Public Speaking Textbook
Chapter 3 Speaking Confidently
Battling Nerves and the Unexpected:
• The fear of public speaking ranks up with those fears such as; flying, spider and death.
• Although speaking in front of a crowd may not scare people there are many other things
that could wrong before giving a speech, either loosing your notes, technical difficulties
with the presentation or getting distracted by an audience member. Being a confident
speaker involves knowing how to deal with all of these issues.
What is Communication Apprehension?
• How well someone communicates is believed to be connected to our image and the
process of revealing ourselves to the evaluation of others can be threating no matter what
we are doing.
• Communication Apprehension refers to an individual’s fear or anxiety associated with
another person. Communication Apprehension is a physiological response to evaluation,
although it can be come physical as our body responses to the threat the mind perceives.
• The body can not distinguish between physiological and physical threats, so we react as
though we are facing a MACK truck heading in our direction. Therefore our bodies
circulatory and adrenal systems shifts in overdrive, which prepares us to function at
maximum physical efficiency- the flight or fight response.
• Instead of running away or fighting, we just stand and talk.
Physiological Symptoms of Communication Apprehension:
• When our heart pounds and our hands feel clammy, when we break into a sweat are all
example of how the physiological can effect the physical being.
• Anxiety about communicating is disconcerting since we feel powerless and have no
control over our body.
• The anxiety comes from the notion that we may forget our name or the main parts of the
speech.
• Circulation and breathing become more rapid so that additional oxygen can reach the
muscles.
• Increased circulation causes us to sweat. Adrenaline rushed through our body, instructing
the body to speed up its movements.
• If you do not move while behind a lecture then you may began to shake and tremble.
• The digestive process is inhabitable so we will not lapse into the sleepy state instead we
will feel butterflies in the pit of our stomach.
• ONCE WE UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON IN OUR BODIES WE WOULD
THEN HAVE A BETTER CHANCE OF OVERCOMING THE FEARS ASSOCIATED
WITH COMMUNICATION ANXEITY.
• Any conscious emotional state such as anxiety or excitement consists of two
components; a primary reaction of the central nervous system, and the intellectual
interpretation of these physiological responses.
• Even those whom are well experienced in the area of public speaking can often times
suffer from communication apprehension, but the difference is that they have the ability
to use their bodies using the energy released to create animation and stage presence.
Myths about Communication Apprehension:
1. People who suffer from speaking anxiety are neurotic.
a. Good speakers can get nervous just as well as poor speakers do.
2. Telling a joke or two is always a good way to begin a speech.
a. Humor is some of the toughest material to delivered since it has to be delivered
effectively. Nothing is worse than waiting for a laugh that never comes, one
persons joke is another person’s slander.
3. Imagine the audience was naked.
4. Any mistake means you have blown it.
a. It does not matter about the mistake but instead how well one can recover from it.
5. DO NOT MEMORIZE!!
6. Audiences are out to get you.
a. Most audience members have empathy not antipathy. Most face to face audiences
