Jacques’s (Epic) Blog Post on a Presentation About Presentations

 Greetings and salutations, you avid digital citizen.

 

 

Here is how my presentation about presentations went.

    In conjunction with five other of my peers, we hosted a collaborative speech on how to give effective presentations. Topics varied from the niceties of how to use your voice for delivery, to what types of videos and photos one should display on their PowerPoints.

    Wow— did I really say "PowerPoints"? How 2008 of me— I meant to say Google Slides.

In all seriousness, it does not matter which software one picks to construct their presentation. As long as it is sufficiently clean, informative, and constructive towards bettering ourselves as humans, it is a-okay. But how exactly does one ensure that their slideshow stays clean, informative, and constructive? In my section of our presentation, I discussed how to ensure that your visual aids— i.e. your photos, videos, and graphics— help your audience.

Is this a good slide? Source: 24slides

For example, take the above graphic. While this slide does, indeed, show the many devices that are a part of the "Internet of Things," it overloads and overstimulates the viewer such that they do not know what to focus on.

While the presenter may be tempted to use this confusion to show just how chaotic the Internet of Things ecosystem can be, it is best to steer clear of these messes in the name of professionalism. Lest you start looking like an old Windows XP pop-up disaster:

This evokes frustration.

The main takeaway here is to limit your graphics to only one or two per slide. Remember that the average viewer's attention span is only so much. The viewer is also trying to multitask by looking at you and the slides, so do not make it harder for them. Speaking of distracting visual elements, there is another that I haven't spoken of yet, but I can't seem to put my finger on it. What could it be? Hmm... Do you know what I'm thinking of?

GIFs (pronounced with hard G, of course) are tools that you must strike a fine line with. There is a reason why, in my presentation, I set my video to only play once. I did not want my audience to continuously watch it in an entranced-loop while I'm providing important commentary. While GIFs are seemingly wonderful, cutting-edge visual sugar that seem to set you apart from the ordinary slideshow, exercise caution. GIFs repeat infinitely. Only use GIFs with subtle movements so as to not distract. If I could make some changes to my presentation, I would include this tidbit regarding the use of GIFs.

Giving a speech on these concepts of technology was fun for me because I tried to be funny. This ties into another plus: if you are entertaining yourself while giving a presentation, there is a small chance that maybe, just maybe, someone else is loving it just as much as you are.

My peers were none other than Heyner, Isabelle, John, Katelyn, and Joe. A new concept I learned was from Heyner's section, which talked about the levels of abstraction in language. This is a vital concept to understand because it dictates whether your audience will understand your words, and whether they will apply them in the correct contexts. An audience that is unable to understand how to apply your words results in a pointless presentation.

The most challenging aspect of this presentation was the anticipation. Of course, the scariest part of public speaking is the tick-tock of the countdown towards showtime. Even though I have given numerous presentations, I still become nervous or anxious and I experience physical symptoms as seen in the following graphic.

Specifically before presentations, I begin to shake involuntarily, my heart rate quickens, and my hands sweat. But why does this happen? What are we scared of? There is an interesting tidbit in the class textbook that asks an interesting question: has anyone ever died giving a presentation? The professors who wrote the textbook report that they have never witnessed anyone die while giving a presentation. How reassuring!

 I believe that I become nervous because I do not want to make any embarrassing mistakes— this is what I worry about. However, my pre-presentation anxiety never gets worse than my other, non-related panic attacks (which feature "severe feelings of panic" as illustrated in the preceding graphic). I think it is because the resulting embarrassment from suddenly leaving my scheduled presentation would be more embarrassing than something like mispronouncing a word. Severe feelings of panic do quite a number in temporarily incapacitating your mind, which is not ideal when you are trying to talk to people about a nuanced topic.

Remember— when you feel onsets of panic, you must welcome them in the house of your mind and sit them down for a cup of tea. Do not antagonize them and wish that they were not there, for they are only serving the well-meaning duty of trying to protect you from a perceived threat. This is something that takes practice. When you let yourself become consumed by panic and you have an anxiety attack, do not reprimand yourself or feel discouraged, because it is only normal and natural.

Of course, panic does not feel pleasant, so it is hard to imagine it as anything other than an evil monster. But to sit and smile in the face of adversity is to be none other than a resilient, courageous individual.

All it takes to get into the groove of presenting and to hit your stride is to simply begin. Start, and you will find your way along the path.

Before concluding this post, I would like to shout out Group 4 for their enlightening discourse on other aspects of giving a presentation: specifically, examining rhetoric within persuasive speeches. I believe that Yoel successfully conveyed the Ethos rhetoric when giving the presentation as he appeared well-dressed, which goes a long way in showing that one cares about the presentation. I also learned about the varying types of group presentations, which included the panel, debate, and symposium, all with different amounts of audience interaction.

Public speaking may be the number one fear in America, but diving in-depth to the nuances of the field is one step forward in conquering it. (Also, make yourself laugh. That's the best part.)

Until next time,

Jacques