Communication Goals

Some surveys and research results show that most people would rather die than talk in front of a live audience. Glossophobia, also known as fear of public speaking, is very common today. The thought of having to prepare a speech and speak your own thoughts in front of an audience terrified me before I entered this communication class. It wasn’t so much the talking part, but sharing my own opinions, thoughts, or research, with people who might not agree with what I am talking about. Looking back, there are three improvements I have made throughout this course. I have improved my outlining skills, critical thinking skills, and my public speaking apprehension. These improvements are for the most part what I wanted to improve on and talked about in my CIP paper earlier this semester. It is a good reflection on how practice in an area can improve your skills in just a short amount of time. The first goal I improved on was my critical thinking skills. In my CIP paper, I talked about how understanding the facts are simple, but being able to interpret the importance of each fact is very key when creating a speech. I wanted to understand the grey areas in my own communicating to help me convey my message and understand the grey areas in others communicating skills to give better feedback. By listening to myself practice speeches and listen to others giving their speeches helped me to think more about the message that is being sent. This also connects to one of my other goals, which was to improve my research skills. A crucial part in finding the right information is knowing how to research and how to analyze your sources using your critical thinking skills to interpret the author’s message. I saw my improvement in this area by looking at my speech materials from my informative speech. By bettering my skills in these two areas I was able to build upon them to create a stronger foundation for my other goals. My next goal I hoped to improve on was my outlining