How to Give a Successful Presentation

How to Give a Successful Presentation? 


How to Give a Successful Presentation from English Plus Plus Project on Vimeo.

Practical information

Pre-preparation. Selecting the topic and materials

An essential task in a pre-preparatory phase is to ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the purpose of my presentation?
• What are the main points that I would like to get across?

Start getting ready for your presentation a few weeks before you are due to speak.
Collect the materials on the basis of which you would like to prepare the presentation.
Make a wise choice out of the collected materials.
Prepare reliable bibliography (the author’s name, the title of the article/book, a year of its publication, the website address, when the material was retrieved, etc.).
From the material select the keywords for your presentation and do not forget to put them on the handout.

Preparation

• Make the first plan of the presentation (you can modify it later)
• Remember about a logical structure of the presentation:
  Introduction - say, what you’re going to say
  Main Body - say it; develop the above mentioned issue(s).
  Conclusions - sum up what you’ve just said
• Make the first draft of your presentation. Read it carefully. If there is information not related to the topic, remove it.
• If there are issues which you cannot express in a precise or clear way, probably it is because you do not really understand them yourself. So it is better not to talk about them.
• Never read from your notes. You should know well the material you want to present. If you do not know it, maybe you should not go for giving a presentation.
• Prepare a set of numbered clue cards, on which you can write the main points or/ and keywords and which will help you during the presentation. Make sure that on your clue cards you’ve marked an appropriate visual aid (a transparency or slide), which you are going to refer to in your presentation.
• Find time to rehearse again and again! By doing that you are going to make yourself familiar with your own voice, to check and adjust the presenting time, to see whether visual aids (if you use them) actually illustrate your presentation and whether you coordinate well their usage with what you say. If you have problems with a foreign language in which you present the material, it could be better not to use visuals at all. Otherwise the chance that something goes wrong is bigger than when you concentrate solely on the oral aspect of the presentation.
• Keep to the time! Do not exceed the time limit. It is better to shorten the presentation by two minutes rather than extend it by two minutes. Remember that exceeding the time limit may mean taking the next speaker’s time. And this is really unfair!
• Follow the plan of your presentation! Do not digress! Usually digressions take more time than we think. Successful presenters have “spontaneous digressions” well thought over and well planned.
• Leave time for questions from the audience. Questions may help you to get your message across better.
• Design good visuals to help you get your message across more efficiently. Remember that tatty visuals will leave a similar impression on the listeners. Visual aids should speak for themselves illustrating your point. Give listeners time to take them in. Reading out what you have written on a transparency or slide is counterproductive. Visuals are always welcomed – they may help to catch the audience’s attention, but if you do not feel comfortable with them, give yourself more time for practice.

Visual aids

There are different types of visuals. The choice depends on the type of presentation and your needs.

• OHP transparencies - overhead projector transparencies
• Presentations in PowerPoint
• Flipcharts
• Whiteboard and marker
• Video
• Short episodes or scenes from films
• 35 mm slides
• Real objects, which you can provide listeners with to explore them

Remember that badly prepared and/or badly used visuals can ruin your presentation!
Make sure you know in advance how to connect the equipment and what to do to have a desired slide or diagram on the screen. Sometimes, during real presentations a technician is designated to operate the equipment. In that case make sure that he understands your signals, which you are going to send when you wish, for example, to change a slide.
Slides and transparencies should contain minimum information which is needed to illustrate your point. Too much on a slide makes it unreadable and diverts audience’s attention from what you say.
A slide is said to be readable if it contains no more than ten words in 18pt Times Roman font or bigger and which can be read without a projector from the distance of two meters. Never use as your visuals pages photocopied from books or other materials. They are not adapted for such usage, not to mention the fact that they don not prove your professionalism.
For transparencies, use multiple colours, but be careful with orange and yellow - they do not come out well on the screen. On slides, the text is often in yellow or white colour on the blue background. Avoid adding/drawing information on a presented transparency. While speaking avoid indicating with your finger or a marker. A pointer and the screen do that job much better.
Turn off a projector if you do not need it for the next few minutes. Two minutes is the maximum time that the same slide should be shown on the screen.

Presentation - dress rehearsal

Presentation should not take place without practicing it earlier a lot of times in front of a mirror or/and with a tape recorder. Observing yourself and listening to yourself “in action” is stressful, but very formative. It provides you with the material on which you can gradually develop your presentational skills and competencies.
A couple of final tips:

• Speak clearly.
• Avoid raised voice, whispering or mumbling “under your nose”.
• Try to maintain your natural pace of speaking typical for an official, not everyday situation.
• Make pauses in places which you consider critical for your presentation; this treatment emphasizes the crucial information you wish to transmit to the audience.
• Try to control your body language; avoid excessive gesticulation.
• Keep an eye contact with your listeners but do not focus on one person only.
• Don’t turn back to the audience if you want to show something on the screen and don’t ‘talk to the screen’ either.
• Don’t stand in the light of a projector covering the screen.
• Observe your audience’s reactions – maybe you should shorten the presentation by two minutes and move on to conclusions.
• Don’t forget to thank the audience for their attention and encourage them to ask questions. If you are not sure about the answer of if you simply do not know it, don’t be afraid to admit that, but suggest the source in which the answer can be found.
• Enjoy your presentation. Try to treat it as your new experience and show your enthusiasm!

Good luck!