This is the assignment that I based my revision assignment on. I wrote this paper for a class focusing on public speaking, where I decided to do a self-study. I wanted to know how my perceived confidence would impact the way that others viewed me while speaking. I was in two classes that had an emphasis on public speaking the quarter that I wrote this, so there was no shortage of speeches to analyze. The results are below, I hope you enjoy the piece!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How Confidence Impacts Public Speaking<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This quarter in Practicing Communication with Doctor Shaundi Newbolt, I choose to focus on my appearance while speaking publicly. I choose this because we are focusing on communication principals that we experience in our lives that we want to improve. Over the course of the ten-week period I did research on coming across as confident while publicly speaking, isolating personal examples, and implementing strategies to improve areas I believed needed work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The primary research that I did for this was online, with some practical applications that I researched on myself. In a study titled \u201cI Think That I Made a Good Impression,\u201d by Emmanuelle Kleinlogel, the argument is made that meta-perception improves perceived performance in public speaking. Meta-perception is the idea that a person\u2019s impression of a speaker is influenced on a sub-conscious level by the way that the speaker presents themselves and their information. An example of this could be that a speaker is very nervous which causes them to wring their hands a few times every minute. Though this may not be intentional by the speaker, it is perceived as insecurity by the audience which causes them to trust the speaker less due to the fact that insecurity is the anthesis of confidence. This is just one example of many, but Kleinlogel argues that the ways in which an individual represent themselves while speaking publicly can sub-consciously influence the ways in which the audience receives their message (Kleinlogel, 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Continuing with the train of thought from Kleinlogel, there was an article by ModernGov, a leadership training company, that touched on the importance of the audience\u2019s impression of the speaker. This article gave thirteen reasons why confidence is key while presenting, and essentially concluded that the audience needed to know<\/em> that the speaker was confident with the material they were presenting about in order to fully \u201cbuy in\u201d to the speaker\u2019s ideas. (ModernGov, 2020) The manifestation of \u201cbuying in\u201d differs on the topic, but the underlying point is that it is important to have continuity with the speaker\u2019s body language and spoken monologue. Ultimately, the best way to present on a subject is two-fold. The speaker must be confident in the way that they present their material, which in turn allows the audience to be confident that they are listening to a qualified and important speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Confidence in public speaking is key, which led me to the question of how I can prepare myself to come off confidently to my audiences. According to a study done by Norman Li, there are multiple ways to come across as confident, with two primary categories. The first category is the physical actions that you can take while <\/em>presenting, which consist of eye contact, open body language, and the minimization of fidgeting. A reduction of filler words also creates a sense of familiarity with the material, which has been proven to be beneficial for the audience\u2019s perception of the speaker (Li, 2020). The second category that Li speaks about is the preparation that allows one to be confident in the material by the time they are speaking about it. The study done by Li concluded that practice and comfort with material consistently lead to the speaker feeling and being perceived as more confident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The culmination of this research resulted in a solid plan to measure my confidence while publicly speaking as well as an improvement plan to prepare for said speeches. It was also incredibly beneficial that I had three public speaking classes this quarter, so I never found myself short of times to practice for a speech or material to familiarize myself with. The first area of improvement that I focused on was the way that I presented myself physically while publicly speaking. Following that, I analyzed the ways in which I prepared for speeches, which I was able to improve over this quarter as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon a brief analysis of speeches that I gave, and recorded, at the beginning of the quarter, I realized that I spent a lot of time doing awkward hand gestures when I was not confident in the material that I was presenting. This also happened then I was nervous about speaking in front of large groups. This manifested in wringing my hands, picking at my nails, or placing my hands on my hips and leaving them there for the entire speech. I also used filler words frequently when I was unsure of the material or lost my train of thought, which looked unprofessional and insecure in the recordings that I watched. Using this information, I was able to create the first action plan for how to solve this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second issue that I came across was that I was not preparing for speeches in a way that made me confident when it came time to present. I became aware that I looked at notes much more frequently in the practice speeches than I did when I was presenting in front of an audience, which caused me to lose my train of thought more often than I did in practice. I also only practiced the speech a few times after finalizing the content, which did not give me enough familiarity to be confident in all aspects of the speech when I was presenting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the course of the first three weeks of the quarter, I recorded both speeches that I gave and counted how many times I was acting in an insecure and awkward way. The first speech that I gave this quarter was on September 26th<\/sup>, where I did an impromptu speech for two minutes and thirty four seconds about Interstate 70 in Colorado. During this speech, I committed one of the infractions about 6-7 times a minute, and my body language consisted of actions that I outlined above. I had about 3-4 more insecure actions during the speeches that I gave in front of an audience, which allowed me to realize that I was more prone to anxiety in front of an audience as opposed to by myself in front of the camera. The second speech was about a story that I was brainstorming, during which I realized that the material I was more comfortable talking about led to a decrease in insecure body language compared to material I was less familiar with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From week 3-7 I had the most presentations. I learned much from each presentation, both preparing and presenting. Over this period, I had 7 speeches spread across three classes. The most influential speech took place on October 17th<\/sup>, where I gave a 5-minute speech with no visual aid. This was a continuation of the first Interstate 70 speech, though this was much more in-depth and required a problem and a solution. An issue that I noticed immediately was that I had a hard time connecting with the relevance of the material, which made me feel insecure during the first few practice runs. During the first few runs, I had 8+ insecure mannerisms per minute of presenting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I progressed with the second Interstate 70 speech, I had to make some adjustments to become more intrinsically interested with the problem and solution speech that I was planning. Once I hit weeks 4-7, I transitioned my speeches to incorporate ideas that I found more personally relevant. I found myself becoming more confident in the material that I was presenting on. I practiced this speech 10+ times before presenting it to the class, during which I presented to my camera, a few of my friends, and my sister. I found that presenting to other people before the class was incredibly helpful, and allowed me to build confidence in my ability to express the material in a confident and collected way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the time that I presented that speech, I not only felt incredibly confident in the material that I was presenting, but I felt confident in my ability to present in such a way that felt relevant and important to my audience. I had 3 insecure mannerisms per minute of the presentation, which was a huge improvement over the initial presentation. I found that as I practiced more beforehand and found material that I created personal relevance with, my confidence and speech ability skyrocketed. By the time that I presented my first large presentation in this class, on November 3, I felt prepared, confident, and fluent in the topic that I was assigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the time that I was at weeks 8-9, I felt like a different person when presenting than I did at the beginning of the quarter. I was engaging my audience, confident in the material, and looking forward to presenting. My insecure mannerisms were not non-existant, but I had a clear path to decreasing them and practiced doing so. Despite feeling like I had covered much of the material in this class at the beginning of the quarter, I had discovered and put words to something that I have struggled with my entire academic career; public speaking. While it\u2019s possible that I would\u2019ve made this progress eventually, the clear guidelines on this project and continuous check-ins allowed me to expedite this process and pursue a clear solution within a timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would not say that I was incompetent when it comes to public speaking before this quarter, but I had never done such a close analysis before. I regularly experienced anxiety before presenting for classes, as well as during jobs that I have had during time off from school or over the summers. I am good at internalizing material, but I was not good at practicing presenting in a way that carried over efficiently to the presentation itself. Ultimately, I was capable, but not great. I could get a point across, crack a few jokes and interact intermittently with the audience, but I was not particularly captivating, and I am sure that I came off as slightly insecure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having almost finished this this quarter and having completed my improvement plans, I can confidently say that I am in a much better place with public speaking. I have practiced and implemented ways that I can prepare for a speech to give myself a better likelihood of being present and confident, which has allowed me to dramatically reduce the insecure actions that I was plagued with before I did this close examination of myself. It has been incredibly helpful to have so many public speaking classes this quarter as I have been able to find universal solutions that are not limited to one topic or type of speech. In the future, I look forward to being better equipped to prepare, present, and conquer public speaking in a confident, relevant, and engaging way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kleinlogel, E. P., Renier, L., Schmid Mast, M., & Toma, C. (2020). \u201cI think that I made a good impression!\u201d: Meta-perception improves performance in public speaking. Social Psychology, 51(6), 370\u2013380. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1027\/1864-9335\/a000421<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Li NP, Yong JC, Tsai M-H, Lai MHC, Lim AJY, Ackerman JM. Confidence is sexy and it can be trained: Examining male social confidence in initial, opposite-sex interactions. J Pers<\/em>. 2020;88:1235\u20131251. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/jopy.12568<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mack, Steve. \u201cHow Confidence Affects Communication and How to Improve Yours.\u201d ExcellenceXL<\/em>, 28 Sept. 2022, https:\/\/excellencexl.com\/how-confidence-affects-communication-how-to-improve\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n