Breathe in Breathe Out: Tips to Presenting

In college, students are required to make a lot of presentations. It doesn’t matter what your major is, you will probably get stuck doing one sometime during your college career. Many people have a fear of public speaking. It is probably one of the most common fears there is. You must learn to get over that fear or you will find yourself a nervous wreck every time you have to get up and give a presentation. In order to help you out with these common jitters, here are some tips to help you when you are presenting something for one of your college classes.

Find out what scares you

The first thing you need to do is identify the fear that you get when you present. Find out exactly what it is that you’re scared of and then try and get rid of it. If your biggest fear is that you will mess up your words, practice on what you are going to say. If your biggest fear is forgetting information, focus on memorizing that information. Your main focus of the presentation should be on your biggest fear. Facing your fears will ultimately help you get rid of them.

Do your research

Make sure that you get all of the information that you need before you get up to present. Do all of the research that you can so you don't find yourself scrambling for information. If you don’t dig deep into research, you will definitely regret it. Your audience is going to assume that you are an expert. If you cannot remember an important fact for your presentation, you are going to lose a lot of your validity.

Practice makes perfect

Practice, practice practice! You can do no wrong by practicing over and over again. If you are presenting as a group, it is even more important to practice so your presentation flows. The audience is either clueless on your topic or just not very well informed. You need to make sure that your presentation is clear and concise and makes sense to everyone who is there. By practicing, you can work out many of the flaws that might be present. Make sure that everyone in your group knows exactly when their turn is so there are no awkward silences.

Engage the audience

Make sure that your presentation is interesting. If you have to give a long presentation, no one is going to want to sit there and listen; however, if you engage your audience, you will have their attention One way to engage them is to be very energetic while up in front of them. No one likes to look at slides of text over and over. Put some pictures up there that they can look at. Last but not least, one of the best ways to hold an audience’s attention is to bring food. Food makes everyone happy no matter who they are. If their bellies are full, they are going to be a lot more willing to pay attention to your presentation.

About the Author
Meagan Hollman is a writer for MyCollegesandCareers.com. My Colleges and Careers is the best site if you want to get your education and you want to enroll in accredited online colleges.