As a person who struggles with autism i often feel what I express doesn’t align with my emotions at all. I’ve had many of my friends tell me that they think I’m upset or mad when I actually wasn’t. This has created a feeling of not being understood by my peers. Another things about it is that I don’t know how to fix it, I’ve had people tell me to be happier or to stop being so sad or emotional. When something like this happens to me i try to explain myself in a way that is more digestible for people who don’t recognize my speech patterns.

I myself have a hard time differentiating between the two sometimes as I use a script as an outline occasionally. I forget what I need to say often so I write a lot of things down. While delivering speeches in previous classes my classmates would do similar things. Would I be able to write down everything I need to say?

We’ve talked about this in class and how important it is to properly clarify your points and sources. While speaking in my presentation I am anticipating that I will forget many things I am supposed to say. The previous paragraph talks about how each peice of supporting material needs to directly link back to your thesis. I don’t know many ways to verbally cite things out loud. My fear is being repetitive during my speech.

This is good advice but how would you accurately determine your audiences’ attitudes and beliefs? Usually the people who attend public speaking events are interested in the topic. Of course it is safer to speak liberally when you are unsure of your audience.

I think this is really interesting to think about, I have sensory issues so it’s hard for me to push past some background noise on a day to day basis. This makes me wonder why I don’t automatically filter out a lot of background noise and get overwhelmed by it instead. Why do I focus on things that a lot of other people can look past? I often use noise cancelling headphones for this reason. Being in public when there are many other people and chatter creates intense anxiety in me.

The negative connotation with being a non-native English speaker is fascinating. There is a difference between being comfortable speaking a language and confident and competence. The example of the Taiwanese woman was a little weird considering anyone who doesn’t comfortably speak a language would be considered incompetent. Many of my family members speak in broken English and I have witnessed them be belittled because of their tone.

When I got to this part of the chapter I thought of the different ways people communicate to present and express themselves. We can do so musically, artistically, vocally, and non verbally. Roles also play a part in how we present ourselves to others, when a woman gives birth she is expected to rid herself of any thoughts or actions that aren’t motherly. How does this person present themselves? What makes them do so?

I have sensory issues and sometimes my brain will block out a person’s words when I am auditorily overstimulated and this makes me think about the disconnection I experience and how it effects my auditory processing process. It’s similar to a channel full of static, only some things get through but mostly everything is a mess.

Why is memory the least studied? It seems very helpful considering that information retention is one of the hardest things about public speaking. Memorization techniques should be taught in high school communication classes. Everyone is different as well, meaning that everyone memorizes things differently.

I wonder what the next era we enter will be. In high school classes we have talked about this before. Another interesting topic that arises is the differences between the people born in different eras. I feel as though it reminds us of the impact technology has on the human lifestyle.