Take Home Test

2. Five means of dealing with anxiety include visualization, incessant preparation, positive thinking, and not expecting perfection. Visualization provides me with a relaxing mental image of myself giving a successful speech to the high school seniors. Preparation will allow me to overcome a lot of nervousness because most of the time when people are nervous it is because they aren’t prepared and don’t know exactly what to do or how things will work out. Positive thinking is similar to visualization in that it will give me a feeling of success, and that I will do well. If I don’t expect perfection and I don’t achieve perfection, it isn’t such a big deal. However, when someone expects perfection and fails to achieve it, they will be crushed. By not expecting perfection, I will be ready for anything during my presentation. I have learned that most nervousness is not visible during a presentation and that by using the above tactics for dealing with nervousness, I will not appear very nervous and will come across fine.
3. I will adapt the information I have to high school seniors by giving them examples that they can relate to. I will tell them that when living on their own, they can keep their rooms however they want, but that they will have the responsibility of working on their own to provide for themselves. High school seniors are starving for independence, so I will give them a lot of examples of how they will be independent living on their own, but I will also tell them a lot of examples of problems in living on their own such as forgetting some of their belongings at their parents’ house or homesickness. Personally, I expect them to view me as one of their own, looking for independence, and since I am their age, they will relate to me. To convince them I have credibility, I will tell them that I have a job and I am looking for a place to live on my own next year. If the seniors appear to be bored, I will have a humorous demonstration involving volunteers from their class.
4. Realistically, if a projector was available to me, I would use a powerpoint presentation with a few words on each slide, and illustrations of things that they would need to know when living on their own. I would use a volunteer demonstration from my audience, since that really sparks the attention of high school students. As another presentational aid, I may use a video clip of high school graduates living on their own, and the seniors will be able to observe their actions. Also, maybe I can have a poster of good ideas of things to do to upkeep their houses when living on their own, since their parents probably keep their houses neat and clean.

Extra Credit

The personal, social, and professional benefits I would describe include an increase in confidence when talking to people, increase in communication skills, and also the ability to give effective and interesting presentations to groups of people.