As mostly every other freshman as Illinois State University, I have taken a speech class prior to this course and as every other communication 110 student, I have things that I can improve on coming into this course. There are many ways to describe myself and the habits that I have when it comes to communication and public speaking. I would say that I am someone who is very shy and quite until I get to know you, and then I am outgoing and fun and am someone who is always open to talk to and listen.
I am also very organized, kind and helpful. Although I am all of these things I also have many habits pertaining to public speaking, not all so great. During speeches I tend to have poor eye contact, shaky hands due to nerves, and I tend to be more reserved and shy. These are all things that I hope to improve on throughout this course.
My first goal that I hope to achieve during the course of this class would be to make more eye contact with my listeners. I tend to always look away from my listeners or look down at my speech. While being a part of this class I hope to learn techniques to help me overcome this habit of mine. I plan on starting to slowly overcome this habit by starting to look at people foreheads or the wall right behind them. I will then slowly progress to making full eye contact during my speeches with everyone in my audience to make them all feel engaged in my speech; hopefully making them more interested in my speech. The next habit that I hope to break would be having shaky hands.
Having shaky hands is something that I cannot exactly fix, but reduce. It’s an internal interference of communication and is caused by stress and nervousness. There are ways that I could lower my stress and nerve levels. I could do anti-stress activities such as taking a nice, warm shower, or for me personally I believe that drinking a hot cup of tea before my speech would help me calm down. I also think that practicing my speech, numerous amounts of times, would help because the more I practice and the better I learn my speech the better I can present it.
Another great way to calm down is to take three deep breaths before I give my speech to help calm my nerves. Something to think about while giving a speech is that everyone else is nervous as while so even though it might be your turn to stand up at that podium or table, think about how everyone else in the same room is nervous about giving their speeches. You are all in the same boat. The last, but not least, goal that I hope to improve upon throughout this course would be to try and be more open and less shy.
I would like to improve upon being shy because it restricts me from being who I really am and it does not allow others to know the real me. Coming into college I made it a personal goal of mine, not just in communication but overall, to be less shy and more outgoing. I want to make as many friends as possible in college and I think that by being more sociable it will make that easier.
In communication I will work on being more outgoing for the purpose of bettering my speeches. When you are more outgoing in your speech more people will want to pay attention to what you have to say. There are many ways that I can do this but the best way, I believe, is to get involved as much as possible. I want to join many clubs and rush for a sorority. I will try my best to break all of these habits throughout the course of this class.
To sum up my Communication Improvement Profile Paper I will put my best effort toward breaking these habits and bettering myself within this communication course and during my time at Illinois State University. All of these habits, failure to make eye contact, shaky hands, and being shy, are things that once I master could potentially help me in the future with getting a job or making new friends. I hope to accomplish all of my goals as soon as possible with as much success as possible.
