Presenting....

If I remember correctly (and I'm sure that I do), during the next two weeks your schedules are not only packed with final exams and seminar papers, but also peppered with project presentations, mini-conferences, and other opportunities to share your work in front of an audience. It's no secret that the anxiety brought on by an upcoming presentation can rival that of the looming deadline for your 22-page research paper, particularly if you're presenting on a complex subject, theory, or concept that is relatively new to you (post-structuralism, anyone?).

While in no way do I claim to be the queen of the lectern, I do have a few tips to help you prepare for your next presentation with confidence and style.

1. Timing is Everything. Regardless of the reason or forum for your presentation, you will at the very least be given guidelines for the length of time you will be in the limelight. Use this timeframe as your starting point when planning and preparing your entire presentation, from your introduction to your power point slides. Especially when presenting a semester-long project, it's easy to get carried away in the details. The last thing you want is to create a gorgeous masterpiece of slides, video clips, and insightful quips only to be cut off before you get through 10% of your planned presentation. The last think your audience wants is to have a presenter drone on three times as long as necessary. Always tailor your presentation to the time allowed, making sure you hit all of your essential points.

2. Read Responsibly. For some presentations it's perfectly acceptable to read a prepared paper and/or speech. For example, this is usually the case for your MALS 5100 mini-conference presentations. That said, please don't just get up in front of the room, stare at your paper, and read us the words. Even when you have a script, you need to engage your audience.  Make frequent eye contact throughout your presentation. Speak slowly, pause at appropriate intervals, and subtly inflect emotion into your voice to emphasize important points. Additionally, you may want to add examples, stories, or small bits of humor to your presentation that you won't necessarily include in the final version of your paper. Finally, if you're using PowerPoint, don't read your slides. Let them work for you, and elaborate on the points contained in each slide.

3. Grab your Audience. Not literally. But it is essential to capture your audience's attention immediately. Start off with an interesting story, statistic, or question that engages the audience and allows them to relate to your topic from the start. Please don't start your presentation with "Today I'm going to talk about....XYZ," and don't just dive into the details.

4. Dress the Part. Even when you can attend class all semester in your sneakers and sweats, you should approach presentations as more formal affairs. I liked to dress up a bit even if my professors did not specify a dress code. While I cannot offer concrete proof, I think that dressing well for presentations helps one feel more "professional" and therefore make a sharper, more credible presentation. You don't need to wear a tuxedo, but at least dress business-casual. Keep your hair neat and out of your face, and wear good but comfortable shoes.

5. Practice! This may sound like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how much stress and worry practicing washes away. Find a (captive) audience, such as a spouse, child, friend, or coworker, and practice your presentation with a timer. This is the only way you can be sure that you will make a complete, clear, and interesting presentation within the allotted timeframe.  Ask for feedback not only on your content, but also about any visual glitches like garish or unreadable PowerPoint slides or distracting mannerisms such as toe-tapping or over-gesturing with your hands. At the very least, hearing yourself talk out loud for 10 minutes should help you become more comfortable with, well, talking out loud for 10 minutes.

6. As always, remember interdisciplinarity! Practice is especially important when making an interdisciplinary presentation, because you'll need to relate to audience members with different academic backgrounds and effectively draw from multiple disciplinary perspectives in a short period of time. As you're making your notes, adapting your paper, or making slides, remember to demonstrate the intersection of disciplines in your presentations. Make clear the disciplinary (or interdisciplinary) origins of each of your points, and clearly state any connections between disciplines. You don't have to go into the theory behind each concept, but do use language to acknowledge the merging of disciplines.

7. Go Old School. That is, use notecards. Even with Youtube, PowerPoint, and GoogleDocs available to liven up a presentation, I still recommend putting together a set of good, old-fashioned, 5x7 index cards outlining the points you need to make during your presentation. Why? Because technology sometimes fails. And because nerves can play tricks on you and make you forget what you stood up to say in the first place. A simple statement on a notecard can get you back on track and help keep you there. You might even go so far as to jot a time-frame down on each notecard to help you progress through your presentation at your practiced pace. Also, don't forget that a humble notecard gives you something to hold in your hand, providing a simple remedy for excessive hand gesturing.

8. Be ready for questions. During most conferences, class presentations, or symposia, you will have a brief Q & A period after your main speech. As you're preparing your presentation, try to anticipate some of these questions. Jot down potential answers, complete with examples, on a notecard. In the likely event that you receive a rather off-the-wall or challenging question, just relax and provide the best answer possible. Don't hesitate to ask for clarification of the question in a tactful manner. Also, monitor your answers to be sure you don't get off track too much and end up making a second presentation. Keep answers concise.

9. Remember, you're hardly alone. You have a class of peers who are making similar presentations all over campus. Nor are you the worst public speaker ever. I'm pretty sure my entire 8th-grade language arts class had that one covered. Try and enjoy this chance to share your research with your peers.

Good luck!

Congratulations Dr. Tedesco!

I'm happy to share that Dr. Marie Tedesco, MALS program director, has been named one of the 2011 Notable Women of ETSU! With this year marking this annual award's 10th anniversary, Notable Women of ETSU are nominated by faculty colleagues based on their work and accomplishments in the field of women's studies and scholarship, and the women's studies department selects two nominees to win the award.

All MALS students, alumni, and friends are invited to attend the annual Notable Women of ETSU Colloquium on Wednesday, November 16th, in the East Tennessee Room of the D.P. Culp University Center. A reception with complimentary refreshments begins at 4:30 PM. The colloquium, featuring speeches by the award recipients, Dr. Tedesco and Kathleen Higginson Grover from Literature and Languages, will follow from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

Please make plans to attend this important celebration! For more information, please visit this link to the ETSU calendar or email me at malswritingconsultant@etsu.edu.