Sharpening Your Presentation Skills
- Pause from time to time: A well-placed pause can help generate more interest. Pauses help to emphasize important points.
The first time you present a topic should not be the first time you have practiced the presentation.
- Don't use non-lexical utterances: Have you ever heard someone constantly use grunts or fillers like "um," "ah," "like," "you know," or "stuff like that," during pauses? If you do this habitually while presenting, work hard to stop. A good technique to help you stop is to record yourself speaking during a training session. Hearing yourself use fillers, as others do, will help you stop quickly.
- Repetitive words: avoid repetitive use of words like "actually," "additionally," "therefore," and "technically."
- Get practice. The first time you present a topic should not be the first time you have practiced the presentation or at least gone over the material in your head. Whether you talk out loud or visualize the presentation in your head, you're building that all important "mental script" that is so necessary.
- Know when to apologize. Be careful to apologize only when you've actually done something wrong. Don't apologize for being nervous or lack of preparation. Most students won't detect your anxiety, so don't draw attention to it.
- Do apologize if you're wrong. One caveat to the above rule is that you should apologize if you are late or shown to be incorrect. You want to seem confident, but don't be a jerk about it.
- Have fun - enjoy the training. Tell yourself you're going to have fun, you like the students, and the session is going to be successful. Positive self-talk like that will go a long way in helping you present with the proper attitude.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
3-5. When training a new subject, never tell yourself _____.
You forgot to answer the question!