Public Discourse

“Fake it till you make it.” When you connected this quote to public speaking on the first day of class, I connected immediately, given that my familiarity with this cliche reaches back much, much further than that. The majority of my past experience with public speaking heavily centers around my background in acting and how it aids my ability to “fake it.” Despite my confident appearance, my PRCA-24 score and reappearing ticks in my speech give a glimpse into the truth of my lack of self-assurance. On the whole, I find my PRCA-24 score to accurately portray my anxieties regarding public speaking formats. One-on-one conservations or speeches offer me a chance to share my opinions in low-risk formats. Given the low risk, I feel comfortable sharing things in a conversational and amicable manner, resulting in lower anxiety. However, as the stakes creep higher, so does my anxiety towards opening my mouth. A recent example of this was in my Public Discourse in the US class, where my argument was well structured in my mind but left my mouth jumbled and lacking a precise point. This disconnect in high-stress situations is how I attribute the jump in my group discussion and meetings scores. I hope that as the semester progresses, my
assimilation into the Emerson community will have a linear relationship with my confidence in speaking out during class. Focusing on constantly improving myself in that aspect of public speaking will hopefully seep into the rest. One aspect I hope to witness a change in is my hand placement during speeches. While reviewing the video, the awkward movements of my hands stuck out beyond any other stimuli. Tension going to my hands is not a new discovery; I’ve received similar comments from dance and voice instructors as well. However, unlike prior observations, I didn’t freeze up the hands, they just looked unnatural. A way I plan to decrease awkwardness in the future is practicing in front of a mirror more. Although I did practice a few times while looking at myself, I feel that making sure that my body is visible for the bulk of practice is will eliminate any movement quirks. Another unfavorable aspect I noticed is my use of ‘um.’ Although less frequent than in the past, I noticed ‘ums’ only at key moments of the speech. These key moments were usually right after a transition, which most likely led to the forgetfulness. To eliminate more ‘ums’ from my speech, I will focus on crafting smoother transitions to aid in better memorization. Thankfully, the stumbling points I witnessed do not seem too looming and improvement will allow all components of my speaking to rise to the level of my positive abilities. Despite being my own worst critic, I can still notice skills I used to my advantage in my speech.
One skill I saw being utilized was my sense of humor. Similarly to how I mentioned enjoying levity in political discussion, I enjoy the application of humor in most all other aspects of my life. I feel that humor lowers the threshold between the speaker and audience and allows a more human connection to be made. I also feel that humor allows me to offer more personal insights into my life without bringing the mood into a somber territory. I also noticed that I managed to remember much of my planned speech without a hitch. Hopefully, the strong base of memorization will allow for the integration of slides as the semester
progresses. Improvement does not come easy, however, I am determined to deftly work towards my main goal: matching my practice to my performance. As shown in my PRCA-24 score and Grab-Bag, despite the planning I put into speaking, the results often arrive unsatisfactorily. I hope that as I develop more self-assurance in the importance of my contributions to conversations, my group and public speaking skills will find a stronger voice as well.