Public Discourse

“Fake it till you make it.” When you connected this quote to public speaking on the first day of class, I connected immediately, given that my familiarity with this cliche reaches back much, much further than that. The majority of my past experience with public speaking heavily centers around my background in acting and how it aids my ability to “fake it.” Despite my confident appearance, my PRCA-24 score and reappearing ticks in my speech give a glimpse into the truth of my lack of self-assurance. On the whole, I find my PRCA-24 score to accurately portray my anxieties regarding public speaking formats. One-on-one conservations or speeches offer me a chance to share my opinions in low-risk formats. Given the low risk, I feel comfortable sharing things in a conversational and amicable manner, resulting in lower anxiety. However, as the stakes creep higher, so does my anxiety towards opening my mouth. A recent example of this was in my Public Discourse in the US class, where my argument was well structured in my mind but left my mouth jumbled and lacking a precise point. This disconnect in high-stress situations is how I attribute the jump in my group discussion and meetings scores. I hope that as the semester progresses, my
One skill I saw being utilized was my sense of humor. Similarly to how I mentioned enjoying levity in political discussion, I enjoy the application of humor in most all other aspects of my life. I feel that humor lowers the threshold between the speaker and audience and allows a more human connection to be made. I also feel that humor allows me to offer more personal insights into my life without bringing the mood into a somber territory. I also noticed that I managed to remember much of my planned speech without a hitch. Hopefully, the strong base of memorization will allow for the integration of slides as the semester