A successful presentation
I. Ten Tips on how to start a presentation
- Always try to be in time, in order to be able to check the
room and the media you intend to use.
- Check the existing equipment once again before you start.
It might save you from being unnecessarily embarrassed!
- Make sure you will be seen well and understood well by your
audience!
- Be as natural, easy, and relaxed as you can be.
- After you had been introduced, rise slowly from your seat,
arrange your clothes, if you feel necessary, and walk to the front
in an upright and self-confident way.
- Take a deep breath and give your audience a friendly look
from the left to the right.
- Never lose eye contact during a speech! If you have any difficulties
looking people in the eye, just look at the root of their nose.
- Only start your presentation if the room gets quiet. Never
ever make the mistake to begin your speech too early. Keep in
mind that this is "show-biz", too.
- Put your watch on the speaker's desk to prevent you from speaking
longer than scheduled. Adjust your voice to the room; you should
not speak too loud, but not too low either.
- The first few sentences must just fit! They are of
crucial importance! They are the "entrance ticket" to
the attention of your audience and must impart the impression
to them that what you are going to say is of extreme importance.
A Successful Presentation
II. Regarding the Contents and Structuring
of a Speech
- Choose a topic from your field of specialization or your fields
of interest. For then it is easier to transmit your knowledge
and your enthusiasm to your audience.
- At the beginning of the preparation, always ask yourself the
question: what could be of interest to my audience?
- Reflect the selected topic thoroughly. Note your thoughts
down immediately! The best ideas and thoughts mostly come out
of the blue.
- Classify and systemize the material and your ideas. A 20-minute
speech, e.g. should be based on the following timeframe:
Introduction (3-5 mm.)
Main part (10-15 mm)
Ending (2-3, max. 5 mm.)
- Make sure you have enough preparation time, to be able to
prepare your presentation carefully and thoroughly! Successful
speaking needs a lot of hard work and staunch effort even though
it might seem to be child's play when you hear a good speaker.
- Formulate short and simple sentences; try to de-complicate
as much as possible; avoid abbreviations and too many unknown
expressions! Explain if unavoidable!
- Be careful with jokes but keep in mind that an ace in the
hand of every speaker is a good sense of humor.
- Try to put the key points of your speech in thought images,
and from these images form an imaginary image chain. By means
of this "chain-image-method", you can deliver your presentation
point by point in free speech.
- Do not have a look at your script on the evening before your
speech. You better relax then and go for a beer with your friends.
Stage fright will surely creep up early enough!
- Rehearse your speech with a friend, if possible; discuss it
with him/her later.
- Since every human being is strongly dependent on his/her self-assessment,
you should always try to see your performance from the positive
side. Get yourself in the mood of delivering an enthusiastic,
captivating and successful presentation.
A successful presentation
III. Use of Media
General:
- Board, overhead projector and/or slide projector normally
are available in every lecture hall or can be procured easily.
- Get familiar with the functioning modes of the available facilities
beforehand. It really does not leave a very professional impression
if during the speech the switch of the projector is searched for,
the board is moved in the wrong way, or the slides cannot be focused,
etc.!
Board
- If you have a clear handwriting, you should absolutely use
the board as a medium.
- In order to save time, certain things, such as the structuring
of the speech e.g., should be written on the board in advance
or prepared and handed out.
- Halve "squeaking" chalk.
- If there is a folding or sliding board available, diagrams
or other complicated, time-consuming drawings which are important
for the comprehension of the presentation can be prepared before
and be hidden until their actual use. During the speech, they
can then be supplemented and/or inscribed. In order not to forget
anything important, these supplements can be pre-written with
dark chalk.
- Skillful and experienced lecturers make a point of writing
those facts and discussion issues on the board which will later
give the basis for a good discussion!
Transparencies
- When preparing transparencies, make sure that they will be
clearly arranged, and that the lettering is large enough for your
audience to be read also in the last row.
- Do make sure that the contents of the transparencies will
not overburden your audience! Keep the information to the absolute
essentials, but present these in a didactically attractive way.
- Keep in mind when presenting transparencies that you know
their contents perfectly well, but your audience will normally
see this presentation for the first time. For this reason there
is the possible danger of you passing over "obvious"
facts too quickly and fail to mention significant things vital
for comprehension.
- Present or explain the transparencies either from the projector
or explain them by using the stick directly on the screen. In
either case, however, you should never lose eve contact to your
audience, and never cover the screen or part of it.
- Transparencies used purposefully at the end of the speech
may help to make the contents of these transparencies the starting
point for discussion questions.
Slides
- Do prevent a pure slide presentation! The fact that this still
happens fairly often is that on the basis of the slides, it is
so convenient to determine the structure of the speech thus making
the presentation so nice and easy to deliver.
- Use slides in blocks. Nothing gets more on the nerves of your
audience than a constant change of light.
- Even if your slide is ever so beautiful, keep in mind to talk
to your audience and not to the screen!
- Prepare slides for the discussion too. By means of such slides
discussions can be held much easier and much more convenient.
- Avoid mere text slides. Reading exercises belong to elementary
schools!
- At the end of a speech, it is not always necessary to present
a "gag ~ You should rather end your presentation with a
well-formulated, freely spoken summary, or a prospect, or an appeal,
and never ever forget to thank your audience for the attention
paid to your presentation!
Major Mistakes in the Presentation
of a Speech
- Insufficient preparation due to lack of time or lack of empathy
towards the audience.
- Bad beginning; thus nervous and no real access to the audience.
- Insufficient or no eye contact at all due to too strong a
fixation on the script.
- No red line and/or no clearly structured concept
- Speaking pace too fast or too slow; voice too loud or too
low.
- Presentation too lengthy and tedious. Not much enthusiasm
and commitment in the way the speech is presented.
- Use of media - either bad or missing at all.
- Scheduled time frame not been kept.
- Nervously fumbling about with something or some other funny
habits which might distract the attention of the audience.
ASSESSMENT OF ORAL PRESENTATION
Possible criteria for assessing an oral presentation:
- The ability of the student to express her/ himself in technical
English
- The structuring of the presentation
- Are the points of argument logically presented?
- The media and format used (is extremely stimulating; shows
imagination; shows average involvement; is monotonous)
- The fluidity (time, length)
- The preparation regarding his/her audience
- The degree of adjustment to questions
- Speaking pace, eye contact, overall impression
- Relevance/Importance of information and information gain through
presentation (how much new information did you get from the presentation)