Mary White College Postgraduate and Honours Group

Mary White College Postgraduate and Honours Group

Presentation Tips and Tricks Session 27/8/2008

 

 

Notes to accompany the presentation given by

Dr Amanda Kennedy (amanda.kennedy@une.edu.au)

 

 

 

Slide 1: Title slide

·        There are no set rules to giving presentations; these are just the author’s viewpoint.

·        There are lots of resources out there on giving presentations (some links are available at http://www.une.edu.au/tlc/aso/students/programs/tuneup/oral.php) and a lot of them are contradictory (see point above).

 

Slide 2: Would you rather die than speak in public?

·        This slide starts with an interesting and relevant quote – always a good way of engaging your audience.

·        Don’t be afraid of awkward questions. If you don’t know the answer you can ask the audience (e.g. “interesting question, what do you think?”) thus involving them/keeping their interest.

·        Bandage Bears was an example of when things go wrong. The topic was introduced as Bondage Bears and the speaker made things worse by making the same mistake during her speech (three times).

 

Slide 3: Introduction

·        An overview slide giving a map of your speech can be useful as it can stop the audience asking questions which pre-empt later slides.

·        A good time to state whether you would prefer questions during or after the presentation.

 

Slide 4: The three P of presentations

 

Slide 5: P1 – prepare

·        What do you know = knowing what you don’t. Knowing what you aren’t going to cover in the presentation (and why) allows you to prepare deflections to off-topic questions.

·        Know the audience – e.g. an academic audience is different to a lay person audience. Ego (almost always large for academics), knowledge, and attitude to you, your topic, or even with whom you work, is all variable and can affect how the audience responds to your presentation.

·        Know the venue – how many people will be there, how tightly will they be packed, availability of lectern, projector, computer, microphone, pointers and extension cords etc. Always be prepared to take your own equipment and backups.

 

Slide 6: P2 – plan

·        What does the audience need to know – aka the purpose of the talk.

·        Logical and meaningful flow - make sure it is clear and focussed – intro/body/ conclusion (the same as an essay).

·        Appropriate language for the audience e.g. farmer vs. an academic. Eliminate jargon.

·        Use examples/facts relevant to audience knowledge.

 

Slide 7:  Content

·        Keep it interesting with statistics, anecdotes, provocative and/or rhetorical questions, quotes, pictures, diagrams and cartoons.

·        A sting in the tail can be very effective at making your presentation quite memorable. A quote, a joke, a picture people can relate to, or even a mild insult can assist in helping people remember your work.

 

Slide 8: Using visual aids

·        A picture = 1000 words.

·        Don’t clutter the slide.

·        Be careful with colours. Must be easy to read and remember ~30% of the male population has at least partial colour blindness (red-green is most common).

·        Custom PowerPoint templates available at www.brainybetty.com

·        3 golden rules of visual aids - must be visible, self explanatory and attractive.

 

Slide 9: The 10 commandments of PowerPoint

1.      Don’t put everything on the slide. This ensures that the audience actually has to listen to you.

2.      KISS – Keep it simple stupid

3.      For more detail, give contact details/defer to a later time, or have handouts.

4.      The audience can read your slides without you so don’t repeat what they can already see.

5.      Don’t be afraid to ask if the audience understands. It involves the audience and gives you an idea of the pace you need to set.

6.      Don’t overload the audience/allow time for comprehension.

7.      Contrast words/pictures and colours.

8.      Be careful when using images as there are copyright issues. UNE policy at  http://www.une.edu.au/copyright/

9.      Handouts at the start or end of the presentation? Personal choice. At the start people may read them rather than listen, yet they are handy for the extra detail. Giving slide handouts (recommend 3 per page) stops people from copying slides and ignoring the speaker.

10.  Double check/get others to check your work, as it is very easy to miss a mistake.

 

 

Slide 10:  An example - what not to do

·        Avoid any distracting gimmicks (e.g. sound-effects, moving images etc)

·        An alternative to the PowerPoint striptease is to create multiple slides for each slide (one for each point) where the points not being discussed are in a lighter colour font.

·        The PowerPoint striptease is wasted when slide handouts are given. 

 

Slide 11: Other presentation tools

·        Are you better at answering questions at the end than delivering the presentation? Consider whether it is because you slow down and take the time to think rather than delivering/reading a prepared script.

 

Slide 12: Other presentation tools 2

·        Stand near screen rather than the computer. It allows you to be associated with the information and point to things of interest.

 

Slide 13: P3 - Practice

·        Practice out loud. If you practice in your mind you will hear what you meant not what you have written.

·        Anxiety – Perfectly natural but if you know you have to do it (i.e. the presentation), face up to it because you can’t get out of it (this attitude works for me).

 

Slide 14: Summary

·        The three P’s

·        Remember the visual aids should not be the focus of your presentation. PowerPoint is the road map to your presentation, not the book. Don’t put everything you want to convey on the slide so the audience has to listen to you.