Public Speaking Basics

I find it remarkable how the fear of public speaking  consistently  ranks among the top fears that people have . This is fascinating to me as I deal with students’ fear of speaking regularly. Perhaps this gives me a pretty good vantage point on this issue.  Of course, many people are totally comfortable with public speaking. There is a spectrum of public speaking anxiety with some people experiencing lots of it and some experiencing very little of it. But for those that experience intense anxiety or fear when it comes to public speaking, I’d like to explain the cause and cure of this malady from my perspective. Fear of public speaking is really a fear of being evaluated negatively by other people. This is a completely natural and normal response to being in front of others, most of whom are likely to be complete strangers. We want to be accepted by the group and we don’t want other people to think we’re dumb, ugly, different etc. From an evolutionary perspective, ex...