How to Manage Fear of Public Speaking

I found another good article from eHow.com on how to deal with public speaking anxiety. I know I’ve spoken to a couple of you on the subject already and that you thought you might have some issues in this area.

From my own personal experience, I feel that the very first step is probably the single greatest key to becoming more comfortable speaking in front of others: preparation. The more prepared I am to give a speech and the more I am familiar with the material I am presenting, the easier it is for me to focus, stay on track, and get back on track if mishaps occur with my notes, my technology, or my train of thought.

When you get the “deer in the headlights” look from people during a speech, it is most likely because they forgot something or something isn’t working properly, and that look is a look of panic because they think that they are suddenly on a trapeze without a net. The better you prepare for something to go wrong, the less likely that is to occur, and the more you end up having successful presentations, the more confident you will be.

How to Conquer Public Speaking Fear

I’m hoping that some of the things that I’ve been finding online are helpful to you now and might continue to be helpful to you even after our time together as a class is over.

Here’s a link to a paper from Dr. Morton Orman where he discusses the fear of public speaking. Fear of public speaking is often listed statistically as the #1 fear people have. I know that speaking in front of a cohort group that you get to know over the course of a couple of years is stressful enough, but complete strangers is a completely different thing. In fact, this past winter I was debating whether to enter a proposal to present at a conference Indiana Wesleyan hosted last month. I ended up not going through with it… partly because I wanted to observe this year and see how things were done and partly because I was nervous about speaking in front of my peers and educators that teach for a living.

However, in our classroom setting, I hope everyone realizes that being afraid to speak in front of others is not something unique, and that everyone is in the same boat. I think this summary of the article is very helpful, especially to someone who is perhaps trying to get over their own fears of public speaking and needs to diagnose the problem.

COM 110 - Workshop 1 Postscript

First of all, I apologize for not being able to make it to our first class together. I’ve been out the last two days with the flu, and I’m pretty sure that you guys didn’t want me to drag both myself and my Outbreak virus to class to infect the rest of the population. I’ve been in communication with the substitute, and she said that class went well. I also saw that we added a fourth student, so that is good.

Public Speaking

I’ve had public speaking on the brain this week as I’ve been preparing for COM 110 tomorrow night. Here are some helpful steps from the Study Guides and Strategies web site, adapted from the Toastmasters guidelines:

• Know the room.
• Know the audience.
• Know your material.
• Relax.
• Visualize yourself giving your speech.
• Realize that people want you to succeed.
• Don’t apologize.
• Concentrate on the message—not the medium.
• Turn nervousness into positive energy.
• Gain experience.

I also love that quote at the top of the page: “Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.”—Dorothy Sarnoff

Tackling Table Topics

This article from the Toastmasters web site is appropriate for most speaking and presenting situations, not just impromptu speeches. The bullet points of the performance-related issues:

• Greet the audience.
• Don’t say anything that lowers the audience’s expectations.
• Buy yourself time, but be careful not to overdo it.
• The more alive and original you are, the better your performance will be.
• Sell your idea to the audience.
• Practice!
• The audience is in the same boat as you.

The last tip is especially helpful to remember in the classroom environment. 

In case you’re wondering, Table Topics is a Toastmasters exercise that occurs at every meeting. Members give off-the-cuff impromptu speeches on a particular topic.

Welcome COM 110 Students!

For those of you visiting for the first time from the COM 110 class at IEC North, welcome! Our class will start on Wednesday March 5, and we will apparently be having a very cozy classroom experience–the official class roster only has three of you signed up for the course. I’m really looking forward to getting into this class, and I think it will be a lot of fun.

I’m still trying to get things set up for links and other information of note on this site, so please keep visiting to see if there is something new. This is actually sort of an experiment that I’m conducting to see how students use a collaborative workspace in a non-online course, plus it’s a good way to keep all my classroom information organized in one place online.

Also, if you have any suggestions of what you’d like to see on this page, please let me know, and I will see if I can get something up here. Above all else, this blog is here to serve you the student, so please offer whatever feedback you would like.