Nicole Kazakov Reflection

Group Presentations Reflection (Public Speaking)

Nicole Kazakov

SPC 2608

09/25/2022

Public speaking is the act of speaking face to face to a live audience, or even a pre-recorded speech delivered with the help of technology. In other words, it is a presentation given live before an audience. These speeches can cover a variety of different topics. The art of public speaking aims to educate, persuade, inform, and entertain. It plays a significant and important role in people's everyday lives - such as helping influence decisions and motivate others for the better. But in order to be successful in public speaking, one must have communication skills. Communication skills are a talent not everyone may have naturally, but anyone can definitely gain it. Effective communication and public speaking skills can help anyone in the long run with things such as careers, leadership abilities, critical thinking skills, etc. Below I will go into detail about each group's presentations and the topics that were gone over.

Group 1: For the first group's presentation, the intercultural communication chapter (the book's beginning chapters) was introduced to the class, which was a live audience. The discussion on cross-cultural communication involved subjects such as sexual/cultural discrimination, racism, etc. This taught the audience that understanding how people from various cultures speak, interact, and view the world around them is made possible through this kind of communication. I learned that one of the most important things you can do is be aware -  awareness is key. Not only did the group present confidently and do an excellent job going over many important matters, but they also included videos in their presentation for the audience to watch. I noticed that they added videos that helped keep the audience's attention and stay focused on the topic. The group did a great job all together.

Group 2: Like the first group, the second group added videos during their presentation. I am always a fan of videos and support adding them to any presentation, but it seemed as if they relied on the videos more than talking about the topics on their own. In addition, some group members were reading off the screen more than speaking for themselves when presenting. But other than that, the group members did a great job of coming together as a team and sharing what they learned with the audience. This group demonstrated fantastic group communication, which is exactly what the chapter is about. It is essential for team members to be natural with one another, and I did not sense any "fake-ness" of care or when assisting one another. Confidence was displayed loud and clear. The key to success for many things is communication, and in this case, communication was vital. 

Group 3: As a third group member, I think we did a fantastic job with our presentation. I am not only saying that because I am a part of the group, but also because I got to see the "behind the scenes," which is what took place that people who are not in the group could not see. What was ongoing "behind the scenes" was lots of determination and dedication to informing the audience with precise information, which is essential for what we had to present to the audience, which was all about persuasive presentations. The topics discussed were how persuasive presentations are unique, what the types of persuasive presentations are, how to plan a persuasive presentation, how critical thinking and reasoning can improve your message, avoiding fallacies of reasoning, what ethical principles should guide persuasive speaking, and an example of a persuasive presentation. Presenting my part of the presentation excited me, and I got to use everything I had freshly learned when it came to public speaking. Practice makes perfect, and I shall improve more throughout the time of being enrolled in this class. My group members and I were independent and did not depend on reading off the slides alone and included information we learned, mainly using only our words alone. We made the presentation enjoyable, engaging, and informative for the audience as best as possible.

After watching all three groups, including mine, I learned many new things that I can use in class and daily in the real world. Public speaking can be scary sometimes and even nerve-wracking, but it is essential to realize that giving a speech does not make it the end of the world, and one should view it as a positive thing. Although it is natural for a human being to feel nervous or scared to present to an audience, it is crucial that you practice beforehand in order to be prepared for what to say and when to say it. The more you practice, the better the outcome will be. The best is yet to come as long as you stay calm and relaxed. (I took this advice when I had to present my part). Staying organized will not only help you with public speaking in the long run but will also help you avoid any "accidents" during presenting. Things such as forgetting what to say, stuttering, mixing topics up, etc., can all be avoided by staying organized, as well as lots of practice since practice makes perfect. Little things like this can help improve future presentations and your communication/speaking skills. The more you do it, the less scary it will be and the more natural it shall feel.

In addition to learning something new, the presentations helped me better understand the difference between informative presentations and persuasive presentations. Informative speeches aim to inform the audience about a specific topic. In contrast, a persuasive speech seeks to persuade the audience, or in other words, convince the audience to believe what the speaker is presenting. It is a must to be aware and careful of who is trying to convince you with what topic and why. And is essential to not trust someone by the way they look but by what experience and factual information are being said.

Overall, all groups did a fantastic job and displayed confidence which is key in not only public speaking but any form of speaking and communication in general. Confidence allows one to speak with clarity. It is easy for someone to spot someone without confidence when talking, which in this case, is important, especially speaking/communicating with confidence in front of an audience. Not only did I learn a lot more about public speaking, but I became better at it.