PRINCIPLES OF GOOD PRESENTATION
MIFTAHUL QOWIM
NPM : 2010747028
UNIVERSITAS INDRAPRASTA PGRI
PROGRAM PASCA SARJANA
JURUSAN PENDIDIKAN BAHASA INGGRIS
2010
Introduction
Presentation is an art of speaking. It is of course not only a matter of giving speech in front of the audience or a mass of people, but also a matter of many things that needs great efforts to have a good presentation, or at least considered good one.
It is uneasy thing to get the best result from our presentation as we expect. They are some principles that we must well consider to, so our message well conveyed to the audiences. Make them pay attention to our presentation from beginning to the end successfully, and keep their eyes only on us. And the most important is that our idea will be applied by them after they enjoy our presentation.
Presentation as an Academic speaking is similar in many ways to academic writing: it is linear, it is explicit, it has one central point and it is presented in standard language. (Wallace, 1980, pp.209-2010). Academic spoken style is also similar in many ways in that it is formal, explicit, hedged, and responsible. However, it is less complex and objective than written language.
In general this means that when we are speaking we should avoid colloquial words and expressions.It is the responsibility of the speaker in English to make it clear to the listener how various parts of the talk are related. These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signalling words. When speaking in an academic contexts, facts and figures are given precisely.
Academic speaking uses vocabulary accurately. Most subjects have words with narrow specific meanings. Linguistics distinguishes clearly between "phonetics" and "phonemics"; general English does not.
Spoken language is less complex than written language. Spoken language has shorter words, it is lexically less dense and it has a less varied vocabulary. It uses more verb-based phrases than noun-based phrases. Spoken texts are longer and the language has less grammatical complexity, including fewer subordinate clauses and more active verbs.
Spoken language in general has more words that refer to the speaker. This means that although the main emphasis should be on the information that we want to give and the arguments we want to make, it is not unusual to refer to ourselves or your audience.
Principles of Good Presentation
To be a good presenter / academic speaker, there are some points that a speaker/presenter is supposed to have. Mainly they are five principles:
1. Preparation.
2. Content.
3. Peformance
4. Tone Of Voice
5. Winning the audience.
A. Preparation
Before giving presentation a presenter must be well prepared. By doing so, the presenter will perform well on the stage. According to Roger Darlington (2010) what a presenter must do for preparation as follows:
- Think about the presentation beforehand. It is short-changing the organizers of the event and your audience if you only think about what you're going to say the day before or while travelling to the event. If necessary, clarify with the organizers exactly what is required of you and what facilities you will require.
- Do use PowerPoint if the facilities are available. Although some speakers seem to have taken an aversion to PowerPoint, it is so convenient and ensures that your presentation has a clear structure and something for your listeners to take away.
- Be very clear about how much time you have - and stick to that time in preparing and delivering your presentation. It's very difficult to 'cut' a PowerPoint presentation at the event itself, so it's a great mistake to run out of time. Most presenters prepare too much material; but nobody ever complains that a presentation was too short (it always allows more time for questions).
- Be very clear about your key message - and ensure that everything in your presentation is both consistent with, and supportive of, that key message. You should be able to articulate the message in a phrase or a sentence and indeed you might want to use that phrase or sentence in one of your first slides, or one of your last, or even both.
- E-mail your presentation to the event organizers in advance. Ask them to load it onto a laptop, run it through, check that it looks fine, and confirm that with you. Then you don't have to worry about the technology when you arrive at the venue; you can concentrate on the delivery of your material. Also it enables the event's organizers to run off copies of your slides, so that they are available to them in good time.
- Make copies of your slides available. It is a matter of preference whether you do this at the beginning of your presentation or at the end. If your listeners have copies at the beginning, they can take notes simply by annotating the slides, instead of having to note down all the information on the slides. On the other hand, you might feel that, if they can see in advance the slides you are going to use, you lose the element of control or surprise. It might depend on the content of the presentation: if you are going to show detailed tables or graphs with lots of figures, your audience will probably find it easier to have a copy on their lap. It might depend on the circumstances of the presentation: if there is a large audience, people at the back may not be able to see the screen clearly and would really appreciate having copies of the slides.
- Ensure that the slides look good. This does not necessarily mean that they look flashy - although suitable pictures or illustrations are very effective - but it does mean using a consistent format and typeface and readable colors plus giving each slide the logo of the organization you are representing and a chronological number.
- The first slide should announce the title of your presentation, the event and date, and your name and position. This may seem terribly obvious, but many speakers miss off some of this basic information and then weeks later listeners (or their colleagues back at the organization) are not clear who made the presentation or when. You should try to make the title catchy, so that you immediately have the interest of your audience. A challenging question works well - for instance, a presentation on the global economic crisis might ask: "Is this the end of capitalism as we've known it?" Or a play on words works too - for example, a presentation on next generation broadband could be titled "The Slow Arrival Of Fast Broadband".
- The second slide should seize the attention of your audience for your presentation. It could be the central proposition of your presentation or a conventional wisdom that you wish to challenge or a relevant or witty quote from a leader in your field. If it is amusing or controversial or both, so much the better.
- The third slide should set out the structure of your presentation. The default structure should consist of three themes that you intend to examine. For a very short presentation, there might only be time for two; if you want to look at more than five areas, write a book instead.
- Each theme should be the subject of a small number of slides. Again, a good working assumption is that three slides for each theme is about right. Less than two and it isn't substantial enough to be a separate theme; more than five and it should probably be broken up into two themes.
- Each slide should have a clear heading. A question is often a good way of winning attention - but, in that case, make sure you answer the question in the body of the slide.
- Each slide should normally contain around 25-35 words, unless it is a quote (when you might use more) or contains an illustration (when you will probably use less). Too many words and your audience will have trouble reading the material; too few words and you're likely to be flashing through the slides and spending too much time clicking the mouse.
- Each bullet point should consist of an intelligible phrase, rather than merely a word or two that is meaningless on its own or conversely a complete sentence that is better delivered orally. So, for instance, do use "Focus on profitable and growing markets" rather than simply "Focus" or "Markets" or "It is necessary to focus on those markets which are profitable and growing rather than those which are loss-making and declining". Consider this test: your slides should make sense and be useful to someone who was not present at your presentation.
- Make appropriate use of pictures. It's a good idea to break up text with illustrations and it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words.
- The last slide should set out all appropriate contact details: certainly e-mail address and possibly snail mail address, the web site of your organization, and any personal website or weblog if you have one.
B. Content
Stephen Boyd writes on his article Contents of The Ideal Speech (2007)
You always want an attention device at the beginning of any speech. You cannot expect people to listen simply because you are standing in front of them. You must have a startling statement, a quotation, a visual, or a piece of humor to get their attention. This should be the way you open the speech.
Any time you are assigned to deliver a speech, you may wonder, “What should I include? What can I use that will guarantee a great speech?” You realize that to a degree it depends on the audience and the purpose of your speech, but there are certain items to include that will fit most kinds of audiences and most kinds of speeches. The purpose of this article is to examine what those parts might be.
In addition to an attention-getting device, tell a story. Every great speech has a story. Great speakers in history, such as Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ, were storytellers. A story touches emotions, and giving examples helps make a point clear or gives the audience time to digest the point the story supports. Audiences always give attention when a speaker gives some version of “Once upon a time...”
An important piece of content in any speech is the main reason you are speaking to an audience. Condense your speech into one sentence. Have that one sentence in your mind and speak it at some point during your speech. Perhaps say it again as you conclude. For example, the one sentence that is the essence of this article is, “Learn the formula of the content of a successful speech and you will be more effective the next time you deliver a speech.”
Include a new piece of information in your speech. This might be a recent event that was not in the newspaper, a statistic you found from an uncommon source, a new plan that your company is introducing, or an insight you have because of a particular talent you have. You want your audience to take away something they did not know before they heard you speak.
Every speech should have a summary. Try an internal summary somewhere in the middle of the speech to demonstrate progress toward the end of your speech. Then you can include a summary at the end of the presentation such as the last paragraph of this article.
One final item in any speech is an exit line. Leave the audience with something to think about. This could be a quotation or a pearl of wisdom from your experience. But because people remember best what you say last, make that last sentence count.
The formula for a great speech is difficult to determine because the audience is unpredictable and the circumstances in which you deliver a speech often affect the outcome of the presentation. But starting with an attention-getting device, telling stories, knowing the thesis of your speech, including new information, summarizing as you go, and crafting a great exit line will give you a good foundation to insure success in your next speech.
A good content doesn’t always to be long, otherwise it may make the audiences boring, and node their head. Sometimes short and concise content is considered well. Stephen Boyd (2010) says:
Often a person says too much instead of too little. For example, a little boy went to his mother and asked a question. She said, "Why don't you go ask your dad?" His response: "I don't want to know that much about it."
In a variety of communication situations, less is better. For example, if you are using a PowerPoint presentation, don't put 50 words on a slide. A PowerPoint slide is not the place to include the script of your message. Instead, create bulleted slides. A good reminder is the 6 by 6 rule: no more than six words in a line and six lines on a slide. That will insure that you give more information than the audience will see on the slide. You remain necessary. Otherwise, your PowerPoint gives the whole message in a boring and tedious manner.
Don't give a lengthy answer to a "yes" or "no" question. When a person asks you a "yes" or "no" question, a "yes" or "no" is all the person is asking for. You can give a 30- second message when a question begins with "What do you think..." "How do you feel..." or "How do you...?"
If you are speaking impromptu, don't say too much. A couple of minutes is probably enough to relate your opinion or directions that you have not thought through before beginning to speak. The longer you speak the more likely you will be to make a statement that you regret. In addition, the longer you speak impromptu the more likely you will be to start to ramble.
When you are near the end of a twenty-minute presentation and you realize you have another five minutes of excellent material, don't keep talking. Go to your conclusion and sit down. The audience will never know what excellent material you had yet to cover and will think you are a well-organized and effective speaker because you finished on time.
When introducing a speaker, keep your thoughts under two minutes. Remember that you are not the headliner; the audience came to hear the person you are introducing, not you. This is not the place for a joke or what happened to you on the way to the auditorium. Tell the subject of the presentation, why the audience should listen, and what qualifies the speaker on that particular topic for that audience. Finally, give the speaker's name with enthusiasm and sit down.
When Calvin Coolidge was president he was known for his frugality of words. His wife Grace told about a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party. She confided to him she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly responded, "You lose." Often it is not the length, but the conciseness with which you speak that makes the message have meaning.
C. Appearance
Your well preparation and good content of the speech will mean nothing if your performance on the podium/stage is disappointing or even worse; embarrassing. Stephen Boyd in his Appearance is important (2009) gives comments on this.
Certainly what you say is more important than what people see. Your appearance, however, is an important aspect of your presentation skills; you want to encourage the audience to listen to what you have to say.
Remember that your presentation begins the moment someone recognizes you as the speaker. This might be in the elevator, the restroom, or even in the parking garage. As soon as you are in close proximity to your speaking location, act as though you are on stage—because you may be. Finish your preparation before you leave your car. Avoid writing down notes at the table before you speak. People might get the impression that you did not carefully prepare.
Be sociable in the activities that precede your speech. Look pleasant. Meet and greet people and show a genuine interest in the other person. This is not the time to be sitting by yourself pondering your presentation. Show by your expression and actions that you are engaged in the activities which precede your presentation.
Wear clothing suitable for the audience you are speaking to. If you are not sure, ask the program planner when you are learning about your audience. When possible, dress one notch up from the audience. For men that might mean wearing a sport coat with an open collar if you know your audience will be in knit shirts and slacks. For women this might mean wearing nice slacks and sweater when speaking to a casual retreat where women will be in jeans. For most occasions in a hotel or event center, a suit and tie or silk blouse is always appropriate. Do not wear clothing that can be distracting, which might mean avoiding flashy jewelry or flamboyant shirts and scarves. For some people, of course, the flamboyant look is their trademark. Your appearance should blend in well with your content and the audience to which you are speaking.
I was once in a setting where the young man who was teaching was frustrated at what he perceived to be a negative attitude from the participants. Over half the audience was in suits and ties, dresses and high heels, with a few people in jeans, sweatshirts, and sneakers. The speaker was in jeans with his shirttail out and wearing sandals. There was nothing wrong with his dress if he’d been in the audience, but it adversely affected his rapport with some of the people there. Someone privately suggested he tuck in his shirt and wear a sport coat to the next session, and he wisely took the advice. He was amazed at the difference his effort on his appearance made on the attitude of his audience. His content was excellent but was overshadowed by how he presented himself.
Check yourself in the mirror of the restroom before you enter the meeting room to make sure that everything about your appearance is in place. About a year ago I was in a hurry to make a noon banquet speech and I skipped the restroom look. When I got back to the car after the speech, I realized I had unbuttoned the top button of my shirt and pulled my tie loose earlier in the day, and I had looked that way throughout the speech. I’m sure I appeared as though I’d had more than food at lunch that day!
Look confident even though you may feel nervous about your presentation. Avoid the worried, furrowed-brow look. Smile a lot. Walk with a bounce in your step. Emanate that “I am in charge” aura. You will certainly have that confident look when you are speaking and you will want to show it in the minutes before you speak as well. The incongruity of looking too serious and worried and then smiling and acting enthusiastic as you speak may negatively affect your credibility.
Finally, when you are introduced, walk to the lectern with erect posture, quick steps, and a smile on your face. Before you actually speak, look at the audience to make eye contact with several people, and then begin.
Paul Edwards (2004) tells how we must perform on the stage as follow:
- Stand up. This is better for two reasons. First, people can see you better. Second, standing puts you in a physically dominant position. This sounds politically incorrect, but in this context it isn't. Remember: you're the focus. The audience needs your help to maintain their attention. They want you to be in charge. By standing up, you accept this invitation -- making both your job and theirs a little easier.
- Move around. It's easier to keep focused on someone who's moving than on a motionless talking head. Hand gestures are also good. It's possible to overuse these devices, of course. Simply crossing from one side of the room to the other every three or four minutes is probably enough.
The Paradox of Fear
To perform well on the stage a speaker/presenter first of all must be confident and couraged. A problem will arise when a speaker feels fear. The fear of course will disappear the courage and confidence. Absolutely a speaker has to manage to get rid of this disadvantage feeling. Joan Curtis (2009) in his article How To Say Cool In Public speaking gives some tips to manage fear.
The majority of people would prefer to turn tail and run than to rise up and speak before others. Most of these people will tell you they have no trouble speaking one-on-one, but when asked to stand and speak before groups, they cringe with fear.
This article will put that universal fear of public speaking in the proper perspective and give you some tips for turning the fear into positive energy.
Most people do not realize that fear is a good thing. In fact, if you are too relaxed you will not perform as well on the podium. Seasoned speakers know this. It's a big secret we like to keep to ourselves. If everyone knew that fear was a good thing, everyone would confidently walk up to the podium, knowing that the fear would soon disappear. Others would not be so impressed with our prowess on stage.
Let's look at what happens to effectiveness in relation to fear.
When you first walk on the stage, your fear factor is very high. This is called the red zone, when all of us, even the very best speakers experience the greatest fear. In the red zone when our fear is highest, we are most alert. Blood is really pumping through our veins. Our effectiveness as a speaker rises. As the speech progresses, our effectiveness continues to go up, side-by-side with our nervousness. After about 2-4 minutes into the presentation, we all hit what is called the comfort zone. This is where you begin to sense some relaxation. What you hope as a speaker is that you remain in your comfort zone through the remainder of your talk.
Very nervous speakers do not allow themselves to hit the comfort zone. They stay in the red zone throughout the talk, causing their fear to take over. This phenomenon causes fear not to propel but to paralyze.
If, on the other hand, you become even more relaxed past your comfort zone, guess what happens to your effectiveness as a speaker? It goes down! In fact, the more relaxed you get after your comfort zone the less effective you are on the stage. That little edge that brought you to the podium is now gone. Have you ever seen a speaker whom you thought was so good in first few minutes and then he/she began telling off-color stories or rambled on about something irrelevant to the topic? These are people who surpassed their comfort levels.
Knowing this paradox about fear and effectiveness, we as speakers embrace our fear and use it to propel us, rather than paralyze us. Fear then becomes the energy, the enthusiasm, the spark, our friend.
Tips to Manage Your Fear:
Identify the fear. What are you afraid of? What specifically do you fear? Are you afraid of what the other people will think of you? Are you afraid of losing your train of thought? Are you afraid you'll fall off the stage? Write down everything you fear. Make the list as long as you need to.
Isolate Each Fear. Once you've identified your fears, list the things you can do to prevent that dreaded event from happening. For example, if you are afraid you will lose your train of thought, prepare clear, precise notes. If you fear what others will think of you, imagine what they are thinking. How can you turn their thoughts from negative energy to positive energy?
Take Baby Steps. Instead of making your first speech to the local Rotary Club, ask a question in a Sunday School class. When you feel comfortable asking questions in public, then teach a Sunday School class or volunteer to give a little talk in your public schools. You might consider joining Toastmasters International. This organization offers many opportunities for practice and feedback.
Practice, practice, practice. I wrote another paper on How to Write a Speech without Notes. In that paper I outlined a practice model. Take a look at that model. If you practice your speech to the point that you are absolutely sick of hearing it, you will be prepared for your speech.
Make the Unknown Known. One of our biggest fears of speaking is the unknown. We do not know the audience. We do not know the location. We do not know what will happen when we open our mouths. This list is endless. Of course you cannot make all the unknowns known, but the more you make known the more control you will get on this fear. For example, how can you make the audience known? Here are some tips:
- Research your audience. Find out the kinds of people who usually attend this session. What are their ages, sex, socio-economic background and likely interests?
- Greet people as they walk in. Shake hands and make eye contact. If possible, ask people their names. With a large audience you cannot meet everyone, but each person you greet becomes your new friend.
Engage Your Audience. Look out into the audience no matter how large and get them involved in your talk. Bring them along with you. Don't just talk to them and please, do not read your notes or your PowerPoint presentation. When your eyes point down to read, you do not engage! Ask open questions that make the audience think. Challenge them to become part of your presentation. In another article, How to Engage Your Audience I shared some tips. Take a look at those tips and apply what you can.
Remember, fear is not something to fear. It is something to embrace. No matter how cool a speaker appears, he/she is shaking in his/her boots. We all have that little edge of nervousness when we walk onto the stage. We're all in this together. You are not alone in your fear. What seasoned speakers have done is to learn how to make fear their friend. You can, too!
D. Tone of Voice
Presentation is delivering ideas to the audiences, and how well our message understood by them strongly depends on our voice when we speak to them. We must be able to manage our voice according to the need. Stephen Boyd (2003) says about the tone of voice.
In speaking, we know that what we say may not be as important as how we say it. When my children were small, the tone of my voice when I called their names told them whether I was angry or happy with them. If I called them for dinner, they could tell by my tone of voice whether they should have been at the table ten minutes earlier or if they had another ten minutes to play. The tone of voice says everything. As James J. Kilpatrick wrote about speaking in a column entitled, "Thinking About 'Like and As,'" "We have one tone for a eulogy, another tone for an address to the 20th Precinct Democratic Club. Depending upon our audience, we shift keys like a pickup pianist at a homecoming party."
We tell an audience by our tone of voice whether we are in fun or are passionate about our topic. The tone of voice shows our concern for the audience and determines in the minds of the audience whether or not we are sincere. The audience may say a speaker is boring even though the content in very stimulating. It's the monotone voice that makes them think the presentation is dull.
So as speakers we must be concerned with exhibiting the appropriate tone of voice for our content and have the appropriate tone for the message we want to communicate. Here are some suggestions for making our content more impactful by the tone of voice we use.
- Pause before emphasizing an important word or concept. Doing that will make you punch out what comes next to show the audience this is important.
- Speed up your rate to show excitement. Speeding up will invariably make the tone of voice more urgent and compelling.
- See in your mind the story you are telling. This will translate into your vocal quality. That is why a person who retells a story of an event that just happened will tell it with more excitement in the voice because the picture of the event is still fresh in his/her mind. Talk to a child at the end of a school day and he/she will give a more excited and animinated summary of the day than if you ask about the day later in the evening or the next day. Train yourself to relive the story as you tell it and you will see a difference in your tone of voice.
- Define a place in your speech that might be considered a "wow" factor for the audience. When you get to that point, the audience will think, "Wow! I did not realize that!" If you can anticipate that point in the speech, you will be more likely to put punch into the tone of voice as you speak and your content will impact your audience with greater effect.
- Include vivid facial expression or bigger gestures when you get to an emotional or dramatic part of your presentation. More expressive body movement body will often be reflected in the tone of your voice.
- Include dialogue in your speech. Narrating a conversation will cause you to vary speaking rate and volume to accommodate the different characters in your story so that your tone of voice will be more expressive.
During World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave us hope by the tone of voice in his famous Fireside Chats. Today, we communicate fun, excitement, passion, anger, and enthusiasm by our voices. Set the tone for your next speech by preparing your tone of voice.
Furthermore Paul Edwards (2004) says:
- Vary the pitch of your voice. Monotones are sleep-inducing. Since it's possible to speak in a lively, animated manner without changing pitch, many people don't realize they have this problem. Get a trusted friend or colleague to listen to your delivery and give you honest feedback. (This is an important principle in itself.) Even better, tape or videotape yourself and check out how you sound.
- Speak loudly, clearly, and confidently. Face the audience. An important element of vocal technique is to focus on the bottom (the deepest pitch) of your vocal range, which is its loudest and most authoritative tone. (This can be especially important for women.) Speak from the gut, not the throat. Breathe deeply -- it's necessary for volume. Don't be afraid to ask for feedback: "Can you hear me in the back of the room?" Be careful, when using visual aids, that you continue to face the audience when you speak.
E. Winning The Audience
A presenter without audience is nothing. A good presenter must be able to attract his audiences, persuades them, and finally convince them that his idea is right. So the audiences will take his ideas. Stephen Boyd (2009) writes on an article:
As a speaker, when you have resistance because of a bad place in life, you can’t push people into accepting your ideas. In our time of layoffs, cutting back, and loss of money, the job of persuading an audience can be difficult. Here are some suggestions on how to get the audience on your side when people may be scared about their futures and not concerned about your latest product or idea.
Include a success story. Your audience can’t help but feel in an up mood when they hear a narrative about someone who overcame odds to succeed. Even though it happened nearly 30 years ago, you are inspired when you are reminded of the 1980 U. S. Olympic Hockey team which took home the gold medal against great odds. The movie, “Miracle,” based on that unbelievable success story is still popular today. Success stories encourage an audience.
Mention a benefit everyone in the audience will experience, no matter how difficult the context may be. Point out a freedom available to all or a blessing for each person. You might tie in the time of year or the opportunities afforded all citizens. With college students, I sometimes stress what a great future they have to look forward to by earning an undergraduate degree. To remind them of the big picture after a test everyone did poorly on helps the students to look at a brighter side.
Include new and helpful information when you speak. When you listen to a new idea or a different way of looking at the familiar, you are encouraged. Perhaps there is a perk that comes from slow business that you could mention. For example, when public speaking engagements are far apart, I have more time to research my area of expertise. You might have time to write an article or book on your particular topic that you have been putting off for the past three years. Point out the area audience members might get involved in to give them a competitive edge when the economy comes back.
Make a memorable point toward the end. Leave the audience with a “wow” idea that they can’t resist thinking about as they leave your presentation. Maybe you have from a group or person the audience respects a statistic or testimonial which gives hope for the future. Leave the audience on a high note.
Also Joan Curtis (2009) says:
Engage Your Audience. Look out into the audience no matter how large and get them involved in your talk. Bring them along with you. Don't just talk to them and please, do not read your notes or your PowerPoint presentation. When your eyes point down to read, you do not engage! Ask open questions that make the audience think. Challenge them to become part of your presentation.
Paul Edwards (2004) in his article writes:
- Use visual aids. This is one of the most important principles of public speaking. People are visual creatures. The old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" is especially apropos in the context of a conference talk, where you don't have time to say very much.
At a minimum, have an outline of your talk on overhead transparencies. Some people seem to think they're giving everything away by showing people what they're going to say before they've said it. But the effect of a good talk outline is exactly the opposite: it makes your audience want to hear the details. At the same time, it helps them understand the structure of your thinking. Talk outlines should be extremely concise and visually uncluttered. 12-15 lines of text per transparency is plenty.
- Make eye contact with the audience. If this is anxiety-inducing, at least pretend to do this by casting your gaze toward the back and sides of the room. Be careful not to ignore one side of the audience. Many speakers "side" unconsciously, looking always to the left or to the right half, or only to the front or the back, of the room. Here's another place where feedback, either from friends or from videotape, can be helpful.
- Focus on main arguments. Especially in a conference situation, where talks are short and yours is one of many, your audience is not going to remember the details of your evidence. In such a situation, less is more. Give them short, striking "punch lines" that they'll remember. They can always read your written work later, but if you don't get them interested and show them why it's important, they won't want to. A good rule of thumb is to make no more than three main points in any given talk. That's about all most people will be able to remember.
- Finish your talk within the time limit. Not to do so is disrespectful both of any subsequent speakers and of your audience. Most people's maximum attention span is 40-45 minutes. If you exceed this limit, you'll probably lose them.
The only way to be certain you can keep within your limits is to rehearse your talk. After lots of experience, some people can gauge talk times accurately without this. But nothing is more embarrassing -- for both you and your audience -- than getting only halfway through before hitting the time limit. One trick is to develop a standard format for your talk outlines, then learn how long it usually takes you to talk about each slide. My own rule of thumb is five minutes per outline slide.
- Summarize your talk at the beginning and again at the end. "Tell `em what you're gonna tell `em, tell `em, and tell `em what you told `em": this ancient principle still holds. If you follow this rule, your audience is much more likely to remember your main points. Even more important, it helps you stay focused on the key ideas you're trying to convey.
- Notice your audience and respond to their needs. If people seem to be falling asleep, or getting restless or distracted, the problem may not be you. Is the room too hot, or too cold? Too dark? Can people see you? Is the microphone on? Is something outside the room distracting people? Don't hesitate to stop briefly in order to solve these problems. Ask someone in the audience to open a window. Always use the maximum lighting your presentation format will allow. For example, you can usually leave all the lights on if you're using an overhead projector, but you'll need to turn some off to use slides.
Alternatively, you may have gone on too long, or you may need to speak louder. Whatever the case, notice what's happening and use it as feedback. If you can't figure out why your audience is responding poorly, ask somebody later and fix the problem next time.
Conclusion
Five principles that presenters/speakers have to consider and pay attention to have the best result in their presentation :
1. How well they prepare their presentation both material and nonmaterial.
2. How well they design the content .
3. How well they perform presentation on the stage.
4. How well they manage their tone of voice.
5. How they win their audiences successfully.
References
- Boyd, Stephen (2010) Effective Communication In 2010,www.sboyd.com
- Boyd, Stephen (2010) When Less Is More,www.sboyd.com
- Boyd, Stephen (2010) Appearance Is Important,www.sboyd.com
- Boyd, Stephen (2010) Using Your Tone Of Voice,www.sboyd.com
- Boyd, Stephen (2010) Persuasive Speaking In Down Times,www.sboyd.com
- Boyd, Stephen (2010) Contents Of The Ideal Speech,www.sboyd.com
- Curtis, Joan (2009), How To Say Cool In Public Speaking, www.ucl.ac.uk
