Tuesday, February 3, 2009
What makes you apprehensive about public speaking?
The thing that makes me apprehensive about speaking in public is that all eyes are on me and if i make the tiniest mistake, people are there to witness it. Also, the seven different sources of uncertainty seem to be the main reason I fear public speaking all the time. Uncertainty about your role as a speaker, speaking abilities, your ideas, the audience’s response, the setting, technology, and evaluation all fit into my fear of public speaking. But the biggest fear out of the seven has to be uncertainty about the audience’s response. When I’m speaking, I feel so sure that my ideas are right but in the back of my head, I know the audiences are thinking different and this leads me apprehensive about speaking public. When I was in high school giving a speech for my English class, I experienced one of the seven different sources of uncertainty which happened to be the one about the response in the audience. I had to explain a current issue in the United States and I choose abortions. I did my research and had everything in order but this guy had to say something to correct me every second of my speech making me feel like I didn’t know my stuff. I then felt very uncomfortable speaking the rest of my speech.
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Wow thats interesting that someone would interrupt you during your speech, and might i add cruel. I dont think that people realize how much mental preparation goes into finding the strength to make a speech, and you chose a very controveral topic. How do it make you feel looking back at that situation? Would you change anything you experienced? Also i wanted to know if this guy that kept commenting was he your teacher or just a student? I must agree with you on the uncertainty, even when i was choosing my topics for this class, i just kept pushing the question in my mind "will my topic interst my audience." I think that idea alone makes speeches harder.
ReplyDeleteThat is really rude of that person to add his two cents every time you said something. But that person reminds me of someone else that I know. Anyway i think that in choosing a topic, it would have to interest you in order to interest others. If you feel passionate about what you are talking about the audience would see that and would be interested because of how you presented it. I also feel that when people are listening they are thinking in the back of their head that i don't know what I'm talking about. Everyone has fears of public speaking so just know that you are not alone in this.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. Like you the audience does a lot to make me apprehensive or nervous. For me it feels as if everything that I mention or say during my speech is going to be judged or disagreed upon. The strategy that would work well for facing the uncertainty of the audience’s response would be visualization. By using visualization I think that we can imagine the speech the way we want it to go. Another tactic is to practice the speech in front of an audience before presenting the speech to a larger group. Doing this may give us an idea of questions or comments that may be brought up during the actual presentation.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me that someone actually corrected you DURING your speech. It would make sense to give constructive criticism after the speech, just to decrease the amount of pressure that you already have on yourself.
ReplyDeleteRelating to how you feel when the audience most likely thinks differently than you is something that I can really relate to. The feeling of wanting to please the audience is a constant factor in your mind and you feel that any mistake could potentially make you lose your credibility and/or position as a good speaker.
"Uncertainty about your role as a speaker, speaking abilities, your ideas, the audience’s response, the setting, technology, and evaluation" Interesting seven factors that I haven't really thought about, but good points nonetheless. I think that if people tend to think more about those seven ideas, then we all could potentially make ourselves all better speakers.
Hi Boed! I'm sorry you had a bad experience while speaking in public. One thing I can encourage you with is this: everyone in the class is in the same position as you are. Everyone will go through the same experience, and we will be cheering you on. You made some great observations here and incorporated the course material into your post - Good Job!!! :)
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