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appear nervous. It’s perfectly fine to use your hands or walk around a bit to emphasize points. Just don’t get carried away with movement. Don’t put your hands in your pockets or fiddle with your hair during a presentation. Facial expression and eye contact. An oral presentation is no time to master your deadpan delivery. Facial expression is important! It draws your audience in. If you look bored, your audience will be bored. If you look sincere and interested, your audience is more likely to be interested in what you have to say. Make eye contact with audience members – not with your shoes or the ceiling. Don’t stare at your cue cards. Look around at all of the audience, not just at one or two people, or at the front row. Pauses. If you get stuck or lose track of where you are in your presentation, do not mutter “ummmm” or giggle nervously! Pause, and look at your cue card to find your place. Take a breath, regain your composure and move on. The pause may seem like an eternity to you, but audiences are pretty tolerant and will barely notice. Vocabulary. When you give an oral presentation, you must appear to be an expert. That requires seriousness of purpose and use of appropriate vocabulary. Do not demean your role as expert by infusing the presentation with middle school student jargon like “awesome,” “sucks,” or “ya know?” Memorization. Novice presenters are often tempted to memorize their entire presentation, then recite it from memory. Do not do this. Memorization is a technique for acting. You are speaking, not acting. Memorization is a poor oral presentation technique because it does not allow for flexibility. More often than not, memorization backfires because the speaker forgets part of the speech, gets confused, and has to backtrack through the speech to prompt their memory. Memorizers often speed through delivery ending up with a presentation that sounds unnatural, and falls short of the time mark. It’s truly much easier to make a good presentation with practice and reliable cue cards, than to memorize it. PRODUCT PREVIEW Develop public speaking skills! If you plan to pursue a leadership position in a high school club or association, or are interested in a college major or career requiring oral communication, good public speaking skills are essential. In high school, you will have many opportunities to develop speaking skills. The debate team is an excellent place to hone skills, as are clubs like Youth in Government (YIG), Model United Nations (MUN), Junior Statesman of America (JSA) and Junior Toastmasters. Developing your public speaking skills through one of these fun associations also goes a long way toward improving your ability to make an effective informative or persuasive oral presentation in the classroom. Developing competence as a public speaker is a good skill for high school, college, and career readiness.
THE 21st CENTURY STUDENT’S GUIDE TO STUDY SKILLS 201
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