Public Speaking... Right...

I despise my Comm 141X class with a passion. More than basketball, more than people who only use the elevator to go up or down one floor, and even more than I hate country music. I would WILLINGLY listen to 3 hours straight of country music if that meant I didn't have to attend Comm for a night. This should tell you something. Its an honors section of the communications class though and it is labeled "Public Speaking," but this in itself is a joke.

This class has no public speaking and will never adequately prepare a student for public speaking. NEVER. I have done quite a large amount of leadership stuff and subsequently I have done quite a bit of REAL public speaking. The kind of speaking that happens in front of the PUBLIC with a PURPOSE. Not me standing in front of 15 of my friends and an over-zealous teacher/grader. No, public speaking is a different monster. However, the Comm monster is stupider and larger. Everything you do and say while speaking is over-analyzed and given to you on a grading scale that can never be conquered. The scale is technically out of 40, but since the Communications Department here at UAF has deemed that no speech may ever be perfect an A is at the 30 point mark. My speech netted me a whole 20 points. The grading criteria is also incredibly subjective to the point where I may as well just give up. There is no objectivity in the grading here because it is solely based on how the teacher feels I met the criteria.

Not on the effectiveness of the speech. Not on the content of the speech (mostly). Its based on things such as: Did you touch the podium? Did she feel as if you talked about your topic enough? Did you follow your outline to the dot? Did you lose your place?

The standards are almost impossible to satisfy fully. As in it will NEVER happen. So this is the kind of class that I feel I will have problems with down the road because it is not my ability to speak or confidence in front of people that matters in a "Public Speaking" class (because that would make sense right?). No, this is a class that every little thing will be judged by a panel of one. The one who carries an iron fist of power and is not afraid to punch your grade in the crotch at any chance she gets. I mean, I lost points because although my informative speech was not persuasive (seriously it wasn't) she felt as if it came close. I had a section on the grading that had nothing but positive comments in it -- Grade on that section: 2/5.

I swear, I think my first persuasive speech will be on why the speech guidelines for that class are garbage and how it should be graded in order to accurately determine the effectiveness of a speech.

That's the other thing, the topics are beyond stupid that we can talk about. There are no guidelines, no expectations, no specific audience or topic to talk to/about. Just whatever you can muster for the 5 or 7 minute speeches. My first 2 speeches were about the "Benefits of Video Games on Society." Come on now, this has no relevance to my class or any group. Half of the topics that are presented would have NO place in a public setting. I wish this class either didn't exist or was actually public speaking... Not this pish posh garbage class that pretends to be a public speaking class. All the other Comm classes (that are not honors) actually live up to what they say they are going to be. Group Context is a class that presents speeches to different audiences based on the topics that they have. Public Context is a class that prepares the students for actual public speaking. But here I am being "taught at a different level than the average student." In this case it really means I'm wasting my time and energy for a stupid required course that may or may not be impossible to pull an A in.

So now I'm off to finish my speech outline for the speech I have to present tomorrow night on "The How-to's and Why it is Important to Tune Instruments."

I hate Comm.... I hate it a lot.