How to Make Effective Presentation

 Presentation

  Presentation is formal communication. It is oral communication. It can be
defined as “a live mode of sharing factual information with a selected or
particular audience.” Its purposes are – to inform, to explain, to illustrate,
to justify, to persuade and to put forward a point of view.

      In business
presentation plays a very vital role. Developing presentation skill is an art.
It needs greater focus, attention and practice.

Principles of Effective Presentation:

1) Know/Understand
the Purpose/intention/objectives: 

          If the presenter knows purpose of
his presentation, he can prepare well for it. He can collect information
according to the purpose of his presentation.

   2) Know the
Situation: 

        Presenter should know the situation in which
he has to make presentation. He should know the age group, educational and
social background of his audience.

    3) Collect the
Material/Information: 

        The presenter should collect
information, knowledge and ideas on his topic of presentation for preparation. Information
is a soul of presentation. He can use books, magazines, journals, newspapers,
internet, etc. as sources to collect the information. To be an effective
presenter, he should have more information than necessary. If the presenter is
a knowledgeable person, he can satisfy doubts and queries in the minds of the
audience easily.

   4) Selection of
Medium: 

        The presenter should select the language of
the audience for effective presentation. He should take care that he has enough
command over the language of his presentation.

    The
selection of medium also includes the mode of presentation. The presenter can
use LCD projector and make power point presentation.

 5) Preparation
of Cue Cards: 

    The term ‘cue cards’ means ‘the
cards on which main points/topics/key-words are written’. While making
presentation, the presenter may throw glance over the points written on the cue
cards. In this way, he can revise the points in his mind. Each card can be
numbered according to the sequence of the points.

 Technical Presentation:

    Now-a-days, technical presentation has
become so important. LCD- Power Point Presentation is a popular kind of
presentation used in any field. It helps the presenter to make the presentation
effectively. It enables the audience too to understand the topic easily. But
the presenter should have enough knowledge of computer. He should have skill to
handle the modern technology. He should prepare the slides of Power Point
Presentation in the following way:

 The slides should be divided
as per the following scheme:

  Title slide: Title slide includes title of subject, presenter’s name, name of
institution, and e-mail address, website, mobile number, etc. Usually there is
no need to read the title to the audience, especially if your host has already
announced it.

Introduction: Show some pretty visuals (photographs, drawings, paintings,
Quick time movies, sound files) of your subject. Thus the presenter can draw
attention of the audience to the subject. Introduction slide includes the issue
in the context of several already-published articles from the primary literature, brief summary presenter’s
past research (if any) on the topic, clear statement of hypothesis, and ‘road
map’ of what the presenter will talk about in the rest of the talk. For a
20-minute talk, shoot for no more than 3 minutes (approx. 4 slides) in this
section.

 Materials and methods: This slide contains materials used for the experiment or research. There
should be approximately 4 slides of this kind. The presenter should spend 3
minutes for each slide.

 Results: In this slide, the presenter shouldfirstmention whether experiment worked
or not. Then, he should show some photographs that show interesting or
comforting qualitative results. The audience should be reminded of specific
hypothesis. The slides contain chart of data to explain whether hypothesis is
supported. There should be approximately 5 slides containing data of result.
Each slide should be given approximately 7 minutes.

 Conclusions: This kind of slide contains discussion of why the presenter’s results
are sound and interesting. With the help of this slide, he describes relevance
of his findings to other published work. There could be maximum 2 slides. Each
slide is given approximately 4 minutes.

 Acknowledgements: Contains the list of names (group by institution). It is just
slide. Maximum 1 minute should be given to one slide.

 Parting slide: Optional slide showing “for more information” such as
the presenter’s e-mail address, whether the data will soon appear in a journal,
suggestions for further reading (journal articles, books, web sites) for those
interested.

 Following points should be remembered
while delivering a speech with the help of power point presentation:

• Do not depend on your notes. There could be darkness in the hall and therefore, the notes may not be clearly visible in the darkness.
• Look at the audience and not at slides.
• Do not read the slides. Just have a glance over them and explain the points on the slides to the audience.
• Put minimum texts on your slides. Don’t crowd the slides with too many words.
• Do not make your slides excessively colourful.
• Use pointer to indicate a particular point.
• But don’t play with the pointer.
• Don’t make overuse of your body language.
• Do not speak too fast. Speak with a moderate speed. 
• Do not repeat certain words like ‘yes’, ‘anyway’, ‘alright’, etc.
• Attempt to answer all the questions asked by the audience.
• Finish your presentation in time.