Speaking Skills by Thomas

Speaking Skills by Thomas - September 2017 Scholarship Essay

A rather quiet kid growing up, I never aspired to be the spotlight of attention. Although one of the smartest in my class, I rarely raised my hand to answer questions. Often times I stumbled over my words if talking for a length of time. I was frequently told that I either talked too fast or my tone was too low. I typically got by with what I liked to call, “fake confidence.” That was the tactic I used my first few days of high school as a freshman when I was truthfully scared out of my wits. But regardless of my mental state, my heartbeat often elevated drastically when speaking in front of the class. I’ve always had fairly good writing skills, yet struggled to clearly articulate my thoughts.

Despite my usually quiet demeanor, sophomore year I signed up for an Oral Communications elective class. It wasn’t my first choice, however; I was unable to take a different elective I wanted due to scheduling conflicts and had to pick up another. The first day of school I walked into the classroom, and of course, was the first student in the room. I said hello to the teacher and sat down silently for about twenty seconds before the next student entered. Twenty seconds may not seem like a long time, but when it’s just you and one other person, the silence is amplified. The first few weeks of the class focused on interpersonal communication and collaboration. This went relatively smoothly for me. The challenge began when it came time to start individual speeches. In preparation, we learned about and practiced tone of voice, pace, breath regulation, gestures, posture, and many more aspects of a high quality speech.

Our first was a demonstrative speech in which I taught the class how to illustrate the Peanuts character, Snoopy. It went fairly well, but I knew I could still improve. Speeches in this class were all memorized, as they typically produce the best overall presentations. So one major lesson I learned was the importance of practice. A common flaw amongst everyone in the class was long pauses with nothing to say. Reasons for this included nervousness, forgetfulness, or lack of preparation. Therefore, our teacher had us do an exercise with impromptu speaking. Each student was assigned a random topic and had to speak on the subject for as long as possible right on the spot without any sort of preparation. This aided me in quickly coming up with additional content during my speeches. Next up was an informative speech. My topic was “Things to do in New York City” and it went superbly well. After numerous hours of rehearsal, I was rewarded with praise from both my teacher and classmates as well as a 100% grade. This was also a tremendous confidence booster. Throughout the rest of my sophomore and junior years, I eventually worked my way up to being one of the most eloquent speakers during presentations across all my classes.

Public speaking is often referred to as the most common phobia amongst humans, even more so than heights or spiders. It’s not that talking before an audience presents any kind of danger; it’s usually due to a lack of experience. Fear typically stems from unfamiliarity. Like anything, developing quality public speaking skills comes with continual practice and true confidence. Not only did Oral Communications teach me to speak better, I also learned the importance of said skills in everyday life. From fast food cashiers to corporate CEO’s, the ability to articulate clearly and effectively goes a long way. I also commonly notice “bad” speaking habits of fellow classmates during their presentations, such as repetition of information and constant filler words. While these tendencies are natural, eliminating them from your speech pattern is a great benefit. Recognizing these in others has helped me to improve my own speaking. Overall, the knowledge and skills I gathered in Oral Communications have improved my life both academically and personally.