Guest Post - Yi Xu

Yi is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here she writes about presentations.

Nervous in Real World Presentations

I made my first presentation when I was in the third grade of preliminary school. It was to run for the class representative. I couldn’t recall what I said during my presentation, but what I am sure is that I was very nervous before, during, and after my speech. I exercised again and again, but I was still afraid of acting as a fool on stage. Luckily, I didn’t forget word or sentence, and completed my first trial.

From then on, I have made presentations for hundreds of times. Most of them are class presentations, such as reporting project result. Others might be presentations in student activities, in case challenging competition, etc. I still feel a little nervous, but it has been much better than years ago. As there will be more presentations, especially business presentations that are more formal, I should try to better control my anxiety in such public speech.

Following are some points to overcome nervous, according to my previous experience and some relevant studies.

I made my first presentation when I was in the third grade of preliminary school. It was to run for the class representative. I couldn’t recall what I said during my presentation, but what I am sure is that I was very nervous before, during, and after my speech. I exercised again and again, but I was still afraid of acting as a fool on stage. Luckily, I didn’t forget word or sentence, and completed my first trial.

From then on, I have made presentations for hundreds of times. Most of them are class presentations, such as reporting project result. Others might be presentations in student activities, in case challenging competition, etc. I still feel a little nervous, but it has been much better than years ago. As there will be more presentations, especially business presentations that are more formal, I should try to better control my anxiety in such public speech.

Following are some points to overcome nervous, according to my previous experience and some relevant studies.

1.      Try best to prepare what I am going to speak.

I find that if I didn’t rehearse my speech in advance, but only thought about the outline and directly went to talk, I would always fail that presentation. The more important the presentation is, the more times I have to practice. Be familiar with the notes would never be a bad thing.

2.      Know the room in advance.

I feel more relax in places where I went before. Just like actors, I would perform more naturally in a familiar room. So if it’s a new circumstance, it would be good to arrive early and look around. Sometimes I also have to catch chances to stand at the speaking area and imagine the presentation.

3.      Prepare for the worst case.

For a well preparation, I would ask myself what might happen and how to deal with each situation. If I forgot some words and didn’t know what the next sentence was, I should check my note cards and recall as soon as possible, or just skip to the next point and act as nothing wrong.

4.      Gain experience.

It’s obvious that I am becoming less and less nervous when making public presentations. Successful experiences help me build my confidence, while failures make me pay attention to my drawbacks. The beginning of a trail is hard, while continuous practice is also valuable.