RR3: Presentations

As much as I’d like to consider myself a great speaker, I always feel like there are always things for me to improve on. For public speaking, I like how the readings talked about little methods to help reduce nervousness before a speech. I felt that the advice for taking deep breaths is a good one because sometimes I feel myself getting quieter as I’m making a speech and its usually because I do not take a deep enough of a breath beforehand. Also I liked the advice it gave on presentations on how one should not write out too much information on the slide and try to keep it to a minimum with bullet points. I know this will help my confidence as a presenter because it is always a confidence killer when the presenter sees that the audience is getting bored. I remember for a class in high school when the topic was dictators and we had to try to summarize their life and make it interesting as well. I decided to use power point to help with my presentation but it worked against me a little bit because my audience was getting bored of reading about my topic on the screen.

I learned “show one point at a time”. I could have told everyone my point clearly by myself. When I did my presentation with international students, I put too much information on one slide. And international students combined everyone’s slide and corrected. When they put together, they reduced a lot of part of my presentation. At the time, I was disappointed because a lot of part I thought they were important were reduced. However, I knew my original one was not suitable for presentation. Presentation became very clear and easy to understand for audience. Thus, I think one point one slide is very important.

Throughout high school, I was required to present in front of the class both individually and as a group. During presentations, I would often rely on powerpoints, props, or even other group members to distract the audience from looking at me. Public speaking was never my strong point. In the text, it states the importance of eye contact and maintaining the attention of your audience.

I always though it would be beneficial to my presentation if attention was diverted to something else other than my voice or nervous body language. However, examining the audience and their response to your words through eye contact can help gauge the material in your presentation for clarity and understanding. Many times after presentations, I would realize that I had spoken much too quickly or glossed over key aspects of information, which I could have prevented if I had more of a give and take relationship with the audience by recognizing the way they responded to information presented.
I feel that this text gave important tips on how to be more engaged with your audience and gain confidence when speaking in public. Personally, I think it is important to actively practice presentations in advance. I would sometimes practice speaking in front of the mirror and make myself look at my reflection, as awkward as that might be. Holding eye contact with yourself while speaking can be odd, but it forces you to remain calm when other eyes are on you when you actually present.

I wish I had read “I can see you naked” in high school, it would have definitely helped me through the many presentations I did throughout my four years at Golden Valley. I learned many valuable pieces of information from this article, but the single most important thing that I learned is that the audience is there to get something out of the presentation, and it is the presenter’s responsibility to give it to them. In simple words the audience is there to take something away from the presentation, which is why the presenter should “let go” of all their negative thoughts to deliver that message across.
This advice would have been useful this past spring of my senior year. I had been selected as a finalist for the Harvey Hall mayor’s scholarship and one of the requirements of being selected as a finalist is having to present in front of a board what makes you deserving of the scholarship. I knew that I would be competing with some tough competition from other high schools across the city, so I prepared long and hard in advance on what I was going to say in front of the panel. Even though I knew I was not the best presenter, I put a long time into preparing so I would not make a mistake in front of the panel. As the day of the presentation got closer I got more and more nervous, fearing that I would do bad on the presentation. Finally when the day came I went into the presentation with positive hopes, and when my turn came I got more nervous and ended up not doing so well as compared to the other students. Although it is okay to be a little nervous as it said in the article, I let my nervousness pass the “crossover point” which led me to negatively performing on my presentation. Now that I have read this article I will use what I have learned in it for all my future presentations. The most important thing to remember when it comes to presenting, is to “let go” of all your extraneous and negative thoughts in your head and simply give the audience what they are there for.

This reading totally made me remember my high school days when AP teachers would seem to use an excuse to have student presentations. Reading through this made me realize of so many mistakes that could have been the reason I came across as disengaged, unknowledgeable, and unprofessional even though I was probably really ecstatic about the material I was about to present. I know that during high school presentations I would be meticulous about the lighting and audio. I wanted to make sure that the presentation was seamless and would sometimes ask the audience about stuff like this. I realize that according to the reading this is incorrect. I know that whenever I am in a lecture hall or in a presentation and I cannot see or hear the speaker I immediately become disengaged. I reason that if there is no effort to ensure the audience can clearly receive the message the presenter is trying to instill then it must not be so important. I know from now on that I should arrive extra early and do audio, lighting and temperature checks to ensure that this doesn’t distract my presentation. So in sums, preparation is crucial and is endlessly beneficial to have an engaging and educated presentation.

The one point made in the reading that I could have used earlier in my life was the tip recommending not fighting nervousness during a presentation. Last year, I ran for a board position for my premedical fraternity and I became very nervous trying to convince nearly a hundred students to vote for me. I am used to standing in front of crowds, since I have almost always been in some sort of music performance throughout my life; however speaking is difficult for me. The more I tried to fight my nervousness, the more nervous I became. This led to other problems that the reading mentioned, such as not looking the audience in the eyes, losing my connection with the audience. I believe that if I had learned tips on presenting such as the ones in this book, I would have had an easier time speaking in front of an audience, or at least been more confidence in my nervousness. My favorite part of the reading was the statement that it is not only okay to get nervous, but that it can actually be a positive feeling if used properly. Remembering this during a presentation will help me feel normal when my heart races or my legs begin to shake.

I get nervous when talking in front of large crowds; or at least, my body thinks I do. I will have total confidence in what I have to say or do, but my knees usually shake and when I try to move my jaw I find I have been clenching it. What I learned from the reading is that there are ways to prepare for this: taking a brisk walk and moving the jaw sideways. I could have benefited from this when I went to a karaoke club with my friends. It is not your typical presentation setting, but singing in front of a large crowd entails a lot of the same skills: the audience needs you (well, kind of – if they’re listening, they need you to sound good) and you need the audience. Anyways, I was nervous and my knees would not stop wobbling. But thinking back, before I went up to present/perform, I was sitting down at a booth, clenching my jaw and staying in my cloud nervousness. I should have walked around, breathed deeply, and loosened my jaw a bit. I now know that creating a not-nervous-routine can be beneficial to the quality of the presentation. I am looking forward to using these tips during our class presentation.

From the Hoff reading I learned a lot of useful tips to prepare for a presentation. As someone who does not excel at public speaking and gets nervous with every presentation, these new tips will certainly help with future presentations. I have certainly improved at public speaking during my time at UCI with having to present for many classes. The importance of keeping blood circulating and releasing stress are two key points I will keep in mind. I found it interesting to read about warming up before a presentation. I have heard of reviewing note cards but this reading compared presenting as more of a performance. Like any athletic performance there is a warm up as well as a musical performance. This gave me a different perspective on presentations. Hoff also reiterated some ideas that I have learned since basic schooling, when speaking eye contact is crucial to hold attention. In the past, as a nervous speaker, I focused more on what and how I was saying over holding the attention of the audience. With eye contact being key, I could have not used note cards because that distracted me from looking out into the audience often times. As a public health major and education minor, many of the courses require a presentation. They are mostly group presentations and while I wait for fellow group members to present their section, I would fidget and only make myself more nervous. I should relax more and trust that my preparation will pay off. Warming up before a presentation and not being as nervous would help my eye contact level as well.

One thing I learned from the reading about presentations is that you have to be confident when it comes to public speaking. I have a terrible fear of giving a speech by myself in front of my classmates. I’m always thinking that they are secretly judging me in their minds, which makes me stutter and start to shake. One time in 5th grade, I remember I had to give a presentation on Princess Diana in front of the whole class. I was wearing my favorite purple GAP sweatshirt and at the time, I was sick and had tissues in my pocket. While I was giving my speech, my hands were locked into my pocket. I was so nervous, by the time I finished my presentation the tissues in my pocket were all ripped up and in a million pieces. What I have learned from that experience was that I can’t let my nerves take over me. From the reading, it suggested to make eye contact and practice before hand so your nerves will not appear so much. I think by doing that, giving presentations will not be as difficult as it should be. I must stay calm and not let me nerves get the best of me.

In high school, my Spanish instructor assigned many presentations. But there is one specifically that reminded and made me connect tips to what the text stated. There was one presentation in which I had to retell a textbook story but in a format other than text, so I chose to build a symbolic structure to the story. I built the main character of the story with Styrofoam and made him look just as the text had described him. Then I was to present him in front of the class and thoroughly explain every one of his features. I was quite nervous and so I began by introducing the name of the story. Never did I maintain eye contact with my classmates or with the teacher, as the text strongly suggests. In addition, rather than listening to what I was saying, the audience was very focused on the structure itself (another tip, the presenter is discouraged from giving the audience things that would distract them from what was being said). Although he was the presentation in all forms, I did lose a little bit of attention. Perhaps I should have allowed them to look closely at the structure and then have spoken. This way, they would have listened to me and I would have made eye contact more often, thus reaching more in depth into my audience.