Week 1 Post 2

Preparing to write a speech can be just as important as actually writing a speech when it comes to giving a good performance. Failure to understand the audience can lead to a speaker being impossible to connect to on a human level. It is downright awkward when somebody gives a formal speech in an informal environment (or vice versa). If a speech is being given in competition, it is a disqualification level offense to write a persuasive speech for the informative category or a informative speech for the entertainment category. Finally, even the best outlined speeches can come out sounding disjointed if the author of the speech did not have their information well organized before starting the writing process. 

Understanding how to prepare for a speech is imperative to public speaking because speeches are exponentially worse the less prepared that the presenter is. Most people's communication anxiety comes from a fear of embarrassing themselves by giving a bad speech and as such, being better prepared means that people do not need to be as anxious. Preparation is also important because a well prepared speech is much easier to defend if it gets challenged than a speech with poorly organized outlines and sources.