UNIT 2 GOOD PRESENTATION

I.Definition of Presentation

A presentation is a means of communication that can be adapted to various speaking

situations, such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team.

Making a presentation is a way of communicating your thoughts and ideas to an audience

A presentation can also be used as a broad term that encompasses other ‘speaking
engagements’ such as making a speech at a wedding, or getting a point across in a video
conference.

To be effective, step-by-step preparation and the method and means of presenting the
information should be carefully considered.

A presentation requires you to get a message across to the listeners and will often contain a
'persuasive' element. It may, for example, be a talk about the positive work of your
organization

2.Preparing a Presentation

Preparation is the single most important part of making a successful presentation. This is the
crucial foundation and you should dedicate as much time to it as possible avoiding short-cuts.

Not only will good preparation ensure that you have thought carefully about the messages
that you want (or need) to communicate in you presentation but it will also help boost your
confidence. Our pages: Boosting Confidence and Time Management may be useful additional
resources as you prepare your talk.

This page covers the following elements of presentation preparation:

 The objective
 The subject
 The audience
 The place
 Time of day
 Length of talk

The Objective

You have been asked to speak to a group of people. First, ask yourself 'why?' What is the
purpose of the presentation, what is the objective, what outcome(s) do you and the audience
expect?

It is useful to write down the reason you have been asked to present so you can use this as a
constant reminder while you prepare the presentation. There are many reasons for giving a
presentation or talk, but never lose sight of your objective as determined when you were
asked and accepted the invitation.

The Subject

The subject of what you are going to talk about comes from the objective but they are not
necessarily one and the same thing.

For example:

 The subject may be given to you by an inviting organisation.

 You may be knowledgeable in particular field.
 The subject may be entirely your choice within certain limitations.

The Audience

Before preparing material for a presentation, it is worth considering your prospective

audience.

Tailoring your talk to the audience is important and the following points should be
considered:

 The size of the group or audience expected.

 The age range - a talk aimed at retired people will be quite different from one aimed
at teenagers.
 Gender - will the audience be predominantly male or female?
 Is it a captive audience or will they be there out interest?
 Will you be speaking in their work or leisure time?
 Do they know something about your subject already or will it be totally new to them?
Is the subject part of their work?
 Are you there to inform, teach, stimulate, or provoke?
 Can you use humour and if so what would be considered appropriate?

The Place

It is important to have as much advance information as possible about the place where you
are going to speak.

Ideally, try to arrange to see the venue before the speaking event, as it can be of great benefit
to be familiar with the surroundings. It does much to quell fear if you can visualise the place
while you are preparing your talk. Additionally, it would also give you the opportunity to try
out your voice. If at all possible, you need to know:

 The size of the room.

 The seating arrangements and if they can be altered.
 The availability of equipment, e.g., microphone, overhead projector, flip chart,
computer equipment.
 The availability of power points and if an extension lead is required for any
equipment you intend to use.
  If the room has curtains or blinds. This is relevant if you intend to use visual aids, and
so that you can ensure the correct ambiance for your presentation.
 The position of the light switches. Check if you need someone to help if you are
using audio/visual equipment and need to turn off the lights.
 The likelihood of outside distractions, e.g., noise from another room.
 The availability of parking facilities so you do not have a long walk carrying any
equipment you might need to take.

The Time

Often there will be no flexibility in the time of day that a presentation is made.

If you do have a choice of when to give your presentation - consider the following points:

Morning:

The morning is the best time to speak because people are generally at their most alert.
However, late morning may start to present problems as people begin to feel hungry and
think about lunch.

Afternoon:

Early afternoon is not an ideal time to make a presentations since after lunch people often feel
sleepy and lethargic. Mid afternoon is a good time, whereas at the end of the afternoon
people may start to worry about getting home, the traffic or collecting children from school.

Evening or Weekend:

Outside regular office hours, people are more likely to be present because they want to be
rather than have to be there. There is a higher likelihood of audience attention in the evening,
providing of course that the presentation does not go on for too long when people may have
to leave before the presentation has finished.

Length of Talk

Always find out how long you have to talk and check if this includes or excludes time for
questions.

Find out if there are other speakers and, if so, where you are placed in the running order.
Never elect to go last. Beware of over-running, as this could be disastrous if there are other
speakers following you.

It is important to remember that people find it difficult to maintain concentration for long
periods of time, and this is a good reason for making a presentation succinct, well-structured
and interesting. Aim for 45 minutes as a maximum single-session presentation

3.Types of Presentation
The formal presentation of information is divided into two broad categories: Presentation
Skills and Personal Presentation.

4.The Key Elements of a Presentation

Context

Ask yourself the following questions to develop a full understanding of the context of the
presentation.

 When and where will you deliver your presentation?

 Will it be in a setting you are familiar with, or somewhere new?
 Will the presentation be within a formal or less formal setting?
 Will the presentation be to a small group or a large crowd?
 Are you already familiar with the audience?
 What equipment and technology will be available to you, and what will you be
expected to use?
 What is the audience expecting to learn from you and your presentation?

Presenter

The role of the presenter is to communicate with the audience and control the presentation.

Remember, though, that this may also include handing over the control to your audience,
especially if you want some kind of interaction.

Audience

The audience receives the presenter’s message(s).

However, this reception will be filtered through and affected by such things as the listener’s
own experience, knowledge and personal sense of values.

Message

The message or messages are delivered by the presenter to the audience.

The message is delivered not just by the spoken word (verbal communication) but can be
augmented by techniques such as voice projection, body language, gestures, eye contact
(non-verbal communication), and visual aids.

The message will also be affected by the audience’s expectations. For example, if you have
been billed as speaking on one particular topic, and you choose to speak on another, the
audience is unlikely to take your message on board even if you present very well. They will
judge your presentation a failure, because you have not met their expectations.
Reaction

The audience’s reaction and therefore the success of the presentation will largely
depend upon whether you, as presenter, effectively communicated your message, and
whether it met their expectations.

As a presenter, you don’t control the audience’s expectations. What you can do is find out
what they have been told about you by the conference organisers, and what they are
expecting to hear. Only if you know that can you be confident of delivering something that
will meet expectations

Method

How will the presentation be delivered?

Presentations are usually delivered direct to an audience. However, there may be occasions
where they are delivered from a distance over the Internet using video conferencing systems,
such as Skype.

It is also important to remember that if your talk is recorded and posted on the internet, then
people may be able to access it for several years. This will mean that your contemporaneous
references should be kept to a minimum.

Impediments

Many factors can influence the effectiveness of how your message is communicated to the
audience.

For example background noise or other distractions, an overly warm or cool room, or the
time of day and state of audience alertness can all influence your audience’s level of
concentration.

As presenter, you have to be prepared to cope with any such problems and try to keep your
audience focussed on your message.

5.Organise the Presentation Material

Regardless of whether your presentation is going to be delivered formally, such as at work or

informally, for a club or perhaps a Best Man's speech. You should always aim to give a clear,
well-structured delivery. That is, you should know exactly what you want to say and the
order in which you want to say it.

Having thought about and planned a good structure will also help to alleviate any
nervousness you may be feeling in the build up to your talk.

Clarity of ideas and good organisation should help result in a lively, logical and compelling
message, delivered in a confident and professional way

Organising the presentation material may include:

  Blue Sky Thinking (the ideas).
 Selecting the main points.
 Deciding whether to illustrate.
 Introduction and conclusion.

-Blue Sky Thinking (The Ideas)

Keeping your objectives in mind (see our page: Preparing Your Presentation), write down
all the points you wish to make, irrespective of order. .

-Select Your Main Points

The talk/presentation should be divided into three sections:

 Introduction (beginning)
 Main Content (middle)
 Conclusion (end)

A useful structure would be the following:

 Tell the audience in the introduction what your subject is and how you have
organised the presentation (by stating the key elements).
 Then tell them the details of the key elements and/or messages (by expanding and
qualifying the key points in more detail and providing supporting evidence).
 Then tell the audience what you have just told them (by summarising the key
points, concluding with the main subject again).

Work on the main content first.

From your notes decide on the most important things that need to be said. If you have too
much material, be selective.

As a guide:

 3 key points are sufficient for a 10-15 minute presentation.

 6 key points are sufficient for a 30 minute presentation.
 8 key points are sufficient for a 45 minute presentation.

Arrange the key points in logical order and expand them with supporting material -
discussion, argument, analysis and appeal. If you are hoping to persuade people then it is
advisable to address potential objections within the presentation so that you present a
reasoned, well-balanced view.

-Decide Whether to Illustrate

Most talks benefit from personal anecdotes, real-life situations or hypothetical examples to
bring them to life.

If the presentation is short and informal it is probably not necessary to use any visual aids.
Use visual illustrations if anything requires expanding, clarifying or simplifying. Illustrations
of any type should be relevant and fully explained. Bear in mind that a talk will last longer if
visual aids are used.

PowerPoint or other presentation software is often used to support a presentation, although

care needs to be taken to ensure that this technology aids the presentation and does not detract
from the main essence of your talk. Do not use visual aids or PowerPoint just for the sake of
it or to show off your technological prowess, there is nothing more distracting than whizzy
and pointless PowerPoint animations in a presentation.

6.Introduction and Conclusion

The introduction should give a preview of what you are going to say and should gain the
attention of the listeners with a statement of purpose. Make it clear whether you wish to
accept questions as they arise during the presentation, thereby breaking your flow and risk
being side-tracked, or will invite questions at the end.

The conclusion should repeat the main points but this time try to use different words
and summarise the main point and argument. End decisively, so that no-one is in any
doubt that your presentation is finished. This is also the time to ask the audience whether they
have any questions.

7. The Presentation Method

There is much to consider in deciding on an appropriate presentation method.

This page assumes that you have already prepared your presentation, or at least decided on
the key messages that you wish to get across to your audience, and given at least some
thought to how to organise your material.

we focus on the mechanics of your presentation method: how you will present.

This includes using sound systems, how to manage visual aids, how you stand, and how
much interaction you want with your audience.

-What Helps you to Decide your Presentation Method?

In making a decision about your presentation method, you have to take into account several
key aspects. These include:

 The facilities available to you by way of visual aids, sound systems, and lights.
Obviously you cannot use facilities that are not available. If you are told that you will
need to present without a projector, you’re going to need to decide on a method that
works without slides.
 The occasion.
A formal conference of 200 people will require a very different approach from a
presentation to your six-person team. And a speech at a wedding is totally different
again. Consider the norms of the occasion. For example, at a wedding, you are not
expected to use slides or other visual aids.
 The audience, in terms of both size and familiarity with you, and the topic.
If it’s a small, informal event, you will be able to use a less formal method. You
 might, for example, choose to give your audience a one-page handout, perhaps an
infographic that summarises your key points, and talk them through it. A more formal
event is likely to need slides.
 Your experience in giving presentations.
More experienced presenters will be more familiar with their own weak points, and
able to tailor their preparation and style to suit. However, few people are able to give
a presentation without notes. Even the most experienced speakers will usually have at
least some form of notes to jog their memory and aid their presentation.
 Your familiarity with the topic.
As a general rule, the more you know about it, the less you will need to prepare in
detail, and the more you can simply have an outline of what you want to say, with
some brief reminders.
 Your personal preferences.
Some people prefer to ‘busk it’ (or ‘wing it’) and make up their presentation on the
day, while others prefer detailed notes and outlines. You will need to know your own
abilities and decide how best to make the presentation. When you first start giving
presentations you may feel more confident with more detailed notes. As you become
more experienced you may find that you can deliver effectively with less.

-Some Different Methods of Presentation

Presentation methods vary from the very formal to the very informal.

Very formal Formal Informal Very informal

Smaller conference Smallish group, Small team
Suitable or group where probably internal, meeting where
Large conference
occasion you don’t know but not all known you know the
the audience to you other participants
Provide Provide Provide
Provide
information to a information, hear information, or
Purpose information, but
large number of reaction, respond; generate
also get reaction
people possibly discuss discussion
Stand or sit? Stand Stand Stand or sit Probably sit
Either within the Your place at a
Present from The front of the
A lectern group or from the table, or within
where? room.
front the group
Yes, slides
controlled from the Perhaps a one-
Yes, slides, but Yes, but keep them
Visual aids lectern. Can also page summary of
kept fairly simple. to a minimum.
use video or other your key points.
multimedia.
Sound systems/
Yes Yes Probably not No
microphone
Large conference Conference room Meeting room or Meeting room or
Type of room
hall or meeting room office office
What will you
Copy of your Copy of your Handout of some
have to provide Nothing expected
slides slides sort
in advance?
Audience A formal question Formal questions, Fairly interactive; Likely to be very
 Very formal Formal Informal Very informal
session afterwards but you may get up to you to handle interactive if you
is usual interruptions questions or allow.
interaction
during your discussion during
presentation the session

What method you choose is largely dictated by the occasion and its formality: very formal
tends to go with a larger audience, whose members you do not know well. Your role is likely
to be much more providing information, and much less about having a discussion about the
information.

-Form Follows Function

It’s not going to be possible, for instance, to present to 200 people from a chair as part of the
group, because most of your audience will not see or hear you. You need to apply common
sense to your choice of presentation method.

-Audience Participation

While much of your presentation method will be dictated by the event, there is one area
where you have pretty much free rein: audience interaction with you and with each other.

It is perfectly feasible, even in a large conference, to get your audience talking to each other,
and then feeding back to you.

In fact, this can work very well, especially in a low-energy session such as the one
immediately after lunch, because it gets everyone chatting and wakes them up. It works
particularly well in a room set out ‘café-style’, with round tables, but it can also work in a
conference hall.

The key is to decide on one or two key questions on which you’d welcome audience views,
or on which audience views could improve your session. These questions will depend on
your session, but it’s always more helpful to invite views on:

 Something that you haven’t yet decided; or

 Something that the audience is going to do themselves.

For example, you might ask people to talk to their neighbour and identify one thing that they
could do to put your speech into action when they return to work and/or home. You can then
ask four or five people to tell you about their action points.

Handling your Notes

You also have a choice over how you manage your text, in terms of notes.

-The Importance of Iteration

You will probably find that deciding on the presentation method means that you need to
change or amend your presentation.
For example, if you want to include some audience participation, you will need to include
that in your slides, otherwise, you might well forget in the heat of the moment.

Fortunately, revisiting your presentation in light of decisions about how you will present is
probably a good idea anyway. It will enable you to be confident that it will work in practice.