Presentation Skills

Whether in class, at work, or at an extracurricular activity, you’ve probably sat through some presentations that have had you staring at the clock and others that have you on the edge of your seat. Have you ever thought about what makes the difference between a successful presentation and a boring or uninformative one? Presentation skills are key to getting information across. They allow you to engage your audience, keep their attention, and teach them. The best presentations have both style and substance, whether they’re virtual or in person. In order for a presentation to work, you need to take into account the following key components:

Introduction

Will your presentation be virtual, or in person? This will make a difference in how you prepare. We’ll begin with some tips for presenting virtually:

• Test audio and other settings in advance.
• If you want (or DON’T want) to use filters or virtual backgrounds, make sure to set those up or remove them in advance. You should also test the links of any resources you plan to share.

• One of the biggest challenges when presenting virtually is that it can be difficult to tell if you’re connecting with your audience. We’ll talk more about audience engagement later in this tutorial, but one thing to consider about the virtual format is that even without being in person, there are ways to connect. It just takes a little preparation:
• Do you want to poll your audience? Send them into breakout rooms for discussion and then bring them back? Use a chat feature to gather feedback or questions? Consider these possibilities in advance and incorporate them into your presentation planning.

Format

While you may have fewer technical details to get figured out when presenting in person than you do when presenting virtually, there are still things you need to consider about the in-person format when preparing.

Format: Tips for In-Person Presenting

Avoid too much text on a slide whether you’re presenting in person or virtually - it distracts the audience and makes it harder for them to focus on the words you are saying. Keep slides to key points, leaving detail in your notes to share orally. If you think audience members might want a record of what you’ve said after the fact, you can distribute more detailed notes or a recording later. When using visuals, make sure they are relevant to what you’re discussing. Do they help you illustrate a point, or could they be a distraction?

Format: Using Slides Wisely

Are you presenting to experts? Students? Tailor your presentation to the level of knowledge of your audience. Different audiences may need terms defined differently, or be engaged in different ways. You may want or need to learn more about your audience on the fly by doing a poll or asking a question. This could help you adjust what you’re focusing on, and also be an engagement tool. The size of your audience is also significant, as it will affect the nature of your presentation. A small audience allows you to have more individual interaction with the participants, whereas you might choose other engagement techniques for a full auditorium or large online audience.

Audience

Use a hook at the beginning of your presentation. A hook is a technique to grab your audience’s attention and keep them engaged. This could be anything from posing a question, to telling a relevant story or joke, to playing a brief audio or video clip that relates to your topic and will set the stage for your presentation. Be interactive. This is possible both in person and virtually. Depending on the length of your presentation and the size of your audience, you may want to use a few different interactive strategies. Have a conclusion strategy. Do something to leave your audience thinking as you wrap up. Exit slips, discussion, or another final activity can help tie things together.

Techniques for Engaging Your Audience

Before you plan your presentation, make sure you know how long you have to present. This will make you more efficient in planning what you are going to say, and it will help you know how much time you have for things like discussion, Q&A, and other activities. If you only have 3 minutes to make a presentation, your strategy might be very different than if you are presenting for 30 minutes. Practice presenting to make sure you are finishing in the time you have allotted. If you’re running over, you may spend the bulk of your time on a hook and intro and not have time to get to the main points you want to make. Make yourself a note of how long each section should take so you can see as you go whether you’re on schedule. Don’t forget to factor in time for discussion, activities, and transitions. When you’re practicing, it’s important to consider not only the time it will take you to speak, but also how long it will take to facilitate a conversation, divide people into groups for an activity, or other parts of your presentation that go beyond you speaking.

Length

Don’t forget the heart of your presentation, the content! Being prepared with your technology and presentation techniques is important, but don’t put style over substance. Presenting information verbally requires the same high standards as presenting it in writing:

• Do your research, using reliable sources, as you would when researching for a paper.
• Cite sources when you mention them - this is just as important as doing so in a written paper! If you quote a source on a slide, include a written citation. If you’re referring to another person’s ideas in your remarks, mention them by name.
• If your presentation is a summary or companion to a written paper you have completed, review your paper for the most important points you want to get across. Are there any charts or other visuals from the content that you want to also include in your presentation?

Content

You should now be familiar with the characteristics of an effective presentation. As you prepare to create and deliver presentations in your academic professional life, keep in mind the tips you gathered in this tutorial.

Conclusion