system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Presenting at a Conference for the 1st time...

So, I'll be presenting a paper at a conference and as time gets closer, I'm dreading it more and more. I get incredibly anxious with public speaking, and I'm pretty sure my anxiety is not only noticeable, but also distracting. I swear that sometimes it probably sounds like I'm not even speaking English. 

I haven't actually attended any conferences before, so I don't know how they play out. But, I assume that most participants will present their work in the same manner that they would present a lecture. I don't think I'm capable of doing that though, so I'm wondering if it's at all common (or at least acceptable) for a presenter to just read their paper verbatim? 

Also, there's probably not anything to do to ease my anxiety other than to just try and get over it... but if anyone has some tips that they think would be useful, I would appreciate hearing them.
gpt
Where is your lab/workgroup/advisor in all of this? You should definitely consider doing a practice talk in front of your lab group or close friends so you can get comments for improvement (or positive feed back!) and maybe a few questions that you might expect from the audience. 

Write a script if you need to, practice the talk until you're comfortable, and push through when the time comes. 

I have a colleague who is terrified of public speaking. She always sounds like she's on the verge of tears during her talks. No one in the audience makes fun of her, gives her a hard time, boos her off the stage, or anything that might worry you. Despite her poor delivery, she can easily and competently talk about her work in a one-on-one situation. If someone is interested in your work, they'll approach you in that way.