laughing at inappropriate times

Today’s topic is laughing at inappropriate times. Sometimes when you are doing a story on a broadcasting platform, something will be in the story that strikes you as entertaining in that moment, but it’s not really supposed to be, and you aren’t supposed to start laughing at that moment. Maybe the story is a really serious one, or you are the only one who would understand the reason for laughter. This can be an issue because many people don’t know how to refrain from laughing when it is a really bad time to do so.

What you should do to not laugh inappropriately is to in your head remind yourself of the seriousness of the story. If something bad happened, remind yourself of the families and people affected by the tragedy. Also, they say to bite the inside of your cheek when you want to keep yourself from laughing or crying. If you do end up laughing before you can stop it, just clear your throat and say excuse me, and go back to reporting, reminding yourself of the sad parts of the story. This is a way to handle the situation professionally. If you seem like you should, you can explain the reason for the sudden outburst of laughter, but you don’t have to.

What about you? Have you ever inappropriately laughed during a presentation? How did you handle it? Do you agree with the ways talked about here? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

 

 

 

instructional presentations

Today I will talk about how to give instructional presentations, or “how to do a how to”. This is important for communications media majors because one of the different kinds of presentations you may be asked to do is an instructional one, where you are teaching your audience how to do something. Some people have problems with this one because like the persuasion one, they don’t want to come across as bossy, or they are worried they will mess up or tell people the wrong directions, or not follow them right. This is how to do an effective “how to”, or instructional presentation.

When you do an instructional presentation, once again (this basically goes for any kind of presentation you do), before you present it to your audience, read thru or rehearse thru what you are saying. Make sure you can easily follow the directions yourself, and you know all the steps to doing whatever you are teaching how to do successfully. Then, figure out what parts of the directions may be a little hard for people who are new at the activity to follow. Maybe it’s something you had trouble with when you first learned the activity. If you find a particularly difficult to follow direction, figure out ahead of time how to explain that direction a little differently than other ones, and make it more easier to understand. You should make sure all your steps are easy to understand, but pay special attention to the more difficult to follow ones. Don’t worry about sounding bossy, because you are the one that knows how to do the activity; the audience doesn’t know how to do it. They are learning from you. And if you do make a mistake, own up to it and let the audience know you did something wrong, but don’t dwell on it. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and if you do make one, admit to it, but then quickly shake it off and show them the right way to do the activity. When you do an instructional presentation, there is a special feeling you get more so than when you do other kinds of presentations. With instructional ones, you get a proud feeling, because you are helping someone learn something new and teaching them. Teachers regularly get this feeling and this privilege. If you find yourself liking this presentation style more than other ones, maybe a future in teaching is for you.

What about you? Have you ever done a “how to” presentation? Have you ever made a mistake on one? Were you nervous? What did you do to help get thru it? What did you teach them how to do? Did they successfully learn it? Did it go successfully? Did it make you feel good inside knowing you taught them something new? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

things that aren’t of interest to you

Today I’m talking about how to talk about things that aren’t of interest to you. Sometimes in communications media, you have to talk about things that don’t necessarily interest you. This is a problem for some people because they find it hard to talk with emotion about things they don’t really care about. This is a way to talk about those topics more effectively.

One way to address topics that don’t interest you is to once again, read thru or rehearse thru your presentation and find out what the important parts of the story are. Even if the story doesn’t interest you, you should still be able to find out what thoughts are important and the main ones. Once you do this, you will be able to figure out what needs to be addressed in your presentation with more emotion and what needs to be emphasised. Even if it doesn’t interest you, you may have to pretend it does a little bit when you get to the important parts. If you just can’t do that, just remember that even though it doesn’t interest you, it interests some people in your audience who really want to hear the story and especially the important parts. Thinking of them should help you.

What about you? Have you ever had to do a presentation on something that doesn’t interest you? What got you thru? Do you think this is helpful? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

 

persuasion

Another issue people sometimes have is how to persuade in speech or writing. This will show you how to be more successful in persuasion. The reasons people have problems with it is that they know what position they stand for, but they don’t know how to make people more interested in the position or maybe they don’t want to come across as too bossy, forcing people to take their opinions. This is a way to be more successful and effective in persuasion.

A way to fix this issue is to once again read thru your presentation or rehearse thru it before you present it. When you do this, figure out which thoughts are the most important to persuade the audience in what your position is. It helps if the position is something you truly believe in too, but even if it isn’t one, you will still be able to figure out what points are the important ones. When you are presenting and you get to these important points, emphasise them, and look your audience in the eye whilst you explain why this position is so important to you. Also, don’t worry about coming across as bossy to the audience. The whole purpose of the persuasion presentation is to try to get your audience to see the positions as you see them.

What about you? Have you ever done a persuasion presentation? Was it easy for you? Was the position something you truly believed in? How did your audience react? Were you successful in persuading them? What helped you thru the presentation? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

speaking with emotion

Today I’m going to talk about how to speak with emotion. This is a useful thing to learn how to do when you are a communications media major because you will be talking to different groups of people on different topics, and you need to know how to make the topics sound exciting, even if they aren’t of the greatest interest to you. People have trouble with this sometimes because if a topic isn’t of great interest to them, they don’t know how to make other ones interested in the topic if they aren’t even interested in it. And even if they are, they don’t always know how to convey that excitement in their voice thru to their audience. This is a way you can learn how to convey more excitement and emotion in your presentations.

One way that I would suggest is to read thru the piece you’re going to say, or rehearse it thru in your head if it isn’t written down. Do this before you present it. When you’re looking thru the speech, find what sentences and thoughts express sadness, happiness, surprise, or any other emotion. Even if the topic or thought isn’t something that would make you feel that emotion, figure out what emotion the speech is trying to convey, and find out what thoughts would support that emotion for people that are expected to have it. For example, say you were giving a speech on the global population that was supposed to convey surprise at exactly how many people exist in the world today. Even if you’ve read thru the notes for your speech many times and aren’t surprised by the numbers anymore because you’ve been rehearsing it so many times, imagine you are hearing your speech as an audience member, Imagine that the time of your presentation is the first time you’re ever hearing the information. Figure out what thoughts would surprise people who are hearing it for the first time, such as how many people are in the world today compared with earlier years. Then, when you give the presentation, read those thoughts and numbers with the emotion you would expect people would have who are just finding this information out.

In order to convey surprise or excitement, talk louder and smile like you’re giving someone the most amazing news. If you’re conveying sadness, talk lower, but not so low that the audience can’t hear what you’re saying, and talk like you’re giving someone really bad news. In a nutshell, before your presentation, read or rehearse thru your speech and find out what emotions it conveys, and recite it with the emotions you think that people would feel who are hearing the information for the first time, even if you aren’t personally feeling those emotions too.

What about you? Do you think this is helpful? Are you someone who can read with emotion easily? What do you do that makes it easy for you? Let me know in the comments.

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

 

 

public speaking

I don’t know about you, but public speaking makes me very nervous most of the time. A lot of people have trouble with public speaking, which is a problem if you’re a communications media major, because one big part of communications is learning how to speak with people orally. The reason so many people have problems with it is that they are afraid the audience won’t care about what they have to say, they won’t take them seriously, and the speaker will do something embarrassing in front of everyone. So how do you solve the problem and be able to handle public speaking more efficiently? One of the ways so many people have sworn works is to picture the audience in their underwear. I don’t really recommend this though, because it may just make you more embarrassed to be picturing something like that, or it may make you start laughing, and if your presentation isn’t supposed to be a funny one, no one will know what you are laughing at, which is another issue.

So what does work? One thing I think works much better is to imagine you’re talking to the person you care most about. If you imagine everyone that you are talking to is a close loved one, then you will feel a lot more relaxed about speaking because you wouldn’t be nervous if you were just speaking to them. Another easier way to handle public speaking is to talk about something that you really are passionate about. Obviously this doesn’t always work, because in life you have to give many presentations about topics that aren’t always of great interest to you. But if you are fortunate enough to be able to give a presentation on something that does interest you, remind yourself before your presentation how much you love and care about the topic. You still may be a little nervous, but you will really want to talk to everyone about your topic because it is something you love, and you want to share that amazing thing with everyone. So these ones are some ways to stand up to the fear of public speaking.

What about you? Is public speaking something that has always scared you? What helps you get thru it? And if you’re someone that isn’t fazed by public speaking, why do you think it is so much easier for you? What is it about public speaking that makes you think it’s not that difficult to do? Post your answers in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you 🙂

 

Don’t forget to tell all your other friends who are pursuing a communications career to visit this blog for the answers to all their issues!

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