This document provides guidance on how to give an effective presentation. It discusses the importance of presentation skills, outlines the typical structure of a presentation, and provides tips for slides, delivery, and handling questions. Key recommendations include having a clear purpose and structure, practicing extensively, tailoring the presentation to the audience, using visual aids to reinforce key points, maintaining good eye contact and body language, and welcoming questions. The document emphasizes the importance of preparation, organization, and practicing delivery to give a polished presentation.

1. How to Give an
“EFFECTIVE”
Presentation

2. Outline
• General Guidelines
• Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Avoiding presentation mistakes
• Planning a perfect Presentation
• Final thoughts

3. Why are presentation skills important?
• Placements……………….most important
• Academia
- Conferences, Seminars, Teaching classes
• Industry (Way of Life)
- Training, Project Reports, Reports to Management
- Selling an idea, sales deal
• Other
Politics, fund raising, community service, etc.

4. The right image conveys trust. The wrong image
conveys doubt.
You never get a second chance to make a first
impression.
The way you look, smell, sound and move can
determine the success of a first meeting.
Importance wanes after that, but never
disappears.

5. A Presentation should have an …
1) Introduction
2) Body
3) Conclusion

6. Introduction
•
The introduction of the presentation is like the first
impression .It should be good enough to hold the
audiences interest. You need to build a relationship with
the audience while giving the introduction.
• Some of the ways of starting the introduction are:
• Story - a small story is a very good way of holding the
audiences interest and building a relationship with
them.
• Question - Asking a pertinent question is another way
of connecting with the audience and holding their
attention. For example - How may people use a
particular product? What is you favorite past time etc.
and then connect it to the presentation.

7. Cont…. Introduction
• Anecdotes - a real or imaginary incident to
hold the audiences interest and connect it to
the presentation's objective.
• Quotation or phrase- A quotation or phrase
which explains the objective.-Example -Think
Win-Win
• Pointing out to some facts/statistics-
Example- do you know that Body language is
responsible for 56 % of the message impact?
7

8. Body
• This is the meat of the presentation and contains
the information facts, data to meet the objective of
the presentation. For example, if you are making
the presentation to show that a particular brand is
better than the others. Show the functional
superiority, performance tests, price advantage,
better performance results etc. The information
can be collected from the published material
-newspapers, magazines, and studies talking to
experts, surveys and Internet.
• The information can be organized in various ways
• Sequential -In a particular sequence or order.

9. Conclusion
• Question & answer method
Ask questions and then give
answers in the presentation
• Comparison & contrast
Compare the two or more
solutions or products and
contrast them (show their
differences)
• Problem solving formula
Explain Causes, Possible solution
and Actions

10. General Guidelines
• Purpose
- You need to define your purpose for giving
the presentation
> Teach, Persuade, Prove, Review, Expository,
Impress, Put to Sleep, Entertain?
> Who?What?How?When?Where?Why?
- Often your goal is a high level overview,
even for a technical presentation
- Don’t tell them everything you did, you’ll
bore them

11. General Guidelines
• Organization
- Always have an outline
- Tell them what you’re going to tell them,
then tell them, then tell them what you told
them
> Hint: I am doing this for this presentation
- Problem then solution
> Not just “data then solution” or “solution
then problem”

12. General Guidelines
• Preparation
- An unprepared presenter loses the
audience before even starting
- Practice makes perfect and builds
confidence
- Arrive early, make sure everything is set
up
- Dress appropriately
> Better to dress up than down
- Slides should be done well in advance

13. General Guidelines
• Time
- Be sure you know how much time you have while
preparing the presentation
> Not 5 minutes before you start
- It is better to end early than to go over
> Always have a watch or clock in view
- You’ll never have enough time to tell everything so
stick to the most important
- Rule of thumb
> At most 1 slide per minute of presentation
> Better to plan 2 minutes for each slide

14. General Guidelines
• Audience
- Be sure you know your audience well
- Tailor presentation to your audience
> Failure to do this is probably the biggest mistake people
make
- Watch the audience for clues

15. Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• “PowerPoint doesn’t give presentations –
PowerPoint makes slides”
- From microsoft.com website
• Your comments should be more compelling
than the slides
• You shouldn’t put everything on the slide

16. Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• Do include 50% white space
• Do make it obvious which section of your
outline you’re in
• Do make each slide stand on its own
- Generally 1 main point for each slide
• Do use animation
- Don’t overuse it
> Makes it difficult and annoying to navigate

17. Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• Do include written conclusion for every
graph
- Don’t forget to add meaningful labels, titles,
captions, etc. to graphs
Percent age
Yes No Yes No
Academia Industry
100
80
60
40
20
0
Percentage of People Needing Pr esentat ion Skills
Conclusion - It is important to learn presentation skills!

18. Use visual aids where you can
How we take in information
during a presentation
Achieving
your
objectives
Making the
presentation
memorable

19. Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• Don’t use yellow text
- Do use dark text and bold
• Do use formatting and color to emphasize
• Don’t include unrelated pictures

20. Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• Don’t do serif fonts (like Times New
Roman)
• Do use sans serif fonts (like Arial)
- or Tahoma

21. Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• Do chek yor speling for mestakes
- Typos instantly destroy credibility and convey
lack of preparation
- Do have someone else read through
presentation
• Do acknowledge previous work and help
• Do use a template if using PowerPoint
• Do put title slide at the end

22. Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• Do use a light background

23. Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• Don’t use a dark background
- Even if using a lighter font color
- Harder to read, especially from the back
- More likely to put people asleep
- Handouts often don’t look very good

24. Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• Do use occasional “spice” or “pace
breakers”
- Humor
- Pictures
- Sound
- Animation
- Questions (Not just
Yes/No)
- Surveys
- Quizzes
- Videos
- Physical Objects
- Top Ten Lists
- Etc.
For example . . .
A pace breaker can do this for your audience

26. Handouts
• Use them if they help achieve your
objective
- Especially for technical presentations
- Greatly increases retention
• Often best to pass out at the end
- You want to keep the audience engaged

27. Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Don’t read or “parrot” the slides
- Otherwise, why give a presentation?
• Do use the slides as a cue
- Let audience read
• Do use pointers sparingly
- They magnify nervousness
- Create slides and use animation that
emphasize your points

28. Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Do be passionate about the topic
- Have fun, this is your opportunity
- If your audience doesn’t know why your topic is
important, you’ve lost them
• Don’t forget to practice
- Record yourself, tape yourself, or use a mirror
- Reading through slides does not count as practice

29. Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Do relax, use nerves to your advantage
- Breathe deeply, pause as needed
- Don’t go too fast
• Do empty your pockets and hands
• Don’t point at computer, point at the
screen

30. Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Do use body language to help make a point
- Purposeful movements
• Do use appropriate posture
- Don’t slouch
- Sitting implies informality
• Do move around if possible
- Don’t pace
- Don’t be hyperactive
- Center yourself, rearrange setup if needed

31. BODY LANGUAGE
Your body communicates different impressions to
the audience.
People Not Only Listen To You, They Also Watch
You.
Throughout your presentation, display:
Eye contact
Facial Expressions
Gestures
Posture and body orientation
Proximity

32. Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Do face audience more than slides
- Don’t talk to the screen or wall
• Do vary your voice
- Don’t speak in monotone
- Most people speak too soft, not too loud
• Do memorize slide numbers for key slides
- Or transition points
• Do get honest feedback from someone you trust

33. THE VOICE
The voice is probably the most valuable tool of the
presenter. It carries most of the content that the
audience takes away.
There are three main terms used for defining vocal
qualities:
Tone
Volume Pace

34. Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Don’t forget to smile

35. Handling Questions
• Welcome them
- Lots of questions are either a sign of:
> Interest in what you are talking about
– Audience internalizing
> Failure to communicate an idea
– Meaning that the person still wants to
understand
• Always repeat the question
1. For you to make sure you understood it
2. For audience to make sure they heard it

36. Handling Questions
• Answer the question to the audience
- Then check back to the individual for
confirmation
• Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”
- Better than mumbling or fumbling an
answer

37. Avoid presentation mistakes
• Ignoring “What’s in it from me”
• Not practicing in front of a live audience
• Forgetting the main principle of public speaking
• Using too many visuals
• Not giving time to look at visuals before
commenting on them
• Using font that is too small
• Using bad color combination
• Speaking too fast

38. Plan a Perfect Presentation
• Know your Audience
• A strong Opening Statement or a Question
• Plan the content of presentation
• Use index cards
• Keep visuals simple
• Practice makes perfect
• Prepare questions and answers

39. Final thoughts
• Superior Presentation skill helps you win
• Effective presentation skill is the mark of
a leader
• Presentation skills is not a talent- it is a
skill
• The purpose of business presentation is
to sell an idea or product- It is not the
facts that sell, it is the presentation.....