Some of the Why's of Public Speaking

I am an Integrated English and Language Arts Education major and I am minoring in Writing and Rhetoric, so I think that this class is crucial for my success as a teacher. In a way, teachers give presentations every day, so public speaking skills are a necessity as they’ll play a large role in my future career.

An integral part of public speaking is free speech. As many of the examples in the reading showed, public figures, despite their right to free speech, are frequently criticized for comments made in the public eye. On Miami’s campus, I’ve definitely heard some examples of free speech that bring up ethical issues. For example, in a class last semester, a student in the class made a statement about women being less capable of obtaining certain achievements, such as doctoral degrees and other higher education degrees, than men. This is an example of an overgeneralization and sexist stereotypes.

As a member of an audience during a presentation, I have experienced semantic noise. I’ve attended lectures on campus for classes where I have not been able to fully follow the speaker because they use too much jargon without stopping to explain in layman’s terms what they mean. This is especially frustrating because it makes it harder to understand the presentation as a whole and can sometimes be distracting. I personally, as a speaker, have experienced internal noise. In high school, I was giving a presentation to one of my classes while I had a really bad cold and it was a mess. I couldn’t focus on what I was saying which was making me more and more nervous for giving my speech.

I think that the best way to reduce noise is to rehearse my speech over and over, as the Duarte reading suggested. I was given the chance to speak at my high school graduation and I practiced my speech once or twice every day for about a week so I would be prepared to present my speech at graduation. Familiarizing myself with the flow of my speech made me more comfortable to speak in front of such a loud crowd and knowing what I was going to say helped put me at ease.  

As for the Reynolds reading, I found myself agreeing with all of the tips given. However, I think that the most important tip for a presentation to be effective is to show passion for the topic. Speeches are exponentially more interesting when the speaker is actively interested in the topic they’re talking about. If the speaker appears to have no interest, then the audience won’t be interested in what they have to say.