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10 Tips for a Good Presentation

The ability to communicate well is an important skill for any student attending university. In addition,

possessing excellent communication skills are highly valued in the workplace. This means, among

other things, that you should be able to present your topic and research results fluently; for example,

during seminars with peers or with managers and clients in the workplace.

A persuasive presentation not only require thorough preparation of content, but also good style. It

takes quite a bit of skill to come across understandable for any particular audience and to stay in

control of the situation. For this purpose, the following 10 tips may offer some guidance to help you

on the way to delivering a memorable presentation.

1. Preparation, preparation, preparation

There is no easy way out. Giving a excellent presentation is all about the preparation that goes into it,

and this theme applies to every single aspect you include in your presentation.

2. Think audience

When you are preparing your presentation, there is one thing you should always keep in the back of

your mind: the audience. The sole purpose of a presentation is to communicate whatever you have

to say to an audience. Position yourself being in their shoes and answer the following questions:

who, what, why, how?

Who are they and who are you? Its essential to know who your audience will be: are they your

classmates, professors, professionals, etc. and what do they know about you. Do you need to inform

them? Do you need to introduce yourself? Different audiences have different needs, and differentaudiences may need different communicative approaches.

What do they want? What do they know? What can I tell them? Knowing this information will help

you decide what content to include in your presentation. If you are not sure about the answer to

one of these questions, perhaps you may want to include it in your presentation.

Where can I take them? Your presentation is very much like a journey. Guide your audience through

the content. Use signposts to indicate what you are presenting and where you are going. Examples

of signposts are, Next, I will discuss.., Now Id like to move on to., and Finally, or To

conclude... Signposts are also great tools to keep you audience awake, focused and engaged. Have

you ever listened to a less engaging presentation and the presenter said, Finally, surely that was

the moment you found yourself waking up. Use signposts throughout your presentation.

3. Communicate

A presentation is never a one way communication, despite the fact that you are the only one

speaking. Communication is always two ways. Although you do not want your audience interrupting

your speech, make it engaging: look at the audience, speak to the whole audience. Your audience

wants to be spoken to. Ask rhetorical questions, use short pauses when you are, for example,

changing the subject or moving on to another topic. Rhetorical questions will often raise the

audience awareness as do pauses. Dont hide behind a computer, a paper, or a desk.

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4. Prepare the little things

There is truth in the old saying Its the little things that count. Often when we are preparing a

presentation we prepare the content, the slides, the general story line, but it is often the little things

that catch us off guard.

For example, how do you start your presentation? What do you say? In Estonian, as I understood,

Tere! will almost always do. But what about in English or any other language for that matter? Do

you say (or is it appropriate to say) hello, hi, good morning/afternoon/evening everybody,

dear audience, etc.? How do you end? What do you say? E.g. thank you, thank you for your

attention, etc. Prepare your signposts, next, finally, etc. Also, think of the specific terms you use

to describe what is on your slide. Are you showing a picture, or more specifically a graph, table, chart,

etc.?

5. Structure your presentation

The purpose and content needs to be carefully considered. How much detail can you cover in the

allotted time? Going back to a point made earlier, what does your audience already know about

your topic? What do they need to know, and more important, what is your take-home message?

What do you want your audience to remember?

Most presentation will have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. You introduce yourself in the

introduction, your topic, and what you will cover during your presentation. Remember, this part can

be as short as 30 seconds. The body will include key points, new knowledge, trends in your data, or

progress to date. The level of detail may depend on the task and time available. Remember to

signpost! Highlight the implications of your discussion or possible applications of your findings in

your conclusion and finish with your take-home messages.

6. Finding your voice

Although there are general rules and structures, it is important to find your own voice. Know your

strengths and weaknesses. For most of us, giving a presentation is a learning process and definitely

not something we do on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis.

Therefore, stay in your comfort zone to give you confidence but push the boundaries: explore new

techniques, try something different, use a different power point template, try using cue cards rather

than reading from a paper, watch what others do and learn from them; try using a different toolsuch asPrezi. Set yourself a target. What kind of presenter do you want to be? Take your time,

prepare, prepare, prepare.

7. Do not read or read like you mean it.

When giving a presentation, from a communication perspective, speaking is always better than

reading. However, when you find yourself in the situation where you are going to read, there are a

few techniques you can use to make it more enjoyable for the audience (remember your audience).

Always address the audience, even when reading. Make sure you take your eyes off the paper and

look at the audience. Highlight parts in the text that you wish to stress, e.g. keywords, signposts,

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words that evoke, etc. Cut your A4 paper into four parts. The size of cuecards. They are less

distracting to hold and most often preparing cue cards helps you to remember your presentation.

PowerPoint comes with a handy print function which allows you to print handouts. Use these so you

have an overview which slides comes next. Do you know about the presenters view in PowerPoint?

If you dont, you should definitely check it out! If you go through these steps, youll often find that

you actually dont need to read.

8. Non-verbal communication

There is a lot to say about non-verbal communication, but what to do with you hands is the focus of

this point. There are of course cultural differences as well as individual differences, but in general we

use the motions of our hands and arms to support the content of our speech. Our hands also seem

to get in the way when we are giving presentations. Where do we place them? What do we do with

them? Its easy when your holding a piece of paper, but can we put our hands in our pocket, or

behind our back?

One of my favorite examples of good hand movement is the weather news on TV. Youll see weather

presenters usually holding a remote in front of their body, clasped in their hands, just above the

waist. The best place to keep your hands. If you dont have a remote, keep a pen, or pencil in your

hands (be careful, though, not to break them).

9. Slide design

Another ten tips could be devoted on good slide design, but not this time. One essential criteria to

remember is, however, the following: dont put anything on a slide (text, images, pictures, tables,

and graphs) if you are not going to talk about them, or mention them. It will only confuse your

audience (unless they are either part of the template, or faded in the background).

In addition, respect your audience, do not overload your slides with text and read this text to them.

Most likely your audience will have finished reading your text before you. Less is more and

remember that you do not need to write in complete sentences on your slides.

10. Practice, practice, practice

Practice and time your presentation. Practice delivering you speech out loud. Record your

presentation using the record tool available in PowerPoint. Practice delivering you presentation to

an audience, for example, your peers. If you dont have an audience, practice in front of a mirror.