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Didn’t expect my post about best public speaking tip to garner so many responses. Back with a related question:

Do you memorise your script beforehand or do you prepare talking points and improvise as you go along?

I'm much more improvisational. Whenever possible I prefer to work off of questions from the audience, more than delivering prepared remarks.

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I think feeding off the energy from the audience is important.

Have you ever been thrown off by a question from an audience member? Rendered speechless?

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Pretty much every time I presented my dissertation research. I learned to either ask for clarification, say "I need to give that more thought, before answering." or just "That's a good thought, I'll look into it.", or say "I'd love to talk about that more after the presentation."

It's generally a bad idea to try to come up with an answer on the spot, if you don't immediately know it.

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That’s a great way of deflecting off the heat until you are in a more composed state of mind to ponder over the question. Kudos

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These are the lessons PhD students learn the hard way.

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48 sats \ 1 reply \ @dot 23 Mar

One of the secrets I rarely talk about is that I tend to avoid crowded places. However, if there’s a job or a task that requires me to appear in front of a crowd, I’m always ready to do it. So for now, I can’t quite categorize myself. Maybe I’ll write a separate post on this topic someday? If you’re interested, I’ll get started right away.

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Sure! Here’s some sats to get you started

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When I wake up, I memorize everything I'm going to say for the entire day. Sometimes my conversations don't make a whole lot of sense, but I stick to the script.

I hope somone asks me about sandwiches today, because I was hungry last night when I wrote out all of my words for today, and sandwiches come up a lot...

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Do you prepare your sandwiches for your road trip?

How many sandwiches have you eaten today?

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Ha! I just woke up actually. Everyone else is still sleeping, so I am at the continental breakfast. I put sausage and egg on a biscuit and made a breakfast sandwich, so to answer your question, 1 so far.

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Sounds like a brilliant start to the day!

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Depends how important the speech is and how much time I have.

Most common is that i memorize the introduction and then rely on notes/slides for the rest

I almost always manuscript

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I have a habit of preparing a manuscript too, but I usually lack the stamina to finish writing it haha

One reason could be that in the heat of the moment, I find that I seldom refer to my script. Like, I can’t multitask - looking down n looking at the audience is effortful. I think my mind races too fast, so I have to keep a tight rein of my words lest I start to ramble rubbish haha

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I've found that manuscripting is beneficial even if you don't stick to the script, because it forces you to think about how you want to say something. It's a form of preparation even if you end up improv

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我赞成!

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I avoid public speaking at all cost. My current lifestyle facilitates this very well. When I did have to do it in the past, such as teaching a seminar, I picked one person from the audience and pretended that I talked only to him/her for a minute. Then picked next one etc. No rehearsing was needed because I knew the topic very well and certainly could discuss it with one person.

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Thanks for sharing your coping mechanism! What is your area of expertise?

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Financial engineering

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An intriguing field to be in!

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Luckily, I'm very good at improvising (at least that's what others say), so I prefer to use this method when I have to give a speech (rarely). I try to pick up the thread of the speech and direct the "speaker" with questions in such a way that the audience hears what they need to hear.

BUT...

My zodiac sign is Pisces, so I'm not really good at rhetoric.

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lol are you into zodiac signs?

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Not really, but I noticed many correlations between zodiac signs and personalities.
I don't read horoscopes or anything...
But I think each zodiac sign has its own unique personality (and of course there are plenty of exceptions to these)

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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Ge 23 Mar

Prepare improvise as I go along i feel u can hear and see real so that's what I like to keep it as. Those r the ones u want.

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