Most everyone is afraid of public speaking, bowever why is that? Most people are comfortable being in situations with tons of other people. Most people are comfortable telling a story to 6 people and most people are comfortable carrying on a conversation with 6 people (talking to one person then another in a group) but giving a speech to 6 people makes people nervous. Does anyone know why exactly?
Same reason most people are a bit shy about posting, at least at first. You’re being judged by what you say and how you say it. No one wants to be disliked, and most people question their worth at one time or another. Public speaking brings those fears immediately to the fore. Everyone is looking directly at you. Everyone is concentrating on what you’re saying. And it’s not like being in a group of six or so, where there are comfy chairs and drinks and inconsequential babble. If you’re speaking in front of a large group of people, it’s for a fairly important reason. You’re under pressure to perform. Not fun.
I dunno - most people are OK about being naked in front of one person and most people are comfortable being in just their underwear in front of one or a few people, so …
This thread is better suited for IMHO.
I’ll move it for you.
Cajun Man
for the SDMB
In a conversation, people take it in turns to speak. In public speaking, everyone is only listening to you (well, that’s the idea). And looking at you. I have a project coming up I have to present orally, and even though it’s with three other people i’m terrified. Something about a lecture hall full of students petrifies me 
Don’t know why it exists, but I’ve spent a career teaching kids how to beat it.
Here’s the key, coming from someone who was afraid and no longer is. Be prepared. Make sure you’re familiar with your topic, and if possible, try to enjoy the topic… Even if it’s something you hate, like bumblebee herding in the Himalayas, try to find something about it you like anyway.
That way, when you go up there, you kind of have the attitude “I’m sharing something fun and interesting!” rather than “They’re all staaaaring.”
Reading this thread has made me realize an odd thing - I have never been uncomfortable speaking in public, regardless of the number of people, yet I am so very hesitant to post to this message board!
I hate public speaking worse than anybody but my mother is a professional speaker so it can’t be the upbringing. My biggest problem is that I don’t think the way that people speak. I am at least as smart of most good speakers but I don’t think in a linear narrative form. They seem to be able to queue up thoughts while they are talking about something else and I can’t do that. I find it extremely difficult to talk about anything, even things I am an expert in, for more than two minutes in a monologue. Ideas start shooting out all over the place and I get confused and frustrated. I also don’t do well with the imprecise language that makes speeches listenable.
OTOH, I write well when I want to. I have also given some good speeches in college and at work but I had to way over prepare to do it.
There’s usually more riding on giving a speech than having a conversation. Most conversations are primarily for social reasons. Speeches usually have other motives.
Take me for example. I’m an introvert, yet as part of my job I must train people. I’m not much of a talker to begin with, so the thought of engaging ten or twenty people long enough to convey information well enough so they pass qualifications used to be very difficult for me. It took several months before I no longer had to write out exactly what I intended to say, and also no longer felt like throwing up every time it was time to train. It’s not nerve-wracking anymore, and I rarely feel nervous about having all eyes on me unless we have a “special guest” (like a DOE head, yikes) but it took months of doing it over and over to become desensitized, and no longer fall victim of stage fright.
Most people don’t do public speaking often enough to ever obtain any measure of comfort with doing so.
What are the main methods for beating speech anxiety? The only ones I have heard of are be as prepared as possible and try to picture your audience in a state of vulnerability (in their underwear for example). I wonder if imagining the most depraved thing they have all done will help. Just look at someone in the audience and imagine the most depraved thing they’ve done. That may help, at the very least it’ll be a fun way to use up 3-5 minutes.
With my high school students, we start with a very comfortable, supportive environment. My Speech & Debate Team is really a family. The new kids start with low stress presentations, then group activities, then progress to memorized speeches in competition and extemporaneous speaking and debate. It just takes a systematic de-mystifying of the process. It also helps if you can find something to be passionate about. After a few years on the team, the kids think nothing of addressing 6000 strangers in a football stadium. 
At the high school I went to, students are required to give at least one presentation (more likely 3-6) a semester, from freshman year on, in clothes as powerful, businesslike and dressy as they can afford. The freshman are always scared shitless, but after just one semester their confidence and self-esteem improve dramatically. You can really see the change, not just in public speaking but in how they carry themselves doing their daily business. It’s my opinion that every high school in the world should do this.
You make it sound as if everyone who gives a speech makes it up as they go along. 
When I’ve given speeches, I’ve spent hours just on the structure of the speech (I’m not taking into account the time spent researching, etc). I make outlines with points and subpoints. Then I rehearse it several times. Then I see if anything needs rearranging or fleshing out or trimming down. The reason that most good speechgivers seem to “queue up thoughts while they are talking about something else” is because they did that before, when they organized and rehearsed the speech, well before their audience hears them.
Just to clarify: this is not to say that I memorize my speech word for word. Never. But I always know my points I want to discuss and the order in which I want to discuss them (with direct quotes and specific phrases I want to make sure I use written in a few notes). I’ve found that this way is far better than memorizing. If you memorize your speech and something throws you off when you’re speaking, there’s a good chance you’ll be screwed and can’t find where you left off. Extemporaneous (but prepared!) public speaking sounds better and is a safer option.
[QUOTE=zweisamkeit]
You make it sound as if everyone who gives a speech makes it up as they go along. QUOTE]
That is what I do too although it takes a whole lot of time (maybe 1 - 2 hours per speech minute) and I don’t enjoy it. I have given excellent speeches to Ivy League professors in their area of expertise and a speech 100% in Spanish on a turning point in Nicaraguan history and I didn’t know Spanish that well before I prepared for the speech. That was because I prepared so hard and so long. OTOH, I get called on to do spontaneous speeches at work fairly often to groups of 20 or less and they usually don’t work out well. A lot of times I know too much and I find it hard where to draw the detail line for a mixed audience. I do well on Q&A which is more interactive however.
Some people have the gift for speaking however. My mother is one of those. She travels full-time and speaks in all 50 states, Europe, Asia, and the Carribean ranging up to audiences of 10,000 or more. She gets lots of practice now of course but she was just born that way so that is what she pursued. You could change the topic for a mega-speech seconds before she went on and she would be Ok and the audience would never know. Bill Clinton has that same gift. Some preachers do too.
I’m nervous speaking in front of more than two people. So getting in front of an entire class or session of some sort would make me nauseated and I’d probably collapse on the floor into some convulsing fetal positioned freak show.
Few people like being the personal center of expectant attention. 
Hit “enter” too soon.
Me, I kind of like it. Not that I’m boisterous or anything, I just like the challenge of holding an audience for 10-50 minutes at a time.
