ORAL PRESENTATIONS WORDS AND BEYOND: TIPS

USING HUMOUR To relax people. To illustrate your point. Not offensive. Based on personal anecdote. Test your jokes before with friends.

BEING AUTHENTIC Be yourself, not an actor/ress. Be personal and relatable. Be passionate. Be comfortable.

GIVING SHAPE TO YOUR TALK Begin strong. Create a need to listen. Take your audience on a journey. End powerfully.

STRUCTURING A TALK MAIN AIM: get your message across and keep the audience attention: Establish your idea at the beginning, unpack it step by step, summarize at the end. Create the need for an answer and lead the audience to find out in the end. Present and make aware of benefits.

PRESENTING STATISTICS Be strategic with visuals (charts, diagrams, pictures): do not over use them, be selective, make visuals bright, clear and simple, for example: a single sentence: striking statistic. a graph or chart showing a trend (dynamic). an infographic illustrating data with icons or images. an arresting photo to back up a statistic.

PERSUASIVE TECNIQUES Emotive words and phrases. Rhetorical questions. Repetition of key words or grammatical structures. Contrasts. Use of imagery and metaphor

USING STORIES AND ANECDOTES To make your talk more interesting. To help the audience relate the concepts or ideas. To develop a closer relationship with audince. To help the audience relate to you more easily and be sympathetic with your ideas.

VARYING THE PACE Pace the way you speak: natural and understandable. Vary your pace during the talk to signal changes. Make short pauses: to reflect or prepare for a change in the talk.

BEING CLEAR AND TO THE POINT Be succinct and effective: “Less is often more”. Have your ideas clear in your mind. Complex ideas: slowly and short clear sentences. Repeat key messages strategically.

REMEMBERING WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY GREAT FEAR!! Use script or notes, prompt cards or memorize but: Rehearse a lot. Memorize opening lines and las few lines to establish eye contact with audience at these points. Visuals are 100% for your audience; use them to remember.

BODY MOVEMENT AND GESTURE Project openness, do not appear closed off. Keep your body open. Gesture with your palms out and open. Focus on the top pat of your body being calm. Avoid pacing up and down in a nervous fashion. Move from lectern occasionally and face audience openly and inclusively.

GIVING EXAMPLES Use relevant illustrative examples. Use simple examples than idea explained. Try to make them relatable to the audience experience. Visual examples: simple, clear and strong impact.