Preparing for Presentations

Substance

 Construct a list of your main points. The list you have is to keep your presentation moving if you blank. It is not something to be reading: it is only something to which to refer.

 When you transition from one main point to another, you should tell your audience that. (E.g.: “Having shown that Munoz tries to keep himself separate from Dao, I now turn to Munoz apologizing to Congress.”)

 If presenting an extended argument, complete your presentation by referring briefly to each main point and restating your thesis.

 Figure out the questions you are most likely to be asked, and come up either with a good answer to every one or a good explanation for why you cannot answer it.

Performance

 PRACTICE your presentation! Practice in front of a full-length mirror, at a minimum. If you can corral your family, friends, or people off the street, that would be even better. “Practice” does not equal “say the whole thing aloud once.” It means: to do something repeatedly.

 When you practice, you are not just “learning your lines” and getting the presentation to time—although those are crucial. You should also be listening to yourself. o Are you stumbling orally? Is that because you don’t know your own ideas, or because your ideas don’t make sense even to you? If you’re stumbling orally, you need to fix it. Is more practice enough, or do you need to rewrite your presentation? o Do you know how to pronounce all the words you’re using? If not, look them up. If you can’t look them up (names of characters in the novel, for example), then at least come to a decision about how you’re going to pronounce them, and stick with it. Don’t mumble a word because you don’t know how to pronounce it! o Are you audible? You must bounce your voice off the back wall of the room in which you’re doing your presentation. You need to be able to hear yourself. If you know your voice is soft, practice getting louder! o Are you talking too fast? People who are nervous speak too quickly. Slow down!

 When you practice, you should also either be looking at yourself (mirror) or getting feedback on your body posture from your friends/family/people off the street: o Is your lower jaw parallel to the floor? If you’re looking down, we can’t hear you! Pick your chin up. (If you’re practicing in a mirror, you should be looking in your own eyes; if with an audience, you should be making sustained—not brief!—eye contact.) o Are your shoulders square (rather than hunched)? o Do you have your weight evenly distributed on both feet?