Abdul Hadi Syed- Assignment# 1

Abdul Hadi Syed Blog 1 Post

23/09/2024

 


This semester I was given the option to either pick Intro to communications or Intro to public speaking. I clearly chose public speaking and the reason is that I regularly do speeches and public speaking for religious reasons. So I thought it would be an easier class for me and I would get to learn how to connect with my audience more. But when I was given the task to make a presentation and present, it was kinda new to me. Even though I had done presentations before they were based off of mundane topics but for this one I had to choose a topic relating to public speaking. While I was discussing who will pick what chapters for our presentation I was hovering over the topics. The one that instantly caught my eye was listening. I have always been interested in the topic of listening and active listening. I grew up in an immigrant family so communication has always been a struggle so I focused on learning how to listen instead of focusing to be heard. Because of this, I am known to be a good listener among my close friends and people who just met me. I found this chapter resonating with who I was a few years ago and what I would have loved to learn about listening to build deeper connections with everyone around me. So I instantly chose that chapter for myself. However, during the writing process, I constantly found myself having the thought of how I would get my point across and how I could use public speaking tools to connect with the audience. I even started venting in my personal journal about it.

I found Journaling my thoughts to be very helpful and helped me clear my mind and also remember my emotions to reflect on later. Life is too short to forget it. So I really recommend anyone who is reading this to start journaling your day and reflect upon it no matter how bad or good of a day you have.

I started with questions that I started to ask myself while I was learning how to listen. And the first one was the most in-depth because I really started wondering why do people want to be heard? What is beyond the sounds leaving their mouths? How do they express their emotion through words? These are some of the many questions one should ask in their mind before listening to someone and seeing the perspective that they are listening from. This helps the person actually feel connected in a conversation rather than just words falling on deaf ears.






After I was done evaluating and thinking about some questions and thoughts I wanted to add myself, I started with the process of putting the presentation together. First I had to learn how to use Canva and how to navigate it. This was my first time using Canva for presentations and it really surprised me how much I could really accomplish on it. Then I had to choose a theme, and during the selection process, I wanted something a little bit artsy and creative because I believe that listening is an art that everyone should learn. After I found a theme that fit the theme I was going for I started to incorporate things from the lesson because this presentation was on the lesson itself and not just my personal experience about listening and I found it a little difficult to incorporate everything in a 6-minute presentation and wished I had more time. I didn't really write much on my presentation itself because I wanted to make sure the audience was attentive to what I was saying and not just the presentation and the visuals itself.

via GIPHY

After I was done making the presentation itself I spent a few days actually applying the tricks to improve listening to actually know if its beneficial and saying it instead of presenting something I myself do not do. I went on walks with my camera to take photos while also trying to listen to every little distinct sound and I found it to be a very relaxing and calming experience. On the day of the presentation itself, I fell sick the night before but I knew I had to give the presentation no matter what. So during the presentation, I realized I had less time than 6 min so I was in a rush to get it done and that's alright. I missed out on some key points I wanted to further expand on and a quote that I wanted everyone to take away. So I am going to write it here for the reader so they might benefit from it and it goes "In a world where everyone wants to be constantly heard be the one who listens"