Presentation Practice

My life consists of three things right now: synesthesia and coffee. Somehow I was able to bring those parts of my life together the other day.

Last week I gave a practice presentation. Due to a few things lacking in the presentation, I was asked to redo it on Saturday. During the time in between, I worked hard to make my slides better, as well as the way that I relayed my information. To say I was anxious about presenting would be an understatement. I practiced in the car, with friends, at work, etc. At one point I actually had like eight coworkers listen to my presentation. This was particularly helpful because after my first practice presentation, one problem that I had was that there were few connections between topics. I was having trouble relating everything back to synesthesia, By having a group of individuals who have not been exposed to the phenomenon or any part of my research , they could tell me easily where they felt lost. Unfortunately, I think that it may have been too complex for just an impromptu presentation because a lot of them were still very confused afterwards. But I felt much more confident after that presentation (also it was a great way to show off what I have been doing for the past eight months).

Over the many many practice presentations I’ve done, I’ve learned a few things. First breathe out, not in. When giving my presentation to my teacher, I realized that I have breathing problems. Although I think my speech wasn’t too fast the second time I showed her my presentation, it still may have been too fast. After doing some research, I found that breathing out, rather than breathing in can help greatly in controlling your breathing. So I’ve been doing exercises where I breath out using my stomach muscles, and then let the air just flood back in and I think it’s helping. I don’t feel overwhelmed to breath in air and breath it all out while talking.

Additionally, I have learned that my chain of thought it kind of all over the place, and scripts are truly very helpful. Often times, I make logical jumps that not everyone can follow. What I’ve found is that I have been doing this research for several months, so I know where everything is going and what everything means. Unfortunately, other people don’t have all the knowledge that I have acquired, luckily, we developed language so I can communicate the knowledge I have. I just need to be more aware of what is common knowledge and what is research knowledge. Luckily with my practice presentations with several people who are unfamiliar with the topic, and a couple with some people who are familiar has been the most beneficial. Having people who see the gaps is helpful for closing those gaps. And having people who understand the project is helpful for finding solutions to those gaps, and finding inconsistencies within the research project and then the presentation.

Word count: 505