Abigail Valdes Post

 The Ultimate Guide to Public Speaking: A Students Perspective

Public speaking is critical do our daily lives. It is something we always use, yet never knew we needed.

Some college kids received an assignment to create presentations describing its importance. In this blog, we will rank those assignments based on the same standards they presented on.

Before we begin, however, here is a quick video on mastering the art of speaking:

Let's begin with Group 1, I may or may not be biased since it was, after all, my group. This group presented on why to choose public speaking, what the presentation process is, its uniqueness, things to avoid when presenting, how to be an effective speaker, and how to reduce your fear of public speaking. 

As a class leader, I was able to obtain the inside scoop. Watching my fellow peers apply everything they learned into their presentation was like watching a puzzle come together. Everyone spoke with boldness and credibility. I was even amazed at this one speaker who didn't know English and yet stepped up to the plate. To say I was proud is an understatement.

The only suggestion I would make would be to turn on the cameras next time. A person doesn't just want to hear you, they want to see you. All the senses need to interact, as spoken in chapter 10, the audience wants to see them. 

Other than that, I truly believe they grasped the concept fairly well.

Moving on the Group 2. This team presented on chapters 5-9 which included finding information and supporting your ideas, organizing and outlining your presentation, delivering speeches, choosing your words, and presentation technology. 

Although I was not able to interact as much with this group, I was able to see their collective work. This presentation was structured and more interactive, everyone had their cameras on. You can tell that they learned from the first presenter's mistakes and took note of the professor's constructive criticism. In my opinion, visually, more appealing. 

If you were to compare the first presentation with the second you wouldn't see such an exaggerated difference but you will see how they were one step ahead and more organized.

Finally, Group 3. This group was an interesting bunch. I liked their creativity. I, however, didn’t like that due to the music I couldn’t hear a lot of the speakers comments on their presentation. Not only that but only some of the slides had music and others didn’t. Another thing that could’ve been done better was the amount of people that didn’t show up or presented on other days.

I think this group could’ve done better organization wise. Other than that, they delivered their message with confidence and their presentations were interactive with videos. It appeased to all my senses.