EN296 – Presentation Skills
Presentation Skills – Part II
Dr. Ajith Pasqual
A Checklist for Presentations
• Start preparing early - don't wait until the last few
days to prepare
• Think about Your Audience
– Be clear about your purpose
– Are you informing or persuading
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Use an Effective Introduction
Organize your presentation clearly and simply
Use supporting materials to flesh out main point
Compose for the Ear, not for the Eye
Create an Effective Conclusion
Sound spontaneous, conversational, enthusiastic
Checklist …
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Use Body Language Effectively
Use Visual Aids to Enhance the Message
Analyze the Environment
Cope with Stage Fright by Remembering:
– it's normal; it can be helpful, everyone feels it
7 P’s
Engleberg (1994) proposes a 7 P approach to the
principles of public speaking.
Purpose:- Why are you speaking? What do you want
audience members to know, think, believe, or do
as a result of your presentation
People : Who is your audience? How do the
characteristics, skills, opinions, and behaviors of
your audience affect your purpose
Place: Why are you speaking to this group now and
in this place? How can you plan and adapt to the
logistics of this place. How can you use visual aids
to help you achieve your purpose
Preparation Where and how can you find good
ideas and information for your speech? How much
and what kind of supporting materials do you
need.
7 P’s ….
Planning: Is there a natural order to the ideas and
information you will use? What are the most
effective ways to organize your speech in order to
adapt it to the purpose, people, place, etc.
Personality: How do you become associated with
your message in a positive way? What can you do
to demonstrate your competence, charisma, and
character to the audience?
Performance: What form of delivery is best suited to
the purpose of your speech. What delivery
techniques will make your presentation more
effective. How should you practice?
Effective Introductions
• What? - overview of presentation (use
visual aids if necessary)
• Why? - purpose of presentation - why
subject is important
• How? - format you will use; what can the
audience expect to see & learn
• Who? - if more than one person, provide
introductions and indicate roles
Effective Conclusions
• review, highlight and emphasize - key
points, benefits, recommendations
• draw conclusions - where are we? ... what
does all of this mean? ... what's the next
step?
Remember!! – Conclusion is the last part of your
presentations. It is this part that audience will be
remembering most when the leave.
Summary : 4 Basic Steps
• formulate a strategy for the specific audience
• develop a flexible, flowing structure
• combined prepared material with an enhancing,
not distracting, presentation style; it is important
to remember that how you present is as important
as what you present.
• supplement the presentation with confident,
informed responses to questions and challenges
Types of Visual Aids
Visual aids significantly improve the interest of a presentation.
Overhead projection transparencies (OHPs)
• 35mm slides
• Computer projection (Powerpoint, applications such as
Excel, etc)
• Video, and film,
• Real objects - either handled from the speaker's bench or
passed around
• Flip~chart or blackboard - possibly used as a 'scratch-pad' to
expand on a point
Visual Aids
Think of Your Listeners
• Listening is much more difficult than reading
• Listeners listen somewhere between 25% and 50% of the
time
• Information must be taken in on the fly with no backtracking
• Short-term memory holds only 5 to 7 points
• People remember only 10% of what they hear versus 50%
of what they read
Visual Aids …
Design to Help People Listen
1. Organize - provide structure and framework for the data you
will present
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Arrange the visuals so that listeners can easily organize and
reconstruct your verbal message
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list points to be covered and provide a "road map" of how you
will get there
2. Illustrate - help listeners to visualize - convert data to
information
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paint a picture
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tell a story
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make comparisons
Visual Aids …
3. Repeat - improve audience reception of data
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remember that "listeners" listen only 25 to 50% of the time
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repetition often suggests importance
Visuals Should...
• Support your communication objective
• Enhance your verbal message, not detract from it
• Set tone and emotional content of verbal message with
the use of colors and images
Features of Good Visuals - Visibility
You have to be able to see it to believe it
• Visuals should be legible to most distant viewer
• Minimum legibility standards: one inch letter height on
screen per 30 feet viewing distance
• Data needed for legibility calculation
• Screen width
• Distance from projector to screen
•Lens rating of projector (in inches)
•Distance of most distant viewer from screen
Visibility ..
• Typewritten copy will not be visible!
•Enlarge it on copy machine
• Use 18 point type or larger when laying out transparencies on a
computer
• Limit number of words per line
• 3 to 4 per line optimal
• 6 to 7 maximum
• Limit number of lines per visual
• Less than 10 per transparency
Features of Good Visuals - Clear
Instantly recognizable in context to your verbal message
• Focus on one idea per visual
•Avoid too much primary information
•Use color to focus on key information
• Directly relate to communication objective
• Complement verbal message
•Add impact or tone to message
•Provide overview or "whole picture"
Features of Visuals - Simple
• Eliminate extraneous information and clutter
• Visually simplify using design, color, or overlays
Ways of Adding Variety
• Combine both left and right brain sensory channels
•Left brain: words, sentences, symbols
•Right brain: graphs, charts, symbols, pictures, etc.
• Add color for emphasis, but beware of color connotations
• Use movement with transparency pens, overlays, slide
dissolves, etc.
• Change backgrounds to change pace or introduce new topic
• Change sequence of eye scanning (horizontal, vertical,
diagonal) with design
Delivery of Presentation
• Speak clearly. Don't shout or whisper - judge the acoustics of
the room.
• Don't rush, or talk deliberately slowly. Be natural - although not
conversational
• Deliberately pause at key points - this has the effect of
emphasising the importance of a particular point you are
making.
Avoid jokes - always disastrous unless you are a natural expert
To make the presentation interesting, change your delivery
• speed
• pitch of voice