Selling Sno-Cones at the Beach

toastmastering

The time of class presentations is upon us. Sometimes I think that it would be really cool to develop and teach a class on writing and presenting for geography. I'd use some ideas I got in the geographic writing course I took last fall (highly recommended) and add some ideas I've codified over the years of watching and trying to learn from other people's presentations.

Public speaking isn't a natural strength for me, so I think I pay extra attention to "how it's done." When I first started to think about such things, I developed three rules for myself, in order of importance.

1. know the material.
2. know the audience
3. know the venue.

If you don't know the material cold, you'll be tempted to explain more than you should, and your weaknesses will be on display (I came from a political arena, where such flaws could and would be exploited). If you don't know your audience, you might not connect with them and be as effective as you could. If you don't know the venue, there might be technical flaws (wrong presentation techniques, lack of equipment) that could trip up an otherwise flawless speech.

Sitting in presentations today, I jotted down a few ideas about front-ending the research question, findings, and significance. I'll let you know next Tuesday (my presentation) how that worked out for me.

PS: I was in Toastmasters for 3-4 years. I don't say it changed my life - but it definitely boosted my skills and confidence.

Posted by otto0114 at December 7, 2004 11:15 PM