PRESENTATIONS SKILLS

INTRODUCTION
Well-developed presentation skills enable you to communicate clearly, precisely and effectively
in a variety of modes or registers and settings. It should be pointed out that they are rated as one
of the most important soft skills. The ability of communicating with the audience and giving
presentations should be seen as a mandatory prerequisite for both the effective learning process
and the successful working life.
Thus, it is imperative to gradually increase and enhance your presentation skills through a
continuous training that will help you to become more competent, confident and competitive.

OBJECTIVES:
• to develop your skills to communicate clearly, effectively and confidently with a range of
audiences in a
range of different contexts;
• to improve your research and design skills, and strengthen your delivery techniques;
• to enhance your use of different support electronic and other visual tools;
• to reinforce your performance skills (verbal and non-verbal);
• to increase your confidence level in interacting with audience and control your nervousness;
• to promote critical and reflective thinking by dealing with feedback on your presentation skills.
Three types of presentation might be identified:
1. Information-giving. This is predominantly descriptive, giving or summarizing information.
You may be asked to do this as part of a mini-teaching session, sharing theoretical or factual
information. Here the point is to see what you have understood and how you have extracted the
main facts from your reading and to relay these to the group. You will need to make decisions
about what information to include.
2. Discursive. Here you will need to debate the strengths and limitations of an approach or
develop an argument, exploring and weighing up different perspectives, challenging your
audience to accept a different viewpoint.
For this, you will need to decide your ‘angle’ – are you for or against it, weight pro and cons?
Pull your audience in, challenge and confidently debate.
3. Demonstrative. This type of presentation tends to be used in the context of training: for
example, when demonstrating your ability to illustrate your understanding of a technique or
teaching a practical skill to others.
Thus, before you start working on the presentation, answer the following questions:
 • What is the main aim of the presentation and what message you want to deliver to the
audience in the time limit set?
• What is the current knowledge level of the audience and what new knowledge or
awareness do you want the audience to have gained from your presentation?
• What is the most effective way to communicate this knowledge?

Preparation
You should remember that planning a presentation can be even more demanding than working
on a written assignment. The main challenge is to try to fit all gathered information that you
usually consider relevant into the time that is allocated.
The advantage of this approach is that you will be well prepared with very detailed information
which you can freely use during the presentation particularly if questions are asked. Otherwise,
some people compile a set of headings, and based on these headings prepare a short paragraph
for each point of their presentation.
You might plan the body of the presentation;
• prepare the first draft of the presentation;
• prepare the first set of prompts;
• put the presentation aside for a while
• review, revise and edit first draft – decide on a ‘good enough’ draft of the presentation;
• decide on the audio-visual aids that will be useful;
• prepare the ‘good enough’ set of prompts

As a very general principle, the rule of three is offered.

1. Tell them what you are going to tell them.

2. Tell them.
3. Tell them what you have told them.
You need to think about how to build your presentation by dividing the material into sections,
each one dealing with one important point. Structure your ideas so that you move seamlessly
from one point to another. The structure of your presentation will depend on the topic that you
are dealing with, but in general there should include:
• An introduction, outlining the aim of your presentation and the areas your talk will focus on
• The main body, containing the substance of your talk and developing the ideas outlined in the
introduction
• A conclusion, drawing together the main points and containing the ‘take home message’ for
the audience.

TIMING
In most presentations, it is usually better to deliver less content at a reasonable pace, than too
much content at a faster pace that may leave the audience feeling overwhelmed and confused.
You should fit the topic into the allotted time and plan time for breaks, asides, questions. This
means you should think clearly about what to include and exclude from the final version of your
presentation.
Inexperienced presenters will find difficult to fit into time allocated. On the one hand they have
prepared too much material and then have to jump to their conclusion, rushing over key points
and running the risk of leaving their audience confused. On the other hand, they have under-
prepared and have to face one of the most embarrassing of all public speaking experiences –
running out after ten minutes with your audience expecting the full half hour.

DELIVERY (FULL SCRIPT VERSUS NOTES)

Inexperienced presenters attempt to write down the whole speech, even including ‘Good
morning ladies and gentlemen’. They prepare a closely drafted text, each line filled, with very
little space left. Experienced presenters have their own style of notes, but never fill the page with
text. You can organize your speech notes in many ways and it is very much a personal
preference.
When it comes to the actual presentation you need to decide whether you will read from what
amounts to a script, or whether, based on your notes, you will speak without reading directly.
Certainly when a presentation is delivered in one of these two ways there is a noticeable
difference, and in most cases the reading of a script comes across definitely less well. It depends
to a certain extent on the way that you have written the script. If it is written in a formal
academic tone then it will sound overformal. If you are able to write it in a more conversational
style, then you will have a better chance of making it sound natural.

FORM OF LANGUAGE
It is important to recognize and respond to the difference between formal written language and
spoken language. When giving a presentation it is not obligatory to use complicated language
constructions, to use long words, or to speak in nested and convoluted sentences.

VISUAL AIDS / MATERIAL FOR DISTRIBUTION

If you use more pictures and diagrams than text, you will possibly help the audience to
understand better what you are saying. This is because after three days an audience will have
retained 7% of what they read (bullet points, or other notes on the screen), but 55% of what they
saw pictorially (charts, pictures, diagrams).
You should be aware that visual aids are complementary to the presentation and you should not
focus too narrowly on visual aids because you will lose the key point of presentation.
Visual aids can:
• Help audiences understand the presentation itself. For example, writing up the agenda of the
talk on the board or as a handout will help an audience follow the structure of the presentation
itself. (clarify the meaning)
• Emphasize different parts of the presentation. Here you might underscore a key word or point
by capturing it on a PowerPoint slide, by giving a supporting quote or reference or by producing
an illustrative image or object. (visual aids reinforce what you say)
• Take the pressure off the speaker. For a brief while all eyes are on something else for a
moment. This is a good thing. (people tend to look at the visual aid rather at you, it helps when
you are nervous)
When you think about what makes presentations effective, it will be convenient to consider how
you can use images to communicate more effectively. It will be useful to remember these general
principles:

• Use images to improve understanding. Sometimes, it is easier to use a picture instead

of words to improve audience understanding. When you show a picture, you can ask them a
question or suggest they think about the image in a certain way. You can then remain silent while
they think about the image or the task you have set them. Images can also be used to direct
audience attention away from you and onto the image on the screen. This may help to steady
your nerves as it gives you a few seconds to perhaps take some deep breaths or check your notes.

• Use images to save time. If there is only a short amount of time you could include images
as a quick way to cover some of the content. You have probably heard of the phrase, ‘a picture
paints a thousand words’ and this is very relevant to a student presentation.

• Use images for interest. Images use the visual sense whereas sound and speech use the
auditory sense. Providing content in a variety of formats means that the audience has to use of a
range of senses. This keeps them active in the process of receiving the presentation. We all have
preferences and using a variety of communication approaches ensures a wider appeal to different
members of the audience.

• Use images for impact. Images are more relevant for some topics than others but even if
only a few can be included, they can be useful to create pauses and breaks in the delivery,
generate discussion themes or make a lasting impression.

NON-VERBAL (EYE-CONTACT, BODY LANGUAGE, HAND

GESTURES)
Eye contact
Eyes are one of your best tools for involving the audience in what you are saying. Good posture,
movement and gestures will be of little use if you fail to support them with appropriate eye
contact. Great presenters understand that eye contact is critical to building trust, credibility, and
rapport.
It is advisable to maintain eye contact with your audience at least 90% of the time. It is
appropriate to glance at your notes or slides from time to time, but only as a reminder of where to
go next. You are speaking for the benefit of your audience. Speak to them, not the slides.
• Never hold one person’s gaze for more than five seconds maximum.
• Never appear to be ‘watching tennis’, swinging your eyes (and head) from one side of the
audience to the other.

Body language. You will also need to think how you communicate using body language.
Body language can distract people from what you are saying or even irritate. People can bite
their nails, twiddle with things, sniff and so on. If you have distracting habits, find a way of
controlling them. Hold your hands behind your back or hold a sheet of paper so you can’t fiddle.
Body language can encourage people to listen to what you are saying. This thing can engage
other people: smiling (it is appropriate to smile but not like a Cheshire cat); leaning towards
them; standing up to do a presentation (it gives your authorities and helps project your voice);
moving in a natural way (standing totally still is distracting).
Gestures. Using your hands can help in the same way that whole body movements can: to relax,
stimulate and illustrate. If you find it hard to use your hands naturally, then the best policy is to
hold them by your sides. Try not to:
• clasp hands behind the back. This looks much too formal.
• fold them in front. This is usually interpreted as a very defensive posture.
• keep them stuck in your pockets throughout the presentation. This can look either casual or
nervous.
• scratch, poke or stroke yourself. As you have probably observed, this is quite a common
nervous reaction
amongst stressed presenters.
• wring your hands together. This can look dishonest or slightly peculiar.
• fiddle with keys, pens, pencils, coins, lucky charms, worry beads, etc. You will just look
nervous.