Presentations

Creating the Final Presentation

Once you have selected and prepared the material for your talk you should go through it thoroughly to make sure it works.
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Check that:

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• the relevant information you want to include is organised into a series of simple but clear points;
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• the points flow clearly and effectively from each other so that there is a logical progression to your talk, without any gaps or duplication
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• that you have effectively illustrated any points which need it, using an appropriate image or graph. (Remember, if you are using someone else's work here, such as an image or graph from the internet, you should make a note of where you got this from to avoid being accused of plagiarism!)

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Run through your finished presentation with your cue cards, or just using the notes on the screen, and speak it out loud to yourself. That way you should be able to spot if there is anything you've missed or if you need to move any slides around. If you are using cue cards you should:

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• have one card for the beginning – write out the first couple of sentences of your talk, introducing what you plan to cover;
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• have another card for the end – write out the last couple of sentences of your talk, summarising the most important point or re-stating your argument to give a strong conclusion; and
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• add a series of cards for the talk itself – write out the heading for each point, adding a few key words or phrases that you want to make sure to use.

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Where you have a slide or other illustration to include it can be useful to mark the appropriate card as a reminder, for example by putting a coloured blob in the top corner.
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As you can see, although cue cards can be useful, you could just as easily do all of this with the PowerPoint presentation itself. You could even print out a 'Notes' copy of your presentation if you feel the need to hold something - just don't let yourself look down at it all the time!

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Once your notes are organised, check that your material still matches the title of your presentation and its aims. Ensure that the presentation format you have chosen will make sense to your audience – you may need to include ‘sign-post’ phrases to make it clear, for example, where points are linked or where you are making a comparison.

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