Friday, December 5, 2008

Public Speaking

Today I had to give an oral presentation on a technical report I wrote for my technical writing class. It was ok, and maybe I am just being way to hard of myself, but am never pleased with my oral presentations. Allow me to explain....
I am terrified of public speaking. Absolutely mortified when I have to do it. I loathe speaking in front of people, especially when I am being graded or judged.
I literally start to hyperventilate as I'm talking. My heart races, my hands get clammy, and my mouth goes dry. Also I start to tremble and my voice shakes. And I talk super fast. I'm a fast talker anyways, but boy when I'm nervous and giving a presentation, I f l y through it. It's not that I am uncomfortable with the information. On the contrary I loved the topic I presented today. It's just I get so nervous.Then after I'm done, all I can think about is how horrible I am and how awful it was. Kind of like right now.

So....what are your suggestions??? What works for you?? HELP!

2 comments:

Jean said...

The only thing that helps me, as far as speaking/singing/performing in front of people, is practice. If I sang solos once a month I would never have a problem.

But that doesn't really help with public speaking, does it? It's not like public speaking opportunities just pop up all the time....

floreta said...

i suck at public speeking myself. i'm kind of a quiet person to begin with and not good in crowds.. so put two in two together..

what helps me is just practice, practice, practice. in front of the mirror helps. i will have my notecards with bullet point topics and practice talking til i practically have the thing memorized. only then will i feel 'prepared' enough to give a speech. even then, i am nervous, but at LEAST i'll know what to say and have gone over it a million times..

ALSO, the ability to let go and NOT overthink/overpractice once in class. don't even think about it until its your turn to get up there. same goes for performing a musical piece in front of an audience. don't overpractice before your set or else you will be more likely to mess up.

anyway, came here via sunday scribbling. good luck.