College and University Blog

Anxiety, stress and fear are common responses to public speaking. Many people consider public speaking among their worst fears in life. For some, college is the first real test of these fears and emotions.

You will probably be required to speak publicly as part of a class assignment or social event during your college career. How you handle this opportunity is entirely up to you. You can choose to avoid classes and situations that require an oral presentation. The short term consequences of doing so will result in lower grades and diminished leadership skills. The long term consequences are increased fear and stress. Choosing to avoid public speaking feeds the anxiety. Overcoming this fear can have a tremendous affect on your career potential or social status. Face this challenge head on. Gather up the courage to break out of your comfort zone. Public speaking becomes easier the more you do it.

When confronted with public speaking, you need to first know the purpose of your speech. Is it to inform? to persuade? to entertain? Once you know the general purpose of your speech, you can begin to prepare.

A great speech starts with a great topic. In some situations your topic will be chosen for you. If you are able to choose your topic, it is important that you select a topic that interests you and will interest your audience. You can draw topics from personal interests or from the media. Once you have a list of potential topics you will want to ask yourself some questions about each topic in order to find the best one:

• Am I interested in the topic?
• Will I enjoy researching this topic?
• Will I enjoy talking about this topic and sharing information with my audience?
• Will my audience be interested in my topic?
• Am I passionate about this topic?

If you can answer yes to all of the questions, then you have probably selected a good topic.

After selecting your topic, you need to come up with a specific purpose statement. The specific purpose statement is a definitive sentence that states the focus of your speech. It is part of the creation process of the speech, not part of the delivery. The purpose states the general function of the speech: to inform, persuade, or entertain. The statement narrows down the topic. An example of a specific purpose statement is: To inform my audience of three major warning signs of clinical depression. If you find yourself with too much information, revise the specific purpose statement so the focus is even more narrow. Remember it is much easier to add information than to delete it.

When you have your specific purpose statement you are ready to compose your Thesis Statement or Central Idea. This is probably the most important part of your speech. This is one sentence that covers the central idea of your speech. The thesis is always in the introduction and it usually transitions into the body of the speech. The thesis is the focus. The thesis needs to be a definitive statement – don’t make your audience guess the focus. An example of a thesis statement is:

Posted on 04 Dec