Final Speech

Today is the day that I give my final speech for Communication 1010. It is an entry level class, but one that I think should be the first of a series of required courses to graduate from college. I can not tell you how many events I have been to or seen over my lifetime that have made me want to know how did this person make it so far without being able to speak publically. I will not say that I am great at it, but rather I am above average. I like speaking and it is much better than writing most of the time. One place in particular that I have noticed the lack of public speaking skills is at athletic banquets at schools. I hate to pick on coaches, but that is what I think of when I talk about poor speaking skills. I have only seen one athletic banquet where pretty much every speaker/coach was prepared and spoke well. The other several involved coaches forgetting players names, not writing down anything and sounding less than well-educated. I do not understand how the coaches coach, but can not speak. I realize that coaching is something different and is much less formal, but I would think that speaking and effective communication would be a requirement. Anyway, I will go off of my soapbox and back to why it my communications class should be the first of a series. I believe that the ability to speak in public is crucial to becoming successful in life because it something that will be required of every person at some point on another some place in the world. If every college student took three speech classes, the college graduate would and should be able to comfortably speak in front of a small crowd. Now that I have shared my position, I must go and give my final speech on a topic that may or may not work--yearbooks. I hope that all goes well, but I personally do not like this speech as much as the other four from the class this semester.