Preparation and practice are the keys to success!

Preparation and Planning Questions to ask when planning:  What is the aim of my presentation?  What is the title of my presentation?  What are the main points I need to make?  Who is the audience?

Organization of Presentation A good presentation has strong organization and is easy for the listener to follow. There are three parts to a presentation: Introduction, Body, Conclusion.

The Introduction  Grab the attention of the audience. Start with a surprising fact, anecdote or a question.  Greet the audience by saying “Hello”, “Good Morning (or afternoon)” etc.  Introduce yourself.  Give the title of the presentation and introduce the topic.  State your purpose of the presentation.  Transition to the body of the presentation.

The Body  All the information in your presentation needs to support your purpose and topic.  Include enough information to clearly develop your ideas.  Organize your details in a logical manner. Some possibilities include: chronological, general to specific, known to unknown, cause/effect, problem/solution.

 Keep the audience’s attention.  Link the end of one section of information with the next using transition words. For example: next, my second point, let’s turn to…, etc.  Be clear and concrete when sharing your information.

The Conclusion There are three parts to the conclusion.  Reminder of your main points: state the point, give the essential message to retain, list main points, use a quote/comparison/example.  A concluding statement: a commentary on the main points, lessons learned, or recommendations.  Thank the audience for listening.

Presenting Skills  Use note cards when presenting. Put key words and short phrases on the cards to help you remember your information. Remember to number the cards to keep them in order.  Know most of what you want to say by heart. Reading from your cards makes you seem unprepared.  Mark on your cards when to refer to your visuals.

Voice Skills  Speak clearly and loudly enough to be heard in the back of the room.  Speak slowly so everyone can understand.  Stay away from awkward pauses or using stall words (um, er, like, etc.)  Change the pitch of your voice to maintain the attention of the audience.  Practice the pronunciation of all words.

Non-verbal Skills  Keep eye contact with the entire audience during your presentation.  Use your hands to emphasize a point.  Always face the audience.  Stand straight and tall.

Visual Aids Purposes of visual aids:  Focus the audience’s attention  Easily illustrate main points  Reinforce ideas  Involve and motivate the audience

Creating a visual aid  Put only key words and short phrases on any visual aid. Try to keep to a 10 word limit.  Don’t make the visual too busy. Simple is more effective.  Check for spelling on all visuals.  Make sure the font is readable when projected or shown.  Keep slides or visuals to a minimum. Too many cause a distraction to the audience.

 Information in this PowerPoint is taken from C. Storz, Evry, France