Antoinette Uwimpuhwe

Communication 1010
May 2, 2017
Communication Class for my Major
1. Self-reflection
The communication principals I learned from this class are universal. They gave me
the skills that I can apply as professional in my future career and at home or in any
of my personal Individual contacts.
This course helped me to understand the principals of communication at work,
interpersonal communication, listening and interviewing, leadership and working in
teams, preparing and conducting meetings and presentation and writing business
report. I believe I need all this in my career as an Occupation Therapy Assistance.
I will need all this skills for communicating with my clients, my co-workers, my
managers, for writing reports for my activities and communicating with family
members of my clients and general public.
2. Favorite assignment:

Managing my Anxiety of Public speaking.

Submitted by Antoinette Uwimpuhwe
Salt Lake Community College
Communication 1010
March 18, 2017

I would like to work on how I can reduce my anxiety when I have to speak
in public.
I am planning to use some of the strategies I learned from the class.
I always deliver what I have prepared but I have noticed that in the first
few minutes my mind goes blank. I will overcome this problem by
Memorizing the key point of my speech, rehearsing my presentation and
doing what it takes to improve my confidence.
Description of the Problem
My challenge start the night before. I dont get enough sleep because I
know already that I will be the center of attention. I am scared that I will
make mistakes and wont be able to persuade my audience. As the time to
speak approaches, I become more nervous. Walking to the stage, I feel
unsteady, like I am going to faint. On the stage, I feel like all the eyes are
looking at me and ready to judge me. I feel like I have to change what I
have prepared and say it differently in way they would like. I try to find a
way to improvise the first sentences but it does come because my mind is
frozen. At the same time, I am shaking and sweating in my hands. I feel
like this is taking quite long and to come out of this terrible situation I feel
compelled to read what I have prepared to find a way to start.
Resources and Constraints
The text book presents a range of strategic actions I can take to overcome
my anxiety. With the help of people around me, I can be able to implement
all these ideas and work hard to become a better speaker.
Chapter 11 of the text book, Delivering the Presentation, page 314-333, is
a great resource I will certainly use to work on my speaking problem. I will
focus on speaking with confidence by recognizing that moderate anxiety is
normal to any public speaker. I will try to speak more often, rehearse my
presentations, present on topics I like and understand well to an Audience
I know is interested, and I will keep in mind that my presentation does not
have to be perfect and that I dont have to persuade the entire audience.
I will be using the people around me as an audience for my rehearsals and
as critics for my performance.
Recommendations
From Adler, Elmhorst and Lucas, p 331, I learned that a certain amount of
anxiety is not just normal but is even desirable. I will always keep this in
mind as I prepare and deliver my speech.
My goal is not to get rid of my nervousness but to control it and use it as
source of extra energy and I will achieve this by keeping a positive
internal dialogue that my anxiety will decrease when I start my speech.
To build my confidence, I will create more opportunity to speak in public. I
will start by being more active in my church and taking more
responsibilities. Church offers a lot of chances to speak in public for
anyone who would like to be involved. Taking responsibility in programs
like Sunday school, womens relief society, primaries and testimonies will
certainly offer an invaluable opportunity to practice and build confidence
for speaking in public. I will try to be anywhere they need someone to
present something.
I will also use my working places culture of having a speaker present to
the staff on some topic every two weeks. I will volunteer to be the speaker
as often as possible.
I have no doubt this will help me to create a lot of opportunities to speak
in public. But I am aware that having many opportunities to speak in
public is not enough to get rid of my anxiety. There is a lot more to be
done for that purpose. Building confidence takes also good preparation
and rehearsals
Whenever I have an opportunity to deliver a presentation, I will make sure
to use to the letter the guidelines taught in Chapter 9 of the textbook,
page 246-279. I will analyze my audience, I will analyze myself as the
speaker on that particular topic. I will then set my goals and develop my
thesis.
I will make sure my presentation is well organized and for that purpose, I
will first brainstorm my ideas which will help me develop my basic plan.
Then I will identify my key points and make sure I am very familiar with
each one of them. From there, I will work on transitions from key points to
key points.
The next step on my preparation will be planning my introduction and my
conclusion and making sure that I master my opening statement and my
closing statement. Mastering my opening statement is particularly
important to solve the problem of my mind going black at the beginning of
my speech because being absolutely sure I know how to start my speech
will boost my confidence at the beginning.
Now I have my preparation ready but it does not mean I am confident
enough to present it. I have to make sure I will present it exactly the way I
have prepared. They only way to be sure this will happen is to rehearse.
That is when I will need the help of the people around me. First, I will
rehearse alone to make sure I master my key points, my transitions, my
introduction and my closing statements. Then, I will ask people around me
to pose as my audience and be at the same time my critics. I will repeat as
many times as needed to be confident I can deliver it the way I planned.
Another way to increase my confidence will be to choose topics I
understand well and that are interesting to me and may be interesting to
most individuals in my audience. Like Adler, Elmhorst and Lucas put it the
textbook, If you believe in what you are saying and you have a genuine
desire to have your audience understand and accept your message, then
your natural enthusiasm will take over and your nervousness will shrink to
a manageable size (p 332). This again shows the importance of audience
analysis during preparation. If I am not sure I understand well a topic,
then I will have to be sure it is one on which I can research effectively
before accepting the invitation for presentation.
One of the factors causing my anxiety was the fear of not being able to do
a good job. Not being able to make a perfect presentation or not being
understood or appreciated by my audience. I have now learned to think
rationally about my presentation. From now on, I will keep in mind that no
one expects a perfect presentation from me and that it is not realistic to
want to persuade or to be understood by every person among the
audience.
Conclusion
Anxiety of speaking in public has always been a major problem during my
speeches and presentations. I am glad a took this class (communication
1010), because it gave me a variety of tools I can use to overcome this
anxiety and deliver my presentation effectively. I know now that if I do a
good preparation in which I analyze my audience, myself as a speaker and
my topic; master my key points and transitions; master my opening and
closing statements; if I speak more often and rehearse all my
presentations and if I think rationally and positively of my presentations
and set realistic expectations, my anxiety of speaking in public will be
reduced to a level that is normal and manageable.
Works cited:
Alder, R. & Emhorst, J. and Lucas, K. Communicating at work Strategies for
Success in Business and the Professions (11th edition). Boston: McGraw
Hill.