Drawing on a point CC brought up, I am quite inarticulate. I have a very small vocabulary and I often have trouble saying exactly what I want to say. Therefore, many people, upon meeting me, assume right away that I am stupid. Among friends, it is really funny, but among collegues, it is often embarassing.
I am fairly good at public speaking -- even though I am a bit of a motor-mouth -- if anyone has seen the "Micromachines" commercials from the '80's with the world's fastest talker, I can talk faster than he can. And I used to go into "presentation mode" where my voice would get really high pitched and I talk so fast no one could understand what I am saying! Well, I am even like that if I get excited in regular conversation, too.
My problem is that when people ask me questions durring/after the presentation, even though I normally know the answer, if I am unprepared for the question, I have a hard time answering it intelligently. This is not a good thing and something that I am really working hard at to improve. A problem in this area is really that people listening to me don't take me seriously as someone who knows what she is doing. So having good presentation skills is very important so you don't look like an idiot when you are presenting in front of a group of your peers / your committee of professors that are responsible for giving you a MS or PhD
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Basically, I agree with everything everyone else has said.
- Laura
