Presenting an Academic Paper

Whilst I have prior experience in public speaking, the thought of having to present original academic research in front of other students and talented historians daunted me. As with anything, the ability to present first depended on adequate preparation, something that was difficult to balance while maintaining classes, volunteering and work. This was something that was difficult but that I believe overall was a success.

One thing I definitely got out of this experience was better time management skills because I had to set myself self-motivated deadlines and adhere to these. We also had a practice within the department which was helpful in determining what to change, how to develop our presentation style and to shake some of the nerves in a more informal setting than that on the day. During this time, I realized how much I needed to improve within the space of a week; I read off of my paper without making audience eye contact, I didn’t print it with font large enough to read so I had to squint and I didn’t order my pages. From the feedback given, I was able to turn this around and by the time it came to the conference, I felt confident and ready to present.

I was in the first session of presenters and with that, nerves where minimal as I didn’t have too much time to let it sink in. The judge of our panel introduced us all and our paper topics before we began and I was surprised to learn that the majority of other presenters were seniors, juniors and sophomores, I was one of the very few freshmen. Whilst this was a nerve-wrecking fact, I felt like I did very well in my presentation by speaking clearly and with a good tempo. I also enjoyed the ability to answer further panel questions upon completion that were posed to us by fellow audience members.