I have to do my first Masters level presentation next Wed, 10 mins on my own and I'm nervous already. I've nearly finished my slides but it still needs quite a lot of work. I'm not so bothered about my nerves as sometimes theres little I can do to control them, and to be honest I think that if I am confident with my presentation then I will have less to be nervous about, thats how I want it to work anyway!

I don't have a lot of presenting experience (none really on my own) and I am sure that all of you here have more than me, so if anyone is willing to share any advice, things that work for them, or things to avoid doing I'd be really grateful. I want to go on to do a PhD so this will hopefully be the first of many presentations, I want to start as I mean to go on and do well with this one. Its 20% of my module mark so could make a difference.

Thanks in advance, Natassia x

What helps me most with presentations is to run through them multiple times beforehand, practising what I'll say, and editing out things that don't work so well, where I get distracted and start rambling.

As for the nerves it gets easier with time. In the early days I always used to calm myself by thinking that it would all be over in an hour or two, or whatever time.

Hi Natassia

You'll be fine! You sound like you know what you're doing. There's a few threads on here about presenting at conferences, so do a search and you should pick up all sorts of tips. Best thing that helps me is, as Bilbo says, practice, especially to get the timing right. Having to rush, or finish early is not good. I practice in front of the mirror at home. Make sure you're prepared, anticipate possible questions, and just before you go on, go somewhere quiet and do some breathing exercises (and a wee!). Then when you're talking, pace yourself, relax, and try to enjoy it. It can be quite fun! Good luck!

Hi Natassia,

Practise, practise, practise! Bring in short notes with you - I tend to avoid typing out realms of material to read off, instead I bring in some bullet pointed notes, which are easy to converse once you have practised. Also, it's generic advice, but make lots of eye contact if you can.

Be very clear and precise about your methodologies and theoretical framework throughout, especially if you're in the social sciences / humanities. It tends to form the basis of a lot of the questions afterwards and can be tricky if you aren't 100% on what you're planning to do.. Also make sure that you have thoroughly reviewed the relevant literature - looks impressive if you can discuss certain key authors in detail.

Lastly, bring water and don't be too shy to drink it!

Good luck - you'll be fine. Thinking about it is the worst part!

Claire:-)

Hey,

I agree with the others, you sound quietly confident so I'm sure it'll be fine. Like Bilbo said, I also tell myself 'it's only ten minutes, I'll be out of here soon and then life will continue as normal'. I used to suffer quite badly with nerves and as sappy as it sounds looking at things like this in a slightly more philosophical way really helped. Your'e just a person, talking to some other people about a subect you know a lot about!

Good luck.

Thanks for the replies, I am confident that my topic is good and satisfies the assessment criteria - its more of a literature review-type thing so no methodology involved but I have included authors outside of the key reading and attempted to draw links between some different approaches that we haven't covered in the seminars so hopefully the originality is there. My tutor seems to like it if we take a trial and error approach and test ourselves rather than sticking to set arguments for fear of 'getting it wrong' - I think he wants our presentations to provide something to have an interesting discussion about as everyone has 25 mins when the presentations are 10 mins; hopefully mine will do that.

I'll definitely be practising it in front of the mirror, I think it probably helps to reduce self-conscious feelings if you know what you look like when you're presenting! I'm sure my voice will still go all high and quiet when its the real thing but I'm going to try not to talk too quickly, thats my main downfall. Thanks again, Natassia x