According to Wikipedia, public speaking is the process or act of performing a presentation or a speech focused around an individual directly speaking to a live audience in a structured, deliberate manner in order to inform, influence, or entertain them. Most people often term oratory or speech as one of the examples of public speaking.
Public speaking has been practiced since the Ancient Egypt times but the first known Greek oratory was written over 2000 years ago. Since then, public speaking has been deemed as an important skill to have. Even if we don't need to make a regular presentation in front of a group, there are lots of situations where public speaking skill can help to advance your careers and create opportunities. However, a study has shown that 74% of people suffer from social anxiety, and many people fear public speaking more than death (National Institute of Mental Health). Even The Book of Lists, based on a reproduced survey in 1973 by Bruskin Associates, mentioned that public speaking ranks the 1st of the “14 worst human fears” more than financial problems, sickness or death and the rest. Being nervous is often blamed as the main reason that makes someone tenses up when he has to stand up speaking in front of a crowd. A lot of people don’t know what to say in public or what response he will expect when he says something. In fact, public speaking doesn’t only deliver information to a group of people, but it can also include motivating people to do or not to do something or just telling a story or sharing your own experience. There are at least three reasons why people are afraid of public speaking : not understanding what to say, not being used to speak in front of people, and having negative thoughts of himself.
The first reason that makes someone unconfident in public is because of not understanding what he says. If someone doesn’t exactly know what he says, he will most likely feel confused about what he should say. This will lead to the nervousness of not being able to perform well, afraid of making mistakes in public and so on. The situation can be worse if you don’t pay attention to your appearance. Public speaking means that you will be the center of attention of many people because you are being watched. The appearance will build trust to you and give an interesting impression of yourself. So, in this case, your appearance is something crucial since this is something most people frequently assess someone at the first sight. People will pay attention from the way you walk into the podium, clothing, gestures, tone of speech to your facial expressions. If you are successful at this stage, then you have to pay attention to the content of what you say. For a beginner, you may talk about certain topics that you are sure you really understand. If not, then of course you need time to prepare yourself and to really understand what you are going to say because you cannot just go and present information to the audience. For a more formal talk, there are three things that you need to cover : introduction, main topic, and conclusion. You can explain the background of the problem, the benefits or the objectives of the problems in the introduction part. The main topic is your answers to the problems while the conclusion is a clear summary of the whole explanation. The structured explanation is much better to the audience’s mind than simply impromptu speech without any clear objectives so that they can learn something from what you say.
The second reason that makes someone afraid of public speaking is because he is not used to speaking in front of people. Here, we understand the concept of extrovert and introvert. People think that the extrovert type of people will "perform" more easily than the introverts who are often "behind the scenes". Fear of making mistakes, not being heard by people, being embarrassed etc are the feelings that may haunt someone who wants to speak in front of public. The family might have influence in this case. For someone, who is raised from a family who often controls what he wants to do or controls almost everything that happens in his life, will be grown up into a shy person who just follows orders. Also, when the parents do not let their child say what they want to say will make the child into an unconfident person. Therefore, if the child cannot express what he wants to say in front of the parents, how can he is expected to do that in front of public? Parents play a role in shaping the child personality since the early age. When the child is trained how to express his opinion he can learn how to agree or disagree with someone else but still respect someone else’s decision. The child will learn to be independent, to be a leader, not a follower.
Lastly, having negative thinking can make someone fearful to speak in front of public. Fear exists due to excessive concerns that arise in a person. Therefore if you want to overcome your fear, you have to change this negative thinking into a positive one. How can you do that? Well, as mentioned before if you master the material, understand what you are saying and have made a good preparation, you’ll be ready for a public speaking.
In short, the skill of public speaking is one of the most important skills to have. It offers lots of advantages for someone to without any harm. Being confident and being able to express yourself in front of lots of people is the main key to being successful in public speaking. Everybody can be a good public speaker even if he is unable to do before because he doesn’t get used to it. Taking action is another key point for a successful public speaking. It means that all you have to do is to take the chance, take the opportunity to speak or accept the request to do so. At first, it could be a thrilling experience. The more frequent you do it, the more opportunities you have, the easier for you to control yourself, reduce your nervousness and you’ll become a good public speaker.
By Anonymous
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