Reading Reflection – Paper 3 Clint A Wilson Huntington University Author Note Clint A. Wilson, Huntington University Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Clint Wilson, Contact: clint@clintawilson.com Abstract What I have learned and what principles I will be applying to my own public speaking as presented in the books An Essential Guide to Public Speaking (Part 5) and A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking (Chapters 4). Reading Reflection Paper 3             Beginning with the O’Hair book which is all about delivery in this section. Delivery is something I struggle with due to my own insecurities. Early in the section on page 148 a checklist is provided. As I was going through the checklist to see which ones I do or do not possess so I went back and listened to two of my sermons on sound cloud. One of the first ones I ever delivered and one of the more recent ones. I noticed a lot of change between the two, in the first one I sounded as if I lacked confidence, in the later one, I did project authority as needed. My voice changed volume depending on what I needed to convey. Rarely do I ever speak in monotone. The one thing that I found bad on both was rate of delivery, I tend to speed my speech up, this is true in everyday communication with me as well. I do not use ummm, hmm, uhhh etc… very often. I am very good I feel at silent pauses just to let something sink in, and when I do a silent pause, I typically will repeat that phrase again at the end of the pause before moving on. Emotions were very clear in both of my messages, and they both sounded authentic to myself. There was still a lot of area for improvement, and as I write my sermon for this Sunday, I am starting to feel a strong sense of being overwhelmed, I just pray that does not carry to the pulpit or in my sales presentation next week.             The section on pronouncing and articulating words, is by far the toughest thing for me to do. All of the examples they used in the book I would say properly, but several words I cannot say properly at all. Words with an S or an R sound come out horribly. This is one of my biggest fears in speaking, I am ok with it at church, because everyone knows how I talk before I ever started preaching. I do not know how to overcome this, and don’t think there is as four years of speech therapy couldn’t help.             The content in the remainder of the section, is all good material, but nothing that is going to help me become a better speaker as it is all things I know. Then on the final page of the section I find this phrase “The primary purpose of any speech is to get a message across, not to display extraordinary delivery skills. Keep this goal foremost in your mind.” (O'Hair, Rubenstein, & Stewart, 2012, p. 154) I feel if I can keep this thought in my mind, ahead of my own personal hang ups I might just be able to deliver a message or speech better.             This chapter introduced me to some new challenges. I feel challenged or maybe the better word should be compelled to find ways I can unify my speeches, or sermons. This is almost perfect timing to have this lesson, as I prepare my sermon for next Sunday. The context of that sermon is dealing with fear of our internal enemies and love. Two very strong and real emotions, now I need to unify them into a message.             Schultze, spoke to us about expressing ourselves through our movements and our voices. In short speeches I find myself to be very ridged grasping almost the podium. After several minutes I loosen up and that is the point my messages become alive. I need to channel that energy to the opening of my speech and let it resonate through the entire presentation. Otherwise, I risk losing peoples interest and their attention. As Shultze says “Audiences rightly dislike lifeless speeches. Some people arrive early at speeches to get a seat by the door so they can escape unobtrusively if the presentation is uninteresting. They expect to be disappointed.” (Schultze, 2006, p. 62)             The sections on the various types of fit and how we need to find the fit for our audience. I enjoy how Schultze stated “Speeches are living events until concluded.” (Schultze, 2006, p. 68) I sat and thought about that statement, and I felt like Dr. Frankenstein, as I am the only one that can bring my speech alive. I can bring it alive by incorporating many different things, but mainly for me is to include story telling. In a nutshell, if I put myself into my speech, and deliver it with the passion that I feel about it, then I am guaranteed success. Bibliography O'Hair, D., Rubenstein, H., & Stewart, R. (2012). A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking (Fourth ed.). Schultze, Q. (2006). An Essential Guide to Public Speaking.