Formal Presentations
Presentations
give you the opportunity to share and receive feedback on your ideas and
research findings. This page offers basic guidelines for organizing,
designing, and delivering formal presentations. It also provides links for
further discussion and examples.
But before you get started…
Know your audience. As an engineer,
you will deliver formal presentations to different audiences who have varying
levels of technical knowledge: undergraduates, graduate students, professors,
university administrators, and supervisors and colleagues in industry.
Anticipate what your audience already knows about your topic. If you are unsure
how to address your audience, imagine having a conversation about your topic
with a member of the audience. You would employ different diction and sentence
structures to discuss your work with a fellow engineering student than you
would to explain it to a marketing student, wouldn’t you? Ideally, you address
audience members on a field of shared knowledge and then lead them to greater
understanding.
Also try to
anticipate your audience’s mood. You should organize your presentation
differently for a friendly audience than you would for a skeptical or hostile
one. Generally speaking, a friendly audience will likely accept an early
assertion of your main point, followed by supportive details. A skeptical
audience, however, responds more productively to a presentation of shared
concerns, followed by a “delayed thesis,” or main point (Ramage & Bean,
1995, 164).
Finally, make
sure you know your audience’s preferences for presentations. Does your audience
expect or require PowerPoint or other presentation software? Does your
audience, like Edward Tufte (2010), despise PowerPoint? Would your audience
prefer other modes of presentation, such as displaying slides as Web pages (Olivo, 2006)? These types of questions may be
difficult to answer for someone with little presentation experience, but doing
some initial research into your audience’s expectations will make you a more
effective presenter.
Organizing the Presentation
Most presentations have three distinct sections: Introduction,
Middle, and Conclusion.
1. Draft the Introduction.
1. Draft the Introduction.
Think like a journalist: the introduction should explain the “who,
what, when, where, and why” of your research. The Middle will explain the
“how.” Your title slide will convey much of this information. Fig. 1 shows a
title slide that includes the “who, what, and where.” Make sure you attend
to font size and color contrast so that your names are visible. Also, spell out
the names of your university and department even though they may be obvious. If
you receive external funding for your research, your title slide should
identify the source of your support. At this stage, consider your Introduction
as a rough draft. You will revise it later.
2. Concentrate on the Middle and
Conclusion.
Imagine
yourself at the end of your presentation. What exactly do you want the audience
to learn, or take away? Engineering communicators recommend that you
focus on 3-5 points per presentation (Doumont, 2009). Yet at a busy
conference, most of us can realistically remember only the main point of each
speaker (Alley, 2003, 153.). Prioritize your points in order of
importance. Make sure all the information you include in the Middle of
your presentation contributes to your most important point; too many unnecessary
details will veil the important information. Select the most persuasive visual
data to use as supporting evidence.
3. Organize your argument and
support.
First, avoid your computer (Grant, 2010). Instead, write down your
points on note cards and organize the cards, so you can see the entire
structure at a glance and make changes quickly. If you begin this work on
presentation software, you risk wasting time on slide design details. This
process will also help to remove unnecessary information that does not support
your main points. It will be earlier to throw away a notecard that you
scribbled on than to delete a slide that took you an hour to perfect.
Repetition helps you to emphasize important information. If you
want the audience to remember a point, allude to it early, present the
information as clearly as possible, and repeat your point in the conclusion.
4. Finally, return to your
Introduction.
Review all the material in your draft, including your title.
Make sure your Introduction explains why your work is important—and why
we should pay attention to you. Also explain the larger context of your work
(or the “big picture”) for the least technically knowledgeable member of the
audience; that person could have the most power or money to help you. If your
presentation will last longer than 5 minutes, provide an overview slide to
outline the contents. You can use the overview to explain your scope: what you
will discuss and what you will not.
Delivering
an effective presentation
Presentation as performance
Making a
presentation puts you on public display. An audience not only listens to your
ideas, it also responds to the way you use your voice and your body. You need
more than a well written presentation to make an impact. You will also need to
deliver it in a lively, flexible and interesting way. In this leaflet we
suggest many ideas for invoking energy in your presentation style.
To begin with, imagine that you are in the audience for your
presentation. What might:
- grab your attention?
- stimulate your imagination?
- inspire your confidence?
- develop your understanding?
Now think about ways to encourage these things.
Six steps to becoming an effective presenter :
1. Practise
The more
familiar you are with your material the more you will be able to inspire your
audience’s trust and confidence. Do more than practise reading through your
material to yourself. If possible, stand up in a room and deliver your
presentation to the walls. Get used to hearing your own voice filling a room.
Familiarise yourself with the words and phrases in your presentation. Play around
with different volumes and see how well you can hear your own voice. Above all,
familiarise yourself with the main thrust of your argument and explore how the
individual elements of your presentation piece together. This will help you to
keep to your chosen objectives and avoid distractions when it comes to your
actual delivery.
To read or to learn?
Should you read out your presentation from detailed notes or
present it completely from memory? Find a way to compromise between these two
approaches. There are dangers in each.
Reading
Reading tends to focus your thoughts on your notes, thus losing contact with your audience. Reading can also reduce your voice to a monotone, removing energy and enthusiasm from your delivery. Directly addressing your audience is much more engaging.
Reading tends to focus your thoughts on your notes, thus losing contact with your audience. Reading can also reduce your voice to a monotone, removing energy and enthusiasm from your delivery. Directly addressing your audience is much more engaging.
Learning
Learning is fine until you lose your way; for example, a member of the audience asks a question or your overhead projector bulb blows. Always have some form of notes to keep you on the right track. Also, if you over learn your notes you might lose a sense of energy and enthusiasm. Always work for a sense of confident spontaneity.
Learning is fine until you lose your way; for example, a member of the audience asks a question or your overhead projector bulb blows. Always have some form of notes to keep you on the right track. Also, if you over learn your notes you might lose a sense of energy and enthusiasm. Always work for a sense of confident spontaneity.
Find a way of making notes to support your presentation style. The
most common form of note making is to use index cards. These can be read at a glance.
Use them as visual prompts to guide you through your presentation. Use one card
for each main idea, including details of the supporting information for each
point. Connect your cards together with a tag or a piece of string so that they
can't get out of order.
2. Assert yourself
An effective presenter needs to be assertive, not aggressive.
There are two important Ps.
Posture
It is
important to appear confident at all times. Different postures create different
moods. A very formal, upright and still posture will create a very different
atmosphere from a relaxed and active one. Remember to match your physical
behaviour to the objectives underpinning your presentation. If you want to be
either formal or informal, make deliberate choices about your physical style
and stick to these.
Presence
Have the
confidence to fill your space in front of an audience. Avoid apologising for
your presence by saying “sorry” (although you must be polite if circumstances
so demand— e.g. the session is running over time, or the microphone has stopped
working). Also, avoid physical apologies by hiding behind a desk or lectern.
You must be confident that the audience wants to listen and that you have
something interesting to tell them. Don’t be afraid to wait for an audience to settle
down before you start speaking or to ask for quiet if this does not happen.
3. Make contact with your audience
One of the
key challenges faced by the presenter is to establish links with her/his
audience (a poor presenter appears to be speaking to an empty room). Making
contact helps to maintain an audience's interest and encourages them to believe
that you are genuinely interested in talking to them. You can make contact with
your audience in a number of ways, including:
- eye contact;
- gestures;
- spoken contact;
- your use of language.
Eye contact
Eye contact
is part of everyday communication and an audience can feel uncomfortable if
they are denied it. Making eye contact with individuals gives them a sense of
involvement in your presentation and helps to convey your objectives on a
personal level. Make sure that you share eye contact with all members of a
small audience and all areas of a large audience. Regularly shift your focus
around the room, not so that you look nervous, but to help involve as many people
as possible in your talk.
A handy tip: if you
can’t make eye contact in a large group, don’t look at the floor or ceiling
(this looks like boredom or rudeness). Try looking at people’s foreheads. The
people sat around them will read this as eye contact even if the individual
won’t.
Gesture
People use
their arms and hands in every day conversation to add emphasis or to help
describe events. Presenters will therefore look rather awkward if they keep
their hands in their pockets or rooted firmly at their sides. Use gestures to
welcome your audience, to add emphasis to your main points or to indicate an
ending. Try to use open gestures which move away from your body, extending them
out to your audience. This helps to break any audience/presenter divisions.
Make sure that all gestures are controlled and precise; too much movement will
appear nervous and unfocussed. Always watch against distracting your audience
from the content of your presentation. You should continually be trying to find
ways to help them listen and understand.
Spoken contact
Acknowledge
your audience by making verbal contact with them. At the beginning of your talk
ask if they can see and hear you, or check that lighting and sound levels on
audio-visual equipment are satisfactory. During your presentation, ask
rhetorical questions that you can then answer (e.g. “How do we know this was
true?” or “So, what does this prove?”). At the end of your talk give the
audience an opportunity to ask questions or to clarify detail— this encourages
them to take ownership of your material.
The use of questions is an important tool. Questions involve your
audience’s mind in a more stimulating way than simply asking them to sit and
listen to your talk. Draw an audience in with clear, focused questions.
Language
Your use of
language is particularly important in developing and sustaining a relationship
with your audience. Try using language that involves your audience. For
example, asking questions such as “What can we learn from this?” or “How did we
arrive at this conclusion?” involves your audience in an exploratory process or
discussion. When looking at visual aids, introduce them by saying “If we
look at this slide we can see that ..” or “This slide shows us
that…”. Use language that is welcoming and involving throughout your
presentation.
4. Use your voice
Your voice is
a very flexible and powerful tool. You can use it in many different ways by
varying the:
- volume;
- pace;
- pitch.
Volume
Make sure
that your voice is loud enough for your audience to hear clearly. Speaking too
loudly or too quietly can make it difficult for your audience to follow your
presentation. Listen to people speaking in normal conversation. They tend to
raise or lower their volume for emphasis. For example, they may speak loudly when
giving an instruction but softly when apologising. To add energy to your
presentation, use these colourful changes to your best advantage: a
conspiratorial whisper can draw an audience in; a loudly spoken exclamation can
make them sit up and listen.
Pace
Make sure
that the speed of your delivery is easy to follow. If you speak too quickly or
too slowly your audience will have difficulty following your talk. To add life
to your presentation, try changing the pace of your delivery. A slightly faster
section might convey enthusiasm. A slightly slower one might add emphasis or
caution.
Pitch
The pitch of
your voice also varies in day to day conversation and it is important to play
on this when making a presentation. For example, your pitch will raise when asking
a question; it will lower when you wish to sound severe.
Play around with the volume, pace and pitch of your voice when
practising your presentation. Find different ways of saying the same sentence.
Explore different ways of adding emphasis to your main points. Always try to
convey enthusiasm and energy through your use of your voice.
5. Breathe
Always
remember to breath steadily and deeply. If you are anxious about making a
presentation your breathing will become fast and shallow. This will affect the
quality of your voice and your ability to speak clearly for extended periods of
time. Try to take a few deep breaths before you make your presentation, making
a conscious effort to slow your breathing down and taking in more air with each
breath. During your presentation, use pauses after questions or at the end of
sections to allow comfortable breathing patterns. Don’t be afraid to slow down
the pace of your presentation if your breathing becomes uncomfortable.
6. Drink
It is a good
idea to have some liquid to hand to quench your thirst if you are speaking for
a long time. However, be careful not to gulp ice-cold water before you go on as
this constricts your throat and affects the quality of your voice. Drink a warm
(not hot) cup of tea to relax your throat and ease your speaking voice.
And finally ... a note about humour
Only use humour if you know it will work. Humour needs to be
relaxed and confident - if used badly, it will only heighten senses of
awkwardness and anxiety if these are already present. Use humour if you know
you can and if you feel it is appropriate to do so.
Conclusion
Continually explore your personal style using any or all of the
above suggestions in different combinations for different effects. Above all,
remember two main points:
- be yourself— even in the most formal of surroundings you will need to be yourself. No one will be impressed if you try to perform like a classical actor or act like a stand-up comedian;
- avoid any behaviour that might be off-putting to your audience— always be deliberate and clear in your use of your voice and physical actions.
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