Academic Persona

One of the first things that we try to do when working with academic presenters is encourage them to move away from the written speech format and towards a more extemporaneous presentation. Academic presentations are usually under 25 minutes and most presenters find it easy, once they learn how, to accomplish this sort of presentation with out the aid of notes. The payoffs are important: the presenter conveys confidence, the audience is more interested, and the whole tone of the presentation shifts towards a relaxed but professional tone.

Faced with the anxiety of presenting in an academic context in their second language, most presenters naturally fall back on the strategy of reading a written speech. While this is understandable, the presenter is setting them selves up for a more involved task that has few positive returns. Reading from a written speech does not reproduce the natural rhythms of spoken speech, nor does it really allow the presenter to connect with the audience in any meaningful way. It’s one thing if people have paid to see and hear you talk for an hour; quite another if they have dropped in to hear one of many short presentation presentations at an academic conference.

Reciting a prepared speech from memory is also fraught with difficulties. The investment of time in this sort of practice is often 10 times the length of the presentation. The cognitive load on the speaker, as they try to remember pieces of the presentation verbatim is also demanding – the consequence is that they are not able to devote their attention to the content or the audience. The speaker is solely focused on reproducing what they have practiced.

Move away from memorization and towards familiarization

The thought of speaking in front of an audience without notes is a frightening one for many. But if we focus on this strategy of familiarization, we can accomplish this task in a confident and professional manner. The basic idea is that the more we practice this in an extemporaneous manner, the more familiar the speaker becomes with verbally discussing the topic, and the easier it is to confidently present. There are three steps to this approach:

1. Organization
2. Practicing pieces of the presentation
3. Whole practice

• Organization
  • This primary step is key. The presenter needs to have a clear idea of what the goals and purpose of the presentation are, as well as the essential components and content that needs to be communicated. Once this has been clearly delineated and organized, then the presenter can proceed with practice.
  • Try using this presentation planning sheet to organize your presentation.
• Practicing in pieces
  • The idea here is that the presenter focuses their attention and effort on small chunks of the presentation: the two minute introduction and background, for instance. Say this section out loud several times, each time listening carefully to the flow and the content. The goal with this exercise should be conciseness and clarity in the delivery. Repeat this practice until these goals have been accomplished, move on to the next section of the presentation, and repeat.
• Whole Practice
  • Once each section has been practiced a few times, move on to practicing the whole presentation. Some sections will naturally be easier to present than others – focus on the difficult areas and then move on. Finally, practice in front of a colleague or peer that can be trusted to give honest advice about the presentation.

The result of this kind of practice is that the presenter will now be much more familiar with the structure and flow of their presentation.Combined with a well designed slide presentation, the presenter should be able to present confidently and professionally to an academic audience. There is some relation between this practice and theories of cognitive chunking and sight reading. It is worth reading up on these areas if you are going to be teaching these skills to a class.