It'll all be over in 12 hours!

Originally I had signed up for COMM107 because it was a requirement for physical therapy school. At first I was a bit apprehensive against it, mostly because of the speeches. In the past when I’ve had to do class presentations I have felt that I could prepare exactly what I wanted to say in my head but when I got up to speak, my mind just went completely blank. I believe this class has definitely improved my public speaking ability.

I never realized how much I use the word “like” until I watched the video of my informative brief. I thought the taping of the speeches was very useful because it definitely made me more aware of the things that I didn’t even realize I was doing. I thought both the informative brief and persuasive speech topics were very interesting and I enjoyed listening to everyones because I felt like it gave you a little insight into people’s personalities.

The guest speakers added to the class. It was interesting to listen to people who were in the field, and the things you could do with it. They were all very enthusiastic about what they were talking about and made me interested in what they were saying.

The only time I ever used the book was to study for the midterm and the upcoming final. I feel like I hardly used the book, but would not wanted to not have it in order to study. I think the book could be used a little more in class, or not at all and just have all material covered in the powerpoints. This is a public speaking class, practicing public speaking is going to get us further than what any book is going to teach us anyway.

I definitely preferred doing the informative brief before the group presentations. I know friends in other COMM107 classes that felt awkward doing group presentations in the beginning of the semester, and I am glad we deterred them until we got to know each other somewhat first. However, the group presentation was still my least favorite project of the semester. I thought it was difficult to come up with information the was relevant to what we were learning in class, and a lot of compromise had to be made within groups on the topic.

It was actually during my interview with a physical therapist for the group project that I realized I no longer wanted to be a physical therapist. So in an indirect way, this class actually helped me figure out what I wanted to do. After that I actually considered becoming a communications major, but instead decided that becoming a hospitality major would actually better suit what I wanted to do.

There was things I liked and did not like about the blog. The things that I liked was how it was a different experience and a break from such formal papers. I also thought it was interesting to be able to see what my classmates had to say, instead of just handing in a paper. What I did not like about the blog was the weekly comments. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of it, or there was hardly any posts that week and there was really nothing that I had to add.

Overall, I am glad I took the class and think that I can apply what I have learned in many future situations. Even though I enjoyed the class, I can’t say I am not glad the semester is over and excited to go home and relax for a month!