Post by Hanh Nguyen, GIC Peer Mentor 2021
Graduate school is where we could explore our potentials in research, teaching assignments, and challenging coursework as well as improving our soft skills. To be successful in graduate school and our future careers, we need to know how to communicate effectively with others. As researchers, our research has difficult terminologies and complicated concepts; therefore, we need to learn how to break down the information to help others understand the significance of our jobs. An effective communicator will know how to explain his/her research effectively to different groups of audience. They can express their ideas and easily connect with others through fruitful conversations. As a result, public speaking is a life skill that everyone should learn to master. Here are a few strategies that will hopefully alleviate your stress for public speaking.
A. Preparation
Listening to professional speakers.
To improve your public speaking skills, the first strategy is to listen to professional speakers and learn how they teach others about their findings. Depending on the purpose of the talk, the contents might vary. Each person also has their style when they present. By listening to others talking, we might find some of their styles suit us well.
Know your audience.
Before crafting your presentation, consider who will listen to your talk and what message you want them to remember. Try to find out as much as possible about them. This information will help you determine your word choice, images, level of information, organization, and result statement.
Logistics
As a presenter, you should also know when, where, and how you will give the presentation in advance. Knowing when the event happens will allow you to have enough time to come up with a plan for preparation and practice. In addition, you need to know where and how you will present. Nowadays, it’s more common to see a presentation online using Zoom, Skype, or other virtual meeting software. Make sure to practice using your mouse to point and your hands to describe. If you present in person, you can ask if it’s possible to see the room where you will be giving the talk to be familiar with the surroundings and ease your stress. Then, try to find appropriate equipment to practice the talk in person. Knowing all this information will allow you to give yourself enough time to prepare and practice accordingly.
Organize your content to send your message in the most effective way.
Brainstorm all your ideas and organize those ideas in a storytelling manner. Write down the topic, central idea, and main purpose for each topic. The purpose of each idea in your presentation can be summarized in the title of each slide. Make sure to attract the audience in the first 30 seconds and explicitly tell them key points in your presentation.
B. Delivery
Nervous is normal.
Everyone feels some physiological reactions like pounding hearts and trembling hands when they speak in front of the crowd. The rush of adrenaline in your body makes you sweat and more alert from what is coming next. The best way to overcome this fear is to come prepared. Have a few warm-up activities to stretch your muscles and ease your nervousness. Go over your notes as many times as possible to put that information in your long-term memory. Once you are more comfortable, you can ask your friends to critique your performance.
Adopt feedback.
Find your family, friends, and coworkers to practice with them. Ask for their feedback and consider how you can improve on delivering your message. It’s easy to confuse people if your messages are not clean and clear.
Let your personality shine.
Imagine that you are telling your own life story to the audience, what will you tell them? In fact, your research is a part of your life. The audience will have an easier time understanding your story if you know how to open up yourself and connect with them. Your presentation can be more like a conversation with the audience.
Don’t read from your slides. Tell stories.
Reading from your slides can fracture the interpersonal connection that you are trying to establish. Therefore, you should maintain eye contact and keep the focus on the audience to share your stories. A brief outline can serve as a reminder for what you want to talk about in each slide. You can also use images to remind you of the main purpose of each idea.
Emphasize key points with your hands and voice.
Knowing how to use verbal and nonverbal communication will spark some light in your presentation. For instance, if you keep eating one thing every meal and every day, you will be so sick of it after one week. As a result, your talk will be more interesting if there are variations in your voice and gestures. Good delivery will convey the speaker’s ideas clearly without
distraction.
Practice does not make it perfect.
Nobody expects you to have a perfect presentation; however, the more you practice, the better your speech. Your nervousness might never go away, but you can learn to have more control and manage to minimize the stress.
To help students improve their public speaking skills, UCI also offers a certificate program called Activate to Captivate. Bri McWhorter is the founder and CEO of this program, and she teaches public speaking through the vision of an actor. For more information, please visit her website at:
https://www.activatetocaptivate.com
https://grad.uci.edu/professional-success/Certificates/Public%20Speaking.php