Thursday, October 18, 2007

Public Speaking Advice from J. Chisholm

Today I had to give a 2.5 hour class presentation ... yeah, really. Luckily I have a helpful husband who sent me a bunch of pointers before I gave the presentation. Here they are:

1. If you don't know the answer to a question, like our commander and chief, make a joke about something completely unrelated and hope the questioner forgets what he or she asked.

2. You own the room, feel free to throw anyone out ... even the teacher!

3. If you are unsure how to pronounce something, either say it quickly and mumbled or just skip the word entirely.

4. Beat your fists against the table and shake them in the air

5. Hide behind the podium

6. Avoid eye contact with the audience

7. If someone is asking a hard question, act like you do not understand what they are saying and have them rephrase the questions over and over, then answer a question you want and just skip over theirs

8. Bribery is a helpful tool

9. Follow Jesus' lead and conduct some miracles, or at least some neat magic tricks

10. If all else fails, just be yourself, and trust that you are awesome, your work is brilliant and you are more then prepared for this beeeaatch!
Needless to say, the presentation went very well. When I allowed the professor to come back into the room, I did the rabbit out of the hat trick again for him. He was obviously impressed. This school business is easier than I was expecting.


On a completely different note, here's a photo from one of Joshua's recent matches.
(Note: Joshua is on the bottom left of the photo)

1 comment:

Patrick said...

That picture? Is both awesome, and the reason that I do not play rugby anymore. (BTW, that dude defines the word "burly.")