15 MEDIATED PUBLIC SPEAKING

Practice Delivering and Recording

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Now that you’ve considered strategies to combat the challenges of mediated presentations, it’s time to move to the next stage: practice. Whether you are giving a prerecorded or a real-time speech, you should allocate time to practice your presentation, just as you would if you were addressing your audience face-to-face. If you’ll be using a camera operator, have this person record your practice, so that he or she can become familiar with both the equipment and your speech. If there are points in your speech where the operator should zoom in on a visual aid, take a closer shot of you, or pan a live audience (if you have one), this can be practiced to ensure that it is handled smoothly.

After you record yourself practicing, play back the recording to see how your speech will appear to your audience. As you watch, note areas for possible change by considering the following questions:

Are your rate and volume appropriate?
Do you appear to be looking at the audience?
Are all of your movements and gestures within view?
Can your presentation aids be clearly seen? Does the audience have sufficient time to process the content of each one?
Does the setting of your speech look professional?
Do the lighting and background work to make a clear picture of you?

Practicing should minimize problems when you do a “final take” for a prerecorded presentation. However, allow sufficient time for a do-over if you experience any issues during filming. As with your practice takes, watch to make sure you have a quality recording before you submit your speech. Also, remember to save your final speech in more than one place (USB drive, external hard drive) as you would any important school materials.