PRESENTATION SKILLS

Introduction

A presentation is a process of offering for consideration or display. It can be a social

introduction, as of a person at court, or a demonstration, lecture, or welcoming speech, or a
manner or style of speaking, instructing, or putting oneself forward. The manner of presenting,
especially the organization of visual details to create an overall impression is a presentation. It
may be the formal introduction of a person, as into society or at court. In the business world,
there are sales presentations, informational and motivational presentations, first encounters,
interviews, briefings, status reports, image-building, and the inevitable training sessions.
Presentations can also be categorized as vocational and non-vocational. In addition, they are
expository or persuasive. They can also be impromptu, extemporaneous, written, or memorizes.
But it's more important to focus on their purpose. There are three basic purposes for giving oral
presentations:

1. To Inform

2. To Persuade

3. To Build Goodwill

Planning Your Presentation

Preparing a presentation can be an overwhelming experience if you allow it to be one. The strategies and
steps below are provided to help you break down what you might view as a large job into smaller, more
manageable tasks.

Step 1: Analyze your audience

The first step in preparing a presentation is to learn more about the audience to whom you'll be speaking.
It's a good idea to obtain some information on the backgrounds, values, and interests of your audience so
that you understand what the audience members might expect from your presentation.

Step 2: Select a topic

Next, if possible select a topic that is of interest to the audience and to you. It will be much easier to
deliver a presentation that the audience finds relevant, and more enjoyable to research a topic that is of
interest to you.

Step 3: Define the objective of the presentation

Once you have selected a topic, write the objective of the presentation in a single concise statement. The
objective needs to specify exactly what you want your audience to learn from your presentation. Base the
objective and the level of the content on the amount of time you have for the presentation and the
 background knowledge of the audience. Use this statement to help keep you focused as you research and
develop the presentation.

Preparing the Content of Your Presentation

Step 4: Prepare the body of the presentation

After defining the objective of your presentation, determine how much information you can present in the
amount of time allowed. Also, use your knowledge about the audience to prepare a presentation with the
right level of detail. You don't want to plan a presentation that is too basic or too advanced.

The body of the presentation is where you present your ideas. To present your ideas convincingly, you
will need to illustrate and support them. Strategies to help you do this include the following:

 Present data and facts

 Read quotes from experts
 Relate personal experiences
 Provide vivid descriptions

And remember, as you plan the body of your presentation it's important to provide variety. Listeners may
quickly become bored by lots of facts or they may tire of hearing story after story.

Step 5: Prepare the introduction and conclusion

Once you've prepared the body of the presentation, decide how you will begin and end the talk. Make
sure the introduction captures the attention of your audience and the conclusion summarizes and reiterates
your important points. In other words, "Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Then, tell
them what you told them."

During the opening of your presentation, it's important to attract the audience's attention and build their
interest. If you don't, listeners will turn their attention elsewhere and you'll have a difficult time getting it
back. Strategies that you can use include the following:

 Make the introduction relevant to the listeners' goals, values, and needs
 Ask questions to stimulate thinking
 Share a personal experience
 Begin with a joke or humorous story
 Project a cartoon or colorful visual
 Make a stimulating or inspirational statement
 Give a unique demonstration

During the opening you want to clearly present your topic and the purpose of your presentation. Clearly
articulating the topic and purpose will help the listeners focus on and easily follow your main ideas.

During the conclusion of your presentation, reinforce the main ideas you communicated. Remember that
listeners won't remember your entire presentation, only the main ideas. By reinforcing and reviewing the
main ideas, you help the audience remember them.

Practicing and Delivering

Step 6: Practice delivering the presentation

Most people spend hours preparing a presentation but very little time practicing it. When you practice
your presentation, you can reduce the number of times you utter words and phrases like, "um," "well,"
and "you know." These habits can easily diminish a speaker's credibility. You can also fine-tune your
content to be sure you make your most important points in the time alloted.

In addition to planning the content of your presentation, you need to give advanced thought to how you
want to deliver it. Do you want to commit your presentation to memory, use cards to guide you, or read
from a script? Or, you might want to use a combination of methods. To help you decide, read the
advantages and disadvantages of the four delivery methods described below.

How to Develop Written Presentation Skills

Usually when people prepare for presentations, they practice their oral communication skills. However,
what people often overlook is the written components of presentations, such as Power Point slides,
handouts and the notes that cue their speaking. Visual aids usually draw an audience’s attention, so they
should function as effectively as possible. Learning to develop written presentation skills can help you
avoid common presentation blunders, such as putting too much text on your visual aids or reading from
your notes. Effective written components of presentations summarize and condense information. Your job
as a speaker entails elaborating on your visual aids and notes.

Practice summarizing large and small texts of information, such as a novel, a newspaper article or an
advertisement. Summarize oral texts as well, such as a news report or conversation on a TV show or an
entire movie. Write down only the major points or events.

Summarize texts you have written in the past, such as an old essay, report or story. Condensing your own
texts often proves more difficult because you might feel that all the information is important simply
because you wrote it.

Cross out all minor information and unnecessary words in an informative text, such as a newspaper article
or a textbook chapter. Leave major nouns, adjectives, numbers and significant comments. You should be
able to cross out 75 percent of the words in the article, leaving only the important information.

Arrange your summaries, or the words left after crossing out an article, into point-form notes. Point-form
notes begin a bullet or dash and are not complete sentences. They do not require correct grammar or
punctuation and may even comprise a single word: - Introduction of capitalism – a free market economy -
First theorized by Adam Smith, also called the “father of capitalism” - Historical and contemporary
examples – what was effective about them, their pitfalls - Conclusion

Practice creating Power Point slides based on your point-form notes. The point-form notes prompt you as
you are speaking; a Power Point should condense information from your point-form notes even further.
Reading word for word from your Power Point is boring for an audience and does not demonstrate an
ability to organize and interpret information.

Helpful presentation tips

  Easy Format
 Organize Your Thoughts
 Know Your Material
 Prep Time
 Outline Your Presentation

Group Presentation-
Three Ingredients of Group Presentations

Clarity

Clarity means clearness of purpose, thought or style. Developing clarity within your group will
help you develop a clear message for your audience.

Clarity of purpose

The purpose of our presentation is to sell our Product

Clarity of roles

Personalities come into play when groups meet to develop presentations.

Clarity of message

Instead of writing speeches for each individual speaker, try creating one master presentation, a
unified narrative, and then decide who speaks to which points, and when. This is a shift from the
traditional segmented method of group presentations where often group members are directed to
give five minutes of talking and then are left to develop content independentlyMoreover,by using
a master presentation, your group will ensure that each of the presenters will stay on script and
use cohesive language, smooth transitions, and (when using visuals) consistent graphics.

Control

Group presentations face unique logistical challenges beyond just developing presentation
content.

Control in introduction

The way of introducing a group is noticed by the audience, so plan those introductions with your
presentation. If your group is responsible for making its own introductions, however, you will
need to decide if you will introduce your group members in the beginning, or when they first
speak. Your group also will need to decide if each member introduces her/himself, or if one
member will introduce everyone. There is no one right way to do introductions, but your group
must decide how to do them before the day of the presentation.
Control in transitions

Decide how you are going to hand off from one speaker to the next. In the master presentation
approach, you may want to consider simply have speakers pick up a narrative right where the
previous speaker left off. If you use the more traditional segmented approach, each speaker may
cue the subsequent speakers by identifying them and their subject matter.

Control vis-a-vis time and space

Multiple speakers translate to occupying more physical space, and the potential to gobble up
more time with introductions and transitions. Our presentation must fit within your allotted time.

Commitment

Commitment from each group member is going to give your presentation the best content and
flair that will impress your audience.

Commit to a schedule

Once you know the date of your presentation, create a schedule that includes specific milestones,
such as presentation draft due and final rehearsal. Having a specific schedule allows members
either to agree to the groups expectations or to offer dates that better fit their personal schedules.
One can also assign specific responsibilities to the scheduled milestones; preparing handouts,
projector, and laptop, etc., to the presentation

Commit to rehearsing

Rehearsing is one of the most important steps for presentation success. Practice makes perfect,
and no rehearsal means your group doesnot know what will happen to the content, timing, or
quality of the presentation.