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PRESENTATION SKILLS

PART B

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1.KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

A presentation is a dialogue between you and your audience and they will judge your presentation on:• 10% content• 40% structure• 50% delivery

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THE HUMAN BRAIN

There are many studies about how much information people can retain and as a rule of thumb in presenting, assume that:• The average concentration span is 7 minutes• Short term memory can retain 7 items (give or

take).

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2. BEGINNING PREPARATION (10 minute talk)

• Introduction – grab attention – 1minute• Section 1 – 1 key point (1-4 messages) – 3

minutes• Section 2-1 key point (1-3 messages) – 3

minutes• Section 3-1 key point (1-2 messages) – 2

minutes• Summary – 1 minute

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3. BUILDING DEPTH AND DETAIL

Step 1: set the tone• What is the main message – what conclusion do you

intend to draw?• Who is the audience – how much do they already know

about the subject?• How long do I have to get the message across?• What facilities will be available – can I use PowerPoint,

flipcharts etc.?• What time of day will I be speaking? You may have to

work harder to maintain audience interest late in the day.

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3. BUILDING DEPTH AND DETAIL

Step 2: Writing the presentation1. Being selective2. Breaking up the presentation3. Bringing the presentation to life

Liz Noffsinger / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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3.BUILDING DEPTH AND DETAIL

Step 3: Editing and revision• Essential part of the process• Are the key points clear? • Is the required action obvious? • Is any information missing? • Is it possible to misinterpret any ideas?

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4. PREPARE YOURSELF

• Notes: there are a number of ways to make and use notes effectively

• Rehearsal• Check out the Room in advance: where you will

stand, lighting and acoustics (can the audience hear and see you), have you checked what AV/Projection equipment is there?

• Yourself! Dress code. There is a saying: ‘dress for the job you want, not the job you have.’ Dress for the grade you want too!

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5. PUTTING THE WHOLE PACKAGE TOGETHER

• Beginning the presentation• Maintaining interest: vary tone, use language

audience will understand, involve the audience

• Rounding off

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5. PUTTING THE WHOLE PACKAGE TOGETHER

• Humour – to joke or not to joke?

• Questions: here are some tips on dealing with questions: 1. Listen carefully to the question. 2. Repeat the question, or its main theme, at the start of your

answer3. Treat the questioner with courtesy 4. Slow your speech down 5. Keep your answer reasonably brief6. Keep to the point7. If you don’t know the answer, there are strategies to manage it

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6. VISUAL AIDS

Pros:

• They are very useful for audience members who are visual learners

• They keep the audience’s attention • They save time in that the speaker can demonstrate some

ideas more quickly visually• They help the speaker by avoiding having to go over ever

figure and point• They help people recall the points being made•

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6. VISUAL AIDS

Cons:• If too detailed, the audience can simply read your

talk and will do so.• If they are too ‘busy’ then the audience can be

confused by them.• If you use both slides and text based hand-outs (i.e.

hand-outs which are not simply copies of the slides), the audience has too much to look at and will leaf through your hand-outs rather than listen to you.

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6. VISUAL AIDS

• SLIDES• Graphs• Objects• Flipchart• Whiteboard• Film and video

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6. VISUAL AIDS

• A word about slides – be careful of font, amount of content, colour

• What did you think of these slides? • We will now look at the same slide in a

number of designs so that you can see what works best – if any. We will take a vote on the most effective one!