Presentations and Stage Frights

[charmy]

Alright, so i decided to make this topic since i'm going to have lots of presentations soon. and i'm not exactly a very confident speaker, no i should say i'm not confident AT ALL. i would just go blank and stare at them if i dont have my script. yes script, not point form notes. SCRIPT. but at the same time, if i have my script with me, most of the time i wont have eye contact with my audience.

I know its best to practice and try to memorise whatever i need to say right? but somehow all my efforts goes into the drain when i stand before the sea of eyes staring at me.

So... any tips?

[Furgeson]

Because I love you more than anyone Charmy,
I've compiled a list of ever-so-secretive tips 

1) Don't listen to the fools who tell you to "stare at one point on the wall."
Never has there been stupider advice.
2) Just look up from your paper regularly and look to the left. down. middle. down. right. down. And repeat!
3) Try to walk around.
4) If you can't walk around, don't fidget.
5) If you can't walk aroiund and want to fidget, CURL your TOES.
6) Speak loudly. Project.
7) Practice in front of a mirror. RECORD your presentation so you know what you sound like!!!
8) And again, practice makes perfect. If you read it enough, parts just stick in your head.
9) Move your hands and arms regularly. Don't 'over'-move them.

Lastly, good luck. If none of this works, i'm sure your charm will simply win them over! 

[charmy]

*huggles lily tightly*

thank you soooooo much for sharing with me T____T

i feel so touched. 

i was so prepared and hyped up after reading your post for my presentation today. in the end the tutor didn't come and so my presentation was postponed. .____. so much for preparing everything and worrying like mad.

[Disturbance]

Alright, so i decided to make this topic since i'm going to have lots of presentations soon. and i'm not exactly a very confident speaker, no i should say i'm not confident AT ALL. i would just go blank and stare at them if i dont have my script. yes script, not point form notes. SCRIPT. but at the same time, if i have my script with me, most of the time i wont have eye contact with my audience.

I know its best to practice and try to memorise whatever i need to say right? but somehow all my efforts goes into the drain when i stand before the sea of eyes staring at me.

So... any tips?

eye contact.... script you write them onto .... notes. you know the notepad paper? like speakernotes... use them..... i think they are called flashcards...available at popular.... copy down what you're supposed to say...add in stuff like ...... I'm going to continue where the last speaker ended/ start on my speech/ will be talking about.


for eye contact.... spend less time with your notes and more with looking in the audience...imagining that there are words in your speech or just treat them as nobodies who can't hear you. It helps.

[charmy]

MOAR TIPS! thankyou disturb! *huggles*

yea yea like the que cards? i haven't tried using them before... i think i shall give them a shot.

what is "imagine that there are words in your speech"?

[icewing]

breathe and relax.
don't pay attention to the staring people.
use hand motions but don't OVER use.
try NOT to sway!

and.......try. TRY. to get some eye contact! :D

[chery90]

Choose few points on the audience or select few of the audience as your point... Left middle right up down... As you wish... So during the presentation, you'll just need to look at the points that you have selected... If you scare to look at the audience's face, try look at their surrounding like their clothes or chairs something like that...

During the presentation, if you forgot your next speech, don't panic and don't give long pause... Try to talk whatever come cross your mind, whatever you could remember from your script...

You'll be ok... Don't worry too much... And good luck... 

[Disturbance]

MOAR TIPS! thankyou disturb! *huggles*

yea yea like the que cards? i haven't tried using them before... i think i shall give them a shot.

what is "imagine that there are words in your speech"?

yeah q cards ^_^ i have aplently one stack for next sem and all XD
oh i mean like each person is a word LOL

[Furgeson]

Firstly, it's...... STORY TIME FOR CHARMY! 
So, I actually don't suggest you try to just force a script into your mind if you CAN'T BRING IT ON STAGE WITH YOU O_O
[spoiler]Once upon a time, we were doing this presentation, and this cute little girl decided that she was going to memorize a three minute speech. Oh fat good that did for her. She forgot one of her sentences, she was scared, she was schocked, there was an awkward silence. Luckily I had spent so much time hearing her repeat her script, I knew what the next sentence was. I tried to hiss it out so she could hear me, but of course, she was as dumb... er, as deaf as a... bat? and continued staring and being petrified. Then I actually said it loud enough for the entire damned audience to hear, she cut me off angrily, and then her humiliation turned to my humiliation and then...[/spoiler] ._. I wasn't very happy afterwards 

[Furgeson]

*huggles lily tightly*

thank you soooooo much for sharing with me T____T

i feel so touched. 

i was so prepared and hyped up after reading your post for my presentation today. in the end the tutor didn't come and so my presentation was postponed. .____. so much for preparing everything and worrying like mad.

-sniffle- OOOOH! Who could ever hate Charmy! So sweet, so loving :D
-huggles Charmy back. Very tightly >3*
I'll be cheering for you... and by the way, hope that your shouting match with your tutor goes well!!! \o/

[icewing]

.......................hey disturby? chery?


.....:O

[charmy]

@icey && cheryl

omg! thank you guys for all your valuable tips! i will treasure them and try them out. :D


STORY TIME! 

oh dear. all you wanted was to help her... ~_~

About the shouting match, it turned out that my tutor didn't send ANYONE in my class their results for the test. -.-

[Disturbance]

.......................hey disturby? chery?


.....:O

@icy: what?

@charmy: you should just be yourself, thats fine too ^^ its like oral, except that you just have to stand up.

@lily, poor thang...........

[icewing]

....DISTURBY!!!!  MFU'T TUBSU PVS QMBO!! (secret code)

KAI SHI!

[Baka]

In your case, just imagine everyone in the audience is a hot Japanese/Chinese/Korean dude.

[chery90]

In your case, just imagine everyone in the audience is a hot Japanese/Chinese/Korean dude.

If you ask meh to imagine everyone as a hot korean dude, i will start imagine Suju sitting on the front, Big Bang on the middle row, 2PM & 2AM on the left, Rain on the center, Ft Island on the back....bla bla bla bla...
And then i'll start showing the audience this face >          

That's really gonna ruin my presentation... 

[Sharwin]

Hmm... I don't know what type of presentations these are, but it's useful to have some sort of display (pictures in power point slides) to help keep the audience a long as well as remind you where you are in your presentation.

This depends on the person, but sometimes engaging the audience to keep a friendly atmosphere helps (like asking questions).

If you know the information you are presenting well, to help you get out of that "stuck at reading off the script" feeling, you can instead use general outlines. Meaning your script is just a general outline of the topics you want to cover (like important points) and just let your knowledge guide yourself through without having to feel like you must follow the script exactly.

That's probably what helps me the most. Prepare the information you want to say, but let your own knowledge naturally guide how you want to explain it. Helps me come out more naturally.

[Disturbance]

....DISTURBY!!!!  MFU'T TUBSU PVS QMBO!! (secret code)

KAI SHI!

HUH totally @ icy

At cheryl, you're too much of a kpop fanatic.... for your case, maybe i'll suggest something like act like you're talking to your classmates (because sometimes, you hate them, but you still have to be polite to them)

@charmy: how's our tips?

[chery90]

Kpop is like....in my blood, hun!!! Kpop rockz!!! 

Erm... Disturby dear, your idea on act like talking to classmates is not gonna work for me either (i think)...
I hardly talk to them... Ya i hate them (most of them...like 90% of them)... And i also hardly be polite to them...


@charmy how's your presentation?! 

[icewing]

EXCACTLY. KPOP. IS IN MAH BLOOD.

ooo how's the presentation? did you freak out?  let us knooooooooow!

[charmy]

it was supposed to be one last thursday but the lecturer didn't come. ~_~ so it was postponed to next thursday, so i still have one more week.

and i realised i have yet ANOTHER presentation on wednesday (the day before the thursday presentation).

@Baka hahahaha! i dont think that will work for me xD i think i'll laugh my head off first. XD

@ Sharwie these are just school presenatations, for assignments. and yes, by right i should be familiar with the topic i'm talking about. i'll try the general outline style that you talked about. thankyouuuu 


@Icy, cheryl, disturby all your tips are really helpful! i really appreciate it <3 *hands out a bit of jelly for everyone*

i'll update again after i finish my presentations alright? 

[Disturbance]

Kpop is like....in my blood, hun!!! Kpop rockz!!! 

Erm... Disturby dear, your idea on act like talking to classmates is not gonna work for me either (i think)...
I hardly talk to them... Ya i hate them (most of them...like 90% of them)... And i also hardly be polite to them...


@charmy how's your presentation?! 

-grabs jelly eats it-

okay sure! keep us updated!

@cheryl: o_O too bad

[chery90]

I think if i act the opposite way like imagine my classmates are not there, that's might work for meh...     I'll try do that on my next presentation... 

[Disturbance]

 

[Shiki]

Pretend that you are presenting to a bunch of people in their underwears. =]

[icewing]

. . .O_O.  u..un...underwear..?

shiki.....that's.....   i think charmy would've been so grossed out that she can't present! xD.

[Disturbance]

Pretend that you are presenting to a bunch of people in their underwears. =]

shiki......it doesn't work that way.... she will be probably too shy to  present to people in underwear, like this 

[Shiki]

Pfff... Why would she be shy? She is looking at THEM not like they are looking at HER in underwear. =]

[Disturbance]

isn't it still wrong? ._. no matter how you put it that is.

[icewing]

....STILL.  you can't make charmy look at such.....such...IMAGES....    i mean.....maybeh shiki YOU. can see peeps in their underwear and present like nothing is going on......xD

[Shiki]

Nah~ I don't do that but my friend who is a girl does that. She sometimes starts laughing in the middle of the presention and all of us (who know her well) will immediately think this way:

"Oh no...she is doing it again. >.>"

[Disturbance]

  i guess different people have their different ways of presenting.

[icewing]

...i see.....

well. when i present, i just like....present. i can't laugh.

[Disturbance]

sometimes i just stare at the photo.

[chery90]

sometimes i just stare at the photo.

Photo??! What photo?!   

[Disturbance]

Eh sorry, its paper...too exhausted...had a long day outside my comfort zone

[Mizuiro]

Just find the cutest guy you can on the left side, the middle, then the right, and you just switch between looking at them and it looks like your making really good eye contact with your audience. If there's not guys worth looking at then you pretend there are >=o That way it doesn't get overly distracting and you aren't making funny faces =D

Or if you have a terrible imagination, you can just act like it's your friends your talking to =)

If all else fails just look between your thing that contains notes, whether it be just a script or bullet points, and then look up in the general area of the audience. Just make sure you survive for how ever long your speech is =p

[Disturbance]

Basically for my debates... i look to the judge (WHAT YOU SHOULD DO, -> ACCURATE!) and then to my paper, and then ignore my paper and blurt out what i remember, and then repeat steps 1 - 3 xD

[icewing]

xD. yeah. i look at the judge and then the audience. 

[charmy]

and so one week went pass. and i complete two of my presentations with all you guys' help :D

the first one which this post was initially for, went pretty well. i SOMEHOW managed to memorise all my script o___o
had a few stumbles here and there but overall it was better than i imagined. :3

the second one was ehm. not so good. partially because i didn't prepare much, it was quite a rushed presentation since my group finished the project quite last minute. but it was still barely passable i guess. :3

but yea, i didn't try to picture them in underpants though... (>__<)

but having a script in my hands still felt safer than going out to the battlefield 'naked'. xD

thanks guys, for all your wonderful help. -huggles everyone-

[Disturbance]

-huggles- welcome welcome  argh, i'm going to miss you guys :(

[Melancholic]

I read a 2 min speech in 16 seconds once. I dislike public speaking so I do it as fast as possible and then bail.
Probably not the best technique to use.

[icewing]

......MEL!!! 2 MINUTES IN 16 SECONDS!?!?!?

ARE YOU SUPERHUMAN!?!? 

[Disturbance]

I read a 2 min speech in 16 seconds once. I dislike public speaking so I do it as fast as possible and then bail.
Probably not the best technique to use.

for debates... i learned how to drag out my entire speech
my main written content .. 75% was only 2-3mins plus... then i dragged it all the way to 6 plus, where i'm supposed to stop at 7

[icewing]

heh? i always talk fast and end up shorter than it was supposed to be. xD 

[Disturbance]

Exactly....then i'll be......pweeeh.... here i go all calmly and draggy.

[icewing]

.....xD

i hate speaking with a microphone....

[Disturbance]

IKR... it gets worse with a mic..

[chery90]

Try with mic, video cam and spotlight... 

[Disturbance]

Try with mic, video cam and spotlight... 

-patpat- public humiliation. IKR.

[Furgeson]

IKR... it gets worse with a mic..

Every little cough and stutter you make is amplified to your wonderful audience.
And it gets worse when the mike doesnt work, you start shouting, and then it just magically turns on... T.T

[Michelle]

I actually like speaking into a microphone...
Also, I sort of like presentations but only when I am prepared. But when it is on the spot I get nervous..