6_ChuW

November 21, 2010

Dear Professor Kim,

There is nothing more disheartening than nerves setting in when you are about to present in front of a group of people. Whether I am speaking or performing front and center; I have always find it difficult to not struggle. And despite the fact that I have been making presentations since the beginning of my academic career; the anxiety is always going to be there at a certain degree for me.

My first fault in presenting is my tendency to speak a little too fast. I view this as a pitfall because I believe one of the many objectives of a presenter is getting their message across clearly to the audience. One of the foundations to a clear message is good pace especially if the presentation is expected to be very informative. I have always been a fast talker and reader, so sometimes due to that bad habit I tend to mumble. I believe speaking slowly and clearly is not only an essential skill one should have when it comes to presentations, but also when you are socializing with people. Fidgetting is another issue I am currently trying to correct as a presenter. When I am standing to speak to a crowd of people; I fidget due to my uncontrollable nerves. I have improved immensely in controlling the fidgets, but there are times when they come through especially when I am unprepared to speak. So one route I am taking in eliminating my fidgetting habit is going into a presentation fully prepared to deliver. And what I mean by being prepared is understanding my subject matter and knowing exactly what to say and at what point during the presenation.

Hand gestures are one of my strengths, but by the same token they are my weaknesses. I say that because though I believe I have strong body language when presenting; I tend to overdo my hand gestures. I use hand gestures to support my verbal delivery, but when my knowledge of what I am supposed to speak about is limited I would throw my hands everywhere like a madman. I absolutely do not want my hands to pose as a distraction to my audience when my words are suppose to be the stars of the presentation. I am hard at work trying to lessen the amount of hand gestures I incorporate into my presentatons by paying more attention to my hands when speaking. Eye contact with the audience is key to a good presentation. This is one of the few areas I am slowly improving on, but the struggle still exists for me. I believe one of the leading reasons why some people find it excruciatingly painful to make eye contact with audience members is the fear of judgement. Eyes have a strong presence to presenters like me because people are capable of being extremely expressive with their eyes and nothing else. I used to have a pessimistic view of my audience because I always felt that they looked down on me for delivering a poor presentation. But I am slowly believing the advice some people have given me in the past and it is to present with the thought that the audience members want to see you do great.

My fifth and final fault as a presenter is my love to read instead of genuinely presenting what I should know. In situations where I have either a powerpoint with a paragraph to the side of me or a sheet of paper in hand; I tend to read off of it especially when I am unprepared. And this brings all of my previously mentioned faults together. I would read really fast which will eventually cause incoherency and also a lack of eye contact with my audience. I usually have an index card with a few notes of what to say in hand, but I am trying to stray from the need of any notes. A note or two can easily tempt me into reading, so with my decision of presenting with no written notes also mean that I would have to prepare more from this point forward.

Nervousness, to my belief, is resulted from the lack of preparation. I always feel like I am most nervous prior to presentation when I have not practice or read up on the information I am going to present. So my solution in correcting these faults is coming to the presentation with my mind fully loaded with accurate information and confidence.

Sincerely,

Wilson Chu