The power of speech and conversation.

Today I had a huge presentation to make about Milton's Areopagitica in my English 400 level seminar. I think overall I did a good job, but it is very intimidating making a presentation that lasts approximately an hour and in front of people who know exactly what you are talking about at all times, especially the professor. I stayed up late last night working it out and organizing it to the best of my ability, yet I still found it hard to organize my thoughts as I spoke because I felt that I digressed a lot. This got me to thinking that conversation about literature and specific topics can be really helpful in trying to put those ideas into writing. Perhaps trying to organize a presentation and talk about it in a logical and coherent manner will make the ideas stick better on paper than they do in speech. Just a thought that I had...