Approach the oral presentation task just as you would any other assignment. Review the available topics and then do some background reading and research to ensure you can talk about the topic for the appropriate length of time and in an informed manner. Break the question down into manageable parts .
Creating a presentation differs from writing an essay in that the information in the speech must align with the visual aid. Therefore, with each idea, concept, or new information that you write, you need to think about how this might be visually displayed through minimal text and the occasional use of images. Proceed to write your ideas in full, but consider that not all information will end up on a PowerPoint slide. Many guides, such as Marsen (2020), will suggest no more than five points per slide, with each bullet point have no more than six words (for a maximum of 30 words per slide). After all, it is you who are doing the presenting , not the PowerPoint. Your presentation skills are being evaluated, but this evaluation may include only a small percentage for the actual visual aid: check your assessment guidelines.
To keep your audience engaged and help them to remember what you have to say, you may want to use visual aids, such as slides.
When designing slides for your presentation, make sure:
When choosing images, it’s important to find images that:
The specific requirements for your papers may differ. Again, ensure that you read through any assignment requirements carefully and ask your lecturer or tutor if you’re unsure how to meet them.
Too often, students make an impressive PowerPoint though do not understand how to use it effectively to enhance their presentation.
It is clear by the name that nonverbal communication includes the ways that we communicate without speaking. You use nonverbal communication everyday–often without thinking about it. Consider meeting a friend on the street: you may say “hello”, but you may also smile, wave, offer your hand to shake, and the like. Here are a few tips that relate specifically to oral presentations.
Being confident and looking confident are two different things. Even if you may be nervous (which is natural), the following will help you look confident and professional:
Below is a video of some great tips about public speaking from Amy Wolff at TEDx Portland [1]
Two or more people tied by marriage, blood, adoption, or choice; living together or apart by choice or circumstance; having interaction within family roles; creating and maintaining a common culture; being characterized by economic cooperation; deciding to have or not to have children, either own or adopted; having boundaries; and claiming mutual affection.
Chapter 3: Oral Presentations Copyright © 2023 by Patricia Williamson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
This page has been archived and is no longer updated
Verbally (and as a general rule), do not write down and memorize or read your full text, because then your presentation will sound like what it is: a recited written text. Instead, memorize the outline of your presentation — that is, a tree structure of main points and subpoints — and speak ex tempore, reinventing the words as you go along. As you do, you will occasionally need to think about what to say next and find the most appropriate words to say it. Instead of using filler words ( um , er , you know , I mean , etc.), simply pause. If you say um , you get about half a second of thinking time and the audience is likely to notice the um and be irritated by it. If you keep silent, you can get up to two or three seconds of thinking time without the audience noticing anything. Even if attendees do notice the silence, they will simply think that you are choosing your words carefully — and there is nothing wrong with that.
Despite pointing often at the screen, Marie nicely faces the audience with her body at all times, keeps her hands down between gestures, and maintains eye contact with the attendees. Transcript Vocally, vary the tone, rate, and volume of your voice as a function of the meaning, complexity, and importance of what you are saying. You need not invent a new intonation pattern: You simply need to amplify your normal pattern.
Visually, control your body. Adopt a stable, confident position; move only when you have a positive reason to do so (for example, move closer to the audience for taking questions), not when your body seems to ask for it. When you make a gesture, make it large and deliberate; between gestures, bring your hands down and do not fidget. Establish eye contact: Engage the audience by looking them straight in the eyes.
At all times, make sure you address the audience. Even if you have slides, tell the audience your story in a stand-alone way; do not just explain your slides. In particular, anticipate your slides. You should know at all times what your next slide is about so you can insert an appropriate transition.
To keep the audience engaged , Jean-luc emphasizes his points with facial expressions, purposeful gestures, and — especially — a high dynamic range in his vocal delivery. Transcript If you are a non-native speaker of English, you may find it more challenging to speak ex tempore in English than in your native language. Still, even imperfect extemporaneous English is more likely to engage the audience than reciting a more polished, less spontaneous written text. To improve your delivery and overall presentation as a non-native speaker, practice more, pace yourself, and support your spoken discourse with appropriate slides.
While all speakers benefit from practicing their presentations multiple times, consider investing more time in such practice if you are less familiar with the language. Practicing helps you identify missing vocabulary, including key technical terms (which are difficult to circumvent), and express your ideas more fluently. As you practice, you may want to prepare a list of difficult words (to review on the day of your presentation) or write down an occasional complex yet crucial sentence. Still, do not feel bound to what you write down. These notes should be a help, not a constraint.
Practicing in front of an audience (a few colleagues, for example) can help you correct or refine your pronunciation. If you are unsure how to pronounce some words or phrases, you can ask native speakers in advance or check online dictionaries that offer phonetic spelling or audio rendering. Still, you may be unaware of certain words you mispronounce; a practice audience can point these words out to you if you invite it to do so.
During your presentation, pace yourself. As a non-native speaker, you may feel you need to search for your words more often or for a longer time than in your native language, but the mechanism is the same. Do not let this challenge pressure you. Give yourself the time you need to express your ideas clearly. Silence is not your enemy; it is your friend.
Pacing yourself also means speaking more slowly than you otherwise might, especially if you have an accent in English. Accents are common among non-native speakers — and among specific groups of native speakers, too — and they are not a problem as long as they are mild. Often, they are experienced as charming. Still, they take some getting used to. Remember to slow down, especially at the beginning of a presentation, so your audience can get used to your accent, whether native or not.
Most speakers, even experienced ones, are nervous before or during an oral presentation. Such stage fright is normal and even reassuring: It shows that you care, and you should care if you want to deliver an effective presentation. Accordingly, accept your stage fright rather than feeling guilty about it. Instead of trying to suppress nervousness, strive to focus your nervous energy in your voice, your gestures, and your eye contact. Do not let it dissipate into entropy, such as by using filler words or engaging in nervous mannerisms.
Among the many ways to keep your nerves under control, perhaps the most effective one is to focus constructively on your purpose at all times. Before your presentation, eliminate all the unknowns: Prepare your presentation well, identify (or even meet) your audience, and know the room. During the presentation, do what it takes to get your message across, even if it means doing something differently than you had planned. Have a positive attitude about the presentation at all times: Visualize what you want to achieve, not what you want to avoid.
Even with careful preparation, mishaps can occur. For example, technology may fail, you may forget what you wanted to say, or you may accidentally say the wrong thing. As a rule, do not apologize for what happens — neither in advance nor after the fact. Although well-meant, such apologies provide no benefit to the audience: They are noise. If you can do something about the problem, such as fix the technology or insert what you forgot later in the presentation, concentrate on doing so instead of apologizing. If the problem is out of your control, then there is no need to apologize for it. As a specific example, if you feel your command of English is poor, then do what you can in advance to improve it; in particular, practice your presentation thoroughly. Then, on the day of the presentation, do your best with the command you have, but do not apologize at the beginning of the presentation for what you think is poor English. This apology will not solve anything, and it gives the attendees a negative image of you. Rather, let the attendees judge for themselves whether your command of English is sufficient (perhaps it is, despite what you might think). In other words, focus on delivering results, not excuses.
This page appears in the following eBook
Within this Subject (22)
Other Topic Rooms
© 2014 Nature Education
Explicit Success
Building Extraordinary Intellectuals & Success-driven Minds
20 Tips For Preparing An Effective Oral Presentation
Don’t mind the informal me, I just seem to love that ‘down-to-earthness’ – I personally believe that such disposition is a better facilitator of effective communication.
Without much ado, I am going to share with you some ideas on what I can safely call most people’s nightmare (next to examinations, of course) – An oral presentation.
Organizations and other platforms have also come to discover the essence of an effective oral presentation. How it can move an employee from a zero state of mind to an excited state of mind after a brief but powerful presentation.
Businesses are not left out too as it has become a core value that has to be portrayed to convince potential clients about a business idea.
Read this: How to manage your time effectively
Essentially, oral presentations are nothing to be scared of.
Not having this depth is what we should be scared of. Self-expression is just one of the core pillars of assessing how much and how well a student or presenter has assimilated the content of instructional material.
Overall, some of the most faced challenges associated with oral presentations are content and stage management which shall be discussed broadly here.
Whether you are a student, employee, professional or businessman , you sure need this skill to make a good impression.
Enjoy these tips, internalize them and start putting them into good practice. At the end of this write-up, you will discover the peculiar challenges of stage fright, how to deal with it and a few tidbits on presentation etiquette.
Nothing breeds confidence like competence and nothing breeds competence like preparation . Being vast in and thoroughly familiar with whatever the subject of a presentation will, in no small way, reinforce your sense of having something genuinely interesting to offer.
With this in place, the presentation ceases to be a mere talk or some kind of recital. It indeed becomes an active engagement of the audience on a journey of discovery. All you need do is just visualize yourself as a tour guide or a curator in a museum.
All you need do is to relate antecedents, history, origins, facts, figures and aspects of the subject matter in such a way as to stimulate their imagination.
You lead the audience on, not exactly projecting yourself but helping them see what needs to be seen. You wouldn’t want to go to the stage and destroy the expectations of people eagerly waiting to listen to you.
A presentation isn’t just a list of random facts. It makes a specific point, just like laboratory reports or essays.
Without a clear purpose in mind, your presentation will most likely be a jumble of unorganized factual information, putting your audience in the dark about your true intent.
What is the most important message you want to convey to the audience? Consider this to be the idea or theme of your presentation.
Your presentation’s goal(s) could include, but are not restricted to, trying to inform, inspire, or persuade.
Remember that what you say as well as how you say it must be consistent with the presentation’s goal.
The mistake a lot of presenters make is thinking that great presentations are all about big vocabulary and sophisticated terms.
May I indulge you in a different perspective – great presentations are all about presentations done in the most natural way. Be calm, relax and flow effortlessly .
Do your presentations like they are your daily routines. Help your audience feel like – “yes, I agree with what he is talking about”.
Rather than trying to charm the audience with a sophisticated style, be more committed to capturing their imagination through simple cues and vivid expressions.
There is a child in everyone, no matter how old. If possible, add a little humour here and there but try not to overdo it. Ensure you stay on track.
Read this: How to ask questions smartly
This aspect is what makes your audience hooked until the end of your presentation. They want to know where you are headed. They can’t risk being distracted until you finish. All you need do is reawaken that curious infant in the brief moment of your presentation.
It is for this reason that presentations adopt visual aids and graphical tools. The world-famous PowerPoint computer application also goes hand in hand with projectors – large screens for a clearer, broader view.
Where else is such pervasive attention given to pictures and descriptive tools apart from a kindergarten? Such applications show that there is a childlike nature in every man. Invoke it!
Read: How To Celebrate Failure For Success
Get your audience involved in your presentation. Don’t stand behind a lectern all through, tale a brisk, confident walk and project your words into the minds of your audience. Don’t let the lectern come in between you and the audience.
Try to get your audience out of their seats, laughing, raising hands or even standing by your side to make an analysis. Getting your audience to laugh is not as difficult as you might think. For example, you might try, “Ladies and gentlemen, I was told to announce something very critical to the success of today’s event. Even though I don’t think it’s my place to begin my presentation with an announcement that has nothing to do with my topic.”
“Anyway, I’ve been asked to tell you that in the event that you laugh too hard, don’t cause a stampede or fart too loud.” 😆
Get free tips and tricks that will help you to achieve success faster 😉
If you can request a cordless lavaliere mic, pls do, so that you can be as flexible with your hands as possible. A handheld mic might become tiring if your presentation takes a while.
Your audience will only remember 30% of what they hear & see but 70% of what they do will stick to them forever.
Two things that can make your projection so vivid and impactful are a clear voice and clarity of communication. Try to emphasize the last sound of each word which will help you to sound very polished. This may sound odd to you when you start but eventually sound normal as you get used to it.
I cannot stress this enough. Take your time to pause! It kinda helps your audience to brainstorm, evaluate and re-evaluate. You shouldn’t say more than six to eight words at a time without a pause. As longer sentences reduce readability, longer spoken words also reduce absorption.
Use a full voice, then pause. Think of great speakers that utilized a full voice and paused. They did efficiently well. Such presentations drop some value within you.
After you have written all the words on index cards, try to think of an acronym or Slang abbreviation that has every point you want to talk about. Use this strategy to keep your presentation in order.
For example, you may have written on a marriage/relationship index card – ask, support, kiss . Think of the first letter in each word and arrange them to ASK or any other word of your choice.
ASK will keep you on track this way:
A – Ask what he thinks
S – Support his opinion first
K – Kiss him when the discussion ends
You must have practised what you will say about each word beforehand. You will only use the acronym to keep track which the audience has no clue about. They will only think you are so perfect! If your oral presentation takes time and involves longer acronyms, you could keep your index card(s) on you just in case you get lost.
The best way to do this is to put a ‘Point’ of mind-gripping information (pictures, graphs, a phrase or table, flow charts, diagrams or a statistic) on some slides and speaking to them.
While the audience is fixated on that slide, all you need do is try to make them see the aspects of the slides that are hidden. Hence, you help to make their imagination make up for the rest of the story.
Such information is alike in features such as introduction, plot build-up, themes climax/anticlimax, a hero and his trials/triumph and so on.
And like a good storyteller or the mythical Pied Piper, the story or the music as the case is, becomes the object of the audience’s attention. The presenter is merely an intermediary.
Sure, it is not bad to feel weird for a moment. Gain your confidence back by becoming the audience for a moment.
Face the presentation with your hands towards the slide, board or what have you? Making this brief move takes a whole lot of burden off as you see that you do not have to be the audience’s object of attention for a while.
You can use this moment to stealthily move from your weak points to your strong points as you gain your confidence back .
Not all presentations have to be a serious one looking like a board meeting. It doesn’t have to be a brainstorming session to close a million-dollar deal. Smile if you can.
In fact, you should smile. It will reduce any pressure you might be feeling. You never know how powerful a smile can be until you smile at a confused child who looks at you and then returns the smile.
While you smile, make good eye contact with them and gesticulate as often as possible. This will create a good impression on your audience and make them connect with you easily.
Read this: Amazing facts about your handwriting
Whether it’s a story your grandfather told you or a story you learnt while growing up, people would love to listen. Stories are interesting ways to give your audience a light mood.
Who doesn’t like the taste of a little icing on the cake or peanuts in the chocolate? Just something a little bit different to ease the whole seriousness of the atmosphere.
Professional speakers are becoming professional storytellers , primarily stories about themselves or someone they know so well . If you can tell a story about each word or topic on your cards or slides, your speech will have a better flow.
One mistake people do is to try to show that they know better than their judges.
Judges, examiners, instructors or even a member of your audience can come into your presentation abruptly. Prepare your mind ahead for this and don’t fidget.
A simple “Noted, sir” “sorry, I skipped that” or “thanks for the feedback” would go a long way in determining your final presentation score.
Be courteous and mindful of harsh emotions as you face arguments or opposition. A wrong approach in dealing with this can ruin everything you have started. So be cool with everyone.
As a matter of fact, who you are and who the audience perceives you to be is a measure of the weight of your words.
Hence, it is safer to use universally acceptable codes of conduct and principles of etiquette that will put you in the good graces of the audience.
The audience’s reaction is the only way to judge a good presentation. What do they currently know about your subject matter?
What are their perceptions about your subject matter: will they accept whatever you say, or will you have to persuade them to change their views? Do they have a good command of the English language?
An effective oral presentation requires much more than simply presenting your ideas or giving a presentation. It is all about clear communication and connecting with the audience.
Preparation is required to create that type of presentation. You must learn about your target audience to tailor your message.
If you’re talking to experts in your field, for example, you don’t have to explain all the terms you’re using but if you expect your audience to disagree with your assertions, it’s a great idea to provide additional illustrations and go into greater detail when presenting the evidence.
You can outline your presentation with your audience in mind to explain your main points and maintain a logical flow. The more you understand your target audience, the better you will be able to communicate with them.
If you’re lucky enough to predict what is on their minds, you’ll get almost 100% attention from your audience. This lowers the barriers between you and them.
They’ll say “hey, he’s so clever hahaha”. Wow, you’re absolutely right! Tell them you know what they are thinking and answer a question they haven’t yet asked you.
You should start with yourself first. Talk to yourself, then move on to talking to a friend or small group of friends. When you build more confidence, start by speaking for free to become more professional.
You could begin by speaking to associations and clubs. Your audience may give you more networking opportunities when they enjoy your free presentations. There are business owners in your audience or people who work for businesses looking for speakers.
In fact, t here is much more to learn while you practise. By the time you become well-known, you can start charging a token or your prices can even become non-negotiable. 😉
To prepare an effective oral presentation, you must thoroughly understand your subject matter, which means knowing far more than you will present.
There is no such thing as too much research. The more familiar you are with your content, the more settled and confident you will feel when presenting it to a group.
Take notes as you read about your topic. Then organize your notes for your presentation. The most straightforward structure is an outline.
In most cases, a concise outline will serve as a good template for presenting your topic. The introduction, body, and summary make up a concise outline.
In the introductory part, you must provide a concise context for your discussion. This is where you describe the problem or issue that the presentation will solve.
You want to immediately grab people’s attention, stimulate their interest, and get them pondering about your topic. That is what creating engaging content is all about.
The bulk of your presentation. It provides specific examples to back up your main point. This is where you add important facts, statistics, and details to your discourse.
Make certain that your material is presented articulately, with each point connected to another and clear progressions.
To summarize, highlight the previous points briefly. Use keywords from your introduction to restate your argument.
Take note of transitory phrases or words like “in summary.” Appreciate the audience for their time and, if the presentation format allows, gladly accept their questions.
A clear structure helps to support a clear and focused message, and it prevents you from jumping from concept to concept, which can make it difficult for your audience to grasp your presentation.
Having this in place, the presentation is no longer just a discussion. It truly becomes an active participation of the audience on a discovery journey. All you have to do is relate the subject’s antecedents, background, facts, statistics, and features in a way that stimulates their curiosity.
It is easier to deliver an oral presentation when you employ visual aids. Visual aids, such as PowerPoint slides or printed handouts, provide structure to your presentation and assist the audience in comprehending the key points.
Since the majority of information is deemed and grasped visually, you may need to resolve this in your presentation by including a few visuals.
This would help the audience follow your discourse and possibly discuss a few of your points after the presentation is finished.
A good visual aid , as obvious as it may seem, must remain visual. Visuals can be bulleted lists or outlines, diagrams or figures, or pictures that depict crucial points that would be difficult to explain orally. Visual aids should be used to supplement, not compete with, your presentation. Use them only when they are necessary or beneficial.
A key component of preparing for an effective oral presentation is anticipating questions and creating thoughtful responses beforehand.
It demonstrates that you are knowledgeable about the subject and that you gave the subject some research. It also helps establish credibility and demonstrate your knowledge.
Additionally, it might assist you in remaining composed and assured throughout the presentation, especially if you are posed with unexpected questions. A few strategies for getting ready for questions are as follows:
In summary, your oral presentation is highly related to your motion, posture, gesture, gesticulation, eye contact, pausing effect, response to applause and so on.
The evolving nature of education has seen many lecturers and teachers adopt oral examinations as an integral part of grading students’ performance.
That is apart from lines of study such as Medicine (Viva) and Law (mock trials) that already have oral-related content as a part of their continuous assessment.
It also affords the teacher the opportunity to do more than just teach but to also be a kind of ‘coach’ that nurtures not only the content but also the delivery of knowledge . As a teacher myself, I do subscribe to this method of teaching; after all, was it not Einstein that said – If you cannot explain it simply, then you do not understand it all.
In oral presentations, especially ones that adopt projected information, the words you speak are more important than the words you display.
However, the pictures you use are just as important as the words you speak. In no place is the saying truer – a picture is worth more than a thousand words.
Therefore, being in a position where you have to present your own perspective, with your own words and in your own style goes a long way in shaping your intellectual capabilities . It also builds self-confidence in those that eventually master it.
I wish you a hitch-free and mind-blowing experience in your next oral presentation. 😉 . Which of these tips has helped you tremendously?
24 replies to “20 tips for preparing an effective oral presentation”.
Wonderful post! Putting these suggestions into practice will make anyone a ‘better’ presenter! Multiple thumbs up!
Sure, they will. Thanks for reading!
Thanks for this post, I believe it will help me gather more confidence in public speaking.
All the best in your next public speaking engagement, Josephine.
Love this post! I have a fear of public speaking so this checklist is so helpful! Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad you love it, Lissy.
Cool, just cool. I like it.
Thanks, Yeahme.
Thank you these are great tips! I have always had a lot of self confidence but always struggle with imposter syndrome so I get so nervous before public speaking!
Aww, I am sure these tips and a lot of practice will take the nervousness away.
This reminds me of my speech 101 class in college. I definitely with these tips — especially the one about knowing the content. Nothing prepares you more than knowing what you are talking about.
That’s absolutely right!
I used to work for a company that offered feedback for corporate leaders on presenting and I agree with everything you say. Bringing your personality into a presentation or speech can make a huge difference but it can take practice to get comfortable enough to bring that energy.
Yes, practice does a lot to make one perfect. Thanks for your input, Sarah.
This is a very helpful post. I wish I had read this when I was still a student. I didn’t like oral presentations and this could have given me a better perspective.
Awww, You may pass on the message to young students to ensure they get it right early.
Great read. Very helpful for my upcoming convention. Thanks for sharing.
I’m glad this helped. I wish you a splendid convention, Allison.
I precisely had to appreciate you once more. I do not know what I could possibly have followed in the absence of those thoughts provided by you on my field. Previously it was a very traumatic problem in my circumstances, however , discovering this professional fashion you managed the issue made me to jump with gladness. Now i am grateful for this information and even have high hopes you comprehend what a great job you have been carrying out instructing many people all through a blog. Most probably you have never come across all of us.
You’re welcome!
I truly enjoy looking through on this web site , it holds superb content .
You’re welcome
I just wanted to make a small note to say thanks to you for all of the fantastic ideas you are giving at this site. My time intensive internet research has at the end of the day been recognized with beneficial know-how to write about with my pals. I would believe that we readers are really endowed to exist in a really good community with very many outstanding individuals with good secrets. I feel somewhat fortunate to have come across your site and look forward to plenty of more fabulous minutes reading here. Thanks a lot again for everything.
Happy to help.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Notify me of new posts by email.
Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.
Type your email…
Continue reading
Many academic courses require students to present information to their peers and teachers in a classroom setting. This is usually in the form of a short talk, often, but not always, accompanied by visual aids such as a power point. Students often become nervous at the idea of speaking in front of a group.
This chapter is divided under five headings to establish a quick reference guide for oral presentations.
A beginner, who may have little or no experience, should read each section in full.
For the intermediate learner, who has some experience with oral presentations, review the sections you feel you need work on.
Generally, oral presentation is public speaking, either individually or as a group, the aim of which is to provide information, entertain, persuade the audience, or educate. In an academic setting, oral presentations are often assessable tasks with a marking criteria. Therefore, students are being evaluated on their capacity to speak and deliver relevant information within a set timeframe. An oral presentation differs from a speech in that it usually has visual aids and may involve audience interaction; ideas are both shown and explained . A speech, on the other hand, is a formal verbal discourse addressing an audience, without visual aids and audience participation.
Individual presentation.
Working as a group – my.UQ – University of Queensland
Approach the oral presentation task just as you would any other assignment. Review the available topics, do some background reading and research to ensure you can talk about the topic for the appropriate length of time and in an informed manner. Break the question down as demonstrated in Chapter 17 Breaking Down an Assignment. Where it differs from writing an essay is that the information in the written speech must align with the visual aid. Therefore, with each idea, concept or new information you write, think about how this might be visually displayed through minimal text and the occasional use of images. Proceed to write your ideas in full, but consider that not all information will end up on a power point slide. After all, it is you who are doing the presenting , not the power point. Your presentation skills are being evaluated; this may include a small percentage for the actual visual aid. This is also why it is important that EVERYONE has a turn at speaking during the presentation, as each person receives their own individual grade.
A whole chapter could be written about the visual aids alone, therefore I will simply refer to the key points as noted by my.UQ
To keep your audience engaged and help them to remember what you have to say, you may want to use visual aids, such as slides.
When designing slides for your presentation, make sure:
When choosing images, it’s important to find images that:
This is a general guide. The specific requirements for your course may be different. Make sure you read through any assignment requirements carefully and ask your lecturer or tutor if you’re unsure how to meet them.
Too often, students make an impressive power point though do not understand how to use it effectively to enhance their presentation.
It is clear by the name that nonverbal communication are the ways that we communicate without speaking. Many people are already aware of this, however here are a few tips that relate specifically to oral presentations.
Being confident and looking confident are two different things. Fake it until you make it.
Below is a video of some great tips about public speaking from Amy Wolff at TEDx Portland [1]
communication of thought by word
Academic Writing Skills Copyright © 2021 by Patricia Williamson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
When giving an oral presentation, four features decide the quality of the presentation. You need to consider and perfect the preparation, delivery, audience and visuals before you can give a solid presentation. The speaker is capable of controlling each of these four features to ensure the message is received satisfactorily.
A strong oral presentation begins with sound research, regardless of topic. Gather the necessary information, then select only the essential information to communicate the desired message. Do not let a mountain of research overwhelm the idea being shared. Know when to cut and trim distracting facts.
After preparing the information, practice delivering the presentation. A speaker should sound well versed and knowledgeable, not mechanical. Information should sound fresh and conversational in order to engage the audience. There are varying degrees of formality for oral presentations, but a presentation should not sound rehearsed. Allow natural language to flow and a speaker's personality to liven up the topic. Practice in front of a mirror or with a video camera to watch for tone of voice, intonation and pacing.
The audience is the least predictable feature of an oral presentation. A speaker must know the type of audience while preparing and practicing a presentation. The audience will determine the tone, language and types of visuals. If the audience is young and informal, then a presentation might include a more casual tone and language and possibly more flashy visuals. On the other hand, if the audience is academic or professional, the tone and language might be formal and sophisticated, and the visual wow-factor might stem more from substance and information than flash. A talented speaker can read an audience during delivery and modify the presentation accordingly.
Visual aids are an essential part of an oral presentation. Visuals engage the audience and add another dynamic to the speaker-audience relationship. Visual aids should be tailored to the audience type and appropriate for the setting. Consider using computers, objects, experiments, handouts, projections, other people, pictures and demonstrations. Visual aids should be relevant and cohesive with the topic discussed.
The speaker is also a visual for the audience. Dress accordingly and practice the oral presentation in the assigned space. Use the space provided and practice movements before the presentation to avoid awkwardness.
Always come early to setup any visuals to ensure that the presentation goes smoothly.
Brittany McBride has been writing professionally since 2007. She worked as an editor for Brigham Young University's magazine, "Humanities at BYU," as well as for the Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center and Utah Valley University Turning Point. McBride is attending Hollins University and is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in children's literature.
Intended for healthcare professionals
Arun Natarajan and John A Kirby provide practical advice on how to make the most out of your oral presentation
Oral presentations form an integral part of a trainee doctor's work life. However small it may be, speaking to anaudience can be a daunting task, especially for beginners.
Body language - Be confident. You can get away with blunders if you are supremely confident. Do not hide behind your pulpit, but confront your audience instead. Be enthusiastic, and smile where appropriate. If you are not enthusiastic about your own presentation you cannot expect your audience to be. Dressing smartly and appropriately helps to impress even more. Hand gestures can be used to emphasise an interesting point, but do not overuse them. Use laser pointers freely, and if the little red dot on the screen gets shaky, use both hands to grip the pointer.
Vocalisation - Talk loudly, clearly, and, most importantly, slowly. Keep the talking terse and focused. Remember, a good proportion of the audience may not be native English speakers, and many may not be particularly knowledgeable about your field. Rather than talking in a constant drone, try to pause between sentences and emphasise punctuations and important points. This helps the audience to understand you better. Do not read the slides! Learn at least the first two sentences of your talk. Link one slide to the next in order to maintain continuity. It is useful to hint at the next slide before revealing it, inducing an air of expectation. If using abbreviations, …
BMA Member Log In
If you have a subscription to The BMJ, log in:
Subscribe from £184 *.
Subscribe and get access to all BMJ articles, and much more.
* For online subscription
Access this article for 1 day for: £50 / $60/ €56 ( excludes VAT )
You can download a PDF version for your personal record.
Buy this article
6 features of effective presentations.
The 6 Features of Effective Presentations are:
An official website of the United States government
The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.
The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.
Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .
Continuing our “Ten Simple Rules” series [ 1 – 5 ], we consider here what it takes to make a good oral presentation. While the rules apply broadly across disciplines, they are certainly important from the perspective of this readership. Clear and logical delivery of your ideas and scientific results is an important component of a successful scientific career. Presentations encourage broader dissemination of your work and highlight work that may not receive attention in written form.
We do not mean face the audience, although gaining eye contact with as many people as possible when you present is important since it adds a level of intimacy and comfort to the presentation. We mean prepare presentations that address the target audience. Be sure you know who your audience is—what are their backgrounds and knowledge level of the material you are presenting and what they are hoping to get out of the presentation? Off-topic presentations are usually boring and will not endear you to the audience. Deliver what the audience wants to hear.
A common mistake of inexperienced presenters is to try to say too much. They feel the need to prove themselves by proving to the audience that they know a lot. As a result, the main message is often lost, and valuable question time is usually curtailed. Your knowledge of the subject is best expressed through a clear and concise presentation that is provocative and leads to a dialog during the question-and-answer session when the audience becomes active participants. At that point, your knowledge of the material will likely become clear. If you do not get any questions, then you have not been following the other rules. Most likely, your presentation was either incomprehensible or trite. A side effect of too much material is that you talk too quickly, another ingredient of a lost message.
Do not be overzealous about what you think you will have available to present when the time comes. Research never goes as fast as you would like. Remember the audience's time is precious and should not be abused by presentation of uninteresting preliminary material.
A good rule of thumb would seem to be that if you ask a member of the audience a week later about your presentation, they should be able to remember three points. If these are the key points you were trying to get across, you have done a good job. If they can remember any three points, but not the key points, then your emphasis was wrong. It is obvious what it means if they cannot recall three points!
Think of the presentation as a story. There is a logical flow—a clear beginning, middle, and an end. You set the stage (beginning), you tell the story (middle), and you have a big finish (the end) where the take-home message is clearly understood.
Presentations should be entertaining, but do not overdo it and do know your limits. If you are not humorous by nature, do not try and be humorous. If you are not good at telling anecdotes, do not try and tell anecdotes, and so on. A good entertainer will captivate the audience and increase the likelihood of obeying Rule 4.
This is particularly important for inexperienced presenters. Even more important, when you give the presentation, stick to what you practice. It is common to deviate, and even worse to start presenting material that you know less about than the audience does. The more you practice, the less likely you will be to go off on tangents. Visual cues help here. The more presentations you give, the better you are going to get. In a scientific environment, take every opportunity to do journal club and become a teaching assistant if it allows you to present. An important talk should not be given for the first time to an audience of peers. You should have delivered it to your research collaborators who will be kinder and gentler but still point out obvious discrepancies. Laboratory group meetings are a fine forum for this.
Presenters have different styles of presenting. Some can captivate the audience with no visuals (rare); others require visual cues and in addition, depending on the material, may not be able to present a particular topic well without the appropriate visuals such as graphs and charts. Preparing good visual materials will be the subject of a further Ten Simple Rules. Rule 7 will help you to define the right number of visuals for a particular presentation. A useful rule of thumb for us is if you have more than one visual for each minute you are talking, you have too many and you will run over time. Obviously some visuals are quick, others take time to get the message across; again Rule 7 will help. Avoid reading the visual unless you wish to emphasize the point explicitly, the audience can read, too! The visual should support what you are saying either for emphasis or with data to prove the verbal point. Finally, do not overload the visual. Make the points few and clear.
There is nothing more effective than listening to, or listening to and viewing, a presentation you have made. Violations of the other rules will become obvious. Seeing what is wrong is easy, correcting it the next time around is not. You will likely need to break bad habits that lead to the violation of the other rules. Work hard on breaking bad habits; it is important.
People love to be acknowledged for their contributions. Having many gratuitous acknowledgements degrades the people who actually contributed. If you defy Rule 7, then you will not be able to acknowledge people and organizations appropriately, as you will run out of time. It is often appropriate to acknowledge people at the beginning or at the point of their contribution so that their contributions are very clear.
As a final word of caution, we have found that even in following the Ten Simple Rules (or perhaps thinking we are following them), the outcome of a presentation is not always guaranteed. Audience–presenter dynamics are hard to predict even though the metric of depth and intensity of questions and off-line followup provide excellent indicators. Sometimes you are sure a presentation will go well, and afterward you feel it did not go well. Other times you dread what the audience will think, and you come away pleased as punch. Such is life. As always, we welcome your comments on these Ten Simple Rules by Reader Response.
The idea for this particular Ten Simple Rules was inspired by a conversation with Fiona Addison.
Dr. Philip E. Bourne is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America. E-mail: ude.csds@enruob
Competing interests. The author has declared that no competing interests exist.
Funding. The author received no specific funding for this article.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]
Delivery. It is important to dress appropriately, stand up straight, and project your voice towards the back of the room. Practise using a microphone, or any other presentation aids, in advance. If you don't have your own presenting style, think of the style of inspirational scientific speakers you have seen and imitate it.
What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation
What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve ...
Oral Presentations
Types of Oral presentations. So far we came across 6 types of presentations, and they all share one common feature. They are all one of the types of oral presentations. Oral presentations involve the use of verbal and non-verbal elements to deliver a speech to a particular or general audience.
3/ Immediate Feedback: Another key feature of oral communication is the ability to receive immediate feedback from the audience or the receiver.This feedback loop allows for on-the-spot adjustments, enhancing the understanding and effectiveness of the communication process, which is a crucial aspect of the fundamentals of oral communication.For example, a manager delivers a presentation at an ...
Chapter 3: Oral Presentations. Patricia Williamson. Many academic courses require students to present information to their peers and teachers in a classroom setting. Such presentations are usually in the form of a short talk, often, but not always, accompanied by visual aids such as a PowerPoint. Yet, students often become nervous at the idea ...
A written document includes many visual clues to its structure: section headings, blank lines or indentations indicating paragraphs, and so on. In contrast, an oral presentation has few visual ...
Transcript. Delivering effective oral presentations involves three components: what you say (verbal), how you say it with your voice (vocal), and everything the audience can see about you (visual ...
Recruit your family and friends, and make them sit through your presentation... several times. The problem and results should be clear to non-experts, even if the methods are not. This also gives you a chance to nail your timing (see #1). 3. Deliver your presentation clearly and enthusiastically.
20. Anticipate questions and prepare thoughtful answers in advance. A key component of preparing for an effective oral presentation is anticipating questions and creating thoughtful responses beforehand. It demonstrates that you are knowledgeable about the subject and that you gave the subject some research.
Oral Presentations - Academic Writing Skills
Seven Tips for Creating Powerful Oral Presentations
Section 2.10. Oral Presentations. Oral presentations can be formal or informal, depending upon their explicit and implicit purposes and the delivery situation. An oral presentation can be almost any report type, such as a design review, a proposal, or a conference talk.Whatever the specific type, however, an effective oral presentation is carefully planned with your objectives in mind and pays ...
Features of an Oral Presentation. When giving an oral presentation, four features decide the quality of the presentation. You need to consider and perfect the preparation, delivery, audience and visuals before you can give a solid presentation. The speaker is capable of controlling each of these four features to ensure the message is received ...
Organization is the most essential aspect of oral presentation. It clarifies your argument and helps the audience remember what you say. It also helps you, the speaker, easily manage the delivery of your presentation so that you can gracefully adjust to unforeseen developments. Below is a functional description of each part of one ...
Arun Natarajan and John A Kirby provide practical advice on how to make the most out of your oral presentation Oral presentations form an integral part of a trainee doctor's work life. However small it may be, speaking to anaudience can be a daunting task, especially for beginners. Body language - Be confident. You can get away with blunders if you are supremely confident. Do not hide behind ...
6 Features of Effective Presentations; Search this Guide Search. Oral Presentation Skills: Showcase Workshop. In this workshop, we'll explore the topic of presentation effectiveness through examples (using rubrics to evaluate presentations) and through reflective presentation creation exercises (translating text into winning content). ...
Oral presentations will be prepared differently face-to-face than in an online environment. You would see many presenters use flip charts, PowerPoint, and other visuals for face-to-face presentations. ... so that you can point to different components or features. Tables, charts, graphs: If you discuss statistical data, present it in some form ...
tant features of a scientific presentation. We sought to empirically identify what features of a scientific oral presentation experienced reviewers focus on when asked to identify the best features and areas to improve. Methods: Observational study of 44 presenters at a scientific meeting over a 4-year period. Reviewers ob-
Rule 5: Be Logical. Think of the presentation as a story. There is a logical flow—a clear beginning, middle, and an end. You set the stage (beginning), you tell the story (middle), and you have a big finish (the end) where the take-home message is clearly understood. Rule 6: Treat the Floor as a Stage.