oral presentations

are you guys any good at oral presentations? do you get nervous?

i suck and get real nervous beforehand. but at least i'm better than in high school where i'd start trembling like a leaf.. altho i get hella nervous i get kind of a rush when i'm done, even if i did suck

what about you

web tips on how to give a talk

One thing that always helps me is to make sure that I start talking with someone before my talk begins. So, make small talk with your neighbor or something...it gets you talking out loud and distracts you a bit from what's going on.

Yeah. I suck at giving speeches... It helps to know some of the people in your class before it starts so that you are more comfortable. In the future if you have a class that you have to give speeches in, try to sign up with one of your friends. I find this helps a lot.

some great tips at the link fizzygirl posted.

for me, it's all about getting through the first 15 seconds and getting comfortable. the rest is easy. the two mind games that i use are: (1) telling myself that i am a big time celebrity and that the audience is truly privileged to hear me talk (aka "exhunding conidence," mentioned in the link above) and (2) telling myself that no one is paying attention to me anyway, so if I fuck up, they won't know the difference.

take a couple of tequilla shots...best stage fright cure evar

Accept the fact that any oral presentation is done because you have information they want or need - so they aren't there to harass, heckle, or make fun of you - they are there to hear what you have to share. It helps when you are comfortable and knowledgeable about the subject matter, but even if you don't think you are the 'master' of the information, just remind yourself that you know more than the rest of them and whatever you share will enlighten them.

One of the best things I've done is to avoid getting freaked out about being outnumbered - looking at the audience can be intimidating and overwhelming. Recall that it is just a one-way conversation of you speaking your knowledge to another person. Focus on a single person in the audience to start your speech, but every sentence or two, switch who your focus is on and speak to that next person. Your mouth continues the speech along whatever path it needs to journey, but you feel like you are explaining it to one person at a time. This also works to keep you from looking spaced out (staring into the back of the room) or overly nervous (focusing on a single person, or a spot on the floor). By changing your focus, you keep your audience engaged and attentive as each one may be the next person you look to speak to.

WHEN (not if) someone in the audience is more knowledgeable and tries to correct you or trap you - don't let it throw you off too much. As with all things in life, there will always be someone with more insight. Just pause, and ask that person to elaborate the point for you - let them speak the meat of the point being made, and you can correct them as necessary. OR if you don't want to have the speed bump in your presentation, simply ask them to hold comments and questions until the end - and that most questions should be answered by the time you've finished. That should shut them up and leave you controlling the arena as you need to do.

The biggest and most important thing to remember - it's not the end of the world. No matter what you say or do, it'll be over and life will go on - so don't worry about tripping and falling down, or stuttering, or losing your train of thought, or having your fly unzipped (I forgot that as best man at a wedding) - Life goes on! Just do your best with the time given to you and the knowledge you have to share...it'll be okay.

do you get nervous?

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I'm nervous right now just reading this thread.

I get all fidgety. I can't sit still. And when I talk my voice echoes in my head so I can't even hear how loud I'm talking.

I'll check out these tips. Cool. %)

I usually just "play the part" and pretend I'm an expert on the subject when in reality I just know enough to hopefully do well on the assignment. Psuedo-Confidence if you will.

Did they really expect a freshman to write a "groundbreaking" research paper on the effects of globalization on Indonesia's economy in the past 20 years? What a terrible terrible memory.

^ I was just about to mention something like that. When I have a presentation, I counteract my nervousness and jitters by pretending to be confident. Sounds funny, but if you can wrap your head around the concept of faking confidence for the first few minutes, it really makes things much easier. After a little bit into the presentation I find that you start believing your own act, and become comfortable enough to the point that you won't even realize the true confidence coming in

Not sure if this even needs to be said, but if you prepared well for a presentation, that gets rid of a shitload of nervouseness as well.

the nervousness is a cognitive thing. When you are going to do a presentation the rush of adrenaline you feel actually helps you to focus and deliver a presentation. unfortunatley you end up labelling this adrenaline as negative, interpret it as anxiety and become nervous. This is natural because adrenaline normally is released in a stressful situations.

So when you have to present keep telling yourself the nervous feeling you get is o.k., it is a natural response that will help you. You must activley convince yourself it is positive and not negative. That is the truth anyways sure u feel a little edgy but it wont hurt u, and no one can tell u have anxiety.

If the anxiety of a presentation is too much, i guess you can make a movie if u got the right software.

>>the nervousness is a cognitive thing. When you are going to do a presentation the rush of adrenaline you feel actually helps you to focus and deliver a presentation. unfortunatley you end up labelling this adrenaline as negative, interpret it as anxiety and become nervous. This is natural because adrenaline normally is released in a stressful situations.>>

I don't buy this. While high-level adrenal response is functionally appropriate for fight or flight, this is not always the case for clear, structured thought and language. Also, I don't think that emotion is built completely through cognitive labeling in this way.
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hmm...I always get nervous as hell, but end up doing really well. I don't know what it is.

ebola

Many great techniques have been listed here. However, the power of one or two ounces of hard liquor should not be overlooked in said situations.

ummm...did you really need to say that twice?

ebola

ebola? said:

ummm...did you really need to say that twice?

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That's funny. If I drank before a presentation I'd be stumbling and knocking over chairs.

granted, he said ~ 2 oz liquor, not "get fucking shitfaced".

ebola

I'm a light weight when it comes to alchohol. I get trashed off around 3 beers.

^better do only one shot then

The hardest part in doing a presentation is the kick-off. If you know your subject matter then everything will follow if you give a good opening.

I recommend that you practice your introduction until it's something that you can do in your sleep. Get it down cold. Because here's the rub: most people could give a shit about the substance of your speech, they will only remember the beginning and the end.
Public speaking, imho, is less about content than it is about placement, timing and smooth execution.
Don't take any drugs to deal with such a simple task. You can do it.

Does anyone use any type of drugs besides alcohol?

Like benzos or other anti-anxiety prescribed pills?

I got 2 speeches I have to do for my networking class this quarter, and even though they are towards the end I'm already nervous.

low-dose benzos would likely be appropriate.
I dunno. I've only used drugs for fun, never work (caffeine excepted).

ebola