you announce in a loud voice the beginning of your speech.
Many people are stuck in this situation while public speaking and want to avoid the class. I foresaw this same situation as I stepped into the public speaking class at the beginning of the year.
As I presented my first speech, I cringed as I stammered through my words and rushed to be done with the speech. I really wanted to drop out and I never wanted to do another speech again. Although, instead of giving up, I decided to take my flaws from the last speech and try to perfect them. I prepared, practiced, and tried to perfect my next speech. I made my voice a little louder, I tried to speak more smoothly.
When I presented my next speech, I was less scared. I knew what to expect as I stared at the audience. I knew that I was still nervous and choppy in my words but I saw that I had improved. I got a better grade, and I felt a little more sure of myself.
As I continued to present speeches in front of the class, I came to realize the benefits of public speaking.
When you practice giving speeches, you obtain organization skills, overcome fears, and find the words to inspire.
When you prepare for a speech, a skill that you have to learn to develop is organization.
Samantha Riley, a student who is currently taking the PV public speaking class, explained, “You learn how to organize what you need to say in order to grab people’s attention and make people listen.” In your life, organization is essential as you go on into college and as you find a job. You need to be able to organize your life in order to get anything done.
People that attend a public speaking class are usually full of fear about what this experience is going to be like. On brandongaille.com, it said “Of all the phobias out there, public speaking is considered the highest. It affects 3 out of four people or 75% of individuals that suffer from speech anxiety.” Even with this fear, when you practice by doing public speaking, you realize that speaking in front of people will become easier because you know what to expect.
Public speaking helps you find the words to inspire because as you are presenting a speech, you have to find a way to grab the audience’s attention to emphasis you point. Throughout the semester, you try out many different ways to address a topic till you can find a way to grab your audience’s attention for your entire speech. You find that there are points that you can add and take out to make your speech more interesting to a bored audience.
