Speaking Up!

Recently I was pretty busy with many presentations. I've had 3 presentations since last Saturday (that's like 3 in 3 days!) and no, they're not all formal presentations for projects, thank God! 2 of them were actually informal presentations during tutorials. Anyway one thing I always notice during presentations is people's unwillingness to speak up. It's like they're afraid what they say might be wrong or might insult other people, etc. I also noticed that the presentation standards of local students is not as good as the foreign ones. Is it because of our culture? I certainly think not. It's just that many of us lack the essential practice needed. Now please let me clarify here that I do NOT profess to be a professional speaker or anything, it's just that I do have some experience in giving presentations and doing public speaking so I thought I'd share some tips here.

In order to overcome the fear of public speaking (we'll just call it public speaking ya), one thing I always do to start off would be to look at the audience before the presentation. When you're still behind the curtains, or waiting for your turn to speak, take a good look at the audience and get used to hundreds of people staring back at you. It's a whole lot easier to be in the crowd looking at a presenter than to be the presenter looking at the crowd. So you have to get used to seeing so many people looking at you.

Next, never never read from notes! You'll just ruin the entire presentation. You'll have already lost the audience because you do not establish rapport with them (you're looking at your notes) and half the time, you'll be trying to figure out where you last stopped on the script. What I do is to always have either one-word or short-sentence notes (best if can have a hard copy of the ppt to flip as I go along) put on the table and I'll just refer to them to elaborate the next point. Everything I have to say is basically already in my head. You don't have to memorise scripts for this. Just know your points, keep calm and present them with clarity. I also make sure I look at everyone in the crowd. I do not just stare at the lecturer during the presentation. Again, if you do that, you'll lose your audience.

Third, be confident! I've seen students presenting with their hands shivering. It's not a very pretty sight and everyone in the audience knows s/he is nervous. Now that is something that you do not want people to know/think about you during a presentation. Even if you do not have the correct answer, or you do not know your facts very well or simply have no clue what you're doing, by being confident, you can mask them all and give the impression that you know what you're talking about. In a crude way, this is called knowing how to talk cock. Don't laugh, it's an important skill. Anyway think what's the worse thing that can happen? It's not like you're gonna lose that major contract or anything. We're just students! And it's exactly why we're students that we're learning how to present!

Lastly (and this is the most important factor), PRACTICE!!! Yes, it does "makes perfect". I'm not saying it's going to be easy. There'll be definately be mistakes and you'll have to get out of your comfort zone and go the extra mile to deliver a good presentation. Hey, I had lots of troubles with the shivering hands and lips and voice and all when I first started. Now I look back at those days 9 years ago and I'm thankful that I was given the chance to practice. I went through many presentations after that during my days in NP, learning through each one and that's where I managed to learn the skills of public speaking..

And I'm still learning! Like they say, learning is a life-long experience. The tips that I've given out here is from personal experience. What I've learnt through the many presentations and public speaking sessions that I've had throughout the years. I sincerely hope that they can help you with your public speaking.

Let me know if you've any tips on public speaking as well and I'll be glad to post them to share with everyone! =)

PS. Check out Gary's blog! There's lots of public speaking tips there from the real experts! He's the President of NUS Toastmasters' Club so you can be sure it'll be good stuff!