The joy of presentations…
• Presentations:
– The Three P’s: Preparation, Practice and Presentation
Contents
• The importance of oral presentations
• Reasons for Being Afraid of Public Speaking
• Preparation
• Practice
• Presentation
• Exercises
I. PREPARATION AND PLANNING
1. What is the aim
2. What is my title?
3. Who am I speaking to?
4. What are the main points I want to make?
5. What do I want the audience to do after listening
to my presentation?
• When?
• What time of day is it? What day is it? Will the audience
be more or less receptive
• when listening?
• How long?
• In relation to what the audience knows or time
constraints, what can I eliminate if
• necessary?
• Other
• Am I dressed appropriately? Shoes polished? Are my
hands and fingernails clean?
The Importance of Oral Presentations
• People use their oral presentations to make informal
reports, in-house proposals, sales proposals,
recommendations, and informal briefings
• Oral communication must be clear and concise because
misunderstandings can cost both time and money
• Oral presentations by a firm’s representatives affect its
reputation and competitive position
The Importance of Oral Presentations
• Informal Reports
• In-House Proposals
• Sales Proposals
• Recommendations
• Informal Briefings
Reasons for Being Afraid of Public Speaking
• Why do people fear public speaking?
• Robert Flax, president of Motivational Systems, who
surveyed 12,000 people and found the top six reasons for
being afraid of public speaking. See the following table
for the results
Reasons for Being Afraid of Public Speaking
Reasons for being afraid of public
speaking
%
Fear of making embarrassing mistakes 81%
Fear of damaging career or reputation 77%
Fear of forgetting or freezing, of not being
able to say anything at all
63%
Fear of being dull or boring 58%
Fear of looking nervous or petrified 52%
Fear of being stared at 45%
Reasons for Being Afraid of Public Speaking
• A widespread fear of public speaking results from people
believing they must be natural born speakers to be effective
• Replacing uncertainty with a planned approach, individuals
can conquer fear
• This planned approach includes preparation, practice and
presentation
Preparation
• People don’t make effective presentations just out of the
blue, they must spend some time setting a clear purpose
• To be effective you must begin by determining the
general and specific purposes of your presentation
Preparation
• Determining the purpose involves two steps:
– First you must determine the general purpose
– Only then can you follow up by choosing a specific
purpose
• Most authorities recognise three general purposes:
– Informing
– Persuading
– Entertaining
Preparation
• Although you have only three general purposes for
making a presentation, your choices for specific purpose
can be infinite
• Few speeches inform, persuade or entertain entirely; most
combine more than one purpose
• After you decide your purpose, you need to analyse your
audience
Analysing the Audience
• You must find out as much information as possible
concerning your audience in order to tailor the message
• You need to know:
– The makeup of the group
– The group’s knowledge base
– The cultural diversity of the group (religion,
nationality, background, etc.)
Organising the Presentation
• Organise your presentation to provide purpose and
direction
• Examine your topic and organise the presentation into
logical units – do not cover too many topics as you will
often have time constraints
• A rule of thumb is to have only three main points
regardless of the length of your presentation
Organising the Presentation
• Developing a thesis – a clear one sentence statement
presenting your central idea
• Forming the main ideas – you main ideas should
number from two to five, have equal importance, relate to
each other and be in logical order
• Determining the support material – this clarifies the
main idea and makes memorable and interesting points to
the audience
Organising the Presentation
• Estimating your time and word constraints – ask
yourself “How much time do I have to present and
how much can I say in that time?”
• Once you find out approximately how much time
you have for a presentation, you can begin to
estimate how much you can say
• One minute equals approximately 110 words
spoken at a normal conversational speed
Organising the Presentation
• Construction the introduction – it should include an
attention grabber and a preview
• Making the conclusion – the conclusion reviews the
thesis and main points and gives effective final remarks,
and should comprise approximately 10 percent of your
presentation
• Outlining the presentation – enables you to determine
the order in which you will present.
See example at the end of this chapter…
Organising the Presentation
• Developing visual aids – visual aids should enhance your
presentation, but not replace it
• Environmental Pollution – Instead of 4 bulletins points why not give
your audience a powerful image of dead birds. Yes – it works they
will remember it so will you.
• Research has shown that individuals retain more information when
presenters incorporate visuals into their presentation
• A speakers goals are met 34 percent more often when visuals are
used than when they are not
Organising the Presentation
Table 9.2 Retention of Information
After 3 Hours After 3 Days
Heard Only 70% 10%
Seen Only 72% 20%
Heard and
Seen
85% 65%
SOURCE: From Cheryl Hamilton, Communicating for Results, 3rd Ed. 1992 p 85
Organising the Presentation
• Most people feel anxious before giving a presentation, by
practicing you can put this anxiety to work for you
• Practice to develop your self confidence
• Do not read your speech when practicing or presenting it,
you will lose eye contact with your audience and speak
too quickly
Practice
• Practice in front of a live audience, and dress and act the way
you will for the actual presentation
• Find out what the audience found interesting, memorable or
confusing, ask them to list what they thought was the most
important point, to find out if they got your message
• If you cannot practice in front of a live audience, tape record
or video tape your speech
Practice
• Practice helps to eliminate non-words, such as “ums,” and
“ahs”, and helps you to replace them with pauses, which
have benefits:
– A brief pause enables your listeners to absorb the point you
just made and makes listening easier
– Pausing gives you the opportunity to take a breath
– Framing your ideas in silence adds impact
– A pause gives your listeners the gift of silence and allows
them to take in what you just said
Presentation
• The top ten “bloopers” of presentations:
1. Distracting mannerisms (verbal and/or physical)
2. Poor intonation, volume or rate
3. Not being prepared
4. Not connecting with the audience
5. Poor visual aids
6. Poor structure or fragmented speech
7. Not practicing and managing time
8. Lack of eye contact
9. Reading the presentation
10. Inappropriate humour
Presentation
• Use up nervous energy – before the presentation push on
the arms of a chair for a few seconds and then relax, or
clench your fists, then relax. Repeat a few times
• Actions during the introduction – smile and keep eye
contact with the audience, and do something requiring
movement but do not take more than two steps towards
your audience as you will appear uneasy and unsure
Gesture Inhibiting Stances
Stance Characteristic
The Bear Hug Arms across your chest
Ten-Hut! Arms stiff, firmly nailed to the pelvis
The Flesh
Wound
One arm hangs, the other acts as a
tourniquet
Parade Rest Legs slightly spread, hands behind back
The Choir
Person
Hands clasped at waist, fingers entwined
Supplicant Same as above but at chest level
The Fig Leaf Demurely crossed hands
Sisters of Mercy Hands in praying position
Gesture Enhancing Stances
• Open up your arms – to embrace your audience between
your waist and shoulders
• Drop your arms – to your side when not in use
• Avoid – quick and jerky movements
• Vary gestures – switch from hand to hand and at other
times use both
Audience Attitude.
The attitude of the audience toward you and your
subject can vary in several ways. The audience may:
– Like you and like your subject.
– Like you but dislike your subject.
– Dislike you but like your subject.
– Dislike both you and your subject.
– Like or dislike you and be neutral about your subject.
– Be neutral about you and like or dislike your subject.
– Be neutral about you and your subject.
Audience Knowledge
• Use a vocabulary that everyone will understand.
• Explain technical terms.
• Make your organizational plan obvious, and
make transitions clear.
• Repeat and emphasize key points.
In summary then…Hints & Tips
• Do use PowerPoint
• Be very clear about how much time you have
• Be very clear about your key message
• first slide should announce the title of your presentation
• second slide should seize the attention of your audience
• third slide should set out the structure of your presentation -
Agenda
• Each slide should have a clear heading.
• Each slide should normally contain around 25-35 words
Hints & Tips
• No more than 15 slides – 12 to 15 slides is a good number.
• No cheesy images. Use professional stock photo images.
• No dissolves, spins or other transitions.
• Sound effects can be used a few times per presentation, but
never use the sound effects that are built in to the program.
Instead, rip sounds and music from CDs and leverage the
Proustian effect this can have. If people start bouncing up and
down to the Grateful Dead, you’ve kept them from falling
asleep, and you’ve reminded them that this isn’t a typical
meeting you’re running.
• Make copies of your slides available.
So to conclude the presentation…
• Becoming an effective speaker requires work
• You must develop speaking skills and refine them through
practice
• Take advantage of opportunities to speak
• Apply the adage “practice makes perfect”