This post is a little later than I anticipated, but I have
had a lot of reading and assignments to keep up with. In this post I am going
to talk about the presentation that I had to give on Thursday (15th),
as it was the first one of my course so far, and caused me a few sleepless
nights!
The presentation was on the ‘Codification of the European
Union’ and had to last fifteen minutes. I worked with a partner and we came up
with some good ideas together, and built the PowerPoint presentation as a team,
before then splitting it into sections for both of us to present.
Now, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t nervous,
because I was definitely feeling the nerves, although I felt confident that we
had all the information we needed in the presentation, I just didn’t feel very
comfortable about being one of the first to give a presentation in front of
people who I had only known for a week or two.
I had known NOTHING about the topic before it had been
assigned to me, however after a lot of researching and planning, I did feel a
little more confident. I printed my notes onto A4 paper, three sheets worth of
notes, with subheadings for each topic highlighted in yellow, to remind me to
change slides on the PowerPoint Presentation.
Days before I was due to give the presentation I was reading
my notes on the bus, whilst cooking, before bed, and so on to try and cement
the information into my brain. I have to say that it worked somewhat, as I
successfully managed to remember the first page of notes – on a topic I had no
prior knowledge of. I practiced giving my presentation in front of my boyfriend
and other friends and felt quite comfortable after a few attempts. This all
changed Thursday morning – the dreaded morning! I woke up with a pounding
headache and a sore throat. I made it into class and I think that it was
obvious as to how nervous I was, because people in my class were trying to
reassure me. Everyone was really great and supportive, which definitely eased
the pressure a little.
Well to keep this short and sweet, I stood up at the front
of the class, introduced the presentation and then began. I started off weak
and I knew straight away because I could hear the nerves in my voice. After the
first subheading change I had picked up a little confidence and had managed to
look at every single one of my peers. Time passed quicker than I had expected
and soon my part was over, so after introducing my partner, I sat down near the
computer to assist in changing the PowerPoint slides.
At the end of our presentation we got some great feedback
and I was definitely relieved that it was over and out of the way, but it
certainly went better than expected, and just showed that I had no real reason
to worry. Classmates are human too, and public speaking is a common fear – more
common than the fear of spider or that of dying!
My advice to anyone preparing a speech or presentation would
be just to prepare well and create ample notes – just to make you feel
comfortable when you are standing in front of class. Even if I don’t read my
notes, they make me feel comfortable knowing that they are there if I do forget
what to say. Another tip would be to talk slowly, the faster you speak the more
prone you are to making mistakes. Prepare, speak slowly and breathe!
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