Apply What You Learn
Public speaking combines theory and practice that you can apply to your daily life.
As you study creative and critical thinking, sensitivity to audiences, and effective
speech presentation, the skills you learn will:
• Help you critically evaluate messages and appeals of all kinds.
• Make you more sensitive to people and situations.
• Enable you to recognize and adapt to diverse audiences and complex
occasions.
• Increase your self-confidence and your willingness to engage in serious dialogue
with others.1
Outside the classroom, these attributes will enhance your personal, professional,
and civic life. Sensitivity to others and to their perspectives will help you in
personal relationships as well as when, for instance, you speak to neighborhood
groups, Scout troops, parent-teacher associations, or religious organizations. Employers
and career counselors often put “good communication skills” at the top of
the list of qualities they seek in people.2
The reason is simple: Each year our economy
becomes more dependent on information and the ability to communicate it.
Your study of public speaking also will help make you a more competent, more
active citizen. You will be better able to understand public issues and controversies,
to decide what you think about them, and to participate effectively in addressing
them—whether on your campus, in your neighborhood, or in the larger
public forum.