COMM 1100
October 24th, 2018
I. Introduction
a. Attention Getter: You see, in our lives we encounter this thing called life. As in life gives you lemons and you make lemonade with it. Lemons being obstacles, accidents, problems, and mid-life crises and you try fixing it with some last-minute watered-down lemonade. Sometimes, we can’t fix it, we stress and have anxiety, and eventually break down, like this poor student. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3jbo4mCnlY
b. Background: Specifically, in college students, we are the most affected because we worry so much about everything which would impact our health, which would then lower our grades, which would then cause us more stress and so on. It’s a downhill battle, with an avalanche waiting to happen. We are so focused on succeeding and living up to expectations that we don’t really notice or take care of ourselves and the stress that we slowly build up.
c. Audience Relevance: Everyone has some sort of stress or anxiety, whether it’s a minor or large problem. Especially in us college students who worry grades, expectations and the mountain of debt behind us.
d. Speaker Credibility: Now as a fellow human being and broke college student, I also stress about a lot of things, like everyone else. 18 years and I still tend to overthink a lot of things and I’m dying on the inside like everyone else, but I’m just really good at winging it. For this stressful situation, I have done extensive research to help de-stress this issue.
e. Thesis: With this speech, I hope to persuade you that important it is to focus on yourselves in order to be less stressed out in your life.
f. Preview of Main Points: First I will describe stress in college students, second- what’s causing this stress and third- the solution we need in order to solve it.
Transition to 1st Main Point: Before we fix anything, we need to realize that there is a problem and understand what this problem is. Therefore, our problem is how stressed we are now as college students.
II. Main Point 1: What’s stress in college students? Well we all know what that is.
a. Sub-point A: Stress is something everyone encounters, but it affects us, -the college students the most. Stress comes in many ways such as relationships, workloads, expectations and many more. According to “SURVIVING STRESS AND ANXIETY IN COLLEGE & BEYOND” by Melissa Cohen on LearnPsychology- accessed on October 29, 2018, “Some levels of stress can actually be good for us, as the right kind of stress encourages us toward change and growth. However, when stress and anxiety exist for an extended period of time, they can become a burden or even a health risk.”
b. Sub-point B: Unhealthy stress is more common and inevitable. You can experience stress from your environment, your thoughts, relationships, and major events. But our main focus of stress is on college students from the expectation of others, need to succeed and the constant worry to make something out of yourself. Alan Reifman Ph. D with his article, “Stress in College Students” on October 1st 2011 on PsychologyToday, also lists, “Leaving the family home, feeling intense pressure to obtain high grades in connection with career aspirations, taking final exams, trying to establish a romantic/social life, dealing with (often very high) costs of college and possibly working at a job during the school year.”
Transition to 2nd Main Point: So now, we’ve identified and located our problem. Let’s talk cause-and-effect.
III. Main Point 2: Stress comes in different levels, so it comes with different reasons and effects as well.
a. Sub-point A: According to, New York University website by multiple references on the issue of Stress accessed on October 29th, 2018, (gesture examples on PP), and multiple universities it’s been observed that students are more stressed than ever before. We as college students are so focused on passing and meeting everyone’s expectations that were no longer succeeding but just “passing”. We try to reach the bare minimum but were still tearing our hair out. The constant weight on your back called student debt is crushing you as you drag yourself to pass your classes. We haven’t even mentioned balancing school with work and personal problems.
b. Sub-point B: Stress causes damage both mentally and physically. As you can see according to “How Stress Affects College Students’ Academic Performance” by Yvette Stupart PhD from Owlcation on February 20th, 2018, (gesture to pp) here are only some physical and psychological symptoms caused by stress. It’s obvious isn’t it? Stress sucks. We’re trying to be great students, but you have a headache, or you keep telling yourself that you’re a failure or you’re sick with the highest fever ever. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Transition to 3rd Main Point: If everyone has this problem, how do we fix it?
IV. Main Point 3: It’s been studied that part of the cause of stress is from and lack of self-care due to self-inflicted reasons. *
a. Sub-point A: According to “Stress in College: What Causes it and How to Combat it” by Emily Driscoll published March 31, 2011 on Fox Business, “Taking care of your body is also a simple, yet efficient way to curb anxiety and stress overload. Students should schedule in exercise, so it becomes a part of your daily routine. If you can, avoid processed foods, too much sugar, and energy drinks, which the experts unanimously agree can agitate stress levels.” As students, were studying and pulling all-nighters with a ton of coffee or energy drinks. Therefore, causing our health to go down, our grades to go down, and our basic self-esteem go down and we continue this awful loop.
b. Sub-point B: I know it’s hard, but don’t procrastinate so that you have more free time to concentrate on yourself. When doing something for a long time such as studying, you need to take a break in between such as walking around or finding a snack in order to be more productive. You need a change in your surroundings, have a little me time, and find your place where you are most relaxed or even surrounded by friends and family. Set aside your problems and focus on the most important thing, YOUSELF.
Signal the Conclusion: Finally, with that, let’s conclude by summarizing about what I described today.
V. Conclusion
a. Review Main Points: First I described what stress in college students is, second- what’s causes this stress and third-how we needed to solve it.
b. Restate Thesis: With this speech, I hope to persuade you that important it is to focus on yourselves in order to be less stressed out in your life.
c. Memorable Closer: Before you all leave today, I want to leave you all with some of my own advice. You only live once and this one life you’re living right now is yours, so make sure to take care of it. You’re the main character of your own story and you make your own choices, not anyone else. So, keep going forward with your head held high-confident but hey, you do you.