Have you ever been thrown in front of a classroom of your peers after a late night, having completely forgotten about a presentation, and told to present your case to the class? You stand in front of the class, look at your shoes, and then out at your fellow classmates. You shuffle around a little as you take a deep breath, open your mouth, and absolutely nothing comes out. You mumble something about not feeling well and run back to your seat to hide your face in shame. This is how not to react when asked to present in front of class. If you want to learn how to react, visit the Speak Up! meetings on Thursday nights from 8–10 pm in Union Room 3602.
Speak Up! is a relatively new club on campus—it was founded in 2007—devoted to helping students improve their public speaking abilities and to provide a forum for students to practice public speaking. The group often brings in public speakers to address the group. Most recently, the group brought Associate Director of Enrollment Ray Lutzky, an alumnus of RPI and a known campus speaker. His seminar was about speaking with confidence whether you know what you are talking about or not.
It was not a lecture so much as a group discussion about how to present successfully in front of any crowd. Lutzky started out by showing a crucial trick: use the audience. He had the participants introduce themselves, and give their reasons for attending the seminar. Several attendees were members of the RPI Players looking to improve their acting abilities. A few were RAs who are required to attend a certain number of seminars each semester to improve themselves. Several people were regular Speak Up! members. And the remaining few of us were there to improve our public speaking abilities.
One of Lutzky’s suggestions was to get a feel for the audience first. Certain humor can only be used on certain crowds. Also, if you are thrown into a presentation for which you have no idea what you are talking about, using the crowd can work to your advantage, either to use up time or possibly to find someone who may have more knowledge on the subject. Lutzky shared a story where he was asked to cover a seminar on alcohol abuse and deaths caused by it with no time to prepare and no previous experience with the subject. He said halfway through his presentation he found an Emergency Room doctor who told stories about patients he had treated for alcohol overdoses. The stories proved to be an interesting and informative way to end the seminar.
Another tip that he gave was to create a public speaking “character.” The character is supposed to make it easier to take criticism because people aren’t attacking the speaker, but instead the speaker’s character. For someone who is shy, their character could be someone who’s strong and confident in front of a crowd.
Lutzky also spoke about the three biggest pieces of public speaking: knowledge, presentation, and skill. Knowledge is not only knowledge of the subject matter that you’re presenting on, but also your audience. He suggested starting off a presentation with questions to the audience, to understand their interest and level of knowledge of the subject. There is some degree to which you must know your subject, but understanding the audience is just as important.
Presentation covers not only any PowerPoint slideshows, diagrams, and posters you may use, but also your attire, gestures, and demeanor. The emotions felt by the speaker are embodied in the audience. A confident speaker will portray that feeling to his or her audience. Appearance is another element. Being over-dressed will alienate the speaker from his audience; being under-dressed can cause the audience to question the speaker’s knowledge of the subject. Maintaining a strong, clear voice can help project confidence as well.
The third aspect is skill, which is gained through practice. One aspect of skill is a speaker’s “bag of tricks,” basic concepts, jokes, and stories that can relate to basically any subject. These “tricks” are best found by listening to others speak. Attending seminars or sermons just to listen to different speakers talk is the best way to pick up these different gestures, phrases, and stories.
Anyone who has a presentation for a class or who would just like to practice and improve their public speaking skills is welcome to attend the regular meetings. The meetings and special events hosted by Speak Up! are open to anyone who is interested.
