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When listening to people give speeches, rather on the television or even my college professors, I now have the capability of pointing out the different communication mechanisms they use. Over Thanksgiving break I was listening to my grandmother who happens to be a pastor, give a sermon and while listening to her speak I noticed how great of a speaker she is. I was able to pay attention to her nonverbal delivery which helps her captivate the audience more effectively. I also now understand why her job can be challenging at times even though it seems like she works one day out of the entire week. She has great organization skills that are definitely needed in order to speak for 120 minutes …show more content…
When speaking in a public setting I use to have a problem speaking loud and clear, my hands would shake and I would become very overheated. After taking this class I have now learned how to cope with these problems. Nervousness is natural and understand how it can work in your benefit when speaking publicly, but the nervousness I would feel would be due to lack of preparation. I now understand how important it is to practice before speaking to an audience. When I presented my informative speech, I was given great feedback by my professor as well as my classmates; I even remember being told that my speech sounded very professional and that I “knew what I was talking about”. This was simply because I practiced my speech over and over until I almost didn’t have to use any notecards.
Lastly, my final improvement this semester has been my critical thinking. Critical thinking is a process that consist of analyzing and evaluating information. I was always that student that didn’t elaborate on a particular point I had or give additional information. The P2Ps that we had to complete before every class has helped me a lot. My professor would even dock off points for not thinking critically or using enough evidence to support our