Public Speaking Summary

 Public Speaking: A Summary

 

 

In my opinion, these chapters were very interesting and each was very informative. 

Ch 1 & 2 - Evolving Art of Public Speaking - Building Your Confidence

I like the chapter that talked about reducing anxiety that interfere with giving presentations or speeches, they also gave tips that can also be helpful for those who suffer of a social anxiety and have difficulty speaking in front of a group or telling a story among friends. Social anxiety disorder can also cause panic attacks. But learning about your own symptoms and what triggers them can make social anxiety much easier to manage.

We also talked about strategies that can be used to reduce anxiety and fight the urge to eliminate it and finding a way to become confident while presenting, like working on developing our own personal style as a public speaker and integrate our own personality into our speaking style and feel more comfortable in front of the audience. Also, visualizing and delivering our presentation confidently, imagining being there and use all our senses to form the imagery. If we find that our visualizations are negative, then we challenge these scenarios by drawing on previous experiences of successful communication. Substitute the negative imagery with more realistic imagery.

 Obama was considered to be an excellent orator, partly due to his confidence when speaking. 

Ch 3: Listening

Listening was one good chapter that was presented by another group it shows how we can become a better listener, like (hearing, understanding, interpreting, evaluating…) Being a good listener can enrich your understanding, expand your capacity for empathy, and improve your communication skills. It takes practice to be a good listener, but it’s a valuable skill to have—especially when disagreements arise! There are some psychology-backed tips to help us be more open-minded and know what to say in conversations, as well as how to read and effectively employ body language and tone of voice to hear more. 

 

Example of a jury not listening properly. 

Ch 4 & 5: Developing Your Purpose and Topic - Adapting Your Audience

One of the chapters talked about how to keep the audience interest and when you’re giving a presentation you want to keep your audience engaged and interested in what you are saying, because the audience are the recipients of the speaker’s message. Also, using storytelling and other techniques to maintain their interest, and the speaker should speak to their emotions and needs. When the audience feels connected to the speech, it becomes memorable and impact.

Presenting your work to a large group is an effective way to get your message across. If you want people to remember what you had to say, you need to find ways to keep their interest, by focusing on what the audience is going to enjoy, you may notice people are excited to listen to you speak.

The View: for women, by women. Adapted to an audience.

 

Ch 6: Researching Your Topic

We talked about how you find good resources for your speech once you've narrowed your topic and thoughts about keywords, try searching the databases below for potential sources you can use for your project. Try to find sources that provide evidence to support your thesis like Miami Dade Public Library, and When looking for images or videos to use in class projects, keep the following in mind. 

• Images and videos can be found in library databases or on the Web. 
• Often try to find sources with information that they can basically repeat on the essays and speeches, or sources that prove the same exact points you're trying to make.
• Run a general search for images and videos and make sure each source supports or provides information for something you will be saying in your speech.

Knowing your material well will help you avoid any roadblocks along the way. You don’t need to memorize your presentation word for word, but having a clear understanding of your speech and what you’re trying to convey will allow you to be more relaxed during your presentation.

 

Years of R&D in advertising went into finding the best logo for Google. 

Ch 7: Supporting Your Idea

Having the audience support your idea is very important. Start by presenting you it in pros and cons that will connect with your audience and if you’ve gotten this far, you are doing good, because it means that you have their attention. At this point of your persuasion effort, your listeners are ready to accept your ideas, recommendations or proposals, but they are still unsure about the action steps and the process. The audience may have loved what you told them and even how you told it to them, but they will not follow through without a game plan. After you persuade people to do something different, you need to help them understand how to achieve it.

 This point is worth repeating. Persuasion, while about selling or presenting your ideas, is more about appreciating how to best reach and engage your audience for change. It is your responsibility to be aware of the kinds of questions that start rolling around in your listeners’ heads the moment you start talking to them. If you move forward with your presentation, sales pitch or proposal without considering the needs of your audience, you are likely to fail. If you move forward and make your presentation and recommendations based on good step needs’ assessment and persuasion model, you are much more likely to succeed.

 Pepsi using humor to support their idea. 

Ch 8 & 9: Organizing And Outlining Your Speech - Beginning And Ending Your Speech.

Open-ended questions collect qualitative feedback, which is less about measurement and more about collecting customer and/or employee impressions and opinions. While these types of questions won’t always translate to easy data analysis, they do give you insight into attitudes and motivations. 

Open-ended questions allow customers and employees to give feedback in their own words. They’re perfect for following up on close-ended questions, so respondents can give more context for their answer.

A surprising fact has the power to re-engage the audience’s attention, which is most likely to wane by the end of a presentation. Facts with statistical numbers in them work well – you can easily search online for facts related to your speech topic. Just make use you remember the source for the fact in case you are questioned about it.

 Ending your presentation on a short story, especially if that story is personal or illustrates how the content presented affects others is the best way. Creating empathy with your audience and tying the story back to points made throughout the presentation ensures your presentation will be well received by the audience.

 

F.D.R.'s most famous phrase summarized his entire inaugural speech. 

 

Fahima Mouhoub