Academic Presentation

Objectives:
General: Students are able to deliver presentation based on the
procedures/steps/guidelines explained and to use the verbal/nonverbal
expressions for the presentation appropriately/correctly.
Specific:
1. Students are able to explain the characteristics of bad and good oral presentation.
2. Students are able to practice opening the presentation correctly.
3. Students are able to use effective body language.
4. Students are able to practice ending the presentation correctly.
5. Students are able to practice handling questions correctly.

Activities 1

Task 1. Watch the video 9.1 and answer the following question.

1. What makes a bad presentation?

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Task 2. Watch the video 9.2 and answer the following question.

2. What makes a good presentation?

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Task 3. Watch the video 9.3 and compare your answer. Do you have similar answers?

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Preparation and Planning

All presentations are generally aimed at either giving information or trying to

persuade the audience. Giving information means that the presenter “tells” the audience
information so that the information can be transferred from the presenter to the audience.
Trying to “persuade” the audience means that the presenter not only gives the audience
information so that they understand, but also influences audience to believe, make decision
or do what the presenter said. Whether your purpose is to inform or to persuade, your
presentation will include many of the same elements. It's important that you know your
own purpose before you give a presentation. Therefore, to reach the aim of a presentation,
consider why you give presentation, what you want to say, and what reaction you want.
This unit provides the essential elements and some tips on preparing and organizing
a successful oral academic presentation in English.
Remember anyone can give a good presentation. Preparation and practice can
be the keys to success!
The better you understand how to prepare for a presentation, the better results
you'll get following your presentation. Planning helps you to target your presentation to
meet the particular demands of the time, place, and listeners.
Planning is probably the most important step in creating a successful presentation of
any kind. Planning helps you decide on the content and the order in which the information
will be presented.
The following are some points to consider in preparing your presentation
 1. Determine the Purpose of the Presentation, what you want to achieve:
o Do you want to inform your audience, inspire them to think about your topic,
or convince them of a particular point of view?
2. Think about your audience
o 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?
3. Gather Your Information
o Keep it simple when designing your presentation.
o Focus on three or four main points only
o Know everything about the topic so you are ready for questions after the
presentation.
4. Sketch out the Slides on Paper
o Make sure the slides emphasize the main points to be made in the
presentation.
o Try to have only one main idea on each slide.
o List few points per slide.
5. Determine the Order of Your Slides
o Although this can be changed later, having a rough idea of the order of your
topic points will help you plan the order of your slides.
6. Create the Presentation
o When creating the slides, be consistent in your choice of background colors,
fonts, transitions, and animations.

Structure of Oral Presentation

A good oral presentation must be well structured because this makes it easier for the
listener to follow.
Basically there are three parts to a typical presentation: the beginning, the middle
and the end (or introduction, body and conclusion).
A. The Beginning/Introduction
The beginning of a presentation is the most important part. It is when you establish a
rapport with the audience and when you have its attention.
A.1 Get the audience's attention and signal the beginning.
Right. Let's begin.
Well. Can we start?
OK. Shall we start?
Erm. Let's get the ball rolling.
Good. Let's get down to business.
Fine.
Great.
A.2 Greet audience.
It is important to greet the audience by saying something like:
Hello ladies and gentlemen.
Good morning ….
Good afternoon ….
Good evening ….

A.3 Introduce yourself, (name, student number, department and faculty)

 This is not only to give important information so people can identify you but
also to establish your authority on the subject and to allow the audience to see
your point of view on the subject.

- Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce myself. I am …

- Good morning everyone, I'd like to start by introducing myself. My name is...

- Good morning, my name is ….. I am a student at the department of … the

faculty of ……… My student number is ….

A.4 Give title and introduce subject

What exactly are you going to speak about? Situate the subject in time and place, in
relation to the audience and/or its importance.

- I plan to speak about...

- Today I'm going to talk about...
- The subject of my presentation is...
- The theme of my talk is...
- I've been asked to give you an overview of...

Why are you going to speak about it?

- I have chosen to speak about this because...

- I was asked to speak about X because...

Have you set any limits on the scope of your talk? What won't you speak about? It
may be very useful to eliminate certain areas before you start so as to avoid
confusion or deviation from your main task. It also protects you from criticism later
for not covering certain aspects or issues.

Have you estimated the time it will take? It is useful to give the listeners some idea
of how long you will speak so as to maintain their attention better.

- I will not speak about...

- I have limited my presentation to
- My talk will last about 15 minutes
- I will speak for 15 minutes.

At some point you should ask a question or somehow try to determine the attitude
and knowledge of the audience. How do they feel about the subject? You will then
have to modify the contents, as you never know exactly what to expect.

- Have you ever heard of...? You may already know…

- I feel sure that some of you… Every day you encounter...

To get the audience's attention and perhaps to find out where they are you could
introduce the subject by saying:

- Have you ever heard of/seen X?

- You've probably seen countless times... You may have wondered...

A.5 Give your objectives (purpose, aim, goals)

 The main purpose of an informative presentation is to have the audience
understand and remember a certain amount of information. You should therefore
have two purposes: a general purpose and a specific one. The former is to inform:
to give an overview, to present, to summarize, to outline; to discuss the current
situation or to explain how to do something or how something is done. The latter is
what you want the audience to take away with them after listening to you, what
you want them to do, what they should remember.

- My purpose of my presentation is …
- What I would like to do today is to explain …. to illustrate... to give you the
essential background information on... to outline... to have a look at...
- What I want my listeners to get out of my presentation is...
- If there is one thing I'd like to get across to you today it is that…

Once you have established your specific objectives you may go on to formulate
your content.

A. 6 Announce your outline.

You want to keep the outline simple so 3 or 4 main points are usually enough.
Concerning grammar the headings of the outline should be of the same
grammatical form.

- I have broken my presentation down/up into …. parts.

- I have divided my presentation (up) into …. parts.

- In the first part I give a few basic definitions. In the next section I will explain
…
- In part three, I am going to show... In the last part I would like/want to give a
practical example...

A.7 Questions and comments from the audience.

You should also let the audience know at some point in the introduction when and
whether they may ask questions.

- I'd ask you to save your questions for the end.

- There will be plenty of time at the end of my presentation for a discussion.
- You may interrupt me at any moment to ask questions or make comments.
- Please stop me if you don't understand anything I say but could you keep any
specific questions until after I've finished.

A.8 Make a transition between the introduction and the body.

You should refer to your transparency or outline.

- Now let us turn to point one.

- Let us now move on to the second part, which is, as I said earlier….

Activity 2
Memorize the verbal expressions commonly used in the beginning of a presentation, then
work in pair and practice expressing them in front of your partner
B. The Middle/Body

B.1 Content.
What information should you give in your presentation? All your information
should support your purpose. In most cases you will have to limit the content, as time
is usually precious!

B.2 Quantity
How much information should you give? Enough to clearly develop your ideas.
Don’t forget to illustrate through examples.

B.3 Sequencing your ideas.

Here are a few possibilities for organizing your ideas: logical; chronological
order; from general to specific; from known to unknown; from accepted to
controversial; cause/effect; problem/solution. Whatever sequencing you choose, the
headings should be all of the same grammatical form.

B.4 Keeping the audience's attention

The beginning and the end or the first and last parts of a presentation are what
listeners will remember best. Think of ways you can keep the audience's attention
throughout the rest of the presentation.

B.5 Signposting or signaling where you are.

Just as when you are driving along a road that you don't know very well, you
depend on signs to guide you, you need to guide the listener by using expressions to
tell him/her where you are going. That is to say, first announce what you are going to
say (give an example, reformulate etc.) and then say what you want to say. This is
very like verbal punctuation. Indicate when you have finished one point and then go
on to the next one. It is redundant in text but very useful in oral presentations.
Experienced presenters will also clearly pause, change their stance and the pitch
of their voice as they move from one part of a presentation to another.

 Listing information
Vary your language whenever possible and avoid reading directly.

-
There are three things we have to consider: one…, two…, and three….
(A…, B…, C…).
- Now let us look at the first aspect which is... First of all,… In the first
place…

 Linking ideas, sections/making transitions

Indicate the end of one section and the beginning of the next.

- That's all I would like to say about... (subject of part A) and now let us
turn to .... Now that we've seen... let us turn to…

 Outlining options.
If there are alternative ways of looking at a topic or proposal, outline them to
show you are familiar with the different ways of dealing with a situation.

- There seem to be two possible ways of dealing with this...

- We've looked at this from the point of view of the manufacturer but what
 about if we were to...
- A number of options present themselves at this point....

If what you are dealing with demands a comparison of strengths and weaknesses
indicate clearly the different aspects and underline the points you feel are
important or secondary.
- What exactly are the benefits? On the plus side we can add...
- This is not the only weakness of the plan...
- We cannot ignore the problems that such an action would create... We do
not need to concern ourselves with…
- Of lesser interest are…

 To be clear and concrete.

Use examples, rephrasing, summaries etc.:

 To give an example:
- Now let's take an example.
- An example of this can be found... To illustrate this…
- Let's see this through an example. For example,
- For instance, e.g.
 To rephrase:
- Let me rephrase that, In other words
- Another way of saying the same thing is
- That is to say i.e.
 To summarize:
- To summarize
- To sum up,
- Let me summarize by saying
- So that concludes my overview
- In conclusion
- Briefly said
- In short,
- What I've tried to show in this part... To recap what we've seen so far...
 To emphasize:
- What is very significant is...
- What is important to remember... I'd like to emphasize the fact that...
I’d like to stress the importance of... to highlight...to underline...
- What I tried to bring out... What we need to focus on...

 To refer to what you have said previously:

- As I have already said earlier... As we saw in part one...
- To repeat what I've said already…

 To refer to what you will say:

- We will see this a little later on.
- This will be the subject of part 3.
- We will go into more detail on that later.
- For now, suffice to say...
 To refer to what an expert says:
- I quote the words of ... In the words of… According to...
- Here I'd like to quote…
- As Mr. X says in his book...
- There is a famous quotation that goes...
-
  To refer to common knowledge:
 As you all may well know...
 It is generally accepted that...
 As you are probably aware (of)...

Activity 3
Memorize the verbal expressions commonly used in the middle of a presentation, then work
in pair and practice expressing them in front of your partner.

C. The End/Conclusion

The end of a presentation should never come as a surprise to an audience; it needs

special consideration. The end or the conclusion of your talk should include four parts:
1. a briefly summary of your presentation in a few lines to make sure the audience
has retained the main points. Alternatives are: to state the point of the
presentation; give the essential message to retain; list the main points and what
you want the audience to remember; review informally or indirectly by using a
quote, a comparison or example.
2. a short conclusion, a message that logically comes out of the ideas developed in
your presentation. This could be a commentary, the lessons learned, some
recommendations, or the next steps. You could also make a call to action; the
audience should have to do something.
3. thanks to the audience for listening and being there, and
4. an invitation to ask questions, make comments or open a discussion. If you
choose the former, you put yourself in a superior position compared to the
audience and should be considered as an expert. You will need to be very
prepared intellectually and psychologically to transfer control to the audience
and be able to answer any questions. However, in the case of the latter, you put
yourself more or less on equal terms with the audience and do not have to be
the expert with all the answers! The audience may have some clear ideas or
some practical knowledge about the subject themselves!

Naturally you need to signpost the end of your presentation. This may take the form
of a recapitulation of the main points.
I'd like to summarize/sum up
At this stage I would like to run through/over the main points... So, as we have seen
today....

Or there may be recommendations or proposals that you wish to make;

As a result we suggest that…
In the light of what we have seen today I suggest that...
Based on what we have discussed, my first proposal is...

D. Dealing with Questions

You may well have to deal with questions.
I'd be happy to answer any questions....
If there are any questions please feel free to ask.
Thank you very much for your attention and if there are any suggestions,
comments, or questions please feel free to ask.
D.1 Dealing with difficult questions
Make sure you understand the question.
 Ask a question to see if you understand
 Repeat the question in your own words to check that you have understood.
 if not, ask the questioner to repeat

D.2 In answering:
 delay the answer (ask for time and/or repeat the question)
Just a minute please. What is a...? How can I put it?
I'm glad you asked that question. That's a good question/point/remark. Can I
answer that question later?
 admit that you are not responsible.
I saw that in the work of…

 agree but give an alternative point of view

I agree with you but there is another way of looking at it.

Activity 4
Memorize the expressions commonly used in dealing with questions in a presentation, then
work in pair and practice expressing them in front of your partner

E. Visuals
What are visuals?
 graph - charts
 maps - photos
 drawings - images
 models - video/films
 objects
What media are used?
 transparencies slides
 power point slides
 video projection/projectors
 handouts
It is often a good idea to give out a paper copy, called a handout, an outline, a glossary of key
words, sources, any other visuals you plan to use, so people can take them away, not waste
time in taking notes on key concepts.

What should you put on a visual?

 Key words √ examples
 technical words √ diagrams
 lists √ charts

Vocabulary of graphs/chart
 line graph (algorithmic, linear curve, line)
 diagram
 bar chart
 flip chart
 pie chart (segment, slice of the pie)
 flow chart
 organization chart
Why use visuals?
 to focus the audience's attention
 to illustrate points easier to understand in visual form but difficult in a verbal
form (e.g. statistics)
 to reinforce ideas
 to change focus from aural/oral to visual
 to involve and motivate the audience
 to involve all the senses
 to serve as logical proof
 to save time and avoid putting information on a board
 to avoid turning your back to the audience when writing on a board
 to help the speaker

Text to put on a visual

 name, conference/company and company logo, date, title of presentation. Try to
do this consistently but not to the detriment of a table or image.
 full sentences are not to be used, unless a quote is given, give round figures
 N.B. keep text to a minimum

Size, layout, font (typeface) and size, colors.

 Layout should be pleasant and easy to read: horizontal/landscape layout is
preferable.
 Fonts: Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Futura, Optima, Verdana, New
Century, Schoolbook and Courier. Some companies impose a particular style.
 Font size - maybe 20 or more depending on the size of the room you will be
speaking in. A good idea is to use different sizes for different types of text: i.e. 20
for main headings, 16 for subheadings, 14 for other text.
 Use CAPITAL LETTERS, bold face, italics, underlining, reverse (white on black) or
shading to highlight.
 If possible, use color transparencies (unless you are just showing text).

How many?
 One every two minutes is sufficient. To show too many slides is worse than none
at all.
How should you present a visual in a presentation?
It is not sufficient just to put up a transparency on the screen and expect the
audience to turn its attention to it, to understand it and make the link with what you are
saying. We would suggest the following strategy:

 It is important to prepare your audience for what they are going to see. This keeps the
audience on their toes and gives you the opportunity to position your visual correctly.
 Let's look at the …., as you can see...
 I'm going to show you now the most recent figures available...
 My next slide concerns the method by which...

 Remember to draw the attention of the audience to the points that you wish to
highlight but avoid redundancy by describing everything that is in the visual!
 As you can see....
 The first line of figures is the most revealing...
 Notice/observe how the increase has had an effect on the...
 What is important here is the way that...
  You can also try to rephrase your point to give it emphasis, giving the audience time to
absorb the information.
 In other words the number of employees has a direct effect on the...
 Or to look at it in another way every time you...
 That is to say no matter what technique is used, the results remain

F. Creating Interest and Relationship with the Audience

Do not assume the audience will be interested in what you have to say. Even if they
are, minds wander and get distracted. From the very beginning you need to create interest
and continue doing so throughout your speech. You need to put everything on your side to
promote knowledge acquisition. In informing an audience you have to adjust to what people
think, to constraints, maintain a dialogue (and not a monologue) and use attractive
supporting materials. How can you do this?
 Make it personal. Arouse listeners' interest from the beginning. In the introduction show
how your subject or what you are going to say affects or may affect their lives.
 Other techniques are:
 Give an unusual fact or statistic. Use words like you, we, us, our.
 Illustrate with a real life story or anecdote.
 Ask the audience to do something. "Raise your hands if you know."
 Ask the audience direct or rhetorical questions.

 Other tips:
 Be brief and clear in giving the subject and purpose.
 The speaker’s attitude is important - knowledge, personality, openness.
 Be lively and enthusiastic.
 Use a variety of media sources.

Rhetorical questions

What is a rhetorical question? A question that you ask without expecting it to be answered.
Why use such a question? In using such a question the speaker appears to be having a
dialogue with the listeners. It also should catch their attention.

 Have you ever seen/heard/experienced...?

 How can we explain this?
 What does that mean?
 What can be done about that?
 What does this imply for you, as a consumer?

Emphasizing/highlighting
 Say something is important.
 The important thing to remember is...
 The essential element is...
 Stress verbs with your voice.
 We experimented with the concept over a period of three years.
 Add auxiliary verbs for emphasis.
 We did see a noticeable difference.
 Change the word order
  What I'd like to show today is the difference between the two products. Good
it may be, easy it isn't.
 Repetition
 As I've said before... Let me repeat
 Tripling, chunking and other techniques of word play and emphasis should be used as
you become more fluent and confident.
 This method is clearer, cheaper and more consistent.
 Quality is not something that affects the bottom line, it is the bottom line.

G. Body Language
The golden rule is "Be natural and relax!"

What is body language?

Eye contact, facial expressions, posture, movements, gestures.

Why is it useful?
It is a natural part of communication:
 to clarify meaning; it is very visual
 to vent nervousness
 to maintain interest
 to emphasize and regulate

Below are just a few examples of both positive and negative body language:

Positive body language

 eye contact to keep audiences' attention (Asian audience might feel aggressed).
 facial expressions should be natural and friendly. Don't forget to smile.
- raise eyebrows to show surprise
- open eyes wide
- squint your eyes
- knit your eyebrows to show consternation or puzzlement
 posture – stand straight but relaxed (do not slouch or lean)
 movement - to indicate a change of focus, keep the audience's attention
- move forward to emphasize
- move to one side to indicate a transition
 gesture
- up and down head motion or other movements to indicate importance
- pen or pointer to indicate a part, a place (on a transparency)
- shrug of the shoulders to indicate "I don't know!"
- hands - back and forth = two possibilities, more or less arm - movement
back, forth

Negative body language

 loss of eye contact: looking at notes, looking at screen, at the board, at the floor
 don't stare, or look blankly into people's eyes
 swaying back and forth like a pendulum
 back turned to the audience
 nervous ticks
 hands in pockets
Voice and Pronunciation
Correct pronunciation is important if one is to be understood correctly. Incorrect
pronunciation is perhaps the first cause of communication breakdown. If the listener is not
accustomed to the speaker’s native language, he/she will not understand a mispronounced
word. Mispronunciation also tires the listener’s ear and he/she will perhaps even stop trying
to understand the speaker if it becomes too difficult.

What is pronunciation?

There are two important aspects of pronunciation of individual words, word stress and
the individual sounds themselves called "phonemes". A suggestion: make sure you know
how to correctly pronounce at least the key technical words or words that you repeat over
and over again in your speech.
Just as in the case of individual words in English a particular syllable receives stress, so
do particular words in a sentence. Sentence stress concerns stressing particular words in a
sentence usually at regular intervals. English speakers stress words that are important for
meaning such as: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, negatives, demonstratives and
interrogatives. Unstressed ones include articles, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, and
conjunctions.

Voice

The voice, or more precisely the qualities of the voice, should be used to its/their fullest.
Qualities include loudness, speed (fast or slow), variety, pitch (high or low), silent moments or
pauses. The voice is important:
 to indicate importance, meaning
 to create atmosphere and to avoid sounding monotonous and putting the audience
to sleep!