How to Give a Pretty Good Presentation: A Speaking Survival Guide for the Rest of Us

Chapter 8. Practice Makes Perfect

SHOULD I REHEARSE? HOW FAR IN ADVANCE?

The best way to rehearse is to start as far in advance as possible. But since you just need your speech to be pretty good—not world class—I will cut you some slack. Don't bother rehearsing until the day before the speech is due. And you don't have to practice in front of a mirror (that will only make you paranoid about your nose or your hair). Instead, all you need to do is rehearse once in front of a tiny video camera, either a cell phone camera or webcam.

HOW AND TO WHOM CAN I REHEARSE?

After you have recorded your speech, watch it. I know you don't want to do this, but it really is essential if you want to give a pretty good speech and avoid giving a pretty awful speech. If you watch a video of your speech and you feel it's pretty awful, chances are that you're right—it is awful! That's okay, just try again (on video) and do less of the stuff you don't like and do more of the stuff you do like. Just keep on doing this until you can watch a speech of yourself and conclude that it's pretty good. You don't have to make it fantastic or perfect—just pretty good. This might require just one recording, or it might require four. Regardless, this is a quick and easy process. People who make awful, boring speeches never rehearse on video. They might think about it; they might even contemplate it for hours; but they never actually record themselves because they are too chicken. It's okay to be scared, but preferably, ...