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How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples

August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard

For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a  great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.

Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.

Why is structuring a presentation so important?

If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.

Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information  40% more accurately  than unstructured information.

In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.

What will affect your presentation structure?

Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:

• Whether you need to deliver any demonstrations
• How  knowledgeable the audience  already is on the given subject
• How much interaction you want from the audience
• Any time constraints there are for your talk
• What setting you are in
• Your ability to use any kinds of visual assistance

Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:

• What is your presentation’s aim?
• Who are the audience?
• What are the main points your audience should remember afterwards?

When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.

What is the typical presentation structure?

This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.

1. Greet the audience and introduce yourself

Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.

Read our tips on  How to Start a Presentation Effectively

2. Introduction

In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:

• Introduce your general topic
• Explain your topic area
• State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring
• State your presentation’s purpose – this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, “I will argue that…” or maybe you will “compare”, “analyse”, “evaluate”, “describe” etc.
• Provide a statement of what you’re hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example, “I’m hoping this will be provide you with…”
• Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation

In this section also explain:

• The length of the talk.
• Signal whether you want audience interaction – some presenters prefer the audience to ask questions throughout whereas others allocate a specific section for this.
• If it applies, inform the audience whether to take notes or whether you will be providing handouts.

The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a  sales pitch  may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.

Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.

3. The main body of your talk

The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.

• Main points should be addressed one by one with supporting evidence and examples.
• Before moving on to the next point you should provide a mini-summary.
• Links should be clearly stated between ideas and you must make it clear when you’re moving onto the next point.
• Allow time for people to take relevant notes and stick to the topics you have prepared beforehand rather than straying too far off topic.

When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.

4. Conclusion

In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.

Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.

Follow these steps:

• Signal that it’s nearly the end of your presentation, for example, “As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…”
• Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation – “In this speech I wanted to compare…”
• Summarise the main points, including their implications and conclusions
• Indicate what is next/a call to action/a thought-provoking takeaway
• Move on to the last section

5. Thank the audience and invite questions

Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to  ask any questions  they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.

Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.

Other common presentation structures

The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:

Demonstration

Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.

• Explain why the product is valuable.
• Describe why the product is necessary.
• Explain what problems it can solve for the audience.
• Demonstrate the product  to support what you’ve been saying.
• Make suggestions of other things it can do to make the audience curious.

Problem-solution

This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.

• Briefly frame the issue.
• Go into the issue in detail showing why it ‘s such a problem. Use logos and pathos for this – the logical and emotional appeals.
• Provide the solution and explain why this would also help the audience.
• Call to action – something you want the audience to do which is straightforward and pertinent to the solution.

Storytelling

As well as incorporating  stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.

Storytelling for Business Success  webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.

Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.

• Great storytelling: Examples from Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma

Remaining method

The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.

• Go into the issue in detail showing why it’s such a problem – use logos and pathos.
• Rebut your opponents’ solutions  – explain why their solutions could be useful because the audience will see this as fair and will therefore think you’re trustworthy, and then explain why you think these solutions are not valid.
• After you’ve presented all the alternatives provide your solution, the remaining solution. This is very persuasive because it looks like the winning idea, especially with the audience believing that you’re fair and trustworthy.

Transitions

When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done  using speech transitions  which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.

Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:

Moving from the introduction to the first point

Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:

• Now that you’re aware of the overview, let’s begin with…
• First, let’s begin with…
• I will first cover…
• My first point covers…
• To get started, let’s look at…

Shifting between similar points

Move from one point to a similar one:

• In the same way…
• Likewise…
• Equally…
• This is similar to…
• Similarly…

Internal summaries

Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:

• What part of the presentation you covered – “In the first part of this speech we’ve covered…”
• What the key points were – “Precisely how…”
• How this links in with the overall presentation – “So that’s the context…”
• What you’re moving on to – “Now I’d like to move on to the second part of presentation which looks at…”

Physical movement

You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.

A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:

• Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
• For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
• You discuss your second point from the centre again.
• You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
• The conclusion occurs in the centre.

Key slides for your presentation

Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:

• An intro slide outlining your ideas
• A  summary slide  with core points to remember
• High quality image slides to supplement what you are saying

There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:

• Don’t over fill them  – your slides are there to assist your speech, rather than be the focal point. They should have as little information as possible, to avoid distracting people from your talk.
• A picture says a thousand words  – instead of filling a slide with text, instead, focus on one or two images or diagrams to help support and explain the point you are discussing at that time.
• Make them readable  – depending on the size of your audience, some may not be able to see small text or images, so make everything large enough to fill the space.
• Don’t rush through slides  – give the audience enough time to digest each slide.

Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a  10-20-30 rule :

• There should be a maximum of 10 slides – people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there’s no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
• The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
• The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.

Here are some additional resources for slide design:

• 7 design tips for effective, beautiful PowerPoint presentations
• 11 design tips for beautiful presentations
• 10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea

Group Presentations

Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices.  Clean transitioning between speakers  is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:

• Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: “So that was a brief introduction on what health anxiety is and how it can affect somebody”
• Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: “Now Elnaz will talk about the prevalence of health anxiety.”
• Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: “Elnaz”.
• The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: “Thank you Joe.”

From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.

Example of great presentation structure and delivery

Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.

How Google Works – by Eric Schmidt

This presentation by ex-Google CEO  Eric Schmidt  demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.

Start with why – by Simon Sinek

Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.

The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout – by Rick Rigsby

Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.

However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.

As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.

By preparing a solid structure, and  practising your talk  beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.

It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.

Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.

Presentation Skills MCQs

These Presentation Skills multiple-choice questions and their answers will help you strengthen your grip on the subject of Presentation Skills. You can prepare for an upcoming exam or job interview with these 60 Presentation Skills MCQs. So scroll down and start answering.

1: The benefits of arriving early for a presentation include:

A.   A chance to acclimate to the room lighting and temperature

B.   A chance to check your technology

C.   A chance to meet with the audience

D.   All of these

2: What's the most important aspect of your presentation slides?

A.   The font and color

B.   The amount of information

C.   The visual engagement

D.   The way you interact with them

3: True or False? During a presentation, it's best to read the text on your slides so you don't get off track

A.   False

B.   True

4: What is a commonly used color in corporate presentations because it's positively associated with conservatism, confidence, dependability, and the male gender.

A.   Red

B.   Yellow

C.   Blue

D.   Green

5: Which of these is a good way to create contrast in your presentation?

A.   All of these

B.   Mix the design of your slides

C.   Change the tone of your voice

D.   Move around the room

6: To be a good presenter, you need to be _________

A.   A naturally talented and charismatic speaker

B.   Good at making animations in PowerPoint

C.   Good looking and pleasing

D.   Well prepared

7: Presentations of an hour or longer are more impactful than a presentation of 20 Minutes.

B.   true

8: Which type of body language is encouraged when delivering a presentation?

A.   Erratic

B.   Open

C.   Closed

9: If you are presenting slides to a room of people, you should stand so that you are facing the:

A.   Slides

B.   Projector

C.   Audience

10: True or False? Humor can be successfully incorporated into a professional presentation to create a connection with the audience.

A.   True

B.   False

11: What is the best plan when preparing for a presentation?

A.   Prepare trigger words to remind you of key points

B.   Create a professionally designed PowerPoint slide show

C.   All of these

D.   Study your subject, and prepare notes

12: What is the best way to practice and review for a presentation?

A.   Present to family & friends

B.   Present to colleagues

C.   Video tape yourself

13: What should be considered before making a presentation?

B.   The slide show content

C.   The subject matter

D.   The A/V equipment that will be used

14: What could be fatal to the success of a presentation?

A.   Lack of confidence and knowledge

B.   Being poorly dressed

C.   Poorly designed graphics

15: True or False? If you have been given a 60-minute window for your presentation, you should intentionally finish early to allow time for questions.

16: towards the end of a presentation, what should be the focus.

A.   Reviewing key points

B.   Schmoozing and mingling

C.   Having fun together at a lunch or dinner

D.   Collecting business cards

17: The benefits of Guy Kawasaki's "10/20/30" method include:

B.   Easily readable slides

C.   Ample time for questions

D.   Clear and succinct presentation of your ideas

18: What would always be a successful enhancement to a business presentation?

A.   An opening song

B.   Animated graphics

C.   Larger text

D.   Greater depth and breadth of knowledge on the subject

19: How can you know what to expect before a presentation?

A.   Read on LinkedIn about the attendees

B.   Create a list of potential questions from the audience

D.   Obtain feedback about the last presentation made for the same client; to avoid pitfalls

20: True or false? Comparative design is a great way to find common ground with an audience.

B.   FALSE

21: True or false? Audience feedback only comes from verbal clues.

B.   TRUE

22: Maslow's heirarchy of needs helps a speaker conceptualize how to _______ their audience.

A.   motivate

B.   bore

C.   educate

D.   ignore

23: Providing a handout separate from your slides:

A.   Allows the audience to focus on your presentation rather than retaining specific information

B.   Assures that important material is accessible after the presentation

C.   Provides more information than verbal communication

24: Which of the following is NOT a recommended presentation technique?

A.   Speaking slowly

B.   Reading every word of your presentation from your notes

C.   Writing/typing notes with very large font

D.   Writing down hints like "pause" or "change slide"

25: True or False? Reading from slides is an effective way to convey information to the audience.

26: filler words should be withheld from presentations, including "umm", "like" or "uh", 27: the correct order for handling your content when creating a presentation from scratch is:.

A.   Collect, design, organize

B.   Design, organize, collect

C.   Organize, design, collect

D.   Collect, organize, design

28: True or False? You can give the exact same presentation to any room, regardless of who your audience is.

29: the ability to recognize emotions and connect with others, a critical skill for presenters, is known as:.

A.   Empathy

B.   Entropy

C.   Ethos

D.   Sympathy

30: True or false? Repetition is never effective when giving a presentation.

31: true or false the design of your slides does not matter if your content is interesting enough., 32: the quality of your presentation is most directly related to the quality of your:.

A.   Opening sentence

B.   Preparation

C.   Topic

D.   Slide design

33: Which statement demonstrates lack of confidence in the subject?

B.   I apologize for not stating this clearly

C.   I hope you like my presentation

D.   I think this will be a great presentation today

34: What is positive nervousness?

A.   Being certain of your nervousness

B.   Channeling nervous energy into your presentation

C.   Neither of these

35: According to Seth Godin, each chart in your presentation should:

A.   Include at least 4 series of data

B.   Represent as much data as possible

C.   Use a different color

D.   Tell only one story

36: Studies conducted by Dr. Albert Mehrabian showed that the impact of communication is:

A.   38% visual, 7% vocal, 55% verbal

B.   7% visual, 38% vocal, 55% verbal

C.   100% visual

D.   55% visual, 38% vocal, 7% verbal

37: Finish this statement: A PowerPoint presentation should

A.   Use a 2-color scheme

B.   Match word for word what you will tell your audience

C.   Be limited to less than 10 slides

D.   Outline at a high-level the presentation objectives

38: Experts generally agree that _________ is one of the most effective means of communication.

A.   charts and graphs

B.   storytelling

C.   animated GIFs

D.   dense analytical reports

39: True or false? You should put all the information that you want your audience to understand on your slides.

40: true or false it is necessary to present all of the related information supporting your argument in a presentation, or else the audience won't believe you., 41: many experts believe that the best way to plan your presentation and organize your content during brainstorming is:.

A.   Whiteboard/paper

B.   PowerPoint

C.   Keynote

D.   Prezi

42: According to Pixar filmmaker and TED speaker Andrew Stanton, the first rule of storytelling is:

A.   Constrain yourself

B.   Make the audience care

C.   Open with a joke

D.   Have a conflict

43: When using an analagous example, a speaker is using a/an ___________.

A.   scientific speech design

B.   analagramatic speech design

C.   comparative speech design

D.   combined speech design

44: Which of the following is NOT important for effective communication with an audience?

A.   attention

B.   memorization

C.   motivation

D.   retention

45: Making a presentation, it's best to be __________

A.   Friendly and responsive to questions

B.   All of these

C.   Intelligent with a high IQ

D.   Boisterous and really brief

46: Some good transition phrases that humanize you, and so are good to throw into your presentation, might be "To Be Honest" and "You Know" or "Like"

47: "say what you're going to tell them, tell them, then_______," is a classic presentation format..

A.   break for questions

B.   use visuals

C.   wait for applause

D.   tell them what you just told them

48: What is vital in building a good impression on top of the presentation itself?

A.   Showing a video

B.   Buying lunch for the client

C.   Smiling and saying thank you

D.   Asking the right amount and types of questions

49: Research has found that most decision-making is based not on logic, but:

A.   Emotion

B.   Opinions of friends

C.   Perception

D.   The weather

50: Which of the following is NOT a commonly accepted type of speech design?

A.   Sequential

B.   Exclamatory

C.   Spatial

D.   Comparative

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Structuring your presentation.

When you structure a talk, you are determining how your key points are organized. A clear structure is important so your audience can easily follow what you have to say. Planning a clear structure also makes it less likely you will lose your place or get distracted during your presentation. This page will give you ideas of different ways to organize your talk and develop a clear, straightforward structure. 

Pro Tip #1 : The amount of time you have will largely shape the number of points you emphasize. Remember, it is better to explain one or two points really well as opposed to introducing too many new topics and concepts.

Pro Tip #2 : Remind your audiences of your key points throughout the presentation (this is a technique called signposting). Using signposting and developing a thoughtful structure will help your audience better follow your presentation.

Pro Tip #3 : Pay close attention to transitions when moving from one point to the next. A clear, smooth transition will ease the audience into each of your points. Without transitions, you risk confusing your audience.

• Do you Have Mysterious Dragons in Your Research? , by Joseph Barber
• Tips and Techniques for More Confident and Compelling Presentations , by Matt Abrahams
• Transitions in a Speech or Presentation , by John Zimmer

There are many video resources that can be useful as you think about summarizing and structuring your work. Watch some of the videos below and think about how you might use the organization and structure in thinking about your own work. Are there any strategies that you find were particularly effective that you can incorporate into your talk?

• Research Live!
• Ted in 3 Minutes
• 2 Minute Thesis
• Download our handout and look through some of the possible ways to organize your presentation. Choose two or three different structures and start to outline your presentation. Which style(s) work the best for your topic and why? Which didn’t and why? Which felt the most comfortable?
• Storyboarding is a great technique to use when you are organizing your presentation and determining how your topics will flow into one another. In a storyboard, you draw a picture to symbolize each point and write a short description. Download our storyboarding handout to see this technique in practice and use our template to create your own. 
• Grab a stack of notecards and write the name of each structural element (e.g. hook, point 1, point 2, conclusion) on each card. Then, rearrange the cards so that they are in an order that works for the talk that you are delivering. If you are having trouble organizing your talk from beginning to end, try organizing it from end to beginning—in other words, what is your ultimate goal and how are you going to get there?
• Sign up for the Graduate College’s Research Live! competition, which challenges you to give a compelling talk about your work in three minutes or less for a public audience.

Mastering Presentation Skills: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)

Presentation skills are crucial in both academic and professional settings. Whether you’re giving a speech, pitching an idea, or presenting a project, effective presentation skills can make a significant difference. Test your knowledge with the following multiple-choice questions (MCQs) on presentation skills:

Which of the following is NOT a key element of effective presentations?

B) Confidence

C) Complexity

D) Connection

What is the primary purpose of a presentation?

A) To entertain the audience

B) To inform or persuade the audience

C) To showcase personal achievements

D) To demonstrate technical expertise

Which of the following is an essential aspect of non-verbal communication during presentations?

A) Maintaining eye contact

B) Speaking rapidly

C) Avoiding gestures

D) Standing still without movement

When designing presentation slides, what is the rule of thumb regarding text content?

A) Use as much text as possible to convey detailed information

B) Limit text to key points and use visuals to enhance understanding

C) Utilize long paragraphs to explain concepts thoroughly

D) Avoid using visuals altogether

Which of the following is NOT a recommended method for engaging the audience during a presentation?

A) Asking open-ended questions

B) Using humor appropriately

C) Reading directly from the slides

D) Incorporating personal anecdotes

What does the acronym “KISS” stand for in the context of presentations?

A) Keep It Simple, Silly

B) Keep It Short, Sweet

C) Keep It Smart, Sophisticated

D) Keep It Stylish, Sensible

What is the purpose of rehearsing a presentation?

A) To waste time

B) To increase confidence and familiarity with the material

C) To ensure the presentation exceeds the allotted time

D) To avoid eye contact with the audience

Which of the following is a common mistake to avoid during presentations?

A) Speaking too softly

B) Maintaining a monotone voice

C) Making frequent eye contact with the audience

D) Tailoring content to the audience’s needs

What is the recommended duration for a presentation?

A) 5–10 minutes

B) 30–60 minutes

C) 2–3 hours

D) As long as necessary

Which of the following is an effective strategy for handling questions from the audience?

A) Ignoring questions that seem irrelevant

B) Providing brief, concise answers

C) Responding defensively to criticism

D) Avoiding eye contact with the questioner

What is the significance of visual aids in presentations?

A) To overwhelm the audience with information

B) To distract the audience from the main points

C) To enhance understanding and retention of information

D) To substitute for verbal communication entirely

Which of the following is NOT a recommended guideline for body language during presentations?

A) Maintaining an upright posture

B) Avoiding excessive hand gestures

C) Facing away from the audience

D) Smiling and making eye contact

How can presenters assess the effectiveness of their presentations?

A) By ignoring feedback from the audience

B) By evaluating their own performance objectively

C) By relying solely on personal opinion

D) By comparing their presentation to others’ without context

MCQs on presentation skills serve as a useful tool for assessing understanding and knowledge of fundamental concepts essential for delivering impactful presentations. Practicing these skills can lead to increased confidence and effectiveness in various professional and academic settings.

Written by Read Mcqs

Text to speech

Blog > How to structure a good PowerPoint Presentation

How to structure a good PowerPoint Presentation

08.09.21   •  #powerpoint #tips.

When creating presentations, it is particularly important that they are well organized and have a consistent structure.

A logical structure helps the audience to follow you and to remember the core information as best as possible. It is also important for the presenter, as a good presentation structure helps to keep calm, to stay on the topic and to avoid awkward pauses.

But what does such a structure actually look like? Here we show you how to best organize your presentation and what a good structure looks like.

Plan your presentation

Before you start creating your presentation, you should always brainstorm. Think about the topic and write all your ideas down. Then think about the message you want to communicate, what your goal is and what you want your audience to remember at the end.

Think about who your audience is so that you can address them in the best possible way. One possibility is to start your presentation with a few polls to get to know your audience better. Based on the results, you can then adapt your presentation a little. Use the poll function of SlideLizard and have all the answers at a glance. SlideLizard makes it possible to integrate the polls directly into your PowerPoint presentation which helps you to avoid annoying switching between presentation and interaction tool. You can keep an eye on the results while the votes come in and then decide whether you want to share them or not.

• an informative
• an entertaining
• an inspiring
• or a persuasive presentation?

Typical Presentation Structure

The basic structure of a presentation is actually always the same and should consist of:

Introduction

Make sure that the structure of your presentation is not too complicated. The simpler it is, the better the audience can follow.

Personal Introduction

It is best to start your presentation by briefly introducing yourself which helps to build a connection with your audience right away.

Introduce the topic

Then introduce the topic, state the purpose of the presentation and provide a brief outline of the main points you will be addressing.

Mention the length

In the introduction, mention the approximate length of the talk and then also make sure you stick to it.

The introduction should be no longer than two slides and provide a good overview of the topic.

Icebreaker Polls

According to studies, people in the audience only have an average attention span of 10 minutes, which is why it is important to increase their attention right at the beginning and to arouse the audience's interest. You could make a good start with a few icebreaker polls for example. They lighten the mood right at the beginning and you can secure your audience's attention from the start.

For example, you could use SlideLizard to have all the answers at a glance and share them with your audience. In addition, the audience can try out how the polls work and already know how it works if you include more polls in the main part.

Get to know your audience

As mentioned earlier, it is always useful to think about who your audience actually is. Ask them questions at the beginning about how well they already know the topic of your presentation. Use SlideLizard for this so that you have a clear overview about the answers. You can use both single- and multiple-choice questions or also open questions and display their results as a WordCloud in your presentation, for example.

Include a quote

To make the beginning (or the end) of your presentation more exciting, it is always a good idea to include a quote. We have selected some powerful quotes for PowerPoint presentations for you.

Present your topic

The main part of a presentation should explain the topic well, state facts, justify them and give examples. Keep all the promises you made earlier in the introduction.

Length and Structure

The main part should make up about 70% of the presentation and also include a clear structure. Explain your ideas in detail and build them up logically. It should be organized chronologically, by priority or by topic. There should be a smooth transition between the individual issues. However, it is also important to use phrases that make it clear that a new topic is starting. We have listed some useful phrases for presentations here.

Visualize data and statistics and show pictures to underline facts. If you are still looking for good images, we have selected 5 sources of free images for you here.

Focus on the essentials

Focus on what is most important and summarize a bit. You don't have to say everything about a topic because your audience won’t remember everything either. Avoid complicated sentence structure, because if the audience does not understand something, they will not be able to read it again.

Make your presentation interactive

Make your presentation interactive to keep the attention of your audience. Use SlideLizard to include polls in your presentation, where your audience can vote directly from their smartphone and discuss the answers as soon as you received all votes. Here you can also find more tips for increasing audience engagement.

Repeat the main points

The conclusion should contain a summary of the most important key points. Repeat the main points you have made, summarize what the audience should have learned and explain how the new information can help in the future.

Include a Q&A part

Include a Q&A part at the end to make sure you don't leave any questions open. It's a good idea to use tools like SlideLizard for it. Your audience can ask anonymous questions and if there is not enough time, you can give them the answers afterwards. You can read more about the right way to do a question slide in PowerPoint here.

Get Feedback

It is also important to get feedback on your presentation at the end to keep improving. With SlideLizard you can ask your audience for anonymous feedback through star ratings, number ratings or open texts directly after your presentation. You can then export the responses and analyse them later in Excel.

Presentation style

Depending on the type of presentation you give, the structure will always be slightly different. We have selected a few different presentation styles and their structure for you.

Short Presentation

If you are one of many presenters on the day, you will only have a very limited time to present your idea and to convince your audience. It is very important to stand out with your presentation.

So you need to summarize your ideas as briefly as possible and probably should not need more than 3-5 slides.

Problem Solving Presentation

Start your presentation by explaining a problem and giving a short overview of it.

Then go into the problem a little more, providing both intellectual and emotional arguments for the seriousness of the problem. You should spend about the first 25% of your presentation on the problem.

After that, you should spend about 50% of your presentation proposing a solution and explaining it in detail.

In the last 25%, describe what benefits this solution will bring to your audience and ask them to take a simple but relevant action that relates to the problem being discussed.

Tell a Story

A great way to build an emotional connection with the audience is to structure a presentation like a story.

In the introduction, introduce a character who has to deal with a conflict. In the main part, tell how he tries to solve his problem but fails again and again. In the end, he manages to find a solution and wins.

Stories have the power to win customers, align colleagues and motivate employees. They’re the most compelling platform we have for managing imaginations. - Nancy Duarte / HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

Make a demonstration

Use the demonstration structure to show how a product works. First talk about a need or a problem that has to be solved.

Then explain how the product will help solve the problem and try to convince your audience of the need for your product.

Spend the end clarifying where and when the product can be purchased.

Chronological structure

When you have something historical to tell, it is always good to use a chronological structure. You always have to ask yourself what happens next.

To make it more interesting and exciting, it is a good idea to start by telling the end of something and after that you explain how you got there. This way you make the audience curious and you can gain their attention faster.

Nancy Duarte TED Talk

Nancy Duarte is a speaker and presentation design expert. She gives speeches all over the world, trying to improve the power of public presentations.

In her famous TED Talk "The Secret Structure of Great Talks" she dissects famous speeches such as Steve Jobs' iPhone launch speech and Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. In doing so, she found out that each presentation is made up of 4 parts:

• What could be
• A moment to remember
• Promise of “New Bliss”

Related articles

About the author.

Helena Reitinger

Helena supports the SlideLizard team in marketing and design. She loves to express her creativity in texts and graphics.

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The big SlideLizard presentation glossary

Open educational resources (oer).

Open Educational Resources are free learning and teaching materials provided on the web. They have an open license (e.g., Creative Commons), which allows anyone to use and benefit from these resources.

Persuasive Presentations

A persuasive presentation is made, for example, to introduce an amendment. There are usually several options to choose from. It is particularly important to provide good arguments and reasons.

Learning on Demand

Learning on Demand means that the content is available extactly when it's needed by the learner

Social Events

Social events in companys can be to celebrate an anniversary or to bond better as a team. They should address the personal interests of employees and revolve around things like entertainment and food.

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• Effective Presentation Skills Tutorial
• Organizing the Presentation

Organize the content of your presentation in a logical sequence based on the outline you prepared. No matter how you decide to organize your presentation, keep the audience engaged to better help them remember the content. You can do this by asking them questions or having them share experiences related to the topic.

The Beginning of the Presentation

The beginning of your presentation sets the tone for the rest of the talk, so it is important to impress your audience with your approach, style and topic. Begin the presentation with something that attracts the audience’s attention, but keep it relevant to the topic and avoid jokes or irrelevant comments that could be misunderstood by the audience, especially if you are not familiar with the audience.

You can begin with an important statistic relevant to the topic, or a quote, or ask a question that interests the audience in the topic. For example, if the focus of your presentation is about environmental pollution by household activities, a simple question to interest the audience in your presentation could be "Does anyone know how many drops of drinking water are polluted by one drop of motor oil?" If anyone in the audience knows the correct answer, acknowledge that individual and ask how many of them knew that as well. Otherwise, give the answer, and begin your presentation.

Rule to Remember

Develop the beginning of your presentation after you develop the body of the presentation.

Engaging Opening

This video clip is an example of an opening statement that attracts the audience's attention to the topic .

Dry Opening

This video clip is an example of an opening statement that is dry and doesn't engage the audience's attention .

The Body of the Presentation

Begin planning the body of your presentation first. Once you have developed this part of the presentation, the beginning and end will fall into place.

You can order the main points of each section of your presentation as outlined in one of several ways depending on the nature of the presentation. Some possible orders of points include the following, though there can be others, depending on the topic and/or discipline:

• Spatial order – suitable for describing a layout or a process, from the beginning or entry point, to the end or exit.
• Chronological order – suitable for discussing literature review by years, or for describing the steps for doing something.
• Causal order – suitable for explaining causes and their effects. For example, how lack of sleep impacts worker productivity and safety.
• Topical order – suitable for presenting on different topics in a field such as different types of problem-solving techniques.
• Problem–Solution order – suitable for describing a particular problem and how it can be solved.

Choose the order suitable for covering the main points of your presentation for the particular section of the outline.

The End of the Presentation

End the presentation by reiterating the purpose of the presentation, summarizing the major points, and concluding with a quote, remark or fact that the audience will remember.

Missing Conclusion - Example 1

Missing conclusion - example 2.

These video clips are examples of a presenter transitioning from the body of the presentation to Q&A without a proper conclusion section.

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