Presentations

Introduction

Making a presentation can be nerve-wracking – particularly if it’s the first time you’ve ever had to stand up in front of people and talk all by yourself! But college is all about developing new skills and building your confidence for the types of experiences you are likely to have in the future – and presentation skills are some of the most useful skills you can use to help you succeed.

Basic presentation skills can be required to get through job interviews these days, and if your ambition is to be as rich as Mark Zuckerberg one day, then you need to be able to present your ideas like Mark Zuckerberg*! 

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Some college subjects specifically require you to give a presentation to your fellow students, such as Business Studies, Media Studies or the EPQ. Don’t be afraid of this! It’s a great opportunity to learn a lot of valuable skills, as well as to build your own confidence in controlling your voice, speaking steadily and clearly, and using your appearance and body language to help influence your audience.

However, communication skills have a much broader application than this. Thinking about the best way to communicate is a good discipline to use when you’re preparing any assignment (an essay is like a mini–presentation in itself!), or even when just talking with your teachers or other students.

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This course will break down the best ways to approach a presentation, including:

• planning the presentation,
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• creating the presentation, and
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• dealing with anxiety.
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It’s then up to you to enjoy the feeling of success afterwards and to get ready to take over the world, like, you know, Mark Zuckerberg…

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Little tip: if you're ever feeling nervous about making a presentation, watch a Mark Zuckerberg presentation, like the one below, and ask yourself: is he really that great at presenting? You don't need to be brilliant at speaking in public, you just need to be clear, informative and confident.

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This course has been adapted from The Open University's Communicating and Presenting Study Guide booklet. You can view the original at www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy.

Planning

Getting started

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As with every important piece of work, you need to make sure you spend some time planning what you need to do and how you are going to do it.
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Before you start creating a presentation you need to consider:
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1. the topic,
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2. the audience,
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3. the available resources, such as visual aids (e.g. PowerPoints), and
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4. the content of the talk.
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We've broken these down over the next few sections so that you can slowly work through them as you plan your presentation, or you can skip to the most relevant section for your needs right now. 

As you work through this course, you may want to jot down notes and ideas on this optional worksheet, either typed on screen or printed out and handwritten. You can then return to this page to upload the completed worksheet later if you wish.

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The topic

Obviously, the first thing you will need before you can even begin a presentation is to be clear about or to decide on the topic.

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You may have been given this by your teacher, or you may have to come up with your own idea, but presentations are invariably linked to work you have already been completing, such as EPQ research, or your subject's classwork, so it shouldn't be too hard to narrow down your topic. Ask your teacher or mentor for help if you're not sure where to start.

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The most important thing is that whether you're giving a presentation to fellow students in your course, to tutors as part of an assessment, or  in your place of work, you're expected to know your topic well.

You not only have to communicate facts clearly but you may well have to answer follow-up questions on what you've said. So if you have a choice, don’t be too ambitious with your topic: pitch it at a level you are comfortable with.

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The title of your presentation should make clear what your talk is about and also give a clue to what you are trying to achieve in the time available. Consider:
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• Is your talk purely informative or instructional, or are you arguing a point of view or trying to persuade your audience?
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• Are you comparing two alternatives? Are you attempting to inspire people to action? Or are you just aiming to entertain them?
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• How much time do you have to make your presentation (e.g. maximum 10 minutes)?
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• Do you need to include time at the end for the audience to ask you questions?

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Make a note of your answers - you can use the worksheet or your own planning notes. This will also be helping you to develop your research skills.

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The audience

As well as knowing your topic and staying confident, you need to know your audience and how you can keep them focused and engaged. 
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Start by asking yourself: what do they already know about the subject? This will make it easier to decide how much background detail and explanation you will need to include in your presentation so that your audience understands what you are talking about and doesn't get lost or bored.

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A good way to develop this skill is to think about how you would make the same presentation to to three different types of people, e.g. your fellow classmates, a group of young children, or a group of friends who don't study your subject. How would you adapt your content or communication skills to suit these different audiences?

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You may find that you are already very good at adapting to different audiences, but if you don't think about who you will be presenting to before you make your presentation, you could find yourself in an uncomfortable position on the day because you have ignored a potential audience, or targeted the wrong audience. It always pays to consider who might be looking at what you are presenting; don't forget, for instance, that in classes, your teacher will be listening in as well as your classmates...

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You may already know everyone in your audience and be familiar with their level of knowledge on your topic. At college, for example, you will mostly be giving presentations to other students on the same course. But yours may be one of a number of different presentations on the same topic and on the same day! How can you keep your audience engaged if they've heard it all before...?

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To stand out from the crowd, try to avoid following exactly same structure and style of the course materials you have been using so far. Good presenters can make even familiar information seem fresh by provoking their audience to rethink the topic from challenging viewpoints or different angles, whilst still  working within the presentation guidelines given. If the presentation is being assessed, such as in a language exam or an EPQ presentation, then tighter guidelines may apply and you will need to check with your teacher or mentor beforehand to make sure your ideas are still appropriate.

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But what can you do if you will have no knowledge of who will be in your audience beforehand? Perhaps you are taking part in an assembly, a hustings, or a job interview?

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If this is the case, you can still try and find out a little about your audience by asking the presentation's organiser for further information, for instance:
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• How much will the audience already know about your topic?
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• Will they be familiar with specialist terminology you want to use, or should you avoid it?
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• How many people are likely to attend?
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• Do any of them have particular requirements that might affect how you make your presentation? For example, in a small room a deaf person may prefer to lip-read, in which case you should be sure to stand where your face is well lit, whereas in a larger room you may be asked to use a specially adapted microphone.
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• Does the audience prefer a formal approach with lots of facts and information, or are you presenting to a more informal, social gathering where there might be more room for discussion during the presentation itself?
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This information will help you to start planning appropriate content for your presentation and to start tjhinking about the best possible way to deliver your prersentation to your audience. Make some notes no this before you move on, either using the worksheet or your own project notes.

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The available resources

As well as knowing your subject and your audience, on a more practical level you need to know what equipment will be available to use when you make your presentation. For instance, will there be a projector and screen big enough for the whole room to see or will you need to provide handouts to help people follow along with your talk...?

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Whilst you are planning the content of your presentation, you will need to consider how the available resources will affect the organisation and presentation of your talk - how will you use them?

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• What is the room like and where will you stand in relation to the audience?
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• How is the audience's seating arranged (e.g. tables or rows)?
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• Will you be allowed to make any changes to the seating if you need to?
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• What IT equipment is available? Should you bring your own laptop, or have your presentation ready on a memory stick? Is there a working projector with a clear screen?
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• Will you need to print out reference material for the audience to read along with your talk or to take away afterwards? If so, will you hand it out or will it be readily available on chairs or tables before your presentation begins?
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• Do you need to find somewhere appropriate to display a poster beforehand to encourage people to attend?
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Using visual props, such as printed notes, PowerPoint displays or short video excerpts, can certainly help to make the presentation more interesting for your audience, as well as giving you a little breathing space during your talk and something to refer to during questionss. Some topics are also very difficult to convey in words alone, particularly if lots of numerical data is involved, so pre-prepared charts projected for all to see are much easier than a five-minute description, both for the audience and for you!

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However you may have been at a presentations where the talk centred entirely around a PowerPoint slide presentation, during which the speaker just read from the screen, almost making you feel that they may as well have left the slide show to run on its own and not said a word! So remember how you felt in the audience at that time and make sure you consider the advantages and disadvantages of using too many PowerPoint slides or too long a print out before you decide what to use.

Here's an amusing video about this very idea which might give you some clues about what NOT to do:

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If you want your audience to get involved with some interactive exercises, such as writing down ideas from your talk to share as a group, you will need to make sure you have supplied appropriate sized paper (e.g. big sheets of A3 or post-it notes?) and numbers of pens for them to use, as well blu-tac or pins and a space to display their responses if this is a good addition to your talk. Don't be afraid to ask your audience to complete quick activities or answer questions out loud during your talk if it is relevant and might help them engage!

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Little tip: Another good reason to consider having print-outs of your presentation is just in case of equipment failure! At least you will still be able to talk your audience through most of what you had hoped to show them so that their time has not been completed wasted. You don't always need to provide a complete copy of your presentation - just a few important points on the page may be enough. If it is a class presentation, check with your teacher as to whether you should or can do this.

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The content of the presentation

Organising the content of a presentation is very similar to planning an essay or coursework assignment. You need to spend some time thinking about your content (planning), perhaps by using a mind-map of ideas or just scribbling out a basic outline of what you should include. You then need to narrow this down to the most important and relevant points, just as you would in an essay - you don't want to go off-topic in the middle of your talk or start talking about one thing and end up on a completely different subject!

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However, an added aspect of a presentation is that you need to decide which points you will get across verbally and which would be better explained with a slide or other illustration. Remember, as we discussed in the previous section, a picture or graph can be really useful in saving you time and making your point clearer, but too much information can also be confusing.

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Check that you are not being repetitive in your content, and that you also haven’t missed out anything important. Whether you are writing an email, talking on the phone or giving a presentation, the person at the other end needs to be able to follow your train of thought.

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Once you have your content plan, you can start creating your talk. If you are using PowerPoint - which, let's face it, is the most popular approach - start by placing a heading on the top of each slide to represent each of your points. This should give you an idea of whether or not you have too many points to cover already (or not enough!). Can you combine any of your points?

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Next, start to add a few notes beneath the headings - just a few relevant points and, if necessary, an illustration. Again, have you got too much to say on any of your topics, or not enough? Should you move any of the slides around so that you can combine the points more easily? You might need to start with more content than you will eventually use, so that you can gradually reduce it as you improve your draft and practice speaking alongside the slides.

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Whilst working through your draft presentation, remember to consider:
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• the amount of time available for your presentation – this will dictate the amount of detail and the number of examples you can include; and
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• the audience’s knowledge – this will help you decide where you need to include the most explanation and where you might particularly want to use slides to illustrate what you say.
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You should have already made some notes about this from the previous sections, so don't forget to review those as you continue to create your draft presentation.

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Make sure you are keeping your own separate speaker's notes about what you will say alongside each slide or illustration - but don't make a script! You will not be reading anything out word for word as this will sound boring to your audience. You just need a few key phrases or words that you know you should include in your description of each slide. It may seem nerve-wracking to not have the exact words available, but if you are constantly looking down at your notes or losing your place, it will be less engaging for the audience and could even make things more stressful for you.

The best talkers know their subject well (through researching, planning, preparing and practicing) and are therefore able to look at the audience as they speak. It can be a good idea to use the PowerPoint slides as your notes, so that you don't need any extra pieces of paper. Just make sure your slides have all the important points on them which you want to cover. It's OK to glance up at the slides for a prompt, as your audience will be doing the same, but as soon as you have the point in your head, turn back to the audience and speak directly to them.

The same goes with using small prompt cards - glance down, but speak up and out to your audience! To make sure you don't muddle your cards up, each time you have finished with a prompt card, put it down somewhere in front of you, rather than placing it at the back of the pile in your hand.

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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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Dealing with Anxiety

Sure, the presentation is written. It looks good. It even sounds good in your head. But there's one things you still can't quite sort out...

The terror... fear... panic...!!! Aaarrgggh!

You're not alone. Most people feel nervous when it comes to giving presentations, even if they do it for a living! However, as you have seen in earlier sections, presenting isn't about being the perfect entertainer; it's about learning those all important skills that you can then re-use over and over for the rest of your life.

Most of the students in your class probably feel the same way about giving their presentations too, so remember that you are not the only one feeling nervous and uncomfortable about standing up and speaking.

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The best things that you can do beforehand to try and reduce your anxiety are to really make sure:

• you are familiar with your topic;
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• you have all the preparation finished and the correct details about your equpiment and audience sorted; and
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• you have practiced the talk as often as you can. Run through it in the bathroom mirror, or to your family, or your pet (just don't take the cat's indifference pesonally!), or just by yourself, so that you know roughly what you will say and when. This isn't about learning a script, it's just about being so familiar with what you want to say with each slide that it almost comes naturally to you on the day.

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When the day of the presentation finally arrives, don't let yourself dwell on what could go wrong. It's really not helpful to think about things that haven't happened, and ask long as you're well prepared, there's more chance things will go well anyway! If others are making presentations too then note the differences between those speaking for the first time and those with more experience, or how people grow more confident as they progress through their talk.

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When it is your turn to speak, take a moment to arrange your notes, if you are using handheld cards or sheets, and check that you have everything you need. Remember to pace yourself as you speak - don't rush to the end or your audience won't understand you. Allow yourself to pause for a few seconds between each point or slide, take a few breaths and collect your thoughts before you move on.

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As you become more experienced at public speaking you’ll find you can relax and speak more fluently. Moving around can also help you to relax – you could point out something on the screen, for example, or have some props to show to everyone. Props and demonstrations can be fun to use, but do make sure that they are large enough for everyone to see and that they do not divert attention away from the points you want to make.

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Once the presentation is over, allow yourself some time to think about how you did and what you would like to improve the next time you have to make a presentation. Feedback from others is always a good thing, even if it sounds negative sometimes, but don’t agonise too much if some things didn’t go to plan, particularly if it was something the audience didn't spot anyway! Most importantly, congratulate yourself for your hard work! It's not easy, but you did it, and each time you do it your confidence will grow...

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Review and Summary Quiz

Summary

Here's a summary of all the things to think about before, during and after making a presentation. You may want to print these out and keep them somewhere safe to review later.

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Before the presentation

• Make sure you have agreed the content/title of your talk, and you know the date, time and duration.
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• Discuss the content with the organiser (e.g. your teacher) in general terms and ask (if you do not already know) about the audience – particularly their interests and level of knowledge.
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• Again, if you are unfamiliar with the presentation space, take the opportunity to find out about the room layout and the resources available. Make sure the equipment you want to use is there, it works, and it does what you want it to.
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• If your presentation is outside of your courses, the organiser may ask for information about you to use in an introduction. Supply a couple of brief paragraphs at most, giving some background to support your credentials in giving the talk.
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• Plan to wear something comfortable and professional looking. Attention will be focused on you and you will feel better if your outfit is slightly too formal rather than too casual. Be prepared for extremes of temperature – perhaps wear a jacket that can be taken off.
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• On the day, arrive early so that you have plenty of time to see the room and prepare yourself. You may find you have to move furniture around, set up the projector or ask for a flipchart paper refill.
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• Where will you stand to speak? It is important to stand where everyone can see you and where you don’t have your back to your audience for longer than absolutely necessary. Is there somewhere convenient to put your notes? Has some water been provided?
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• Mentally go through your presentation and check that everything you need is in place. Have a back-up plan (or two) in case the technology fails. For example, if you're using a PowerPoint, print out a copy in case the computer or projector fails - that way you'll know be able to use it and you could get copies made for others to follow as well. In small meetings it can be reassuring to know that, if all else fails, a flipchart or a whiteboard is available.  

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The presentation

• Wait to be introduced by the organiser, or to be given your turn in class, then stand up and smile.
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• Make a strong start by pausing until you have everyone’s attention before you begin to speak. If you haven’t been introduced and they don't know you, then say who you are and give the title of your presentation.
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• Say briefly what you plan to cover.
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• Your first prompt card (if you're using them) can have the opening sentence or two noted on it, so glance at it and then speak to the whole room.
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• Be careful not to focus your gaze on just one or two members of the audience. Try to scan the room, relaxing and avoid reading or reciting your talk in a monotone voice.
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• Keep in mind the importance of how you present yourself. Does your body language contribute to the strength of your argument or detract from it?
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• As you begin each new point, glance at your notes or slide to remind yourself what to include. As you finish each point, quickly check the card/slide to make sure you haven’t missed anything, then go on to the next.
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• Also take the opportunity to check that you’re on track with regards to timing. Keeping a sense of timing and progress will help you to maintain a sense of control.
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• At the end of your presentation use your last card/slide to help you to summarise the main points or the argument you have made and then offer to answer any questions.
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• The organiser/your teacher may then take charge and select who poses each question, or you may be left to do this yourself.
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• Be prepared to deal with questions that you can’t answer – there’s no point trying to fudge the issue, just say frankly that you don’t know. You could offer to speak to the enquirer after the talk, to get back to them later, or you may be able to refer them to a book, website, etc.

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After the presentation

• Remember to pass around any handouts or follow up notes if you agreed or arranged to do so, and, if necessary, make time to talk to any members of the audience who approach you.
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• Someone may ask if they can contact you later, so decide beforehand how you feel about making your contact details available. An email address is a good compromise between practicality and security.
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• Make sure to collect your notes, memory stick, etc.
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• Try to find time to think over your talk and note any aspects you would change in future. If you know anyone in the audience, you could ask what they thought of the presentation – the presenter is not always in the best position to judge how it went. It helps to have someone confirm to you what went well, so you know which aspects not to change.

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Review Quiz

Complete the following review quiz to finish this course.

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Other Resources:

This course and its contents were adapted from The Open University booklet 'Communicating and Presenting'. You can read the full, original booklet by clicking on this link.

How to prepare a presentation worksheet (Word)

A link to some free PowerPoint templates and ideas

How to use Headers and Footers in your presentations and notes

PowerPoint basics

PowerPoint Printing Tips