Skills I have learned

             During the last three weeks of Public Speaking I have learned many things to help me with my speaking.  I have seen many bad examples of public speaking including my own.  I believe that the Ted Talks have been great to help with seeing good examples and poor examples.  You can get a sense of what you have to do to engage a crowd in your speech.  If there is a bad speech you can see what they are doing wrong.  For example swaying, constant walking, monotone, too many hand movements and um’s and ah’s.  Seeing people make mistakes help you stay away from them and makes your speech’s better.

            At first it is hard to get rid of the habits that you have had throughout your whole life.  It can make your speech feel very awkward trying to stay away from old habits.  Things that I need to work on while I speak are, me being monotone, swaying, and um’s.  I think to change me being monotone I have to read and know what I am talking about.  I tend to become very monotone and less enthusiastic when I am reading off of something that I haven’t read before.  But when I read something that I know about I am able to be enthusiastic and be very clear.  To get rid of the swaying I could maybe try walking around a little but not too excessively.  I think that if I were to walk a little it would get the itch out of me that I have to move around. 

            Public speaking is not a very easy task and tends to get people very nerves.  If you see what you are doing wrong I believe that it is easier to fix what you are doing wrong.  I think that this class will help me remove the ticks that I have when I am speaking in front of a group.