Introduction to Speech Student Summer 2014: Fátima Rhetoric and Public Speaking Plato held that rhetoric is “the art of winning the soul by discourse.” However, this turns out to be a very difficult task when we find ourselves in a situation where we have to deliver a message to an audience. Being a talented speaker has so much to do with practice and improving the aspects we think do not work fine in order to achieve our objectives. Convincing an audience by using logic is a very useful tool because we make them feel we are on the same path and that our message is not an “out of space” thing. When we use an intelligible vocabulary we are easily on the other side and we earn our audience’s interest. Being a public speaker is not easy, especially when you do it for the first time. However, mastering the results is up to what our expectations from the audience are. The speaker has to be aware of the objectives of his/her audience and find out at least three ways of reaching it. Also, as a speaker, we have to be conscious about our audience, because we cannot prepare a speech for teenage students and try to use the same words for adults, since the experiences and expectations from each group are totally different. Nevertheless, I have learned how to manage situations and I have learned that it is very important to listen as well. In an interactive situation it is very important to listen to our message receivers so we realize whether we are getting to the point of our speech or not. The art of public speaking is a very interesting one, especially for me since I am a teacher. Having the opportunity to create classroom environments more conducive to learning has so much to do with how a teacher communicates and addresses to the students. First of all, mastering our contents is important; however, mastering the skill of doing it is what leads us to succeed inside the classroom, and as Plato stated, we definitely win our student’s souls, and miraculously, they produce an interest in our message.