Presentations useful tips

Listen to the introduction to the topic and then move on to the tasks.

The main purpose of a presentation is to give information and to persuade the audience to act. It seems to be obvious that a good presentation should have a good subject matter, match with its objective, be well organized and, last but not least, should best fit the audience.

Before you move on to the video, have a look at the ideas below. Do you associate them with a good or a bad presentation?

1. Presentation is concise and focuses on the topic.
2. The speaker doesn’t encourage questions from the audience.
3. The speaker doesn’t summarize the presentation.
4. Presentation is planned.
5. The objective of the presentation is stated at the beginning.
6. The speaker uses visual aids.

Now, watch the video and do the exercises while watching it. In the video you will find some advice on how to give a good presentation.

The PDF below contains twenty basic presentation tips. Download this exercise and fill in the gaps with the missing verbs. When you finish this task you will know what to do in order to prepare and give an effective presentation in English.

Now, I would like you to focus on the vocabulary that is related to the feelings and emotions we experience while giving or attending a presentation. First, check if you know how to name them in English.

After you complete the exercise, think of the following:

1. When was the last time you felt bored to death during someone’s presentation? What made the presentation so boring?
2. Do you have your own ways of beating pre-performance nervousness?
3. Is it easy for you to make decisions or are you rather indecisive?
4. Is condifence in-born or is it a skill that you can master?
5. To what extent can you be honest and open in your workplace?

And here’s the honest truth: presentations are scaring almost everyone, even the most experienced speakers and dealing with stage fright ( nervousness, anxiety, fear or phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience) is not always easy. Mostly, because of the fact that it is related to some often unpleasant physical symptoms, such as: sweating, blushing, a shaky voice, a dry mounth and many others that we don’t really want to experience, especially while standing in front of a an audience.

Different people deal with stage fright in different ways. Anyway, it is always a good idea to learn more about the things that we do not fully understand or are afraid of. If you look at the exercise below, you will notice that it focuses on some facts related to the fear of public speaking and at the same time gives you advice on how to deal with it.

If there is nothing more you can add to the list from the exercise above, watch the TED presentation below and take into consideration Anwesha Banerjee’s suggestion about stage fright:

Why not get used to it?

Here is the link to the presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VthbZPxM-do

Now, download the PDF below. This exercise tells you what to do to give a presentation that will make your audience interested to the very last minute. Additionally, after you finish working with the PDF, I suggest you visit Forbes online and read a great article entitled: 11 Presentation Lessons You Can Still Learn From Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo.

You are about to finish this lesson here. Before you move on to the next one, please revise the material that you have covered in this part of Presentations with the quiz below.