I am not a fan of public speaking. When I stand up in front of people, my brain goes mushy and I can’t think properly. For me, it’s an incredibly nerve racking and stressful way of sharing and communicating with others.

Yet, despite my fear of public speaking, I decided to take a public speaking course. The reason being that I simply wanted to improve my speaking skills. For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with saying “um” in between words and pauses and not making eye contact while speaking to others. When my presentation grades in school started to suffer because of my public speaking shortcomings, I realized that I was going to have to actively try to improve my speaking skills.

I decided to take the initiative to become a better public speaker despite my aversion to it.

So I enrolled in a public speaking course. On the first day, our teacher assigned us four speeches: an introductory speech, an informative speech, a how-to speech, and a persuasive speech. We were to provide anonymous feedback for every speech in order to provide constructive criticism and encouragement for our peers.

What the Public Speaking Class Was Like

The first speech was a simple introduction speech, where we had to talk about ourselves to the class—who we are, where we’re from, and what makes us interesting. I discussed my joy for writing and why I write, including my love of poetry. As part of each speech, we had to use an “attention grabber,” basically an interesting hook or opening line or story that instantly engages the audience to what you’re saying.

To get things rolling, I made up a crazy and imaginative mini story about aliens, UFOs, and abduction, which I concluded with “whatever happens next is up to me, since I am a writer.” The class responded positively to my attention grabber, and because I started out strong, I had plenty of momentum for the rest of my speech, which went better than I expected due to my preparation.

The second speech was the informative speech, where we had to pick a topic, research it, and present it to the class in an educational and informative matter. Since the teacher let us choose our own topics for each of our speeches, I decided to talk about the millions of galaxies in the universe. As part of the research phase, we had to submit an outline of our speech one week before the presentation date.

Every outline had to include a thesis statement, transition sentences, and other components that an essay would have, since a speech is essentially a spoken essay. We received feedback twice for this assignment, once for our outline before presenting, and again after the speech.

The teacher gave us very specific feedback after we presented, including how many times we used filler words—words like “um” and “uh” that we use to fill time or silence because we can’t think of anything else to say. He also counted how many times we paused for longer than 5 seconds—anything longer is distracting and diminishes the speech’s impact.

My speaking abilities really improved from this feedback because it helped me realize how often I utilized meaningless filler words.

After I presented an informative speech about the millions of galaxies in our universe, I built on this for the third speech, the how-to speech. This instruction were simple—prepare a speech that shows the audience how to do something, such as bake cookies or throw a curveball. We also had to use props for this presentation.

For my how-to speech, I discussed how to read the starry sky and identify the different constellations with a star chart. For my props I brought in images of prominent constellations, including Ursa Minor and Ursa Major. I also printed out the star chart current for that year and month, and showed the class how to use it.  

The fourth and final speech was a persuasive speech, where we had to convince the audience of an opinion or viewpoint. This last speech required the most research and preparation because the goal of the speech was to influence and persuade people, and not just inform. I decided to continue my space-related topics and talk about whether aliens exist or not. I researched the history of aliens, UFO sightings, Roswell New Mexico, conspiracy theories, NASA, and more. I read what people were saying about aliens, whether they exist or not, and I tried to include or address the best arguments and counterarguments in my speech.

When it was my turn to present, I told the class that aliens exist, and why it’s important that they believe aliens exist. I shared my reasoning, listed the evidence, and asked the audience to really think. Towards the end, I clearly remember a mistake I made—I forgot to cite the sources I used. Fortunately, this didn’t hurt my grade too much, but I made sure to not let it happen again.

In between these four main speeches we had several impromptu speeches. These speeches were short, fun, spur-of-the-moment speeches similar to improv, where nothing is planned. These impromptu speeches are exactly 2 minutes long, and we had to work with random topics. The teacher had a list of topic, some were silly like  “are leggings considered pants?” and others were weird, such as “what would you do if you encountered an alien?” The impromptu speeches are challenging because you only have 30 seconds to prepare, and like an essay, the speech must have an introduction, a working thesis, and effective transition sentences.

What I Learned From My Public Speaking Class

Every one of these speeches helped my public speaking abilities in distinct ways. The first speech—the introductory one where we talk about ourselves—was a great way to learn how to be comfortable talking about ourselves. This is important because you must be able to talk about yourself for interviews and other professional settings, and appear confident while doing so. This speech also allowed us to practice expressing ourselves in a clear and concise manner, which is useful for many situations in life.

The second speech, the informative one, was similar to the introductory speech but instead of talking about myself, I discussed a topic in an informative way. Again, this speech helped me clearly articulate my thoughts about a certain subject.

The third speech, the how-to speech, was helpful because, at some point in our lives, we all have to show someone how to do something. The more experienced we are in communicating with others, the easier it becomes. The how-to speech taught me that patience is important when explaining new things to people, and to be receptive of all questions or comments.

The last speech, the persuasive speech, taught me the importance of research and preparation. I learned that the more research and practice I put into a persuasive speech, the more effectively I could convey an argument. This is useful because everyone tries to convince others of something at some point, and the ability to persuade effectively can make a big impact.

Our teacher told us that every experience with speaking in public, good or bad, will influence the next time you speak publicly. Even just one bad experience can have a lasting negative impact.

Therefore, the teacher always tried to make the class fun and engaging so it would be a positive experience that reinforces future public speaking.

The anonymous feedback system worked really well for receiving insights from peers. I learned that the class loved my attention grabbing opener from the informative speech, where I said “whatever happens next is up to me because I’m a writer.” I also learned that I effectively persuaded some of the class that yes, aliens do indeed exist, a success in my book. And, of course, I received constructive feedback which helped me realize how often I use filler words and avoid eye contact. Fortunately, this feedback became less frequent as the term went on and I focused on improving these shortcomings.

Public speaking became easier as the semester went on for me. For others, it seemed to get  harder. Some students would freeze up or abandon their speeches; one student cried because they were scared. Overall, the class really improved my public speaking skills. I sometimes still use one or two filler words on a bad day, but my speaking abilities are so much stronger than they used to be. I passed the class with a B and I learned a lot. I recommend taking a public speaking course to anyone who wants to improve their communication abilities.