Personal Narrative: My First Online Class

As a student I have always tried to avoid public speaking courses as much as possible. Especially the ones that are for public speaking, once I found out I was going to have to take a public speaking course I was dreading the moment than I found out I could take it solely online and I thought oh this wont be as bad, even though I was still pretty anxious about it. Once in Com103 I was dreading having to say the first speech. Then we had our first online class, I felt a lot more prepared and had a better understanding of what was expected. Through com103 I was able to grow an understanding of how to prepare and organize a speech, I was able to decrease the anxiety I get before a speech, effectively listen and am now more prepared to talk and …show more content…
I really did not know how to set up a speech properly. It was great to learn how to use an outline to set up a speech and use it as a guide to state my points. Previously when I spoke I would try and memorize every single thing I wanted to say which ended up setting me up for failure. The first speech in this class I ended up trying to memorize exactly what I wanted to say after I had written it all out. I then ended up reading directly off my paper, which wasn’t what I wanted to accomplish. With my next speech I learned from the collab session and text that it was a lot more beneficial to create an outline. From creating an outline I felt more prepared to do the speech. Once, I did my second speech I really wasn’t as scatter brained as the previous one and was able to go through each point with ease thanks to the outline. The outline also made it easier to set up my points in the order necessary for the speech. Which is another thing I learned from this class. There are many different ways to set up a speech according to the topic at hand like chronological, sequential, etc. learning this made it easier to pick one and create an outline off the order I would …show more content…
At my current job I feel I will be able to prepare more for things like back to school and open house where I have to talk to parents in my class. I also feel like once I become a nurse it will help me communicate better with patients having public speaking is great for all forms of communication. It not only taught me how to relax during a speech but it taught me how to effectively listen as well. I now feel that I am a lot more prepared to communicate with people. Through com103 I was able to grow an understanding of how to prepare and organize a speech, I was able to decrease the anxiety I get before a speech, effectively listen, and am now more prepared to talk and communicate with people in the future. I am very glad that I took this class and am less fearful of taking future communication