Public (Speaking) Relations

There's something about Public speaking that always gets to me. It's probably my innately introverted nature or something, but when I do get up on stage, and my friends can vouch for me here, I end up shaking, forgetting and at times changing my whole speech. I have shied away from all such forums where one is expected to deliver his opinion via the verbal medium to convince a whole bunch of people in the room. I can pretty easily talk to new people in general, it is only when it is made into a formal ceremony of sorts that it makes me nervous.

One time this happened was when I participated in an Intra college essay writing competition in NIT Trichy, based on the topic “Technical Education in India”. I did quite some research on the topic and produced a pretty decent essay and went on to win the first prize. I was called to the ceremony where they said they would distribute the prizes. When I reached the place I was told, to prepare a short speech on the same topic and present it on stage. Oh! Cock. I tried, in vain, to recollect my points. You see, I had written the article more than two months ago and I couldn’t seem to remember even a single fact that could add weight to my speech to impress the statistic crazy audience. (On an unrelated note, did you know that 23% of this article was thought up of in the loo?) My cue card with the words “India” and “Education” scribbled in Bold and an encircled ”Improvement” , with an arrow pointing to ‘system’ didn’t render much help either. What followed was 5 whole minutes of unprepared hoo-hah.

Somehow, when one speaks extempore, ones words flow in rhythm , lucidly and gently cascading towards that final statement or conclusion one wants to help the audience reach . My speech was nothing like that. Rather unintentionally, my initial fear (I could feel my legs shaking behind the podium) took the form of downright offensiveness as I launched into a harangue about how flawed the educational system is, and how the West seems to have an unassailable lead over us and so on. Worryingly, none of this was on the actual essay , which had been a mild mannered piece on how our system, although lagging on several fronts, could be tweaked for better results! After about 3 minutes of high energy dissing, I noticed a couple of my professors in the audience, looking at me with judging eyes (NAG for one). Unable to really recollect if I had taken a swipe at professors in the last few minutes of blurriness, I decided to end my speech with a whimper by thanking the audience for their time and got my ass off stage.

All in all, I have established that my Public Speaking abilities are crappy and that I need to improve. In graduate school, I am sure this is a pretty critical asset given the number of presentations and seminars I may have to deliver. Has anyone got any ideas on how to go about it? I could really use some short term solutions, because I am quite free (read jobless) for the next month or so and I can work on it during this period.