college grads or those who are currently in college...

[sade04]

how many had to take public speaking?!?! Its the most GODAWFUL class ive ever taken!!!! im sitting here right now (trying) to write the 1st of 3 - 10 min speeches on the north american free trade agreement. .....someone please shoot me

 

[1TallMF]

I'm surprised you're still awake! I'd fall asleep writing about that.

 

[The Green GT]

I dread when I have to take that class.

 

[Bens95cobra8594]

I never really disliked the class, in my MBA classes the profs often talked about having a "sales" gene. Some people have it, others don't. It's nothing you have control over, but it something that you either like doing or don't. I like selling people products (not hoodwinking into deals, but explaining features and benefits).
Look at public speaking this way:
1) Know what you are talking about.
2) Know every single person in that audience is in the palm of your hand and hangs on ever word you have and cultivate that power into something you can control and manipulate into proving your point ("selling").
3) Prove what you are talking about in a concise way to keep the audience's interest and,
4) You will be seen as god in the class if you don't seem stage shy or worried about how you come off. Think of politicians. Do you think that they always want to get on stage and be "on" 100% of the time? Probably not, it's all an act. Whether you are performing Shakespeare or giving a speech on Japanese Supply Chain Philosophy, know your audience and keep them on the edge of their seat...

Good luck!

 

[JJ95GTID]

We had a choice between PS and debate. I took debate and it was still just as involved and you still have to get up in front of the whole class and speak so no real big difference.

 

[super302]

i took it, it was easy

 

[sade04]

I never really disliked the class, in my MBA classes the profs often talked about having a "sales" gene. Some people have it, others don't. It's nothing you have control over, but it something that you either like doing or don't. I like selling people products (not hoodwinking into deals, but explaining features and benefits).
Look at public speaking this way:
1) Know what you are talking about.
2) Know every single person in that audience is in the palm of your hand and hangs on ever word you have and cultivate that power into something you can control and manipulate into proving your point ("selling").
3) Prove what you are talking about in a concise way to keep the audience's interest and,
4) You will be seen as god in the class if you don't seem stage shy or worried about how you come off. Think of politicians. Do you think that they always want to get on stage and be "on" 100% of the time? Probably not, it's all an act. Whether you are performing Shakespeare or giving a speech on Japanese Supply Chain Philosophy, know your audience and keep them on the edge of their seat...

Good luck!

thanks man those are some great tips! I guess im one of the unlucky ones without the "sales" gene.

 

[DaveB]

I never took the class but I never really had a problem speaking in front of class. Just know exactly what your going to say, and be confident about it. Another thing I always did was never make eye contact with anyone, always look inbetween them, and constantly keep looking around. For me, it made it feel less that people were staring at me. Dont worry, youll be fine, everyone else in the class is thinking the same thing.

 

[blksn955.o]

I got my double maj. degree in comm. theory and mass comm. Talk about speech....do a damn major in it. Then take enough psych. to be 3 or so classes short of a psych. degree to boot.

Basic. speech tips.

IF you cannot say what you need to say in 5min or less...you have no business speeking or writing. Look at the top speeches in history they are not that long.

Practice practice practice the speech before you give it.

Write it for the people who will hear it. Not over there heads or down to them. Know your aud.

Use media devices like powerpoint/graphs/hand out met. as a TOOL and NOT as the speech. Also have more detailed info in those things so you can keep on topic without getting sidetracked and possible allienation(sp?, sorry) of the crowd.

try out a few diff. rythms of your speech, tone of voice, and non-verbal language. IF possible stand in front of a podium. You will prob. want to keep a consistant rythm, but try to write some humor in the speech, again know your aud. as to not offend them.

Also in college make sure to write it to the teachers outline of what its supposed to do.

Actually social psych. has alot of study info on "salesmen" and they tend to be the "High self monitoring type" that tend suffer from higher rates of manic depression and or very needy to be the top dog as well...blah blah blah.

 

[Blackened302]

hehe, somehow i didn't have to take that class.

 

[Danman765432]

if you ever need a 25 minute speech on global warming hit me up i also have the powerpoint and outlines to go along with it...that was my last semester thing...actually it might have been 45 minute speech something like that

 

['66 coupe]

Wow...you all have some crappy Speech Professors. Global Warming? NAFTA?

Mine let us talk about anything we wanted within a genre(she was also hot, but that's neither here nor there lol).

Culture: Car people
etc...

Only serious one was the last which was supposed to be an informative message. Mine was "Buckle Up".

My class was also cool because we all made an effort to know each other so it was really easy to give speeches.

I have a hard time talking in front of a large group of strangers. But put me one on one or in front of a handful of strangers and I can sell. Too bad I hate the retail world.

 

['66 coupe]

Then take enough psych. to be 3 or so classes short of a psych. degree to boot.

Ugh Psyche. Did you like it?
I'm a Criminal Justice major and I've been taking a lot of Psychology for my supporting courses. It's just hard for me to show any interest in it compared to CJ.
Also, after being around students from both majors I'm a firm believer in the theory that Psyche majors are mostly crazy, explaining their interest in Psyche(doesn't help that I dated a psycho that later chose to major in Psyche).

 

[HISSIN50]

Don't worry - with a topic like that (through no fault of your own), no one will listen anyhow. J/K.

I always had to have a complete mastery of the material to pull off a decent speech. And if I didn't and the Prof. tossed in an ad hoc 'Do any of you freaks have any questions?', I was screwed.

If that happens, just keep the answer real short. I always felt that it was ok to reply with something to the effect that it was a great question and you'd need to do some research to give a reliable and thorough answer. That shows folks that you won't BS your way through too (in my mind anyhow).

Good luck!

 

[blksn955.o]

[QUOTE='66 coupe]Ugh Psyche. Did you like it?
I'm a Criminal Justice major and I've been taking a lot of Psychology for my supporting courses. It's just hard for me to show any interest in it compared to CJ.
Also, after being around students from both majors I'm a firm believer in the theory that Psyche majors are mostly crazy, explaining their interest in Psyche(doesn't help that I dated a psycho that later chose to major in Psyche). [/QUOTE]

Actually, if I take crim. psych. I will have enough for a minor in CJ. Yeah I noticed that as well though, psych. seemed to draw some head cases. Since my job will pay 100% for any BA/BS I am going to finish just because I am so close.

 

[Kevin R.]

I am actually taking Public Speaking right now.

At first, I thought I would hate it because I absolutely suck at public speaking. My body goes into complete shock.

We had impromptu speeches at first and I looked like an idiot.

We then wrote 7 minute speeches and I practiced and **** and gave my speech, and it was like 100 times better than the first speech.

Now, I am kind of excited to get better at speaking because I know it will come in very handy in the future.

 

[Killercanary]

My wife is a communications professor at Penn State Altoona and she teaches a number of public speaking courses. Its one of her favorite classes to teach. Its kind of funny though that I am married to a public speaking professor, and I am in sales, but I still hate to talk to large groups of people. One on one i am good to go, but get me in front of 5 or more and I get the shakes!

 

[WhiteDevil]

I took it and it was pretty cake. But we were pretty much able to do our speeches on any subject we wanted. That made them much easier.