CW10A: Introduction to Public Speaking
Supportive Community, Self-Compassion, and the Common Good
This course cultivates and helps students connect with a supportive community through accomplished public speaking, as we see Mario Savio doing in 1964 and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967, both at Sproul Plaza. We study effective speakers, with attention to the psychological dimensions of persuasion and audience engagement. CW10A emphasizes community and self-compassion as paths to building public speaking skills. To practice and strengthen your own public speaking abilities, you participate in public speaking exercises, practice the skill of receptivity and appreciation during peers’ performances, learn how to craft speeches, and create and present five formal speeches. The course is designed to walk you through the steps needed to minimize stress and maximize your impact as a public speaker. To develop as a reflective communicator, you assess your own strengths and weaknesses as speakers and exchange feedback with your peers; thus, the self-actualizing habit of metacognition is a crucial part of this course.
Cal Students' Experiences in CW10A
As Stephen Lucas says, “The need for public speaking will almost certainly touch you sometime in your life—maybe tomorrow, maybe not for five years” (31). There was a time when I could not imagine myself speaking in front of a grand audience. As a child, I was always the shy kid but as years progressed and through experiences speaking in College Writing 10A, I found myself having an easier time speaking in front of people. While the thought of speaking in front of an audience still makes me a bit nervous, through College Writing 10A I have become more confident in speaking and in myself by learning, revising, and applying the fundamentals of public speaking. As a student hoping to break into the world of business, I understand that the public speaking skills I have learned will transfer into many of the duties of my future career.
COLWRIT10A was a superb blessing with guidance from Carmen. Her knowledge and mentorship are inspiring to continuously improve in the eloquence of public speaking. As an engineer with the City of San Francisco, I can say I wouldn’t have the professional position without her!
Carmen’s class is, without a doubt, one of the most valuable classes I ever took at Berkeley. Her class and personal mission is centered around teaching people the subtle art of expressing themselves in a passionate, informed, and graceful way – and she is gifted at her craft. The first speech I gave in her class was, without hyperbole, a “crash and burn”. Days later, when I got a notification that my presentation was graded, my stomach dropped. I opened up my phone: 90%... with paragraphs of thoughtful, personal feedback. I used her feedback to do better in the next presentation, overcoming a personal fear of public speaking. Now, my presentation skills are one of my strengths at my job. In addition to being an extremely dedicated instructor in the classroom, she also consciously makes an effort to provide letters of recommendation. I have reached out to Carmen on many occasions (some of which were last minute) to ask for letters of recommendation, she has always happily obliged. I give my highest possible, personal, recommendation to Carmen. She is a uniquely phenomenal instructor and I accredit my ability to express myself clearly and concisely, in part, to her.
I had the wonderful fortune of taking two public speaking classes, CW10A and CW10B, under Carmen's instruction. Public speaking had, due to several bad experiences in those recent years, become one of the most nervewracking activities to me at the time. My anxiety was so bad, it got to a point where I would even freeze up mid-speech. This actually happened a few times in class! So when I say that those two classes were among my most favorite ones during my time as a student, it is a true testament to Carmen's skill as a passionate and inspiring educator. Carmen was always dedicated to not just teaching the course material, but also encouraging each and every student in their own way. Her strong desire to learn even from her own students was infectious and created a very positive learning environment. I always felt like what I wanted to say would be heard and supported. Even though public speaking was such a strong phobia for me, I took these classes in the hopes of overcoming it. While I can't say I completely have, I am definitely much more confident when speaking to others due to what I learned from Carmen and the way she encouraged me even when I felt like I would never be able to speak in front of a crowd ever again. I managed to get through job interviews and land a data analyst job at Boston Public Schools, where it is important that I communicate information clearly and efficiently with multiple people. I am beyond grateful for Carmen and what she taught me.
First and foremost, I cannot recommend Carmen's class ENOUGH. None of my jobs/endeavors are directly related to public speaking, however, I am always telling people that no matter what you do, learning to speak in the manner that Carmen teaches is instrumental in any field of life. . . . Carmen’s class is by far one of my top 3 in all the amazing classes I was able to take at Cal. I learned how to enunciate my words, speak without saying “um,” which by the way is probably one of the most useful things I learned, and present in an insightful and dedicated manner. No matter what one majors in, they can continue to use the practices and teaching of Carmen in every corner of their life. I have felt confident in job interviews, class presentation, everyday conversation, etc all because of what I learned from Carmen. Not only is Carmen knowledgeable on what she instructs, she is also an amazing mentor. Carmen was always open to office hours and giving help on any projects I had. I frequently visited her office hours and she was incredibly insightful and thoughtful to my questions. Furthermore, I reached out to Carmen a year after I took her class for a letter of recommendation and she was happy to supply one for me. This is very telling how much Carmen cares and loves what she does and her students. Carmen was one of the best professors I had at Cal, if not the best.
COLWRIT10A and 10B have been some of the best classes I've taken at Berkeley. The classes were incredible and have helped me immensely in my career. Not only were the content and lessons practical and inspiring, but Carmen also fostered a classroom environment that was so encouraging and supportive-- something that was absent in my large science and general education courses. It would take me pages to wholly describe how much the COLWRIT10 series have helped me career-wise, so I feel it would be best to illustrate what I've gained with a story from one of my conference presentations. I was shaking with anxiety before starting my first-ever science presentation to 150+ graduate students, professors, and senior researchers (scientists with more experience and general knowledge of pathogenesis than I) at the Annual BAMPS conference at UCSF. As the keynote speaker introduced me, my mind drifted to the lessons that I've learned in COLWRIT10B, specifically the bits and pieces of invaluable advice I received for the Real World Presentation, which I chose to give a presentation on CRISPR to the class. Although it did not calm my nerves, I gained an immense amount of confidence, and I felt Carmen and my former classmates rally behind me -- an indescribable feeling that was much needed at the time. It's safe to say that I could not have delivered as good a presentation as I had given without the help of Carmen and her Public Speaking courses. For this experience and more, I’m continually grateful.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Speech At Sproul Plaza (1967) — Bay Area Television Archive
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"[T]he plant of freedom has grown only a bud and not yet a flower. . . . [We need] a revolution of values."
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