Public Speaking Reflection

What is public speaking? I used to define public speaking as a simple, casual conversation with my audiences. However, I realize that I was wrong after completing Comm. 20. Through a series of learning objectives for this course, I have come to an understanding that public speaking is actually a life skill. As I progress through this course, these learning objectives have become guidelines for my speeches and helped me improve in my public speaking skills. The first learning objective is about how to identify and access a socially and intellectual topic, then compose and deliver an oral presentation on this topic. As the semester first started out, I vaguely understood what this objective meant or how it could be applied to my speech. The topic for my first speech, the tribute speech, vaguely had any socially significance. As a result, I only managed to complete a part of the first objective for my first speech, which was delivering an oral presentation with a keyword outline. As the semester proceed, I started to gain more knowledge about how to choose a socially and intellectual significant topic. With the informative speech, I was able to incorporate the idea that the goal of this speech was to educate and increase the audience’s knowledge as well as to raise their awareness about an issue or matter. Through these newly incorporated materials, I was able to analyze whether or not the topic I chose was significant. By the end of the semester, I have a full knowledge of what the first learning objective is all about. So not only did I need to choose a significant topic for my last speech (the persuasive speech), but I also need to convince my audience that my topic was socially significant. Then, I would deliver an oral presentation using note cards or a keywords outline. As this first learning objective guide me through my speeches, I realize that this objective is an important objective to meet. One valuable lesson that I have obtained while I delivered my