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Running head: PUBLIC SPEAKING

The Importance of Public Speaking and its formation

Tania Cruz

University of Belize

Communication Skills

June 29, 2019

Ms. Erica Aguillar

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“The Importance of Public Speaking and its Formulation”

“Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary,”

said one of the most famous American Politician of all time, John F. Kennedy. In agreement with

DeVito (2009), “public speaking is one of the essential skills people need to function effectively

in today’s society.” Public speaking is considered by many as the most dreaded forms of

communication; however, it is also one of the most important forms of communication. Public

speaking is important because it improves your communication skills and assists you in building

up your personal development on many levels which are helpful in every area of life such as

home, work, school and society. Three of the most important aspects that someone should

consider when forming a speech includes analyzing their audience, researching the topic and

organizing their speech.

First and foremost, when forming a speech, analyzing your audience is one of the most

important areas to consider. First, you must consider analyzing the sociological aspect of your

audience. As a speaker, ensure to consider social and cultural factors such as race, age, ethnicity,

gender, religion, nationality, etc. Analyzing these factors are crucial since the values, beliefs, and

interest of various cultures are different. According to DeVito (2009), the most vital questions

you should consider is “Are my audience’s values and beliefs relevant to my topic?” Therefore,

your job is to find out what your audience’s values and beliefs are and incorporate them as you

form your speech. Furthermore, consider analyzing the psychology of your audience. This

merely entails analyzing what they know, what they think about your topic, their willingness to

listen to you, how knowledgeable they are as well as discovering if their attitudes are favorable

or unfavorable towards you, your topic and your point of view, as stated by DeVito in 2008. As

a result, analyzing your audience is an important area you should consider that will bring about
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many benefits such as communicating better among a diverse group of people either at work,

school, home or society.

Moreover, when forming your speech, you should properly research your topic. In

consonance with DeVito (2009), before researching your topic, consider basic research

guidelines such as the things you already know about the topic, time management, and research

notes. These basic research guidelines are very important as they will allow you to become

organized and self-disciplined not only when formulating your speech but also at your

employment and in your personal life. Also, these guidelines will allow you to have a basic

understanding of the topic before detailed research; they will allow you to use your time

effectively and efficiently as well as maintaining accurate records of your research. In addition,

do not limit your research sources. Ensure to utilize two or more sources such as libraries, news

sources, databases, observations and the World Wide Web to have a well-supported speech.

Researching allows you to develop learning and analytical skills to know what to deliver to your

audience as well as improve your communication skills everywhere.

In addition, organizing your speech is another important area to keep in mind while you

formulate your speech. According to Baumeyer (2019), “speech organization is effectively

taking the information one wishes to present and arranging it in a logical order.” Organizing your

speech brings about many benefits. Speech organization allows your speech to easily be

understood, be more enjoyable as well to enable your audience and yourself to remember the

information. Also, speech organization adds credibility to both you and your speech. There are

various patterns you can use to properly organize your speech. These patterns include temporal,

spatial, topical, cause-effect, problem-solution and the motivated sequence pattern. In all,

organizing your speech allows you to develop planning skills, organizational skills and
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persuading skills which allow you to improve your communication skills, learn how to argue,

expand your professional network as well as personal development.

Public speaking has become a vital aspect that allows us to develop many skills which are

used in our everyday lives. Overall, public speaking helps us develop organizational, learning,

planning, analytical and communication skills which enable us to grow within our jobs as well as

influence our personal development. There are 3 important areas we must consider when

formulating a speech. Through speech analysis, we can communicate better within a diverse

audience. Also, researching our topic allows us to deliver a well-prepared speech. Lastly,

analyzing our speech provides both the speaker and the speech credibility. Ultimately, public

speaking is very important in all aspects, from personal to professional.

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References

Baumeyer, K. (2019). Speech organization: importance to speaker & audience. Retrieved from

https://study.com/academy/lesson/why-speech-organization-is-important.html

DeVito, J. A. (2009). Human communication: the basic course. New York City, New York:

Allyn and Bacon, Inc.