By Alex Norelli
This month, we reached out to the Women of Fisheries Facebook community to discuss presentation tips and tricks. With this post we wanted to find practical, applicable advice that would allow students and professionals alike to prepare for talks with confidence. Here are the three questions we asked:
- How do you prevent presentation jitters?
- How do you practice speaking at the right pace (faster or slower)?
- What makes your presentation cool without being distracting?
So let’s dive in!
How do you prevent presentation jitters?
As I read through the comments, all I could hear was “Practice, practice, practice” echoing in my head. The consensus seems to be that the more you practice speaking, the less likely you are to have jitters or you get better at controlling them. Within the general practicing advice, there were a few more actionable suggestions.
Alejandra Enriquez commented “I would try physically writing down your whole presentation to see what you know and what you don’t (I know it can be a pain especially for longer presentations, but it really works!)”. This is like the classic notecards approach, but instead of reading off those notecards you are using the outlining process to truly learn the material you are presenting.
Others suggested mixing memorization and improvisation. Danielle Frenchette encouraged others to start strong: “Memorize your opening slide – if you are practiced, the rest will flow naturally”
But, memorizing can take a long time and lead to a stale performance. Sandy Clark Kolaks suggested, “Practice but don’t memorize. You need to be able to be confident you know the content but not just reciting it.” In agreement, Beth Phillips noted “I practice a lot but also approach it with a little bit of flexibility and improvisation, which makes me feel like it’s more genuine and engaging.”
Margaret Hayes Murphy suggested a lovely way to harness the jitters: “you want to be nervous/have the butterflies. You just want the butterflies to fly in formation. Having a bit of nerves keeps you more tuned in.”
How do you practice speaking at the right pace (faster or slower)?
The obvious answer to fixing pace is to have someone else listen to you present. Invite your lab, advisor, friends, or co-workers to a presentation practice session. Your practice audience can give you a thumbs up or thumbs down if you’re going too fast or too slow.
If you don’t have the time or patience to get outside participants involved Ehlana Stell pointed out the presentation review process can be automated! “If you struggle with pacing, the practice and coaching feature on Powerpoint will help you! It tells you how often you say “umm”, when you read directly from your slides, and tells you your pacing (too fast/too slow).”
Microsoft has a guide for how to set up Presenter Coach here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/rehearse-your-slide-show-with-presenter-coach-cd7fc941-5c3b-498c-a225-83ef3f64f07b
What makes your presentation cool without being distracting?
As an undergrad, I minored in graphic design so presentation designs can drive me nuts sometimes (blue background with yellow comic sans, ew!). You want to demonstrate creativity and passion for your topic through the visuals of the presentation but many of those exciting visuals can be very distracting.
Julie Vecchio argued “Less is more on slides. The fewest words to get your point across. Make your images as big as possible” I completely agree with her. Most audiences cannot read and listen at the same time so it’s best to keep slides as simplistic as possible.
Animations can get out of control very fast, but Beth Phillips uses them for emphasis instead of distraction: “I build in a simple animation (a new bullet, a circle appearing around part of a figure, etc.) to remind me where to pause and make sure I made the point I wanted to make”
Alejandra Enriquez had great, specific advice on creating better visuals and increasing accessibility: “I think having cool images that are balanced and cropped into shapes (i.e. circles, even triangles) is nice. Make sure there is also some sort of color balance, and that it is checked for colorblindness.” I fully support this message! Creative framing and a color theme can make a presentation look sleek and professional (blues are great for corporate and fisheries looks!). If you are ever wondering if your visuals are colorblind safe try this website: https://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/
In conclusion, your presentations will improve if you keep practicing. With each presentation you will become a more accomplished and professional presenter so be sure to take every opportunity to present!