Presentation Skills

            Presentations and public speaking have always been a strong suit of mine so I found this particular lecture to be something of a repetition.  It did however go very well with Karen’s class concerning presentations in the 300 lecture lab.  What I’ve found to be the most challenging thing for me concerning presentations is two fold; firstly there’s the issue of the presentation itself and then there’s my speed.  While I don’t feel all that nervous when presenting I have been told on numerous occasions that I have a bad tendency towards rushing my words.  I believe this to be a trait I carry with me from my Eastern days and formative years in Massachusetts.  I’ve found the west coast to be far more relaxed and sedate than the east where there is a major emphasis on conveying as much information as you have as quickly as you can convey it and I tend to keep that mindset when presenting but perhaps its more counterproductive than I might realize.  The other major issue for me is, as I mentioned, the presentation itself.  While I'm generally fine at assembling the necessary information to craft and informative presentation where I can sometimes bog down is in arranging it.  Specifically in trying to electrify the presentation with more personality and verve through lay out and visual design.  I find there’s nothing more disheartening in a presentation than a plain white background with flat black text, that kind of presentation exudes a sense of minimalistic effort on the part of the speaker, as if it were copied directly from an essay.  Additionally I find that visual aids can be far more informative and creating more impactful memories and lessons than simple words.  A picture or even a stylized word can convey so much more than letters on a page as well as sticks in the mind more permanently.  I also find that simple bullet points tend to offer more of an enticement to read directly from the slides, which is one of the worst mistakes a presenter can make.  My problem though is that I sometimes try TOO hard to excite with my power points and the information can become lost in the razzle dazzle of backdrops, animations, and images.