Leeron Carmi / Sept.

21, 2019
ENCE424 / Prof. Trotman

Pearl Diving Assignment: #1

 I had always believed that public speaking is a skill some people were naturally born
with, and some were not. I had always found public speaking daunting and a bit stress
inducing, with never much opportunity to practice it; the last time I gave a formal speech
was at my highschool graduation, since then, I’ve only presented a few minor in-class
speeches. However my opinions on the ability to learn public speaking have changed since
the first day of class. We were introduced to the ‘growth mindset’, which is a self-confident
approach to learning in which one believes that “ I can do anything I want” and “my effort
and attitude determines my abilities”. Dr. Carol Dweck coined the term ‘growth mindset’
after studying the behaviour of thousands of children in their responses to failure. They
found that if you believe your brain can grow, that you can get smarter, you are more likely
to succeed in what you hope to accomplish; there is a positively linked relationship
between mindset and achievement. 1 I have been introduced to this mindset in my studio
courses at the architecture school, but I never realized that I can apply this method of
thinking to my relationship with public speaking. This is the mindset I would like to adopt
and begin the semester with, and while I know it will not happen all at once and that I’ll
need to put in a lot of time, effort, and practice into it, I am confident in my ability to learn
and improve in this area.

“Decades of Scientific Research That Started a Growth Mindset Revolution.” The Growth
1

Mindset - What Is Growth Mindset - Mindset Works, https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/.

 Just the act of reading about public speaking is already on the path of the growth
mindset, and it is evident that the authors believe so as well throughout the readings. I was
shocked to find amongst the first chapters of the book “A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking”
a section on managing public speaking anxiety. Was it possible that speaking anxiety was
something that could be learned about? The growth mindset answers this question with a
firm yes. There area few steps to dealing with public speaking anxiety (PSA) 2, and the first
is to identify what makes you anxious. The three main reasons one might be anxious about
public speaking are as follows: lack of positive experience, feeling different, being at the
center of attention. I went through each of these and tried to relate them to my own
experiences. I have definitely had a few negative experience public speaking experiences,
most of them took place in highschool. I had once had to give a 45 minute lesson/speech to
a room full of parents and students, and I had not realized that the principal of my school
was also going to be sitting in on my lesson, I got very anxious when I realized this and the
flow of my presentation was definitely affected by that. I had also been on the Model UN
team, and a few times I had gotten up to speak in front of the room and froze, forgetting
part of my speech and feeling embarrassed in front of my peers; although I was very
prepared, I lost my train of thought once I was up in front of the room. Another reason for
feeling anxious that I can relate to is being at the center of attention. I had never liked being
at the center of attention, I tend to be very self critical and believe that others might be that
critical of me as well, therefore when I am at the center of attention, those feelings are
exacerbated and cause me to become even more anxious about speaking.
The next step the book mentions in managing public speaking anxiety is
pinpointing the onset of the anxiety 3. The four stages one might feel anxiety about public
speaking are as follows: pre-preparation, preparation, pre-performance, performance. I feel
most anxious at two of these stages, preparation and performance. Coming up with a
speech always seems to phase me. I generally love writing and pay a lot of attention to
detail and description, but speech writing is a lot different than the writing that I am used
to. I often find it hard coming up with a topic for a speech, especially when it is about

2
OHair, Dan, et al. A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking. Bedford/St. Martins, 2019. Pg. 13-20
3
OHair, Dan, et al. A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking. Bedford/St. Martins, 2019. Pg. 15
myself, and find it a lot more difficult to word ideas that are meant to be spoken as opposed
to just read. However, once I do come up with a topic and get to writing my speech,
practicing it does not phase me too much. I like being prepared, so I will generally practice
a lot, even more than needed, before a speech because I know public speaking does not
come easy to me and the preparation makes me feel more secure. However, once it is time
for me to go up and give my speech, I feel a lot of anxiety and tend to forget what I was
intending on saying.
Once you do pinpoint the reasons and times you feel most anxious about public
speaking, the book suggests you use proves strategies to build your confidence and
relaxation techniques to ease your way into the speech. The book suggests to practice and
rehearse, modify your thoughts and attitudes, and visualize success. Practice is definitely
an essential part of public speaking, but modifying my thoughts was a new concept that
seemed to go in tandem with the growth mindset. The book claims that once you start
thinking about the speech as a worthwhile and positive experience, once from which you
will most definitely learn from, you will approach it with a better and more confident
attitude, increasing your likelihood of success; this sounded to me exactly like the growth
mindset we learned about on the first day of class. Visualizing success is also very
important to do; I tend to do the opposite and visualize my failure, but I need to learn to
visualize my success and in that way reduce my anxiety about the speech. In order to
combat the “flight or fight” response we may feel before a speech, the book suggest
activating the relaxation response through meditation, stress-control breathing, and
movement. I really relate to all of these methods, I tend to get very tight and wound up
before I speak publicly, and these methods help me relax. While meditation and deep
breathing is a relaxation technique best done before a speech, I was surprised to find that
one can still activate the relaxation response during a speech by using movement. While I
try to relax before a speech, once I get up to speak and stand in front of the room, my
anxiety returns, but because I am about to give my speech, I cannot use meditation or
breathing to relax myself and find myself. Learning that moving during a presentation can
actually relax you was a very interesting concept to me.
When it came to putting all of this information I had obtained on public speaking
anxiety, I found the personal speeches a very good way to implement these strategies.
Because the personal speeches could be filmed, I was a little less nervous about them, even
though the camera still feels like an audience to me. Because I found them a bit less
daunting, I was able to really analyze my approach to the speeches and test out a few of
these ideas I read about; hopefully when I do have to present in front of the class, I will
have had some practice with these strategies.
Another part of the reading that really resonated with me was the first chapter of
The Essentials of Business Etiquette. This chapter discusses the importance of your name
and how you initially introduce yourself. I had always felt a little self conscious of my name,
while ‘Leeron’ sounds very nice in its original hebrew, in America people often get confused
by it and don’t expect it. The chapter reinforces the idea that you should use your full name
and not be ashamed of it, but you should still be open to making it easier for other people to
say. It gave the suggestion of using business cards or name tags so that people can catch the
spelling of your name and that way it might be easier for them to say. Additionally, I believe
that if I begin introducing myself using my full name, ‘Leeron Carmi’, people might catch my
last name much easier and easily refer to me as Ms. Carmi if they have trouble with my first
name. This week, I will focus on introducing myself keeping the importance of the power of
my name in mind. In my personal speeches I will state my name clearly and perhaps
multiple times, and in encounters with other people, even just other students, I will make
sure to say my name clearly and confidently.
As informative as the readings were, nothing stood out to me more than the Maya
Angelou quote we were presented with on the first day of class: “ I've learned that people
will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how
you made them feel.” I had always loved Maya Angelou since middle school, but somehow I
never connected with this quote as much as I do now. In the setting of a public speaking
class I appreciate it much more because it is a reminder of the power of communication.
While it is important to communicate in order to get projects going and effectively convey
our ideas, we must always remember that in our communications we have the power to
arise feelings in others, and we must harness that ability in a responsible and effective
manner; it is imperative to be aware of the power of pathos. I have learned that networking
relies on the power of pathos, and that is something I must learn to harness and use to my
advantage. As a senior in college, I am feeling the importance of networking more than
ever, and while I am new to it, I must keep putting myself into those positions and keep
practicing. I have been to career fairs, have spoken to professionals over the phone that I
have connected to through friends, and have spoken to my bosses from my summer
internship as well. I intend to keep on networking and would like to improve my LinkdIn
presence as well as speak with younger professionals that I might be able to relate more to
and have easier access to, and I will work to apply the skills I learn from these readings to
these future encounters.
The DISC personality quiz has determined me as follows:
“You are tenacious and determined to follow a course of action - to achieve
objectives. You are a clear thinker. You have an inner need to be objective and analytical.
You like to pursue a definite course of action. You respond to logic rather than emotion.
You are likely to be particularly good at handling challenging technical assignments.”
I partially agree with this, I do believe that I am determined and like to pursue
definite courses of action, but I think I am often responding based on emotion rather than
logic. It is definitely interesting to read about myself, but I do not know how much I will
make use to this, I definitely find the readings much more informative.
The readings I have read for class were not only engaging, but also really made me
think more about my approach to public speaking as whole. I now am trying to think of it in
the growth mindset, and with that I am constantly thinking how I might apply the
information I glean from the readings to my casual and professional interactions every day.
I am very excited to grow and build better public speaking skills this semester!

References:

“Decades of Scientific Research That Started a Growth Mindset Revolution.” The Growth
Mindset - What Is Growth Mindset - Mindset Works, https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/.

OHair, Dan, et al. A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking. Bedford/St. Martins, 2019.