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How to do a Good Presentation? Tips for Public Speech

Updated on January 29, 2017

5 Tips For Delivering A Great Presentation - How To Speak In Front Of Others - Public Speaking Tips

Are Presentation Skills enough to Make a Good Presentation?

Presentations have become an inevitable part of our life. Starting from high school students to professional college students and faculty have to do scientific presentations as part of their curriculum or job. How to doa good presentation?

If you are a newbie facing this challenge for the first time in life, I can feel the butterflies in your stomach. But I assure you if you follow some of the basic rules, you will catch the attention of your audience by a good presentation.

Presentation skills are not acquired overnight. In fact there is no such single entity as presentation skill. The presenter has to look into many different aspects to make it a good presentation. Let’s see these aspects to help you do an appealing presentation.

Doing Power Point Presentations

Do You Frequently have to do Power Point Presentations?

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Preparation of Content for Presentation

High quality content from authentic textbooks is the key for any good presentation. As soon as we get the topic for presentation, we have a tendency to turn to internet to get the maximum amount of content. It is not a very bad idea. But the challenge is to segregate authentic information from millions of results available to you within seconds.

You should thankthe pioneers in your field of expertise; refer their textbooks first because that will give the most appropriate and genuine content for your presentation. One of the first steps in presentation skills includes collecting trustworthy and dependent content.

Organising your Content in the Power Point Slides for a Good Presentation

Do not put everything into the slides. The slides will look congested. Highlight only the important points on the slides. A good presenter is expected to explain the highlighted points in his own words. Presentation skills are fine-tuned if you consciously choose some words to explain each phenomenon and to practice it mentally several times with the help of a timer. Use only one idea per slide. Lower case letters ensure better readability.

Have a Sequence- An Important Aspect of Presentation

Decide on your sequence of conveying message. A good presentation will be systematic and organised. Move from simple to complex depending on the level of understanding of your listeners. Instead of providing clarity, your presentation should not add to their confusion. As you develop presentation skills you will learn to incorporate humor and gestures appropriate for the situation.

Use of Power Point Features in Good Presentation

Use sans serif fonts (Helvetica or Arial) for better visibility and pleasing appearance. The text on the slides must be legible and clear. Keep in mind the size of the room, before selecting the font size. Your text should be visible to the people sitting on the last row. If the venue has more than 200 seats, size of the headings can be 42 and that of main text 36.

Rule of six can be applied while designing the slides

Six lines per slide

Six words per line

Use Colors Judiciously when You Prepare Power Point Slides for Academic Presentation

Power point allows you to select a varied number of colours for presentation. Scientific and academic presentations do not use many colours. A good presentation uses font colours to emphasise certain points, to differentiate and to highlight important messages.

If you are using light coloured background, use dark coloured fonts and vice versa. Good presentations in academics generally use blue colour as the background. Keep in mind that the background colour may look paler when projected on a big screen. Animations and slide transitions should be used judiciously so that the attention of your audience remains with your talk about subject matter.

Creating a Presentation - PowerPoint 2010

Use of Pictures and Videos

Good presentations include pictures relevant to the subject matter. Images can speak volumes and can be used for explaining difficult concepts. Use them appropriately at relevant places and according to the level of understanding of the audience. Videos will add on to the conceptsalready explained. They are also helpful in demonstrating certain skills which cannot be demonstrated manually at the venue. Take care not to include too many pictures and videos in a single presentation.

Personal Appearance for a Good Presentation

The appearance of the presenter matters a lot in boosting his own self confidence as well as to attract the audience. You should dress appropriately and professionally especially if it’s a scientific presentation. Scientific conferences will have learned audience. Your appearance should be appealing and you should not be overdoing in make-up and clothing. Being well groomed is an essential feature of presentation skills.

Facing the Inevitable; How to Mask your Anxiety?

Remember! You are the master of your topic. No one else in the audience has done so much in depth learning of your topic as you did. You have been spending a minimum of three to four days searching for the original content, assembling them in power point slides, fine tuning, revising, revising and revising.

Expect the Unexpected

One of the very important presentation skills is to have prescence of mind if something goes wrong. Expect the technology to fail at any time. There can be a power failure or your power point slides may not open when you want it. You might have saved the slides in an advanced version and the computer available at the venue may not support the advanced version. Expect the worst mentally and be prepared with alternatives.

Get Familiarized With The Surroundings Before Presentation

Come to the venue early and get familiarised with the surroundings and the audience. Greet the audience if possible and try and initiate a dialogue before your presentation. This may leave you at ease by reducing the unfamiliarity of the surroundings and help you to deliver a good presentation.

Practice, Practice, Practice…..

Rehearse your presentation again and again at home. Practising in front of the mirror will help in avoiding unnecessary mannerisms and gestures. As the saying goes practice makes you more confident and perfect. Use timer while practising. Have smile on your face and convey your message confidently

Good luck with your good presentation skills!

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