Giving an Oral Presentation Preparing your oral presentation Organising the content Delivering your presentation Using visual

aids Dealing with nervousness Preparing your oral presentation First of all, think ... Think about what you want to achieve: do you want to inform your audience, inspire them to think about your topic, or convince them of a particular point of view? Think about your audience: what background knowledge do they have about your topic? Do they have any particular interests? How are you going to involve them in your presentation? Then ... rainstorm your topic and write a rough outline. !esearch your topic. Don"t get carried away#remember you have a limited time for your presentation. $rganise your material and write a draft#think about the length of time you have to talk. %ummarise your draft into points to write on overheads and&or cards. 'lan and prepare your visual aids. !ehearse your presentation and get its length right. (sk a friend to listen and time you. Organising the content Introduction (may be written last) )apture your listeners" attention: egin with a *uestion, a funny story, a startling comment, or anything that will make them think. %tate your purpose+ for e,ample: -."m going to talk about..." -This morning . want to e,plain/" 'resent an outline of your talk+ for e,ample: -. will concentrate on the following points: First of all/Then/

This will lead to/ (nd finally/" The Body 'resent your main points one by one in logical order. 'ause at the end of each point 0give people time to take notes, or time to think about what you are saying1. 2ake it absolutely clear when you move to another point. For e,ample: -The ne,t point is that ..." -$3, now . am going to talk about ..." -!ight. 4ow .5d like to e,plain ... " -$f course, we must not forget that ..." -However, it5s important to realise that..." 6se clear e,amples to illustrate your points. 6se visual aids to make your presentation more interesting.

The onclusion .t is very important to leave your audience with a clear summary of everything you have covered. .t is also important not to let the talk 7ust fi88le out. 2ake it obvious that you have reached the end of the presentation. %ummarise the main points again, using phrases like: -To sum up..." -%o, in conclusion..." -$3, to recap the main points/" !estate the purpose of your talk, and say that you have achieved your aim: -. think you can now see that..." -2y intention was ..., and it should now be clear that ..." Thank the audience, and invite *uestions: -Thank you. (re there any *uestions?" Delivering your presentation Talk to your audience, don5t read to them9 ( presentation is not the same as an essay.

.f you read out your presentation as if it were an essay, your audience will probably understand very little and will lose concentration *uickly. %o use notes, cue cards or overheads as prompts, and speak to the audience. .nclude everyone by looking at them and maintaining eye:contact 0but don5t stare or glare at people1. ;atch your language9 3eep it simple. The aim is to communicate, not to show off your vocabulary. <mphasise the key points#and make sure people realise which are the key points. !epeat them using different phrasing. )heck the pronunciation of difficult, unusual, or foreign words beforehand. Use your voice to communicate clearly %peak loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear you. This may feel uncomfortably loud at first, but if people can5t hear you, they won5t listen. %peak slowly and clearly. Don"t rush9 %peaking fast doesn"t make you seem smarter, it will only make it harder for other people to understand you. 3ey words are important. %peak them out slowly and loudly. =ary your voice *uality. .f you always use the same volume and pitch 0for e,ample, all loud, or all soft, or in a monotone1 your audience will switch off. ;hen you begin a new point, use a higher pitch and volume. %low down for key points. 6se pauses#don5t be afraid of short periods of silence. 0They give you a chance to gather your thoughts, and your audience a chance to think.1 Using visual aids .t is very helpful to use visual aids in your presentation, as it helps people to understand. 'eople learn visually as well as orally. 'articularly if your accent is different from your audience5s accent, it can be very helpful to let them see your keywords. $verheads $verheads are the easiest and most reliable form of visual aids. >ou can use them as a prompt for your talk, so that you may not need cards. ? ut don5t read word:for:word from your overheads9@ e careful to:

6se bold typeface, and a minimum of si8e AB font ?)heck that your overheads are readable by placing them beside you on the floor and looking down at them. )an you read them?@ 6se no more than seven or eight main points on an overhead ?$verheads that have too many words on them are no use at all@ Cive your audience time to take notes from your overhead 2ake sure your audience can see the overhead screen ?;here are you standing? .s it directly in front of the screen?@ 6sing colour, pictures and graphs can make your overheads more interesting ? ut don5t overcrowd your overheads with too much detail@ PowerPoint >ou can use 'ower'oint software to produce very professional overheads, or to make a computer:based presentation. .f you would like to learn more about it, you can ask the )omputer )entre %ervice Desk for more information. !emember that 'ower'oint may look great, but if the technology goes wrong you may be very embarrassed. .t5s a good idea to print out a handout, or have some overheads as a backup 7ust in case. %ometimes students are tempted to spend more time on producing 'ower'oint graphics than on the actual talk. !emember#if your talk is poor, no amount of fancy graphics will save it9