Giving Presentations
OUTLINE
Why give presentations?
How to give tutorial presentations:
General advice on presentations:
Giving Presentations
Hate giving presentations? You are not alone:
Wallechinsky et al (1977):
Asked 3000 Americans “What do you fear most?”
41% placed public speaking at the top of their list
(above the fear of sickness, loneliness or death…)
We are all utterly terrified of making a fool of ourselves
in public.
Giving Presentations
Why do we have to give presentations?
It is highly unlikely that your career path will allow you to avoid
speaking your mind publicly.
• Information is redundant if it is not shared.
• Organisations are aware that people prefer listening to
messages rather than reading them.
• Speaking to more than one person allows a healthy and
dynamic exchange of views.
There are also many cases outside of a career where an ability
to speak publicly is incredibly useful.
Giving Presentations
Why do we have to give presentations?
In order to produce a good presentation you must be
able to
• Organise and summarise complex information effectively.
• Communicate this information clearly.
• Manage time efficiently.
• Respond appropriately to unpredictable questions.
These are all skills which will help you learn.
These are also highly marketable skills.
Giving Tutorial Presentations
Types of tutorial presentation:
1. Present a paper (written by someone else)
2. Present an argument / answer a question (essentially
an essay title)
Presenting a paper is easier than presenting an
argument.
But there is plenty of opportunity for humiliation in both.
Giving Tutorial Presentations
How not to present a research paper:
1. Go into great detail over the experimental design and
procedures
2. Spend ages describing the results in minute detail
3. Utterly fail to convey any sense of why the experiment
was done in the first place
4. Utterly fail to convey any sense of what the
implications of the results are
Giving Tutorial Presentations
How to present a research paper:
1. Describe the background to the paper:
• Define key terms
• Outline other relevant findings
2. Describe the specific questions the research is addressing
3. Briefly describe the experimental method
4. Describe the most important results
5. Discuss how these results relate to other findings.
6. Discuss the wider implications of the results / any
criticisms you have.
Giving Tutorial Presentations
How not to do an essay based presentation:
Write an essay and then read it out…
How to do an essay based presentation:
Structure: say what you’re going to say, say it and then say
what you said.
Powerpoint: Use visual aids to stimulate audience and cue the
points you want to cover.
General Presentation Skills
1. Finding the right register:
Most speech is conversational.
Most written text is grammatically convoluted.
Getting the right balance between formality and informality
in a presentation is very tricky.
• Avoid colloquialisms (“sort of” or “kinda”)
• Try to avoid erms and ums.
• You want your audience to respect you, not like
you.
• Try to speak more slowly than you would normally.
• Use pauses for emphasis (as opposed to raising
your voice)
• Don’t let your voice fade away at the end of
sentences.
General Presentation Skills
1. Anxiety reduction
The easiest way to reduce anxiety is to have a well prepared
and well rehearsed presentation.
However, if nerves are still a problem, try the following…
• Visualisation: Imagine yourself giving a brilliant presentation.
• Breath deeply.
• Relax muscles / Release tension.
• Take a script which you can read if all else fails.
• Do something else really stressful just before…(drastic, but
works!)
Unfortunately, the most effective treatment for public speaking
anxiety is exposure. E.g. it gets better with practice.
General Presentation Skills
1. Know your audience:
This is easy for you - they will be fellow students plus a tutor.
In other words, the majority will know as much or less than you
do about the topic.
Academics have to face a wide variety of different audiences.
I have talked about my research to:
• Members of the public and NHS managers
• Trainee psychiatrists
• Primary school children
• Psychologists
In each case, the talk had to be tailored appropriately, but a
good general rule is that it pays to keep things simple.
General Presentation Skills
Preparing your overheads:
• Use Powerpoint (or Word for text transparencies)
• Don’t use anything less than a 24pt font.
• Aim for about 8 slides for a 15 minute talk.
• Do not put more than 4 or 5 pieces of information on each
slide.
• Make sure the slide contains information which will prompt
you to make the points you want to make.
Using Powerpoint:
(This slide and the next need to be viewed in slide show mode otherwise the animations
won’t work…)
• DO NOT DO THIS
• OR THIS
• IT IS NOT BIG OR CLEVER
• AND IT GETS ANNOYING
Visual Aids:
Number of Powerpoint
Tricks
• This can also be annoying (if overused)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Very Bad
Bad
OK
Good
How Good Your Data Is
Very
Good
Practice
• Practice giving the presentation to a friendly audience and
ask them for honest and constructive criticism.
• Be prepared for it to hurt!
• Act on it.
• Finishing on time is very important, and requires practice.
• So practice out loud on your own with a clock.
• Practice can be counter productive - if its just winding you up,
stop!
Some general tips
• Make eye contact.
• Talk clearly to the back of the audience.
• Don’t mumble the ends of sentences.
• Be enthusiastic (or pretend…)
• Ask the tutor to warn you when you have two minutes
left.
• The only way it gets better is to give more talks.
• Book yourself a treat for immediately afterwards.
Tips for handling questions
• Repeat questions for the benefit of the audience (and to
give yourself extra thinking time).
• Be honest when answering questions, especially if you
have no idea of the answer.
• Don’t be afraid to ask the questioner to be clearer.
• Don’t be afraid or ashamed to let someone else in the
room answer the question.