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Blog Beginner Guides How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

Written by: Krystle Wong Jul 20, 2023

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .  

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters. 

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion: 

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message. 

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations . 

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software . 

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong. 

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively . 

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence. 

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload. 

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started. 

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs. 

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account. 

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations. 

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

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.css-1qrtm5m{display:block;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:14px;line-height:1.5714285714285714;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.35px;letter-spacing:-0.35px;font-weight:300;color:#606F7B;}@media (min-width:600px){.css-1qrtm5m{font-size:16px;line-height:1.625;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.5px;letter-spacing:-0.5px;}} Best Practices 5 essential preparation steps for a successful presentation

by Tom Rielly • June 15, 2020

Keeping your presentation visuals minimalistic, simple, and clear is just one important step to remember when designing a hit presentation. Leaving nothing to chance, great presenters prove quite methodical as they prepare. Here’s a checklist for everything you need to keep in mind before your next presentation:

1. Choose the right software for your needs

The easiest way to select the right presentation software for you is to simply find the one that is native to your device. For example, if you have a Mac, use Apple Keynote, if you work on Windows, use PowerPoint. Google Slides is recommended if you’re working with someone, as it makes collaboration very easy. Another software option is Prezi: a specialty tool called Prezi that creates a presentation using motion, zoom, and panning across one giant visual space.

2. Organize your files

As you develop your script and visuals, you will need to start assembling all the assets for your slides. Create a unique folder on your computer to hold these items. Keep the folder organized by media type (presentation drafts, photos, videos, scripts) and back them up frequently to the Cloud or external disk. Label each file with a specific descriptive name, e.g. “Susan Johnson singing magpie 2020”, as opposed to “IMG_4043.jpg”, which can make it confusing to find your assets. The more organized you are up front, the easier preparing for your presentation will be.

3. Prepare your presentation materials

Make sure your presentation materials (script, graphics, actual slides) are saved in at least two safe spots (for example, your computer and an external USB drive) and are backed-up frequently. If you are using an online presentation software, such as Google Slides, be sure to also download a copy of your presentation in case the internet connection is unreliable. Having all the individual assets on hand in addition to your presentation slides can be helpful if you experience tech issues before presenting, or if you need to make any last minute changes. Make sure to label your final presentation with the title and your name so it’s easy to find.

4. Practice, practice, practice!

Remember, practice makes perfect. People often run out of time making their presentations and have no time to practice. Most TED speakers practice at least ten times. Neuroscientist Jill-Bolte Taylor gave one of the most successful Talks in TED history with nearly 27 million views. How did she do it? She practiced her Talk over 40 times! By rehearsing multiple times you will naturally memorize your Talk, which means you won’t need note cards when you give your final presentation.

5. Do a final test run

Before presenting, make sure the equipment you need is working properly. It’s generally good practice to rehearse standing on the exact stage with the exact lighting using the exact computer that you will be using in your final presentation.

Here’s a quick checklist of what to look for when testing your equipment:

• If you're not using your own computer, the one provided might be slower and have trouble playing media. If you have videos or other media, make sure they play correctly
• Test the projector to make sure it’s HD
• Make sure images are clear
• Test the sound of any clips you use, as this is what goes wrong most frequently
• If you’re using a mic, test the volume

Don’t let technical issues or other blunders overshadow your presentation. By following these guidelines, and with a little preparation, you can engineer out the problems BEFORE they happen.

Ready to learn more about how to make your presentation even better? Get TED Masterclass and develop your ideas into TED-style talks

© 2024 TED Conferences, LLC. All rights reserved. Please note that the TED Talks Usage policy does not apply to this content and is not subject to our creative commons license.

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14 effective presentation tips to impress your audience

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Anete Ezera July 15, 2022

An effective presentation can communicate key ideas and opinions, save time, and contribute to your overall success as a business, but good presentation skills don’t come naturally to everyone. In this blog post, you’ll find 14 effective presentation tips you can implement in your next presentation to make it a success. 

Whether you’re preparing for an important presentation at work or school, or you’re looking for ways to generally improve your presentation skills, you’ll find these presentation tips useful. We’ve gathered a list to help you impress your audience from the get-go. You’ll find tips for creating and presenting your slides, talking in front of an audience, and other effective presentation techniques to help you stand out. 

Most common presentation mistakes

Before we list our top effective presentation tips, let’s explore the most common presentation mistakes. If you’ve made one or more mistakes in this list, you’re not alone. Most people have made at least one mistake. However, what’s important is to be aware of these errors and try avoiding them next time.

#1 A poor start

One of the most common mistakes people make is undermining the importance of the first few minutes or seconds of their presentation. 

Let’s say you’ve practiced your key talking points meticulously and gone over your slides a million times, but when you’re in the spotlight and need to say your first line, do you know exactly what to say to wow the audience? 

The start of your presentation is crucial. Not only because how you start sets the tone for the rest of your presentation, but also because people generally require around 8 seconds to decide whether they find the subject interesting enough to keep listening. Starting your presentation with a captivating intro is even more important than you think. To ensure you start off right, read our guide on how to start your presentation . 

#2 Lack of preparation

Yes, even though it’s clear that you should prepare before giving a presentation, it’s still a common mistake amongst presenters. Preparing content and talking points is an obvious start, but there are other steps that you might be overlooking.

Before you even join a meeting or walk into a room where you’re going to present, consider the technical requirements and get familiar with the equipment. If you’re presenting online, make sure to test-run your presentation and the visual aids you’re going to use. The last thing you want is a broken video link, poor audio, or a weak connection when you’re presenting. 

Also, consider the questions your audience might want to ask you about the topic. Think about how you’d answer those questions, or do even further research to really impress the audience with your answers. 

Explore other ways to prepare for a presentation to feel even more confident when presenting.

#3 Losing track of time

It’s great to feel passionate about your topic. However, you’ll have to consider your audience’s level of interest and knowledge. Some details might seem fascinating to you, and you’d like to talk about them for hours, but for your audience, too much information will drain their energy and lose their attention. 

Therefore, make sure to keep track of time. Also, consider your audience’s interests. A concise presentation is always better than a long one with a ton of information. Plus, you’ll have a higher chance of keeping your audience’s attention throughout the presentation. 

Effective presentation tips

Now that we’ve looked at some of the most common presentation mistakes – let’s dive into effective presentation tips that’ll help you excel in future presentations. 

#1 Tell a story

Stories connect, inspire, and empower people. Telling a story can entice action, help understand an idea, and make people feel connected to the storyteller. It’s also one of the most effective presentation tips. A study by organizational psychologist Peg Neuhauser found that a well-told story is easier to remember than facts, which makes it a highly effective learning technique. 

With that in mind, telling a story when you’re presenting can engage your audience and make it a more memorable experience. You can either share a personal story or a historical event, just make sure to have a clear connection between the story and the topic you’re presenting. 

#2 Work on your body language

Body language can make a huge difference in how your presentation is perceived. It’s one of the presentation tips you definitely shouldn’t overlook. 

Body language says a lot about a person’s confidence level, emotions, state of mind, and even credibility. For the audience, it’s a way to understand what the person is saying and how interested they are in the topic. 

Therefore, work on your body language to better convey the message you’re trying to communicate. Practice in front of a mirror before your presentation and be conscious of your hand gestures and facial expressions. 

#3 Understand your audience

Before crafting your presentation, you must know who you’re speaking to. Understanding the interests, demographics, professional background, and other valuable information of your audience is crucial in making your speech successful. 

If you’re speaking at an event, contact the organizers to get more information about other speakers and the audience. If you’re presenting at work, you may already know your audience fairly well. Use this information to your advantage and create content you know they’ll resonate with.

#4 Use high-quality visuals

What’s one of the most effective presentation techniques? Use of visuals. They play a crucial role in your presentation. However, only high-quality visuals will make a good impression and effectively communicate your message. Use high-quality visuals like images, videos, graphs, maps, and others to really land your point. 

Using visuals is a great way to convey your ideas as they’re easier to process than text. If you’re not sure where to find great visuals, check out our blog post on presentation visuals for five free resources.

P.S. the Prezi library holds a variety of images, videos, GIFs, stickers, and other visuals, including different charts and maps to spice up your presentation. It’s all available in your dashboard .

#5 Use data visualizations

Do you want to showcase statistics or other datasets in your presentation? Use data visualizations to make your data stand out and impress your audience. 

There’s nothing more boring than a bunch of data presented in a flat way. If you want to tell a story with your data, use interactive infographics or slides enriched with eye-catching visuals. Showcasing data will make your ideas appear more trustworthy and credible. 

Prezi Design offers a range of templates to choose from. You can start creating data visualizations from scratch or choose a template and edit the data there. 

#6 Make it engaging with interactive elements

It’s not easy to deliver an engaging presentation. People can easily get distracted or try to multitask, especially in the virtual environment. Sometimes, it’s difficult to focus on the speaker and the written text. Other times, the content just isn’t impressive enough to hold the audience’s attention. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

You can make your presentation more engaging for everyone by including interactive content like graphs and charts. With interactive data visualizations, you’ll make the data discovery process more engaging and exciting for your audience. 

Your audience will be able to hover over data points and click on certain icons or datasets to discover information on their own. Interactive visualizations will make the presentation more memorable and impressive. 

As you can see in the example below, you can discover different data by engaging with the infographic. 

#7 Stay consistent with fonts and color styles

You want your presentation to look visually appealing and highlight essential information. To make that happen, stay consistent with font styles and color schemes throughout your presentation. 

Use one or two fonts max to make the text easy to read and understand. Also, use a carefully selected color scheme that’s not too distracting. If you’re using Prezi Design, you can easily copy and paste styles by right-clicking on your data visualizations and selecting “copy styles.” This makes it easier to stay consistent and saves time when picking matching colors. 

#8 Structure your presentation properly

Before creating your presentation, think about its structure. What’s the main idea you want to convey? Use that as your starting point, and only include information that adds value to the narrative. 

Plan out the first topics carefully to properly introduce your argument. Add the essential information in the middle part of your presentation. Lastly, close your presentation with a summary of the main points and leave your audience with an afterthought. Also, plan when you’re taking questions and for how long. 

For more insight, watch this tutorial on how to structure your presentation:

#9 Practice your public speaking skills

Public speaking may not be your forte, but you can get better with practice. Don’t decline a great opportunity to share your ideas with a larger audience just because you feel nervous speaking in front of a group of people. 

One of the best ways to improve your public speaking skills is to practice in front of your family or friends – people you feel comfortable with. Also, focus on the topic you’re presenting and get excited about the idea you want to convey. This way you’ll appear more confident and feel less nervous about public speaking. 

Explore other public speaking tips from Jessica Chen, the founder, and CEO of Soulcast Media: 

#10 Show your slides next to you on-screen

If you’re presenting on Zoom or in a virtual meeting , think twice before you share your screen. The days of hiding behind slides are over. People want to see and connect with other people, not sit through another run-of-the-mill screen share. To do that, use Prezi Video to showcase all your content right next to you in your video feed. 

As a result, your presentation will look more engaging than a traditional virtual presentation . Also, your audience will have the chance to read your body language and follow along with what you’re saying even better. 

If you already have your slides prepared, don’t worry – you can easily integrate them into Prezi. 

See Prezi Video in action and check out our video templates to get started.

#11 Calm down before presenting

Being in front of an audience can feel nerve-racking. However, there are ways to calm down before presenting that will make you feel more centered and confident. The last thing you want is all your hard work to go to waste just because of stress. 

Try breathing exercises or a five-minute guided meditation before presenting. The trick is to remove all distractions and focus on the present moment so you’re not overthinking right before starting your presentation. Also, be fully prepared and know exactly what to say and when which will help you feel more collected. If you want to discover other ways to feel and look more confident, read how not to be nervous before a presentation . 

#12 Use transitions and animations 

Add movement to your slides with transitions and animations. You’ll make your presentation more visually appealing and engaging. However, be careful not to overwhelm your audience with your choice of transitions and animations. 

Choose a transition that matches your presentation visually and use it throughout your presentation. Consider what animations will be relevant to your audience and select a few to add to your slides. Don’t overdo it. Keep the focus on the message you’re trying to convey, and use animations to only support that message. 

#13 Be enthusiastic 

When you’re in a room with a positive and enthusiastic person, you can’t help but feel uplifted as well. High-energy people have this effect on others. Most importantly, a lot of people tend to mimic people’s behavior and mirror their energy when they feel a connection or relate to them. That’s called the chameleon effect . 

When you’re presenting, you want your audience to feel curious about what you’re presenting. You may also want to leave your audience feeling uplifted, interested to know more, or inspired. To have that effect on others, try to convey those emotions when presenting. Practice your speech, slow down your narration at times, or take a pause after you’ve delivered a statement, and use different presentation techniques to present your project and really drive your points home. 

#14 End your presentation in a memorable way

The first few minutes of your presentation are crucial for captivating your audience’s attention. However, don’t underestimate the importance of ending your presentation as powerfully as you started it. 

The way you end your presentation will play a crucial part in how your audience will remember it. You want to make a memorable impression by closing your presentation with a summarizing statement, a rhetorical question, a call to action, or another impactful way. Discover 10 ways you can end your presentation in our guide.  

There are a lot of factors to consider when creating and delivering a presentation. You want your slides to look professional and visually appealing while conveying your main points. You also want to look and sound confident even if you’re nervous about public speaking. Whatever your concerns may be, remember that preparation is essential. Practice and dedication are the keys to giving a successful presentation . Make sure to follow these effective presentation tips to excel in your future presentations. If you’re interested in creating a captivating presentation with Prezi, contact us to learn more or try it for free . 

Elevating presentations with Prezi AI

Embrace the innovation of Prezi to bring your presentations to life. With its unique platform, Prezi AI offers more than just visually appealing templates; it provides an immersive narrative experience, engaging your audience with a story-driven approach. By integrating Prezi AI , our platform’s capabilities are further enhanced, offering intelligent design suggestions and optimizing content layouts to ensure your presentations are not only beautiful but impactful. This integration is a perfect example of effective presentation techniques in action, using technology to create a more engaging presentation.

Interactive elements: transforming passive listening into active engagement

Prezi revolutionizes the way information is presented by incorporating interactive elements that invite audience participation. With Prezi AI, these features become even more accessible, suggesting ways to make your presentation more engaging through clickable areas, zoomable images, and dynamic visualizations. This level of interaction encourages exploration, making your message more memorable and transforming a standard presentation into an effective presentation.

Adding a personal touch in digital presentation with video

Prezi Video stands out by seamlessly integrating your content alongside your video feed, bridging the gap between traditional presentations and personal engagement. This feature is crucial for those looking to follow presentation tips that emphasize the importance of connecting with your audience on a more personal level. Prezi AI enhances this experience, ensuring your content is displayed in the most effective way possible, making your virtual presentations feel as though you’re directly conversing with your audience.

Mastering presentation artistry with Prezi

The journey to becoming a skilled presenter involves continuously refining your approach and embracing tools that elevate your ability to communicate effectively. Prezi, enriched with Prezi AI, is one such tool that transforms ordinary presentations into captivating experiences. By leveraging these advanced features, you can deliver presentations that are successful, memorable, and truly unforgettable, embodying the essence of tips for presentation mastery.

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How to Prepare for a Presentation, with Examples

February 15, 2021 - Dom Barnard

This guide covers everything you need to know to prepare for your presentation. including what you need to think about beforehand, during and after the presentation.

1. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse (always aloud)

Once you have your presentation worked out, you will need to practice it, but even though you might think it’s the best way to have a flawless presentation, don’t memorise what you’re going to say.

That might sound like incredibly bad advice, but here’s why:

• If you memorise your speech, you’ll get stuck in thinking you can only deliver your ideas in that way, and that stifles your creativity, and the chance for new thoughts and ways to put things that come up as you speak.

Not only that, but every  audience is different . Sometimes they laugh out loud, sometimes they sit and smile, and you never know which type of audience you’ll have until you’re live.

Practice Presentation Skills

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If you’re going off a memorised presentation, it’s much more difficult to break away from that to go with the flow on the day, and respond naturally to your audience.

• If you forget your speech in the middle of it, you will be thrown, and you’ll have more chance of complete brain freeze, which really will knock your confidence.
• Memorising your presentation gives you a false sense of security, which could leave you high and dry if something goes wrong. If you’ve only got your memorised speech, for example, what will you do if your PowerPoint freezes or your props break, and you can’t do what you were going to do?

Rehearse in front of colleagues, friends, a mirror, in virtual reality – always aloud. Make sure you spend plenty of time practising your presentation, it will make you feel much more relaxed if you know your material.

Courses where you can rehearse with interactive exercises:

• Essential Public Speaking
• How to Present over Video

Video showing how you can prepare for your presentation using virtual reality.  Learn more about virtual reality training .

2. Memorise your opening line

Do, however, memorise your opening line. If you know how you’re going to begin, you’ll get a strong start and that will build your confidence.

Many speakers and stage actors find that the minute they’ve actually delivered their first line, the nerves are gone and they’re well into their stride.

3. Practise your speech from written notes

Writing your presentation out in your own handwriting will help you clarify your ideas and may well bring you new ones.

• How to Write a Speech to Engage your Audience

4. Practise presentation flow

As well as practising for the ideas and what you want to say, practise how you want your presentation to flow. Think of it almost as a symphony, with high points, slow movements and crescendos. If it’s important, think about how you want your audience to feel, what emotions you want them to have, and when.

5. The power of silence

Don’t be afraid to pause and use the power of silence. A good pause can have a huge emotional impact. It allows people to really absorb what you are saying and react, and it’s vital to pause if you’re using humour so that the next part of your presentation doesn’t get lost underneath people’s laughter.

For more on the ‘Power of the Pause’, watch this short from video Brian Tracy:  The Power of the Pause

• 10 Effective Ways to use Pauses in your Speech

6. Have a backup

There’s nothing worse than the projector dying or finding that your laptop won’t communicate with the projector for some reason. If you know you have a backup, even if it’s only a pre-prepared flip chart, you’ll feel better, and you’ll be more confident.

7. Arrive early

Following on from that, arrive at least half an hour early so you aren’t feeling rushed, and so you have time to check your equipment and get your notes laid out ready to go. That gives you time to breathe and relax before you go on, knowing everything is as set as it can be.

8. Use physical props for a demo

Use physical props, if possible, for a demo. This can make you stand out and be more memorable among all the other speakers who only use PowerPoint, and it can add greatly to the impact of your presentation.

Video showing an example of using physical props during a live demo.

9. Structure your presentation

First, find out how much time you have to present, is it 10 minutes, 15, an hour? Prepare enough material for this time and have a couple of extra slides as backup – we tend to speak much quicker when nervous so you might find you finish your presentation too early. At some large conference events, timings may change on the day, be aware of this have a shorter version of your presentation in mind (i.e. know which slides to skip over).

• How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples
• Examples of Corporate Presentation Structures

10. Prepare for questions

Have a few backup slides for questions you think will arise from your presentation. It is sometime a tactic to explain a section briefly in your speech, so that you get a question about it afterwards. If you don’t understand the question, ask for it to be rephrased.

If there are no questions, it is not an indication how good or bad your presentation was. You many have explain your material extremely well, or simply that people are tired at the end of the day and want to go home.

• Guide for Handling Questions after a Presentation

11. Prepare for where you are presenting

If you can, go to the room you are speaking in before the actual event. It gives you an idea of furniture layout, podium height, location, room size, audience size and lighting. You can then visualise the room while practising and avoid the shock of suddenly being faced with a huge room when you expected a tiny one.

Ask the organiser if you need any particular props, for example a table to help with your live demo.

Additional planning to think about before your presentation:

1. Purpose  – what outcome are we trying to achieve? How can results be measured? What will success look like?

2. Topic  – Novelty? Complexity? Technical?

3. People  – Who should attend? What do they already know? How are they going to help?

4. Timing  – When will it happen and how long will the presentation take?

5. Location  – Where will the presentation be held? Do you have access to the correct facilities for the presentation?

6. Papers  – Who is keeping minutes? Do you need to send out an agenda before the presentation? Background information required?

7. Visual aids  – Is a  projector required ? Boards?

8. Style  – Structure or unstructured, discussion style? How assertive should you be? How should the meeting items be organised?

12. Choose the signals to give to your audience

Before the presentation, think about these 5 topics:

• Eye contact
• Facial gestures
• Body language

Decide how you will use each of these to reinforce your message. Use the table below for help.

Additional courses to help you prepare for your presentation:

• Presentation Skills Training Courses

Example from Steve Jobs

Think about these 10 techniques while you are preparing your presentation..

• Planning in Analog.  Tell a story, create stunning visuals and videos to complement video, use demonstrations and other speakers, keep the audience engaged.
• Creating a Twitter-Friendly Description  Single description sentence, condensed his message into 140 characters.
• Introduce the Enemy  Story needs villains or a problem to be solved. Jobs highlighted IBM and useless mobile phones (during iPhone release) as his villains.
• Focusing on Benefits  Keep reinforcing the benefits of your product, create top 10 lists, understand this is what customers care about.
• Sticking to Rule of Three  Classic Literary technique, things are best remembered and reinforced in threes. Read this article on  Literary Techniques  for more detail.
• Sell Dreams, Not Products  Create a vision people believe in, create a vision which will make people’s lives better
• Create Visual Slides  Use as few words as possible and use colourful graphics on the slide to highlight points.
• Make Numbers Meaningful  Compare large numbers to things people understand.
• Use Plain English  Use easy to say and easy to remember words, keep it simple.
• Large Reveals  Due to Apple secrecy, Jobs was able to deliver unexpected products to the world at his product launches.

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How to Deliver Effective Presentations

Last Updated: April 27, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Maureen Taylor . Maureen Taylor is the CEO and Founder of SNP Communications, a leadership communications company based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been helping leaders, founders, and innovators in all sectors hone their messaging and delivery for almost 30 years, and has worked with leaders and teams at Google, Facebook, Airbnb, SAP, Salesforce, and Spotify. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 583,800 times.

Delivering presentations is an everyday art form that anyone can master. To capture your audience's attention, present your information with ease and confidence. Act as if you are in a conversation with your audience, and they will pay attention to you. To get this level of fluency, write an engaging narrative, use more visuals than text in your slides, and practice, practice, practice.

Rehearsing Your Presentation

• Deliver your summary to them in friendly, direct language, as if you were telling the story to a friend in a bar.
• In fact, you can tell the story to a friend in a bar. However, telling a colleague over coffee can work just as well.
• Get them to tell you what their takeaway was. If they can summarize your message accurately, that's a good sign.

• Ask them to be your coach.
• Give them your presentation once or twice and let them ask you questions and give feedback.
• Ask them to point out moments that are dull or confusing.

• Write down what you're afraid of. What exactly worries you when you give a speech? Looking foolish? Being asked a hard question? Write down your exact fears, and then consider them each individually.
• Think about what you will do in each situation. For instance, if your fear is, "I'll forget what I'm saying," you can prepare a plan like, "If I forget what I'm saying, I'll pause, scan my notes, and find the next important point I need to make."
• Catch your negative thoughts, and calm them. If you think, "I'm going to get nervous and sweaty," replace it with, "I have important information to deliver and everyone is going to pay attention to that."

• Give yourself extra time if you plan to take questions, or if you anticipate lots of digressions.

• This doesn't mean sticking to a strict script every time. Instead, when you rehearse, improvise freely. Deliver your main points, but include quips and anecdotes that occur to you as you go. You'll remember the best ones when you actually deliver the presentation.

Delivering Your Presentation with Confidence

• Remind yourself that your audience likely can't see your nerves.
• Take a deep breath and exhale before you go on stage.

• If there are too many people to really see faces, just look boldly into the crowd.

• Move your hands as you speak. Don't wave them, as this will make you look nervous. Instead, try calmly gesturing with your palm out when you make a point. If you describe a shape, draw it in the air with your hands.

Crafting a Compelling Presentation

• Have a clear through line that runs through all parts of your presentation, leading to your main point.
• Include stories that put your listeners into a situation. Get their energy with tactile details (sound, sight, smell, taste, touch) and descriptions of an emotional state.
• Include moments of reflection in which you share how you felt or feel.

• As always with humor in a work setting, remember that humor varies widely between cultures. Avoid making any jokes that make fun of anybody's sex, gender, race, class, or ability. Remember to "punch up"—if your jokes take someone on, take on someone with more power than you, rather than less.
• If you get nervous, try starting your presentation with a simple joke or a funny story. It will put you and your audience at ease.

• Ask the crowd to consider something or imagine something, and hold a moment of quiet while they do.
• Interactive moments make great pivots from one section of your talk to another.

• Will these be experts, or newcomers to your ideas? If they're experts, you'll need to present them with specific, technical, and new ideas. If they're newcomers, plan to introduce them more generally to your topic, and avoid technical terms.
• Will audience members be on your side from the start, or will they need persuading?
• Will you have a large, faceless crowd, or a small group? If you're working with a small group, you can include them in parts of your presentation through questions, personal digressions, and conversations.

How Should You End a Presentation?

Expert Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://firstround.com/review/This-Advice-From-IDEOs-Nicole-Kahn-Will-Transform-the-Way-You-Give-Presentations/
• ↑ https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/rehearse-your-presentation
• ↑ https://www.comm.pitt.edu/speech-anxiety
• ↑ https://www.unr.edu/writing-speaking-center/student-resources/writing-speaking-resources/speech-anxiety
• ↑ https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/speaking-audience
• ↑ https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/public-speaking-tips/gestures-and-body-language

About This Article

If you're worried about delivering an effective presentation, go over your notes again and make sure your presentation is telling a story with a distinct beginning, middle, and end. This type of structure will make it easier for people to follow along, and when you finish your presentation, they'll be more likely to remember what it was about! If you're still unsure, try practicing in front of other people before the big day. By rehearsing your presentation in advance, you'll not only feel more comfortable when you present it in front of an audience, but you can also get helpful feedback from your peers to make your presentation even better. Alternatively, if you're feeling a little nervous, identify what exactly you're afraid of happening during your presentation, and then come up with a plan for each scenario so you're less stressed about it. For example, if you're worried about forgetting what to say next, you could make a list of all the important points you need to make and have it with you during your presentation. For tips from our Communications co-author, like how to appear confident during a presentation, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Preparing and Delivering Oral Presentations

Fundamentals of presenting, plan a presentation.

The fundamentals of public speaking remain the same in any context, be it classroom, conference, parliament or crowded city square. Good public speakers use simple and clear language to communicate complex points. They pause when they speak, and they deliver their message with confidence derived from their knowledge and preparation.

A good presentation:

Has a focused and relevant message

• Is clearly organized and supported by evidence
• Demonstrates understanding and analysis of ideas
• Is delivered calmly and confidently

Focus and Purpose

A presentation is not a dry list of disconnected facts. Like lab reports or essays, it makes a specific point. Start by asking yourself “So What?” Determine thethe most important point you wish to make and identify why it is important.

Plan your presentation to suit your audience. Consider their familiarity with the subject and their purpose for listening to your presentation. Classmates will likely have some background on the topic, and because they are keenly aware that they will eventually present to you, they are usually quite generous in their reception of your talk.

A logical structure supports a clear and focused message, and it stops you from leaping from idea to idea, which can make it difficult for your audience to understand your talk.

Introduction:

• Tell the audience who you are and present your main argument with key background information.
• Explain why your presentation is important.
• Build a rapport with the audience to help them follow what comes next.

Body of your presentation:

• The largest section of your presentation
• It supports your main argument with specific examples.
• Visual aids clarify your points and lend credibility to your presentation.

Conclusion:

• A strong conclusion summarizes your main points.
• Use key words from your introduction to briefly re-state your argument.
• End your presentation with a simple, strong statement.

Preparation

Rather than prepare a script, create a plan for each section or idea with point form notes. A good presentation is not written down word for word or memorized but instead is a discussion of a subject you know inside and out. Speaking from point form notes keeps your delivery fresh. Remember, you are talking to people, not reading at them.

Key technical details can be written down, but it make sure that you include only essential information as too many technical details may confuse your audience and cause them to tune out.

Visual Aids

Visual aids, like PowerPoint slides or printed handouts, offer structure for your presentation and help the audience follow the main points. Visual aids may be bulleted lists or outlines, charts or figures, or images that show important details that would take time to explain orally. Use visual aids to complement, rather than compete, with your presentation. If they are not necessary or helpful, don’t use them.

And never read the exact words from slides that you present.

For a detailed examination of using PowerPoint, explore our “Using PowerPoint" guide .

Rehearse! Focus on tone, volume, word choice, transitions, pauses and pacing. Note time limits. Time yourself and revise as appropriate. Practice your presentation before a friend or family member and ask for feedback.

Get to the room well ahead of time. Listen to some relaxing music if this helps you. Make sure the technology is all up and running if you need to use it.

Chat with people in the audience before you present. This breaks the ice, creates    connections, personalizes the encounter and helps you feel more confident.

Experts often suggest that you focus your presentation on a group of individuals instead of the entire audience. This makes it seem as if you are speaking to a smaller group

Pace and Volume

Take it slow. The single biggest mistake inexperienced speakers make is going too fast. [SB1] Remember that your audience is hearing the material for the first time and isn't nearly as familiar with the topic as you are.

Speak loudly and clearly. Practice pronouncing difficult words in advance.

Body Language and Eye Contact

Make and maintain eye contact with your audience. Always face your audience; avoid reading from your slide presentation and try to look up from your notes regularly.

Stand tall at the front of the room. Don’t sit down, lean on a desk or hide behind a lectern. Try not to sway back and forth.

Answering Questions

Leave time to answer questions, and prepare in advance for possible questions your audience may ask. You can pause to gather your thoughts before you reply, and if something is outside of your comfort zone, simply (and confidently) say “that is outside the scope of this research.”

Share your Personality

Try to have some fun, put your personality into the presentation while maintaining professional decorum. Make the presentation uniquely yours – people will remember you and your message.

How to Give a Killer Presentation

Lessons from TED by Chris Anderson

Summary .   

For more than 30 years, the TED conference series has presented enlightening talks that people enjoy watching. In this article, Anderson, TED’s curator, shares five keys to great presentations:

• Frame your story (figure out where to start and where to end).
• Plan your delivery (decide whether to memorize your speech word for word or develop bullet points and then rehearse it—over and over).
• Work on stage presence (but remember that your story matters more than how you stand or whether you’re visibly nervous).
• Plan the multimedia (whatever you do, don’t read from PowerPoint slides).
• Put it together (play to your strengths and be authentic).

According to Anderson, presentations rise or fall on the quality of the idea, the narrative, and the passion of the speaker. It’s about substance—not style. In fact, it’s fairly easy to “coach out” the problems in a talk, but there’s no way to “coach in” the basic story—the presenter has to have the raw material. So if your thinking is not there yet, he advises, decline that invitation to speak. Instead, keep working until you have an idea that’s worth sharing.

A little more than a year ago, on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, some colleagues and I met a 12-year-old Masai boy named Richard Turere, who told us a fascinating story. His family raises livestock on the edge of a vast national park, and one of the biggest challenges is protecting the animals from lions—especially at night. Richard had noticed that placing lamps in a field didn’t deter lion attacks, but when he walked the field with a torch, the lions stayed away. From a young age, he’d been interested in electronics, teaching himself by, for example, taking apart his parents’ radio. He used that experience to devise a system of lights that would turn on and off in sequence—using solar panels, a car battery, and a motorcycle indicator box—and thereby create a sense of movement that he hoped would scare off the lions. He installed the lights, and the lions stopped attacking. Soon villages elsewhere in Kenya began installing Richard’s “lion lights.”

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Giving Effective Presentations

This handout will help you prepare and conduct an effective speech or presentations after you have already created a speech or presentation .

Before the presentation

Determine the type of speech delivery you are giving. The type of speech delivery influences the strategies you will use to practice the speech. The four types of speech delivery are:

• Impromptu: A speech that has no advanced planning or practice.
• Extemporaneous: The speaker prepares notes or an outline, with embellishment. This kind of speech allows the speaker to adapt to the audience’s reaction and sounds more natural and conversational than scripted speeches.
• Manuscript: Reading a scripted speech word-for-word without any memorization.
• Memorized: Memorizing a scripted speech to present without having to rely on reading the script.

When thinking about how you will deliver your speech, consider:

• Articulation: Find the right pace for your speech in order to retain clarity and be easily understood by your audience.
• Nonverbal communication: This can include posture, eye contact, facial expressions, and movement that can be used to reinforce or modify your speech.
• Effective voice: Strive for a conversational, casual voice at a volume that your audience can comfortably hear even if they are listening from the back of the room or through a digital platform like Zoom.

Below are some simple steps to take in practicing for your speech or presentation:

• Practice your stance: If you will be standing while presenting your speech, then practice while standing. If you’ll be seated, practice while seated. If you’ll be on Zoom, practice to see what stance will work for your camera.
• Speak out loud: It can be tempting to recite quietly when preparing. But reciting your speech at a similar volume to the volume you will use to present in class is another effective method of practice.
• Practice without looking at the text: Even if you are not required to memorize your speech or presentation, practicing without looking at your text to see if you lose your train of thought.
• Make your script easy to read: If you are planning on reading your speech from a script or notecards, format the words to make them easy to reference while you are presenting. Try these formatting tips:
• Use a large font (14 pt. or greater) for text and numbering your pages.
• Leave blank lines between paragraphs or sentences so you can easily find your place.
• Refrain from stapling pages together or printing double sided, which makes your pages more difficult to organize during the presentation.
• Highlight words or lines that are important to you to ensure you deliver them during the presentation.
• For in class speeches, copy down presenter notes on paper from any PowerPoint or presentation slides in order to refrain from staring at a screen during your presentation.
• Record yourself and listen to the recording: Recording yourself provides a way for you to gain an outside perspective of your presentation. Create a list of items you want to improve upon for your next trial run and practice again.
• Where did I have trouble speaking clearly and/or emphatically?
• Did I stay within my time limit?
• Do I feel the need to delete or edit anything?
• At what point did I feel the most confident?
• Practice in front of an audience: Grab a friend, group member, family member or make an appointment with an Academic Coach and recite your speech or presentation in front of another person. This will help you bounce ideas off of someone and give you the chance to practice in front of people with whom you feel comfortable. For Zoom presentations, go through the mechanics of an actual Zoom rehearsal with another person. This may involve additional steps of preparing the physical space, such as lighting, tidying up, and setting the scene that will be viewable by the audience.
• Try the Wonder Woman pose: It may feel funny, but some studies suggest that standing with your legs apart, hands on your hips, and chest out (much like Wonder Woman) for two minutes before a stressful event can build feelings of confidence.

When it comes to the day of the presentation, it is natural to experience feelings of nervousness or anxiety, but remember you have practiced for this presentation and be confident in what you have accomplished. Here are some tips on how to calm nerves in the moment and manage anxiety:

• Arrive prepared: Make sure you have everything you need to give the presentation. Using your computer? Make sure it’s charged. Are you reading off a script or notecards? Pack them with your things the night before. If you’re presenting online, see our tips for using Zoom .
• Breathing exercises: Try 4-7-8 breathing to slow down and calm the mind and body. Inhale quietly through your nose to the count of four; hold your breath to the count of seven; exhale with sound through your mouth to the count of eight.
• Maintain eye-contact. This will help you stay engaged with your audience and hold their attention during the speech. The goal is to make eye contact or maintain the illusion of eye-contact with members in the audience at all times you are speaking to them. An effective strategy for maintaining eye contact is to shift your focus between different areas of the audience (room) every few seconds. On Zoom, you can look at your camera to simulate the appearance of eye contact for the audience rather than looking at the faces on the screen.
• Moving through transitions. For instance, stand firm when delivering a point, move to a separate place as you transition to another point, and stand firm when delivering your second point).
• Stepping forward when delivering a key takeaway message.
• Walking toward the audience during a participatory part of your presentation, for instance, a Q&A session.
• Knowing your audience
• Pacing yourself
• Using a sense of humor
• Starting off strong
• Asking questions or use anecdotes to peak interest

Connect with resources

Make an appointment with an Academic Coach to practice helpful strategies in giving effective presentations or speeches.

Check out the Writing Center’s handouts on writing speeches and writing in new formats, or make an appointment with a Writing Coach to learn strategies for writing an effective speech.

Works consulted

8 effective ways to practice a speech. Ragan Communications. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2019, from https://www.ragan.com/8-effective-ways-to-practice-a-speech/

Body Language Hacks: Be Confident and Reduce Stress in 2 Minutes. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2019, from https://jamesclear.com/body-language-how-to-be-confident

Body Movement Tips for Public Speakers. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2019, from http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/body-movement-speaking/

Four Types of Speech Delivery: Impromptu, Extemporaneous, Manuscript & Memorized – Video & Lesson Transcript. Study.com. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2019, from https://study.com/academy/lesson/types-of-speech-delivery-impromptu-extemporaneous-manuscript-and-memorized.html

Oral Presentations: Tips on How to Deliver a Speech for School or Work | Jerz’s Literacy Weblog. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2019, from https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/technical-writing/oral-presentations-tips/#eye-contact

Reading Your Speech? 8 Simple Ways to Make Your Script Easy to Read! Speak Up For Success. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2019, from https://speakupforsuccess.com/reading-your-speech/

Speech Delivery • My Speech Class. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2019, from http://www.myspeechclass.com/delivery.html

If you enjoy using our handouts, we appreciate contributions of acknowledgement.

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Steps in Preparing a Presentation

Planning your presentation, step 1: analyze your audience, step 2: select a topic, step 3: define the objective of the presentation, preparing the content of your presentation, step 4: prepare the body of the presentation, step 5: prepare the introduction and conclusion, practicing and delivering, step 6: practice delivering the presentation.

The first step in preparing a presentation is to learn more about the audience to whom you'll be speaking. It's a good idea to obtain some information on the backgrounds, values, and interests of your audience so that you understand what the audience members might expect from your presentation.

Next, if possible select a topic that is of interest to the audience and to you. It will be much easier to deliver a presentation that the audience finds relevant, and more enjoyable to research a topic that is of interest to you.

Once you have selected a topic, write the objective of the presentation in a single concise statement. The objective needs to specify exactly what you want your audience to learn from your presentation. Base the objective and the level of the content on the amount of time you have for the presentation and the background knowledge of the audience. Use this statement to help keep you focused as you research and develop the presentation.

After defining the objective of your presentation, determine how much information you can present in the amount of time allowed. Also, use your knowledge about the audience to prepare a presentation with the right level of detail. You don't want to plan a presentation that is too basic or too advanced.

The body of the presentation is where you present your ideas. To present your ideas convincingly, you will need to illustrate and support them. Strategies to help you do this include the following:

• Present data and facts
• Read quotes from experts
• Relate personal experiences
• Provide vivid descriptions

And remember, as you plan the body of your presentation it's important to provide variety. Listeners may quickly become bored by lots of facts or they may tire of hearing story after story.

Once you've prepared the body of the presentation, decide how you will begin and end the talk. Make sure the introduction captures the attention of your audience and the conclusion summarizes and reiterates your important points. In other words, "Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Then, tell them what you told them."

During the  opening  of your presentation, it's important to attract the audience's attention and build their interest. If you don't, listeners will turn their attention elsewhere and you'll have a difficult time getting it back. Strategies that you can use include the following:

• Make the introduction relevant to the listeners' goals, values, and needs
• Ask questions to stimulate thinking
• Share a personal experience
• Begin with a joke or humorous story
• Project a cartoon or colorful visual
• Make a stimulating or inspirational statement
• Give a unique demonstration

During the opening you want to clearly present your topic and the purpose of your presentation. Clearly articulating the topic and purpose will help the listeners focus on and easily follow your main ideas.

During the  conclusion  of your presentation, reinforce the main ideas you communicated. Remember that listeners won't remember your entire presentation, only the main ideas. By reinforcing and reviewing the main ideas, you help the audience remember them.

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Most people spend hours preparing a presentation but very little time practicing it. When you practice your presentation, you can reduce the number of times you utter words and phrases like, "um," "well," and "you know." These habits can easily diminish a speaker's credibility. You can also fine-tune your content to be sure you make your most important points in the time alloted.

In addition to planning the content of your presentation, you need to give advanced thought to how you want to deliver it. Do you want to commit your presentation to memory, use cards to guide you, or read from a script? Or, you might want to use a combination of methods. To help you decide, read the advantages and disadvantages of the four delivery methods described below.

Speaking from Memory

A distinct advantage of speaking from memory is your ability to speak to the audience without relying on notes or a script. This allows you the flexibility to move away from the podium and to maintain eye contact with the audience. However, speaking from memory has disadvantages, too. Presentations from memory often sound rehearsed and the possibility exists that you'll forget an important point, present information that's inaccurate, or completely lose your train of thought. If you decide to deliver your presentation from memory, have notes handy to jog your memory just in case!

Speaking from Notes

Many people like to speak from notes. Typically these notes are either on cards or paper in outline form and contain key ideas and information. If you are using an electronic presentation tool, you may be able to include your notes in the presentation itself. The benefit of delivering a presentation from notes is that you sound natural rather than rehearsed and you can still maintain relatively good eye contact with the audience. The down side is that you might not express your key ideas and thoughts as well as you may have liked had you planned your exact words in advance.

Speaking from Text

Speaking from text involves writing your speech out, word for word, then basically reading from the text. As with speaking from memory, an advantage of this method is that you plan, in advance, exactly what you're going to say and how you're going to say it. A disadvantage is that you might appear to the audience to be stiff or rehearsed. You will need to make frequent eye contact and speak with expression to maintain the audience's interest.

Using a Combination of Methods

You may find the best method to be a combination of all three. For instance, experts suggest you memorize the first and last ten minutes of your talk so that you can speak flawlessly and without notes. Notes may be suitable for segments of your presentation that you know very well, for example, relating a personal story. Finally, speaking from a text might be appropriate when you have quotes or other important points that you want to make sure you communicate accurately and completely. You can make a smooth segue to written text by saying something like: "I want to read this quote to you verbatim, to ensure that I don't distort the original intent."

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Giving Presentations

Understanding your assignment, planning your presentation, organizing your presentation, signal words and transition phrases.

• Group Presentations
• Using Presentation Software
• Engaging your Audience
• Finding and Using Images
• Citing Sources
• Overcoming Anxiety

Suggested Books

Learn how to deal with nerves, prepare concise and effective notes, anticipate questions or problems and keep your audience interested.

A Student's Guide to Presentations

Provides tips on presenting individually, in groups, and for job interviews.

Develop Your Presentation Skills

Improve your confidence and nail your presentations with this pocket guide to preparing and delivering them well.

As with any assignment, it's important to first check the assignment requirements before you start planning your presentation. Read over the assignment requirements and make sure you understand the following:

• Is it a group or individual presentation?
• Is there a time limit or requirement? 
• Are you allowed to use videos? If so, how long can videos be? Instructors generally do not want videos to take up a big portion of your presentation, but short videos can help to illustrate a point
• What's the topic you will be presenting on? Do you get to choose? 
• Are you required to prepare a visual component such as a PowerPoint or a poster?
• What is the purpose of the presentation? Are you summarizing an issue to inform your classmates? Are you presenting a paper you wrote? Are you trying to convince them of a particular argument related to an issue? Are you leading discussion on a reading?

A good presentation requires careful planning. In general, you will need to follow these steps to plan a successful presentation:

• Brainstorm and outline: What's your topic? What do you know about the topic? What do you want your audience to know? 
• Research: Use research to support your argument, find examples and statistics, or to learn more about your topic.
• Write an outline . 
• Write a draft.
• Plan any visual aids such as PowerPoint or any activities you want your audience to participate in
• Practice, practice, practice!  Make sure your presentation is not too long, and edit it down as needed.

A good presentation should be well organized, with a beginning, middle and end. 

Beginning :

The beginning of a presentation is very important! This is when you have an opportunity to grab the audience's attention, and set the tone for your presentation.

• Use an attention grabber. Some attention grabbing techniques include: asking a thought-provoking question, showing the audience am intriguing picture, telling a story or use a real life example related to your topic, sharing a shocking statistic related to your topic, sharing a powerful quote, playing a short video
• Introduce yourself and the topic you will be discussing
• Outline what you will be talking about. 
• Discuss your main points in a logical order
• It should be clear to your audience when you are moving from one point to another
• Use examples to support your points

Conclusion:

• Summarize the main points
• Avoid providing new information at this point, but you can state any additional questions that you think your research has led you too
• Use language that lets your audience know that your presentation is coming to an end
• Avoid ending with "that's it!" or apologizing for your presentation
• Thank the audience for listening and invite questions

Using transition and signal phrases throughout your presentation will help keep it organized and ensure your thoughts are communicated clearly. Try using some of the phrases below to introduce ideas and structure your presentation.

Introducing your presentation:

• The topic/question I will be discussing today is...
• This presentation will investigate/examine... 

Providing an outline:

• I want to start by..., then I will... 
• This presentation is divided into [x number] of parts. First I will... then I will..., finally I will conclude by...
• There are [x number] of points I will discuss: A, B, C and D
• Let's begin by looking at... before examining... 

Introducing your main point: 

• A significant issue is...
• A major concern is...
• The central problem is...

Rephrasing your main point:

• In other words...
• Another way to think about the problem is...

Moving to another point:

• Now let's consider...
• I'd like to move on to examine...
• Now, turning to the issue of...

Introducing an example:

• A case in point is...
• Take the case of...
• This is illustrated/demonstrated by...
• An example of this is...

​Introducing images or explaining visuals: 

• This image/diagram illustrates...
• As you can see here...

Introducing and integrating videos:

• We will now watch a short video that illustrates...
• In the video we've just watched, it is important to note that...
• As the video demonstrates...

Conclusions:

• ​ To sum up...
• In conclusion...
• In summary...
• To summarize...
• To conclude...
• Therefore... 

Inviting and Answering Questions:

• I am happy to take questions now.
• That's a very interesting question. In my opinion,...
• Thanks for your question. What my research shows is that...
• That's a relevant question, but it is out of the scope of my research.
• I'm afraid I cannot answer that question, but that's an interesting topic.

The above tips have been adapted from RMIT University Study and Learning Centre's  " Oral Presentations: Signalling and Transition Phrases."

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• Last Updated: Aug 25, 2023 11:04 AM
• URL: https://columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/presentations

Essential Study Skills: Delivering a Presentation

• Getting Things Done
• Creating a Weekly Schedule
• Creating a Semester Plan
• Planning an Assignment
• Additional Resources
• Deciding what to study
• Knowing How to Study
• Memorizing & Understanding Concepts
• Taking Tests & Exams
• Reading with Purpose
• Taking Notes in Class
• Creating and Preparing for a Presentation
• Presentation Anxiety
• Delivering a Presentation

• Delivering Presentations

Once you have created your presentation and your visual aids, and you have prepared for the presentation, you can deliver it to your audience. This module will help you learn how to confidently deliver your presentation.

• Before You Present

How to Deliver an Effective Presentation

Watch this video or read the tips below to learn some techniques for delivering a presentation.

• Video Transcript - How to Deliver an Effective Presentation

Tips for Delivering a Good Presentation

• Have good posture
• Smile and act relaxed. It will make you look and feel more confident.
• Make eye contact with your audience instead of reading off your notes the entire time.
• Avoid distracting behaviours, like chewing gum or fidgeting.
• Watch for nervous gestures, such as rocking, or tapping.
• Make sure to dress appropriately for your profession.
• Take time to think during your presentation!  People have a tendency to speak more quickly under pressure. Make an effort to slow your pace and include pauses. Speaking slower will also help you avoid excessive verbal fillers like “ummm” or “ahhhh”.
• Pay attention to your volume.  Think about projecting your voice to the back of the classroom so that everyone can hear what you have to say.
• Try to speak clearly so that your audience can easily understand your words.
• Avoid the ‘lecture’.  By incorporation more than a speech into your presentation, you’ll be better able to hold your audience’s attention. Try using visuals, asking questions, or doing activities.

How to Rehearse Your Presentation

Review this checklist before you present to make you that you are ready to deliver your presentation. It will help you rehearse your presentation so that it will go smoothly when you deliver it in class.

• Presentation Rehearsal Checklist PDF
• Presentation Rehearsal Checklist Word
• << Previous: Presentation Anxiety
• Next: Additional Resources >>
• Last Updated: Jan 3, 2024 2:14 PM
• URL: https://bethelks.libguides.com/essentialstudyskills

• Subject Guides

A practical guide to presentations

• Delivering a presentation
• Presentations
• Tools & content
• Basic slide design
• Text & images
• Animation, sound, & video

How do you deliver a presentation? Here we take a look at some presenting tips , including some practical advice for presenting with slides and for presenting online . We also consider polling tools , how to share your screen , and how to share a copy of your presentation with your audience.

Presenting tips

Some practical suggestions.

Here's a few bits of practical advice for presenting:

Use the mic!

If there's a microphone there, use it. You might be able to project to the back of the room beautifully, but don't presume you know the hearing needs of your audience, and don't assume that asking if people mind you not using the microphone is going to elicit a meaningful response. Just use the blummin' microphone: it might feel like a bit of a faff, but it's there for a reason!

Scope out the room beforehand

If you're able, get an idea of the room you're presenting in, and the equipment available. You can find out the details about a teaching room at York on the Teaching Room Information page.

The size of the room, and the number of people you're presenting to, will have an effect on how you deliver the session and how interactive you can be.

Present with a laptop

The lectern PCs on campus are not as young as they once were. If you've got a laptop it might well be more powerful. What's more, with a laptop you will be able to use Presenter view , which will give you much more control over your presentation.

Run the slides through before your audience arrive

If you can, test your slides, or anything else you plan to use, in the room. That way you can be sure they'll run as you expect them to (PowerPoint will also cache any videos or animations on its first run through, which may make effects run smoother for the show proper).

Take a deep breath before you speak

Honestly, it will help.

Don't read the slide

If there's more than a few words on your slide, avoid the temptation to read it verbatim. Talk around the points. Add to them. If your presentation is just you reading the wall, you could just have sent the slide-deck to your audience and saved everyone the trip.

Avoid using a script

Reading out loud is hard to do well. So avoid using a script too. Make notes, by all means, but consider how you'll navigate those notes: you don't want to lose your place. One helpful method is to use small pages such as index cards, or to only write on the top third of a page.

And if you're working with notes, don't limit them to the words you're saying. Throw in some stage directions too. That way you might be more likely to remember to breathe!

Don't memorise every word

A presentation is a performance of sorts, but it isn't a play. It's better to be able to understand your topic and talk freely around it than to understand a script. If you get distracted from a script (for instance by a question) you'll be in trouble and you might have difficulty picking up the thread again.

Practice. Out loud. Like you mean it!

Practicing in your head won't give you a true idea of how your presentation will go, or how long it will last. You kind of have to do it for real. It's also helpful (if a little embarrassing too) to practice in front of a friend.

Shave off 10%

It's better to have more time to play with than to cram in too much and run over or rush the last bit. If your presentation is too long for the time, drop something. If you're delivering and you're running out of time, drop something mid-presentation. Have a note of your slide numbers so that you can skip to a section without clicking through slides you've no intention of talking to.

Get a clicker

If you're not likely to be doing many presentations then don't get a clicker, but if you find yourself in a position where you're doing a lot of presentations (or if you know someone who's got a clicker you can borrow) get yourself a clicker: it will liberate you from the lectern and you'll be able to wander about a bit more.

Even if you've not got a clicker, you should still feel able to leave the keyboard now and again (microphones allowing). Get out there and make use of the 'stage'; gesture at your lovely slides. Feel the love of your enthralled audience!

Address the audience

Face the people you're presenting to, and avoid talking to the wall your slides are being projected on. If you're presenting online, make sure your microphone is in the same direction as your screen.

The audience are on your side

No, really. Look them in the eye. At least one member of your audience will be demonstrably supportive. Find the most supportive looking audience member and keep looking back at them. Breathe in their happy smile and their nods.

Don't criticise yourself during the presentation

You know you've made a mistake, but your audience might not have clocked it. Unless you tell them. So don't tell them. Keep your mistakes to yourself.

Ok, maybe that's easier said than done, but step back and unleash the performer buried deep within.

Share the slides

Your slides can be your calling card. So maybe put them online somewhere where your audience can revisit them.

When sharing materials after a session, they don't need to be the same deck you're presenting with. Maybe you could include some extra slides that expand upon the original summary content (and may even expand on what you said in the presentation). Or at the very least you could add some explanatory notes in the notes field.

Annoying things to perhaps avoid

Here's some suggestions from Twitter of the most annoying things presenters do...

The classics

• “Put an essay on each slide and READ IT ALL. VERY SLOWLY.”
• “Read from a script.”
• “Going overtime.”
• “cram too much in, and then say ...erm... I'll just skip over these slides.... usually the more interesting ones at the end”

The insightful

• “Speaking away from the mic.”
• “Try to fit 60 minutes of material into 25 minutes presenting time.”
• “Ignore audience signals”

The unwelcome participatory

• “Attempting to get me to stand up and engage in participation without first winning my cooperation?”
• “Make me play a game.”

The bizarre

• “Not wear shoes.”
• “Swirl each word with a laser pointer as they say it.”
• “jangling the loose change in their pockets. A least I hope that's what they're doing......”

Presenting your slides

Presenter view.

If you're using a computer with a dual monitor setup (or if you're hooking up a laptop to the projector) you can use Presenter View when presenting. This gives you a lot more control over your presentation.

With Presenter View enabled, the presentation happens on one screen (usually the big one that the audience can see), while the other screen shows a control console which will include things like slide notes and a preview of the next slide in the deck.

Before you can use Presenter View, you'll need to have two screens connected to your computer. In your computer's display settings, make sure that you're using an extended display so that the two screens are able to carry different content.

The controls for transitions are all found on the Transitions tab:

• To enable Presenter View, choose Slide Show > Monitors > Use Presenter View
• Select the monitor to be used for the show ( Slide Show > Monitors > Monitor )

Tools in the Presenter View include annotation options, zoom, captions, and a handy slide picker mode.

Another benefit of Presenter View is that you can switch back to your slide deck on the presenter screen and make changes to your slides without having to escape the presentation on the audience screen. This is handy if you've made a mistake, or if you want to add things to future slides based on things that have come up in the presentation.

You can present using Presenter View in Google Slides by going to the drop-down toggle at the side of the Present button and choosing Presenter view .

Google Slides' version of Presenter View is a bit more basic than PowerPoint's. But you get previews of the previous and next slides, as well as sight of your notes. There's also a dropdown slide picker for if you want to skip to elsewhere in the presentation.

Audience Q&A

Google's Presenter View includes a Question & Answer feature under the AUDIENCE TOOLS tab. Audience members can follow a link to submit questions which can then be moderated and displayed on screen.

• By default the Q&A requires your audience to log in as members of the University of York, but you can use the dropdown at the top of the page to open the link up to anyone;
• When the Q&A toggle is switched to ON , the URL for the submission page is displayed at the top of your slides. You can use the toggle to turn this off when not needed;
• The audience can ask their question with their Google identity showing, or anonymously; other audience members can upvote or downvote questions;
• To present a question on the main screen, choose PRESENT .

Even if you've not got a set-up that will allow you to use Presenter View, there's still some in-vision presenter tools that appear in the bottom left of the screen when you hover over a slide.

Keyboard shortcuts

Here's some useful keyboard shortcuts for use when presenting:

Advancing the slides

To step forward through the slides (and any animations) you can mouse-click, mouse-wheel backwards, or press N , Enter , Page Down , the right arrow cursor, the down arrow cursor, or the space bar .

To step backwards, you've got the choice of mouse-wheeling forwards, or pressing P , Page Up , the left arrow cursor, the up arrow cursor, or the Backspace .

Navigating to elsewhere in your presentation

To skip to a specific slide, enter the slide number then press Enter

You can also use Home and End to skip to the beginning or end of your presentation.

Clearing the screen

B will make your screen go black. W will make your screen go white. Pressing them again will bring your slides back.

Live subtitling

Google Slides and the Microsoft 365 version of PowerPoint are able to generate live captions for your presentation. As with any live captioning, the quality of these subtitles may vary...

In PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 , subtitling options can be found at Slide Show > Captions & Subtitles , or can be enabled from the on-screen controls when presenting.

Live subtitles can be activated from the Captions icon: one of the on-screen controls on the three-dots menu (⋮) when presenting. You will need to enable access to your microphone.

Custom shows

If you need to give similar presentations to different audiences, instead of creating multiple presentations, PowerPoint lets you generate custom shows . Each show can use a different selection of slides from the same presentation.

Creating custom shows

• Choose Slide Show > Start Slide Show > Custom Slide Show > Custom Shows… — a dialogue box will open;
• Choose New… to create the first show, and Add the slides you want in the sequence required;
• Give the show a suitable name and select OK to finish;
• Repeat this process for each show required — they will appear in the Custom Shows dialogue when you return;
• If you need to edit a show, choose Edit... ;
• When done, choose Close .

Presenting with a custom show

Once you've created a custom show, it will appear on the Custom Slide Show dropdown. Select the show you want and it will run.

Export options

PowerPoint has a range of export options. Most of these can be accessed via File > Export . Here's a few examples:

Saving as a PDF is useful if you've got an elaborate slide deck that is large in terms of file-size, and which is liable to display inconsistently on other machine (for example because of access to special fonts). PDF is a print format so it isn't the most user friendly in terms of display-based reading, but nor, in some ways, is a PowerPoint deck.

You can export your slideshow as a video, which is particularly useful if you've got narrations in place. If you're sharing the video, you may want to adjust the quality settings to create a file that's of a reasonable size. Or you could always produce something at a high quality and then upload it to YouTube or Google Drive.

In the latest versions of PowerPoint you can also export slides as an animated GIF (the GIFs on this guide were done via that method).

The handout option will export your slides and notes to a Word document. This feature is great if you've got some good notes you want to share, but, annoyingly, often breaks half way through.

Other save options

If you're sharing a PowerPoint file, you may want to create a sharing copy:

• Go to File > Save a Copy and choose the "Browse" button to bring up the "Save As" dialogue box;
• Under Tools > Save Options... you'll find a setting that lets you Embed fonts in the file : this is handy if you're using non-standard fonts and want to be sure that the slides will display properly on other computers;
• Under Tools > Compress Pictures... you can get rid of any bits of images you may have cropped out, and reduce the quality of the images to potentially make your PowerPoint file smaller in terms of file-size.

Audience polling

Getting a show of hands is one thing but sometimes you might want to get a bit more sophisticated in terms of audience polling. As well as traditional survey tools , the University has an institutional licence for Mentimeter which can be used to provide real-time feedback in a presentation setting:

There's also the Q&A tool available in Google Slides :

And if you're presenting online, Zoom has a polling tool built in:

Sharing a presentation

It can be useful to share a copy of the slides with your audience. But there are a few extra things to consider:

Are you actually going to share the same slide deck you're presenting with? Sure, with Google Slides, that's straightforward, but with PowerPoint it's a lot more complicated: PowerPoint files can be big , and big files are difficult to share. You might be better off exporting your slides to a different format like a PDF or a handout.

Even with Google Slides, you've the choice of sharing the deck itself (albeit probably just with View access) or using the File > Publish to the web option which creates a presentation frame like the one above.

Accessibility

Designing for a screen has plenty of accessibility considerations, but if you're also going to be sharing your slides, there are other aspects of accessible design that you'll need to consider: in particular, images will need alternative text , and you'll need to ensure that slide content follows the intended reading order .

Alternative versions

If you're sharing your deck in advance, it's going to be full of spoilers. Are there bits you want to hold back from your audience? Do you actually need to share a special 'sharing' deck?

Likewise, elaborate slides can be a pain to make accessible, so a simplified version might be used in the shared deck. This might also help to keep the filesize of the deck down. And you can reduce the image quality in PowerPoint's save settings, and jettison any unused parts of images — things you might not want to do with your master copy.

Presenting online

Presenting online comes with its own set of challenges. Here's some general advice:

Enable live captions

If you're presenting in Zoom , be sure to sign in with your University account to get some extra features. One such feature is auto-transcription whereby the host can enable live captioning ( Live Transcript > Live Transcript > Enable Auto-Transcription ). It's the new "always use the mic!"

Ease off on the effects

Unless you tweak the settings, the frame-rate (the number of pictures being sent down the line in any given second) is quite low for a virtual meeting, which can make animation and transitions look jerky. And even if your connection is amazing, other people's bandwidth might not be so broad: they might be trying to watch on a poor connection, so having a clear slide becomes very important.

It's tiring

Looking at a screen is harder work than looking at you in real life. So be prepared to offer your audience (and yourself) a break or two. Think even harder about the structure of your presentation and how you can break things up or otherwise keep people's attention.

Performing in a vacuum

You'll probably want your audience muted while you're talking, because background noise is distracting. And while it might be nice to be able to see people's video, that's adding to the bandwidth load, so it may be more efficient (and less distracting) to have people turn their cameras off too. But this leaves you performing to, well, nothing much at all. It's hard to judge how your talk is going down; and you don't have that kind face to focus on. So maybe find a supportive friend closer to home: a stuffed toy, maybe... something with eyes that you can focus on: a proxy audience positioned close to your webcam. It can be surprisingly effective, and can help alleviate the sense that you're just talking to a brick wall (when you're emphatically not).

If you're able to do so, present with another person. It builds up the sense of an audience, and it livens things up a bit for the viewer too. Having two people makes it easier to field questions too, and if one of you has connection problems, the other can provide cover.

Play with the kit

Things like Zoom have loads of tools built into them like live captioning, breakout rooms and polling. Try them out with some colleagues to get the hang of them. The chat window is really useful as a way of getting people to ask questions as they think of them, without interrupting the flow of the session.

Prepare your desktop accordingly

Your computer screen is your classroom. If you're leaving the slides in order to do anything else (a virtual whiteboard, an online demonstration, or whatever), make sure you have everything you need ready (and that you don't have anything on your desktop you wouldn't want to share). Give similar thought to your physical surroundings, but don't get too hung up on that if the main content of your session is the slides.

Share the materials

Rather than having to just watch the slides via video chat, your audience might also find it helpful to follow along with a local copy of the slide deck. This might mean they could spoil themselves by looking ahead to later slides, but it also means they have a clear, accessible, user-friendly version: when connections might be unstable, it's useful to have an alternative to look at.

Don't panic!

Technology breaks, connections become unstable. There are a lot of variables at play with an online presentation, and the chances of something going wrong are high to the point of being normal: it's an online presentation so of course it won't all go according to plan (even a face-to-face presentation seldom goes smoothly, after all). It's easier to say "don't worry" than it is to not worry, but try to stay as calm as you can and hopefully whatever problem is arising will be something you or someone else in the chat can resolve.

Screensharing accessibility

Sharing your screen is inevitably a heavily visual way of communicating. But not everybody will be able to see your screen, and even people with perfect eyesight might still struggle to see all the detail in a heavily compressed low resolution streaming video. So what can you do to help paint the picture of what it is you're doing with your mouse pointer?

Make things bigger

In a world of huge monitors we've got used to lots of screen real-estate and tiny writing that we can only read when close up. This is fine for working purposes but not so ideal for a demonstration. Before you present, go into your display settings and choose a smaller display resolution. It might take a few tries to find a smaller resolution in the right ratio for your screen — most monitors on campus have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 which you could downscale to 1600 x 900 or even 1360 x 768.

Macs make this process a little easier by having a scale option to control the resolution. Windows also has a scale option, but it works slightly differently by letting you resize text and other items without changing the overall resolution. Try some different options and see what might work best for your needs.

Bear in mind that if you're using a much lower resolution than normal, icons might be in different places, menus might get cut off, and some tasks that require a lot of screen might be harder. But this might serve as a useful reminder that a piece of software might look different on different setups, and not everyone using it will see it in exactly the same way that you do.

If you're recording a screen rather than sharing it live, there are other ways you can make things bigger in the edit , like occasionally zooming in to focus on a particular part of the screen. Try to keep this sort of thing as gentle as possible; you want to orientate, not dis orientate. Another thing you can do at this stage is add captions, arrows, and other highlights to make what you're doing even more explicit.

Describe what you're doing

It's not a silent movie, so give a good commentary. If you've ever listened to sport on the radio, think about how it differs to the commentary you get on television and maybe use a few of the tricks: say what's happening; explain what you're clicking on; give as good a description as you can. That way you're giving twice the instruction: not only can people see what you're doing, they can hear what you're doing too.

Zoom is the recommended video conferencing tool here at York. It can be accessed via a web browser, mobile app, or desktop app. The browser experience allows multiple users to communicate via video, audio, or live-chat, screen-share, and share control of a shared screen. The desktop app contains a number of additional features, such as virtual whiteboards, breakout rooms and custom backgrounds.

When using Zoom, you'll need to make sure you are signed in with your University of York account .

Below you'll find some links to further support using Zoom. Our Zoom Wiki (requires UoY login) covers a range of support topics from scheduling and securing your meeting to using Zoom for teaching and managing Zoom recording .

Google Meet

Google Meet is a video communication service available as part of our Google Workspace . It allows multiple users to communicate via video, audio, or live-chat, and to screen-share.

Like a lot of Google applications, it's gone through various names, so you might catch us calling it 'Hangouts' or 'Hangouts Meet' in places.

Meet vs Zoom

Scheduling and joining a meet.

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• Creating and Preparing For a Presentation

Study Skills : Creating and Preparing For a Presentation

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Creating and Preparing For a Presentation : sub-module 1 of 3 of presentation skills

• The Structure of Oral Presentations - Word
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• Preparing for Oral Presentations - Word
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Strategies for Creating and Preparing for a Presentation

• Preparation

How to Create an Effective Presentation

Watch this video or read the instructions below to learn how to develop the content of your presentation, and how to create effective visual aids..

Develop your content.

• Brainstorm ideas.
• See where you need to fill in information and research your topic.
• Gather all your info and then organize it. Prepare an outline of how you want to present the information.
• Transfer the information to cue cards or a single sheet of paper.  You can use these to support you during your presentation.

Remember: You can’t read your presentation off of a script, so don’t write an essay. Instead, use bullet points to remind you of the next key point.

Be sure to know the expected length of time for the presentation and plan accordingly. Make sure you have enough to say.

Create your visual aids.

• Visual aids can take many forms, which means you can be creative!  Other than Powerpoint you can use: Prezi, posters, charts, hands-on samples or demonstrations. Keep in mind that you should be comfortable using whatever you use to create your visual aid.  
• If you are using slides, make them simple and uncluttered. Too much text or pictures per slide makes it hard for audience to digest all the information. This means you shouldn’t copy your entire speech onto your slides.
• Have 1-2 slides for every 1-2 minutes you are speaking.
• Slides should be large enough to be seen from the back of a room. Use a font size of at least 32.
• Use colour and contrast (but in moderation!). Avoid yellow and orange because they are hard to see from a distance.

Want to make your presentation even better?

Learn more about how to create engaging presentations using tools like PowerPoint and Google Slides in the Presentations module in the Digital Skills hub.

How to Structure Your Presentation

Structuring your content is an important part of an effective presentation. It is important to know what to include in your presentation and when to include it.

Complete the activity to learn how to structure your presentation. You can also use the tip sheet below as a quick reference when you are creating future presentations.

How to Structure a Presentation Activity

This activity covers the ideal structure for a presentation. Can you sort all the elements of a presentation into the right order? (opens in new window)

Presentation Structure Tip Sheet

How to prepare for your presentation.

Watch the video or read the tips to learn some ways to prepare for a presentation so that it will go smoothly.

You can also use the tip sheet below as a reference when you are preparing for future presentations.

Tips to Prepare for a Presentation

• Make sure that you know you know your topic well. It’s much easier to explain something to other people if you have a good understanding of it yourself.
• Practice your presentation out loud ! This will help you get a more accurate feel for how much time your presentation will take.
• Review the assignment rubric to determine what is expected so that you know how to budget your time.
• Try timing yourself. You will speak faster during the actual presentation, so expect your presentation to be a bit shorter than your practice run.
• If you are too long on one slide, consider dividing the information between two cards.
• If you don’t spend any time on another slide, consider removing it.
• Practice in front of a mirror. This makes you aware of how often you are looking down at your notes or your visuals aids.
• Practice in front of a friend or family member and ask for critiques.
• If you are using cue cards, make sure you have them numbered in case you drop them.  You can also attach them together with a metal ring, so that they stay together even if they fall.
• Make sure that you are comfortable using whatever you have chosen to use for your visual aids.
• Don’t use a network connection to access any part of your presentation. Have the material downloaded ahead of time and use it offline.
• Have a backup or a hard copy with you in case of a problem.

Preparation Tip Sheet

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Note: This material is meant as a general guide, if your professor's instructions differ from the information we've provided, always follow your professor's instructions. Also note, icons on this site are used through a Noun Project Pro license. Please be sure to provide proper attribution if you reuse them.

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Presentation Skills

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Content The content of your presentation will be centred around your research of the topic. For example, you may be asked to research a particular issue or a specific organisation, so you will need to read about that issue/organisation and collect relevant information. Then, the information will need to be organised and conceptualised clearly for your audience. 

Structure A presentation follows the usual structure; it has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. In your introduction, outline what you are going to talk about, how your talk is going to be structured, and perhaps what you are intending to achieve with the talk. You can engage the audience and begin strongly by giving a powerful quotation, surprising statistics or information, or asking a question.

In the body of your presentation, you should have clearly defined sections and evidence and examples. You may also have some tables, graphs or images as visual support material. You should deliver information step-by-step so that your audience can follow your ideas.

In your conclusion, recap the main points and reinforce the importance of your topic. You could go for a 'big finish' by inviting questions from the audience, or you can present some questions or issues to your audience to create further discussion. 

Style When people take things in by ear, they need to be reminded of the direction your talk is taking and how the major points link up.  Therefore it’s a good idea to repeat the main points, and summarise what you have said. Use devices like 'So, where do we go from here ?',  'That brings me to my next point ... ', 'So far, we've looked at.... '. 

Steps of preparting a presentation

Preparing the content of a presentation is a process, just like preparing a written assignment.

• Analyse the task and brainstorm ideas about the topic.
• Develop a rough outline of what you might include. This can come from the assessment guidelines, or key points your educator has told you to include. You may want to do this in the form of a mind map.
• Research your topic to find information by reading and taking notes.
• Organise your research into your outline and write each section of your presentation.  Keep the time limit in mind and cut out any redundant or irrelevant information.
• Summarise your speech into concise notes. These will eventually become your cue cards. Make sure when using cue cards, to number them. Dot points are best, as anything written in sentences will encourage you to read, especially if you are nervous.
• Plan and prepare your visuals. Ensure your ideas are conceptualised clearly and that information from sources is referenced in either APA Style (Counselling, Psychology, Social Work), or Harvard Style (Criminology).
• Practice presenting your speech in front of a mirror, or record for yourself, to ensure you get the timing right (often presentations last 20 minutes).
• If you have enough courage, ask a friend or family member to watch you. Ask for feedback on volume, gestures, speed, and the clarity of your message.
• Arrive to class early. If you have access to the room and there is time, practice standing at the front to get a feel for the room and space. Also make sure any technology is working and ready to go. Have your cue cards ready and in order.
• Have fun! You’ve worked hard to get to this point, so enjoy having everyone’s attention.

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UCI Humanities Core

Spring: How to Prepare and Deliver an Oral Presentation

by Giovanna Fogli

INTRODUCTION

The final writing assignment in Humanities Core is the research paper, a challenging, and perhaps daunting task on which have you started working from the beginning of Spring Quarter . As you have surely realized by now, t he research paper is a complex project which requires you to independently select , research and carefully explore a feasible topic, strictly connected to the material we have explored through the year. This complex assignment includes various steps which may slightly vary, depending on your seminar , but that will surely include: an Annotated Bibliography, a Prospectus and a final draft. As part of the project, y ou will be required as well to prepare an Oral P resentation and introduce your proposed research project to the class (depe nding on your instructor, this Oral P resentation may be in lieu of the Prospectus and may or may not accompany some other kind of written document). Over the year, you have had excellent models of oral presentations: the lectures you attended weekly and that offered you many different styles of how to deliver an oral argument. Just like those lectures, your presentation will follow rigorous academic criteria, requiring you to adopt the same scholarly approach you would use for any written assignment. However, an oral presentation is indeed different from a written assignment, and it helps to consider how specifically. On the one hand, you will have the advantage of using more than one medium to deliver your point and to retain your audience’s attention; on the other hand, dealing with a viewer instead of a reader may pose a challenge to the organization of evidence and effective presentation of a logic thread. E.g. when in doubt, a reader can peruse previous sections of a given written text (e.g. an academic essay) to  verify that there is appropriate support for a specific point – this advantage is lost in a live presentation: clarity , efficient layout and convincing delivery are key to successfully proving the validity of an argument presented orally.

DRAFTING THIS ORAL PRESENTATION

As already stated, it is important that you consider the scholarly nature of your assignment. F or the purpose of this assignment , a prospectus is a concise document describing your research project . It briefly illustrates questions, materials and methods you will use in your research. Therefore, you should make sure you present to the class what makes your research project worthwhile, what questions you plan to address and what answers you expect to find (hypothesis). It is also important that you show how the project is well-organized, feasible and based on well-conducted research (e.g. your Annotated Bibliography). The end result should be an effective short presentation leaving your audience with the clear notion of what you are researching and why.

Focusing on the rhetorical aspects of your presentation can help you deliver a convincing and engaging presentation. Specifically, you should consider:

• the purpose of your presentation (presenting a research proposal),
• the nature of your a udience (a group that may not be familiar with your topic, but that will be at least partially competent about certain aspects of it as you are working under the same umbrella of Humanistic inquiry)
• the medium (you will show – e.g. using an appositely prepared PowerPoint or a webpage – and tell – delivering a speech)
• the limits of your assignment (specifically time constraints, as your entire presentation may not go beyond the 5-minute mark)

You can think of ethos , logos and pathos – rhetorical categories discussed through the year – as different ways in which you, the author, relate to your audience (your instructor and your classmates). How can you establish your credibility and convince your audience that you are addressing them as a competent speaker ( ethos ) ? What kind of emotional response are you seeking from your audience? What feeling will make them more receptive to your position ( pathos )? And, most importantly for your task, what evidence/warrants/claims – what logical organization – will convince them of the soundness of your project ( logos )?

As for the organization of the presentation itself, you may decide to structure it according to your prospectus organization, and you may or may not have one slide/image per each key point:

• Offer a clear and concise introduction to the chosen topic (presenting object of investigation/artifact and specific connection to the course)
• Present the investigative questions guiding your research ( what are you trying to find out?)
• Offer a working thesis or h ypothesis ( what d o you expect to find/prove/ etc . ?)
• Present a summary of your research (What are the primary and secondary sources where you expect to find evidence/claims to answer your questions?)
• Indicate what type of analysis you will be conducting (how will you investigate your evidence and WHY have you chosen that method?)

SPEAKING AND SHOWING: ORGANIZING YOUR MULTI-MEDIA PRESENTATION .

To help you present your research project effectively, you may use any kind of multi-media, from Prezi to PowerPoint  presentations to Google  Slides , keeping in mind that your main purpose is to offer a visual anchor to your audience. Your goal is to direct their  attention to the central points of your argument and keep their focus on the main points of your presentation, avoiding unnecessary distractions. Starting from the very beginning of your presentation, your message should be clear but not obvious. As the screen shots reproduced below suggest, to reach this goal you may employ images, creative choices of background and any other graphic and sound elements you like. Have fun with it , but remember: any of these elements is there to help you make your case – you should not find yourself competing with them for your audience ’s attention. Consider these slides created by past HC students as the cover page of their own Prospectus.

In an academic presentation, each slide following the cover one usually contains one clear interpretive claim , supported by appropriate evidence. As this is a presentation of a proposal, each following slide should offer an illustration of a key step in your research process, from introduction to conclusion. Again, look at these examples from fellow students:

You should organize your slides in a logical order to present a sound and cohesive overall argument and offer a clear outline showing a point-by-point development of your main claim (in the case of a Prospectus,  these two translate respectively into your hypo thesis, or tentative thesis , and a step-by-step research plan). Remember that it is better not to send an audience into overload or divert their attention from your own performance. Follow a simple rule for any PowerPoint presentation, namely “less is more” – avoid ‘overkill’ when it comes to written text, or your audience will end up trying to decode the text contained in each slide rather than listening to you. As an illustration of how a verbose presentation could quickly lose your audience’s attention, look at two sample slides, each presenting the same material but in two very different fashions:

As scholarly presentations require accurate and detailed documentation of sources  as well (e.g. a prospectus may suggest the need of specific bibliographical references), if you find that citations could overload each slide, you may decide that an appositely prepared handout is the most efficient solution.

DELIVERING YOUR PRESENTATION

For this particular Oral P resentation, reading out loud from a written script is not an option. This requires that you pay attention to not only appropriate word choice, good syntax and style, but fluency of speech as well. You should effectively integrate with one another o ral (your commentary) and visual (slides/webpage ) elements . Rehearsing your speech will allow you to improve your delivery technique. Effective posture and gestures, appropriate audibility and a dynamic range of voice, together with good eye contact, will permit you to engage with the audience and enhance your chances for a successful presentation.

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• Effective Presentation Skills Tutorial
• Delivering the Presentation

Once you have rehearsed the presentation well, here are some simple suggestions to consider in delivering the presentation effectively.

Dress Appropriately

Dress appropriately for the presentation, based on the context, disciplinary protocols, formality of the occasion and the type of audience (faculty, students, clients, etc.). Do not wear inappropriate clothing, jewelry, hats or footwear that distract.

Arrive Early

Arrive early for the presentation, and do not arrive just in time or late.

Meet the Moderator

If there is a presentation moderator who will introduce you, meet that person well in advance of the presentation so they know you are in the room on time and that you will be ready.

Decide How to Handle Audience Questions

Decide how you will handle questions during the presentation, and either request the audience to wait until you are finished with your presentation or make sure you will have time to answer the question in the middle of your presentation.

Have a Plan if the Technology Fails

Similarly, decide how you will continue your presentation if the presentation technology fails or freezes in the middle of your presentation.

Smoothly Handling Difficulty with Technology

This video clip is an example of a presenter encountering difficulty with technology but handling it smoothly with a backup plan .

Poorly Handling Difficulty with Technology

This video clip is an example of a presenter encountering difficulty with technology but handling it poorly without a backup plan .

Greet the Audience

If you have some free time before the presentation starts, walk up to some members of the audience, introduce yourself and thank them for being there. This may put you at ease during the presentation.

Load Your Visuals Before Your Allotted Presentation Time

If you plan to use presentation tools, load your presentation or connect your presentation device to the projector before you are asked to present so you do not use up your presentation time to load your files and make the audience wait.

Be pleasant and smile when you stand in front of an audience so it makes the audience feel comfortable listening to you.

Don't Eat or Chew Gum

Do not chew gum or eat during your presentation. You may drink water or other allowed beverages during the presentation.

Take a Deep Breath

Before you begin to speak, take a few deep breaths and calm yourself.

Speak Clearly

Speak slowly and clearly, and do not rush through sentences, as some do when they get nervous.

Speak at an Even Pace

Pay attention to the pace in which you speak, to avoid your pace of delivery being either too fast or too slow for the audience to follow.

Pace Too Slow

This video clip is an example of a presentation pace that is too slow .

Pace Too Fast

This video clip is an example of a presentation pace that is too fast .

Appropriate Pace

This video clip is an example of the presenter's pace of delivery being appropriate for the audience to follow .

Change the Inflection of Your Voice to Gain Audience Attention or to Emphasize Content

If you are trying to make a point about a particular idea, enunciate or pronounce the words clearly and distinctly. At this point, you can slow down and raise the volume of your voice to clearly express what you have to say. Speak with authority, confidence and enthusiasm.

Effective Voice Quality and Emphasis

This video clip is an example of a presenter demonstrating effective voice quality and emphasis on significant words .

Ineffective Voice Quality and Emphasis

This video clip is an example of a presenter demonstrating ineffective voice quality and emphasis on significant words .

Use Appropriate Gestures

Use appropriate gestures to emphasize appropriate points, and do not make wild gestures or pace back and forth in front of the screen in a distracting manner.

Effective Gestures

This video clip is an example of a presenter demonstrating effective hand gestures and body language .

Ineffective Gestures

This video clip is an example of a presenter demonstrating ineffective hand gestures and body language .

Make Proper Eye Contact

Make proper eye contact: that is, look at the audience from one side of the room to the other side, and from the front row to the last row. Do not look down the whole time, and do not focus on just one side of the room or just the front row of the audience.

Effective Eye Contact

This video clip is an example of a presenter demonstrating effective eye contact .

Ineffective Eye Contact

This video clip is an example of a presenter demonstrating ineffective eye contact .

Stand Beside the Screen

If you plan to use projected visuals on a screen, stand to one side of the screen. Ideally, you should be facing your audience at all times and just glance at the screen to look at cues from the slides.

Effective Position Near Screen

This video clip is an example of a presenter standing by the side of the screen during a PowerPoint presentation so the audience view of the screen is unobstructed, and glances at the screen only occasionally.

Ineffective Position Near Screen

This video clip is an example of a presenter standing in front of the screen during PowerPoint presentation , obstructing the audience view of the screen.

Do Not Talk to the Screen or Board

Do not talk to the screen or the presentation device; look at the audience and talk. It is alright to look at the screen occasionally and point to something important on the screen as you present.

Looking at Screen

This video clip is an example of a presenter looking mostly at the screen (instead of the audience).

Writing on the Board

This video clip is an example of a presenter writing on the board while talking and the writing is difficult to read .

Do Not Read Line-by-Line

Do not read presentation materials line-by-line unless there is someone in the audience who is visually-impaired and cannot see the slide, or if it is a quote that you have to read verbatim to emphasize.

Reading Each Word

This video clip is an example of a presenter reading word by word from an overly dense slide that is difficult to read .

Talking from a Slide

This video clip is an example of a presenter talking from a slide with easily readable bullet points, using them as cues .

If You Get Stuck, Look at Your Notes

If you get stuck on a point and do not know what to say, feel free to look at your notes to continue.

Use the Microphone Effectively

If you are presenting in a large room where a handheld microphone is needed, hold the microphone near your mouth and speak directly into it.

Using Microphone Effectively

This video clip is an example of a presenter using the microphone effectively .

Using Microphone Ineffectively

This video clip is an example of a presenter using the microphone ineffectively .

Do Not Curse or Use Inappropriate Language

Do not curse or use inappropriate language if you forget a point during the presentation or if the presentation technology fails.

Be Considerate of Your Team

If you are part of a team and giving a group presentation, be considerate to other team members by not using up their time or dominating the presentation. Smoothly transition from one presenter to another.

Smooth Transitions

This video clip is an example of transitioning from one presenter to another in a polished manner .

Awkward Transitions

This video clip is an example of awkward or unpolished transitions from one presenter to another .

Do Not Conclude Abruptly

Do not conclude the presentation abruptly by saying "This is it" or "I'm done." Conclude properly by summarizing the topic and thanking the audience for listening.

Effective Conclusion

This video clip is an example of the presenter concluding a presentation properly by summarizing the important points and thanking the audience .

Abrupt Conclusion

This video clip is an example of the presenter abruptly concluding a presentation .

Be Considerate of the Next Presenter

After your presentation and the question and answer part are over, remove your presentation materials from the desk or the podium, and close any open presentation software so the next presenter can get ready quickly.

Thank Your Moderator

Remember to thank your moderator (if there is one) and the audience, and if you were part of a panel presentation, make sure to thank the panel members.

Participate in the Audience

If there are other presentations scheduled after yours, do not leave the room, but stay and listen to their presentations.

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• Preparing for the Presentation
• Organizing the Presentation
• Designing Effective Presentation Materials
• Rehearsing the Presentation
• Handling Questions and Answers
• Presentation Skills Quiz
• Presentation Preparation Checklist
• Common Reasons for Ineffective Presentations

PRDV008: Preparing and Delivering Presentations

Course introduction.

• Time: 23 hours
• Free Certificate

This course has two parts. First, we explore the elements of communication and what they mean. We study how to analyze an audience to develop a clear, appropriate, and effective presentation that informs, persuades, or entertains. We discuss how to deliver a presentation with expertise, organize presentation materials, offer relevant supporting evidence, and include references to establish credibility and authority. We also explain how to tailor your speech for your audience with compelling presentation aids.

In the second part of the course, we explore how to deliver an oral presentation that incorporates appropriate language and effective delivery techniques. We discuss how to use proper tone, volume, rate, and modulation of voice, body language, eye contact, and other forms of nonverbal communication. We also discuss how to present online, strategies for managing public speaking anxiety, and how to plan for the unexpected.

Course Syllabus

First, read the course syllabus. Then, enroll in the course by clicking "Enroll me". Click Unit 1 to read its introduction and learning outcomes. You will then see the learning materials and instructions on how to use them.

Unit 1: The Elements of Communication

Let's begin by exploring several components of communication and the factors that set oral presentations apart from other forms of content delivery. Understanding how these elements work together will show what happens when we give a presentation. Scholars think about our communications as processes where senders and receivers interact. We exchange messages with each other simultaneously, and participants constantly adapt their messages based on their interpretations of contextual stimuli. In other words, we communicate with other people at the same time that they communicate with us, and we modify what we say and do based on what we see or hear from others.

In this unit, we will apply this one-to-one-person communication model to public contexts. The interaction happens simultaneously, and the setting of a presentation will determine how each participant reacts.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 1 hour.

Unit 2: Analyze Your Audience

Audience analysis provides context and is the foundation for speaking effectively and appropriately to any audience. In this unit, we will explore what audience analysis is, some methods for analyzing an audience, and how the language we choose affects our communication.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 2 hours.

Unit 3: Making Your Presentation Relevant

Now that we have developed a foundation for approaching the presentation process, we'll explore how to research and write the content to include in your presentation. First, you need to identify a topic. You will want to answer a few questions to determine whether the topic is right for you. Is it relevant to you? Is it relevant to your audience? Is it relevant to the time and place you will deliver your presentation?

Unit 4: Structuring Your Presentation

Now that you have a topic and have considered how to make it relevant to your audience, you need to choose the content for your presentation. Here, we will explore how to create an outline of your presentation to identify and clarify your central message with supporting points. We will also explore how to select an appropriate speech pattern to organize your presentation's main points.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.

Unit 5: Providing Supporting Content

By now, you should have nearly completed the outline for your presentation based on what you already know and your preliminary research. In this unit, we will take a deep dive into how to create appropriate supporting material for your presentation that will convince your audience that you are credible. Then, we will examine the most widely-accepted ways to cite your sources.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 hours.

Unit 6: Creating Your Presentation Aids

Now that you have outlined the content you want to convey, you can begin developing the materials you will use to support your presentation. Your presentation aids include everything from yourself (your clothing or a physical demonstration) to flip charts, handouts, models, illustrations, audio or video clips, and more common slideshow presentations like PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Prezi. Your written and visual content should reinforce and enhance your spoken message by directly adding something beyond what you state. The key to designing successful presentation aids is to give your audience another way to access your content. The design should be simple and clear, and use space, color, fonts, and media to help explain your message without being overwhelming or distracting.

Unit 7: Delivering Your Presentation

You know your audience and have researched your topic, outlined your presentation, and created your presentation aid. The next step is to give your presentation. In this unit, we transition from preparing a presentation to actually giving the presentation. We explore how to incorporate the fundamentals of an oral presentation: tone, volume, rate, voice modulation, body language, eye contact, and other forms of nonverbal communication.

We begin by watching some presenters with exceptional speaking skills to study their delivery style. Then we explore how you can use vocal and nonverbal communication techniques to improve a presentation.

Unit 8: Categories of Presentation Delivery

Scholars categorize four methods for delivering a message: impromptu, extemporaneous, manuscript, and memorized. The event will usually determine the format you should use. As discussed in the previous unit, your goal is to sound conversational regardless of your delivery method. After you study these descriptions, you will notice that this course focuses on extemporaneous and impromptu speeches.

Unit 9: Speaking to an Online Audience

You may be asked to deliver a presentation online, which can take on various forms. However, online presentations contain most, if not all, of the elements of presenting that we have studied so far. As we will explore in more detail in Unit 10, your presentation aids should be the same regardless of the delivery method. You should incorporate the same elements of presentation style we have discussed throughout this course.

The particular format of your delivery largely depends on the technology your audience has available. In this unit, we examine some common online environments and technical guidelines you should follow to ensure a smooth and professional delivery.

Unit 10: Using Your Presentation Aids

In Unit 6, we discussed how to create or prepare your presentation aids; here, we explore how to use them during your actual presentation. Using your presentation aids successfully involves revealing each slide when it is germane, integrating the material into your speech, concealing your presentation aids as soon as you finish discussing them, and moving on. Do not read your presentation aid verbatim. Be prepared if the technology fails. These rules apply to face-to-face and online presentations.

Unit 11: Overcoming Anxiety and Uncertainty

The unpredictable nature of live real-time presentations causes most of us to feel some apprehension before speaking in public. One factor in managing public speaking anxiety is becoming familiar with our responses (physical and psychological) to speaking in public and developing strategies for managing that anxiety. Another important part of managing public speaking anxiety is learning how to control the unexpected things that commonly occur. In this unit, we will examine outside factors that affect presentations, such as the audience, question and answer sessions, the location and time, and last-minute changes. This way, we can develop contingency plans to respond appropriately.

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If you come across any urgent problems, email [email protected].

Certificate Final Exam

Take this exam if you want to earn a free Course Completion Certificate.

To receive a free Course Completion Certificate, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on this final exam. Your grade for the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt.

Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate .

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Presentation Design and Delivery Cornell Certificate Program

Overview and courses.

Knowledge is power but it’s only half the battle. Sharing knowledge — that is, effectively communicating complex concepts to your audience — is the real strength.

This certificate program is designed to help you design, build, and deliver impactful in-person and virtual presentations to an array of internal and external audiences. The courses will provide you with an opportunity to examine, reevaluate, and collect rich insights into best practices for business, technical, and scientific presentations. Throughout this program, you will reevaluate current and past presentation practices that do not achieve the intended goals in order to help you refine your ability to deliver an effective message. You will practice techniques that can be adapted to meet specific communication needs including sharing highly technical information. Most importantly, you will have many opportunities to apply and experiment with the course concepts in your work.

You will be required to purchase Traci Nathans-Kelly’s book “Slide Rules” to complete your coursework. For the best experience in this program, it is strongly recommended to take these courses in the order that they appear.

Course list

• Redesigning Slides for Impact

As a person working in a technical field, you most likely have to give talks or presentations to different audiences, some of whom will be non-experts or decision makers outside your sphere of expertise. In this course, you will look at your own current practices for giving talks as a technical expert and establish a set of action items for improvement. You will look closely at your old habits and establish new ways to design, build, and deliver effective in-person and virtual presentations for an array of internal and external audiences. You will also examine, reevaluate, and apply best practices for engineering, technical, and scientific presentations, and explore current and past presentation practices that do not achieve the intended goals and results. This examination will help you refine your ability to deliver an effective message.

Specifically, you will perform an assessment of presentation techniques, both personal and at your workplace. From that starting point, you can reengineer your presentations to meet specific technical communication needs. Most importantly, you will have an opportunity to discover and articulate your organization's presentation culture, identify areas for improvement in your own slide design and presentation skills, set goals for leveraging effective new presentation habits, and formulate a detailed action plan for improvement. Throughout this course, you will read various selections from Dr. Traci Nathans-Kelly's book “Slide Rules,” which contains helpful insights and examples that you can apply in your own presentations.

Furthermore, you will prepare for a specific work-related talk and define the needs of co-presenters, audience members, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders.

• Engaging Presentation Techniques

Since the advent of presentation software like PowerPoint, presenters have been led astray by the design of slide templates. The software applications were originally created to help presenters outline their talks, but the slideware's design did not account for the needs of audiences nor factor in cognitive research. As a consequence, the templates have ingrained poor presentation habits that often confuse and disengage the people who are meant to benefit from these talks.

In this course you will have an opportunity to begin challenging the norm and break this cycle of "slide deck drudgery." By replacing old presentation habits with new best practices that you gain from this course, you can shift your focus to the needs and interests of your audience, and you can begin to use your slides to communicate your ideas more clearly and effectively. You will explore new techniques that will help you to improve the flow of your talk and keep your audience focused on your main ideas. You will then study effective presentation design and development practices as you read various selections from Dr. Traci Nathans-Kelly's book “Slide Rules,” which contains valuable insights and examples that you can apply in your own presentations.

You will be required to purchase Traci Nathans-Kelly's book “Slide Rules” to complete your coursework.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Designing Slides for Live and Legacy Use

When giving a presentation, you want to ensure you communicate all of your critical ideas while you have your audience's attention. There are more effective ways of doing so beyond the standard large amounts of text and bullet points.

In this course, you will have the opportunity to rethink the way you design your presentations and slides. You will discover that there are straightforward ways to use your slide decks to serve two purposes: support your technical and business presentations while making your slide decks reusable and valuable resources inside your organization. You will then examine the life cycle of your presentations and begin to document who uses your slides, when they are used, and what clearances are needed to share and use them. You will also consider legal issues or proprietary concerns that may exist. Finally, you will start to build a process to help you protect proprietary information before you share it with external parties. As part of your study, you will review various selections from Dr. Traci Nathans-Kelly's book “Slide Rules,” which provides helpful insights and enlightening examples that you can apply in your own presentations.

• Strategizing for Audiences With Different Expertise

Your work in a technical field likely means that you periodically interact with colleagues, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders who live in a different part of the world, speak a primary language different from your own, or have expertise in a different or non-technical field.

As a technical expert, your ability to anticipate the needs of audiences from diverse backgrounds and communicate effectively with them is essential.

In this course, you will have an opportunity to explore how you can prepare to meet the needs of audiences with differing backgrounds, primary languages, and levels of expertise, and even varying degrees of receptivity to your message. You will examine principles of persuasion and consider how and when to apply them both effectively and ethically. As part of your studies, you will also review pertinent selections from Dr. Traci Nathans-Kelly's book “Slide Rules,” and you will look at how you can prepare for the unexpected in your talks and maintain your composure when disruptions occur.

By the end of this course, you will have gained techniques and insights that you can apply as you prepare and develop presentations for a wide range of audiences with varying needs and interests.

• Projecting Expertise and Confidence During Presentations

Effective communication skills are the hallmark of a professional no matter what the profession. In this course, you will begin to parse the ways in which you present yourself to others as a technical expert. In any presentation or talk that you give, whether face to face or online, you want to project expertise, confidence, and professionalism. The idea of professionalism, however, can vary. Everyone expects professionalism, but the definition and perception of professionalism differs greatly among individuals, organizations, nations, and cultures.

In this course, you will delve into the concept of professionalism in presentations and explore how it varies depending upon the context, the participants, and their expectations.

You will study effective practices for designing, developing, and delivering professional-grade online meetings and team presentations. Additionally, you will have an opportunity to examine the importance of your body language, eye contact, and voice in projecting confidence in your talks, regardless of the setting or delivery medium. You will then record a talk and take an inventory of your expert presence in the video. You will also investigate the nuances and complexities of developing and delivering team presentations. In the final part of the course, you will complete the process of preparing to deliver a professional-level team talk.

Constructing High-Impact Content for Global Delivery

Thanks to ongoing advances in communication technologies, you can collaborate in real time with colleagues, customers, suppliers, investors, and other stakeholders around the world. That reality presents both exciting opportunities and potential challenges. You can share ideas and receive information with great ease, but your message could encounter cultural and language barriers as you communicate with diverse audiences.

In this course, you will explore effective ways to deliver high-impact content that meets the needs of multinational audiences in live, online, and face-to-face presentations. Using practical insights studied in this course, you will strategize and prepare for high-impact presentations in formal settings. You will scrutinize how to design and adapt your slides and delivery techniques to meet the needs of international audiences speaking multiple languages. You will also see how you can leverage your slide presentations to create custom videos that address the needs of your target audience.

How It Works

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Faculty Author

• Certificates Authored

Traci Nathans-Kelly currently teaches for Cornell University’s College of Engineering, with deep experience in online modalities for higher education. She has a particular interest in social justice and techquity issues. Dr. Nathans-Kelly interacts daily to help engineers and pre-professional engineers hone their technical messaging, whether it be via presentations, on paper, in meetings and teams, or through online channels.

Dr. Nathans-Kelly has worked with practicing professional engineers, technical experts, scientists, and related field experts for over 20 years, helping them to strengthen their abilities to become impactful contributors in their organizations. She is very active in IEEE, co-authoring the “English for Technical Professionals” online course, and works with the IEEE Continuing Education Committee, the Educational Activities Committee, and the IEEE Teaching Excellence Editorial Board.

Presentation Design and Delivery

Key course takeaways.

• Create slide decks that support your live presentations to your target audience and act as a secure knowledge/information repository for stakeholders after your talk
• Identify shortcomings in your presentation skills and formulate a plan for improvement
• Replace old presentation habits with new best practices, shifting your focus to the needs and interests of your audience
• Engage with audiences that have differing expertise when presenting
• Strengthen your delivery methods and techniques
• Modify and deliver presentations appropriate for a multinational audience

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What You'll Earn

• Presentation Design and Delivery Certificate from Cornell College of Engineering
• 60 Professional Development Hours (6 CEUs)

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Who should enroll.

• Business leaders
• Technology professionals
• Entrepreneurs
• Consultants
• Anyone interested in effectively conveying ideas to a professional audience

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“eCornell gave me the confidence I needed to take a seat at the table and say: I’m ready.”

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