Dress and Appearance Count

My M COM team and I gave an oral presentation in class this week. I was super nervous because, although we had run through the presentation a couple of times, ums and ahs were still apparent. I knew my segment well, but I have the tendency to rock back and forth on my feet when I speak in front of audiences. We had done our research well and written and excellent report. Now all we had to do was nail our presentation. Unfortunately, I was slightly doubtful that all would go smoothly.

Finally, the time came. We marched up to the front of the classroom and launched into our presentation. To my surprise, nobody was stuttering and everyone had somehow reached inside themselves and found a streak of confidence. We finished and Professor Middleton handed back our scores.

We had been docked only a few points. Closer inspection revealed they were partially due to the dress and appearance of the group. One girl's skirt was to flashy and the other girl's was too short to be BYU Honor Code appropriate. I wasn't really mad. We had scored well. I thought it was entirely too funny that we had stressed over what we were saying when we really should have been stressing equally over how we looked.

So what?

We prepared well for the presentation. However, we did not have all our bases covered. Dress and appearance was mentioned specifically and described in detail in the textbook. Obviously, we were not paying that close of attention.

Now what?

I remember one of the girls specifically asking me what she should wear. I said, "a skirt." From now on you can bet I will be more particular with my answer. I will still stress and worry about the oral presentation, but now I will pay special attention to the dress and appearance of the group. In short, I will never get docked for looks again.