Advanced Presentation Skills

One Day Workshop

Why Attend?
Having attended the two-day Presentation Skills workshop, this day will take your
skills to another level. It is an opportunity for you to refresh and consolidate your
learning as well as experiencing more advanced techniques. You may have
found that sometimes you are too reliant on a script of bullet points? Perhaps you
want to really connect with a more human touch? Have you ever wished you
could really think on your feet? This programme will enable you to start
developing the flexibility that is the hallmark of top presenters.

What Will You Learn?

Objectives: By the end of the two days you will be able to:
• Connect with every audience member right from the start of your presentation
• Use a range of advanced presenting styles to achieve the required impact
• Think even more quickly on your feet in the face of difficult people and objections
• Adopt a much more flexible style in getting your message across

Specifically you will learn:

• How to identify ‘problem people’ in an audience and how to get them on board
• How to get your presentation off to a winning start
• How to get yourself into a confident state for presenting
• How to use advanced techniques in voice and body language to create impact
• How to accelerate the process of gaining rapport with an audience
• How to have presence with an audience and put across the real ‘you’
• How to develop charisma in your presentation style
• How to bring presentations to life – creating entertainment and fun
• How to think quickly on your feet
• How to deal with tricky questions or objections
• How use a planning and presenting structure that keeps you in control

How Will You Learn?

By actually putting the skills into action and receiving immediate coaching and feedback.

PRE-COURSE PREPARATION: Please bring 10 minutes worth of material to present. This could be extracts
from an existing business presentation, in which case please include your first 3 minutes, a piece from the
middle and also your final 3 minutes. Alternatively, bring a complete 10-minute presentation on a business
topic. Bring your visuals in the form of overhead transparencies. A flipchart will also be available.

What If? What will I be able to do once I have learned these skills?
You will be putting these advanced skills straight onto practice on your next business presentation. You
will feel even more confident when talking to large or small groups.
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Contents

1. Some basic rules for presentations. (3)

2. Understanding your audience worksheet. (4)

3. Introduction, exposition and conclusion. (5)

4. Audio-visual aids. (8)

5. A note about notes. (9)

6. Body language. (10)

7. Coping with anxiety. (11)

8. Presentation-tips posters. (12)

9. Presentation observation sheet. (13)

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1. Some basic rules for presentations.

Communication is a skill that can be learned. You do not need talent: you need to
practise and know some basic rules.

The First Rule: You must understand your audience.

Your audience will be academic or academically trained. They expect you to obey the
same presentation rules that they follow. They expect you to acknowledge the work of
others where appropriate. They are tolerant of young, inexperienced presenters (as
most of the audience will also have teaching roles of some kind). If a mixed
academic/professional audience, you must think carefully about the needs of the two
types of audience in the room.

The Second Rule: You must tailor the content of your talk to fit your audience’s
needs and the time available.
Your audience does not need to hear everything you know about your PhD topic. Do not
swamp them in detail. Edit your talk to convey the essentials well and make sure they
understand the key information, rather than rush a huge volume of facts past their ears
and eyes.

The Third Rule: You must know why you are presenting your work.
“Why am I presenting my work to this audience?
So that they will see the significance of (…fill in the blank…).”
When you fill in the blank, you have worked out the aim of your talk. You can then
design your talk to fulfil the aim. Aimless talks are very dull and fizzle out at the end.

The Fourth Rule: You must have an introduction, exposition and conclusion.
These are otherwise known as the beginning, middle and end, but each of them has
their own rules (which we have set out on the pages following). Obey the rules, and the
talk almost writes itself. Then you only have to worry about presenting it well.

The Fifth Rule: You must plan and control your visual aids and speaking aids.
Many people now automatically create a PowerPoint presentation and then bore their
audience silly. You must work out whether you need visual aids, if so what type. Never
put your “speech” onto the slides and then just read them out. Your audience reads
much faster than you can speak and then will be bored, waiting for you to catch up.
Slides should illustrate what you say, not replace what you say.

The Sixth Rule: You must practise.

Practise your talk as realistically as possible (same type of room, same type of clothes
as for the real event) so that you can identify and correct any nervous mannerisms or
distracting behaviours. You should also look at whether your body language conveys
fear, boredom, uncertainty, hesitance. You should check whether you are audible and
clear. With experience, practise may involve simple visualisation rather than a detailed
rehearsal.
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2. Understanding your audience worksheet.

As a PhD student, there are several different audiences to whom you may have to
present your work. These include:
1. Your research group e.g. PI, postdocs and PhDs
2. A departmental seminar, e.g. academic staff, PhDs and guests.
3. Your professional body, e.g. a scientific or research council meeting
4. Final year undergraduate students, e.g. as part of a open day for potential PhD
students
5. To schools and other lay audiences, e.g. A-level students; Outreach
6. Job Interviewers
7. Your PhD examiner, e.g. as part of your viva

Audiences will vary in:

a. Professional experience
b. Familiarity with the subject matter (i.e. prior knowledge)
c. Understanding of technical language
d. Experience of attending scientific meetings

We could rank the audiences as low, high or mixed in these characteristics. Fill in the
table below for each audience, ranking them in each characteristic as low, high or mixed
in relative terms.
characteristic professional familiarity with understanding experience of
experience subject matter of technical scientific
audience language meetings
your research
group
departmental
seminar
professional
body
final year
undergraduates
A-Level
students
your PhD
examiner

How does this affect the way you construct your presentation?

You also need to think about the motivation of your audience for being interested in
your talk. Try considering theirs views, i.e. put yourself in their “shoes”.
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3. Introduction, exposition and conclusion.
Introductions and how to construct them.
Scientific academic presentations have 3 elements to their introduction:

1. An introduction of the speaker, his/her affiliation and his/her authority.

(e.g. “Good afternoon, I am Edgar Wilberts of Imperial College London and I am doing
PhD research under the supervision of Professor Nice of the Department of Marine
Engineering.”)

Note: you get an advantage as the audience takes the immediate impression that you
are of Imperial College standard which means you are good.

2. An introduction to the who, what, when, where, why and how of your topic.
(e.g. “Although my PhD is on the effects of chloride attack on hulls of Royal Navy
battleships, my presentation today concentrates on describing the results of a novel
experiment that I carried out with Dr Smith of our research group and which yielded
unexpected results. The experiment replicated tidal wetting and drying of the hulls at 25
times real time.”)

3. An introduction to the format / structure of the talk (i.e. who what when where
why and how of the structure of the talk).
(e.g. “To show you why this experiment surprised us so much, I am going to start by
showing you some photographs of the ships we are studying, then a sequence of
images showing our approach to the experiment with some highlights of the data
obtained. The surprise element came when we ran our computer model using this data
and, since that is too detailed to show you today, I have created some schematic
diagrams that show the logic of how the model worked. I will then discuss the
significance of how this has encouraged us to redesign the next phase of the project
and will conclude with some ideas about how this work might be useful to others
interested in durability issues generally.”)

Note: putting more effort into letting the audience know the shape of the talk will make
the audience more confident and more attentive. They know the scope of what they are
about to hear, they already know that you have a clear structure and they know that you
intend to tell them how this talk is relevant to them. Therefore, they are in a better
position to start listening to your scientific content.
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Basic rules for the exposition.
Exposition comes from the word “expound”. Academic writing is “expository writing” and
academic presentations are “expository talks” which systematically explain ideas and
knowledge. The exposition is where you go through the substantive content of your talk.

It is conventional to break an exposition into three main subheadings, which can be

further subdivided. Normal advice is to have no more than 3 sub-sections per heading
(i.e. a total of 9 points being made in the exposition overall). This is so the audience
might have a hope of remembering the key points.

For our imaginary talk by Edgar on chloride attack on navy ships, the headings for the
exposition are going to be:

1. Background:
Edgar gives general information about the overall aim of the PhD project (show images
of the ships and mention the environmental problems) This sets the scene so that the
audience is not totally lost as to the big picture of the PhD.

2. Experimental work:
2.1 The experimental method (show sequence of images from the lab and explain what
makes it all interesting)
2.2 The results (give a sample that indicates the kind of data generated)
2.3 The computer model (show schematic diagram of what it was for)
2.4 The surprise (talk about the unexpected outcome and how we checked that it was
valid)

3. Discussion:
3.1 The consequence of the surprise (mention briefly how we have adjusted the overall
project)
3.2 The range of possibilities we discussed as to the significance of the surprise.
(materials durability better measured; better prediction of decay; much cheaper than
expected; more data available quicker)

Note: the discussion sets up Edgar’s conclusion. He has set out the range of ideas that
might be important as a result of the work. In his conclusion, he will make a judgement
about which one is most important.

Edgar now needs to work out the exact detail of what to say under each heading, what
visual aids to use, how long to speak on each point, what metaphor, imagery, analogy,
examples, anecdotes or other rhetorical device to use, what technical jargon can be
used and what must be explained, whether any information is too confidential for
disclosure, whether work of others (ideas, diagrams, words) is used and how to
acknowledge/cite their work. Edgar needs to put all of this detail together early so that
the introduction and conclusion can be checked as matching the exposition.
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Conclusions.
The general format for designing a conclusion is: SUM UP the talk, MAKE A
JUDGEMENT, tell us the SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JUDGEMENT and PREDICT future
work.

A conclusion is not merely a summary and it is not a single “finishing sentence”. After
your exposition your conclusion must remind the audience of where this talk started and
get them to lift their eyes from the detail so that they again see the overall picture. You
then tell them the most important thing about the picture (tell them the judgement you
have arrived at, “draw the conclusion”) and tell them what is significant about that
judgement. You then tell them where this work is heading next. You must not introduce
new factual material in the conclusion. That confuses the audience because it puts you
back into exposition mode. Sometimes people have a summary slide before going onto
the other aspects of the conclusion.

Edgar’s conclusion might look like this:

1. Sum up: (puts up a slide with some “reminder images” of the ships, experiment,
computer model schematic diagram)
“So, in this talk we have looked at some work on durability in metal ships via an
experiment that started off looking quite normal but quickly became a surprise once we
ran the data through our computer model. This led to some rethinking about the project
as a whole and raised a whole range of issues as to what the meaning of our work will
be for others, which I have just discussed.”

2. Judge:
“The chloride attack problem for metal in water is not new, of course, but we are
confident that we have found a reliable way to replicate the decay in the laboratory and
then model it to enable a prediction quicker and more accurately than ever before.”

3. State significance of the judgement:

“This means that have developed something that will interest a much wider range of
researchers than would previously have considered our work. We are keen to check
whether our model can be used on non-metal materials and might apply not only to
groups interested in durability but also groups interested in environmental protection.”

4. Predict future work (puts up a slide with Imperial College London logo plus contact
details for the professor and a reminder of Edgar’s name).
“With an eye on that collaboration, my supervisor, Prof Nice has been looking at the
forthcoming European Commission invitation to bid for projects in marine environmental
rehabilitation and he is available after this session for discussion with anyone
interested.“

Note: talks to professional / commercial audiences may focus more on how that
audience should adopt and apply your work rather than relate what you will be doing
next.
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4. Audio-visual aids.

“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will
understand.” Confucius, circa 450 BC

Audio-visual aids are there to aid and abet your material and not the other way round.

If you can, check your venue in advance. See if all the equipment works such as video,
sound, OHP, computer and microphone. Make sure you can operate it all. Check to see
that your visual material can be seen from the back.

Don’t hide behind slides. Don’t spend your time facing the screen with your back to the
audience. Face them and deliver your talk to them.

Use communication aids with care; make sure each one is genuinely helpful.

Keep them simple and clear.

Don’t try to put too much into an overhead or PowerPoint slide.

Overheads and PowerPoint are good for graphs and images, but are not good for
crowded, dense text. Do not have your verbal presentation in written form on the slides!
Extensive data, if essential, is better provided as a handout.

Use heading and key points to prompt you and signpost to the audience where the
presentation is going next.

Use colour, graphics, and animation to enhance your audio-visual presentation, but be
careful not to overdo it. Some colour combinations just do not work, and remember 5%
of males are red/green colour blind.

TIP: Don’t build your presentation around your slides etc. Let you audio-visual aids
support (not dominate) your presentation.

PowerPoint:
There are some “top tips” about PowerPoint that will help you avoid the really disastrous
mistakes (see: K Bellamy and D McLean (2002). Using PowerPoint. Journal Audiovisual
Media in Medicine, 25(4) 162-164). Two websites you might like to consult are:

www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/using/default.asp

www.presentationhelper.co.uk/microsoft-powerpoint.htm

http://library.humboldt.edu/~chadwick/pptintro.htm
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5. A note about notes.

Most people new to presentations like to have notes, even so as to act as a source of
re-assurance. It is, however, generally a big mistake to stand in front of your audience
and read them. They should be there just to remind you of your key points, so to put you
straight if you suddenly forget what it was you intended to say next.

Here are a few points to consider when preparing notes:

• Let your notes develop from you as you draft the presentation. They should be in
spoken English rather than written English.

• Use a large size font

• Number the pages (in case you drop them on the way to the podium!)

• Break the pages up with BOLD font, different size fonts and spaces so as to
make it quick and easy to distinguish sections

• Use symbols to help you see what is coming next. Include cues to advance to
your next slide.

• Include realistic timings, developed as you rehearse your talk.

• Put aside each page when you have finished with it (so do not staple them
together).

• Have a duplicate copy and put it somewhere else (e.g. coat pocket) in case you
mislay the original.

TIP: Learn to personalise your notes so that they are user friendly to you.
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6. Body language.

Our body language has considerable impact on communication. Everyone has their own
unique mannerisms and gestures; they are linked to our personal styles of
communication. In addressing body language there is not a single model for all to
follow. However there are two aspects that you need to be aware of:

Does your body language distract the audience so it pays less attention to your
message?

Does your body language detract from your confidence?

Think about what you do and test them against these questions. Key areas are:
• Waving papers around, or using them to give your hands something to do.
• Voice projection.
• Pace of delivery – too fast or too slow.
• Cadence of voice – does it fall at the end of sentences so your last words are
lost.
• Awkwardness with arms and legs. Folded arms are defensive and a barrier to
communication. Wringing hands makes you appear very nervous. Naturally using
arm and hand gestures can help you seem more interesting, but can also be
overdone when it becomes a distraction.
• Eye contact. Avoiding eye contact makes you appear “shifty” but just
picking out one person from the audience and staring at them will make them
uncomfortable. You need to “sweep” the audience and generate eye contact with
a number of people in turn.
• Verbal ticks – excessive use of ummm, hmm, OK, you know etc.
• Physical ticks – do not click pens, jangle coins in your pocket, adjust
clothing, run hands through hair etc. There is a balance between normal
conversational speech, and habits that can become irritating for members of your
audience. Many people are unaware of their personal ticks.
• Uncertain movements – such as strange contortions of the limbs.

Confidence develops with experience. But beginners can help themselves by trying to
appear confident. Take your place without hesitation, stand straight, look at your
audience and tell your audience what you came to say. Try not to appear apologetic.
Make sure that you distinguish between confidence and arrogance.

Feedback from a trusted friend or colleague will help (as part of your rehearsing the
presentation). You can also learn a lot from looking at a video of yourself giving a talk.

TIP: If you act confidently, you will feel more confident.

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7. Coping with anxiety.

It is normal to be nervous. It is good to be nervo us as it forces you to concentrate. You

can handle excessive nervousness best by being well prepared. This means you must
prepare your talk and visual aids well ahead of deadline and practise the presentation.

Equip yourself for the event: have a checklist so that you do not leave vital papers,
memory sticks, disks, visual aids, computers or other things at home. Make sure you
have a watch that you can read easily so that you can monitor your timing during your
talk. Allow plenty of time to arrive at the venue, register, find the audio visual technician,
the chairperson for your session, the room where you will speak, etc.

Learn relaxation techniques: controlled breathing techniques are the simplest.

You can use controlled breathing without anyone else noticing. Try inhaling slowly,
holding your breath for a slow count of four, exhaling slowly and waiting for a few
seconds before taking your next slow breath. Some people relax through:
• visualisation: visualise yourself speaking confidently and coping well with the
presentation. The more you instil this positive view of your performance in your mind,
the more effective it will be, so practise the visualisation many weeks in advance.
• inspiration: Collect sounds, images, experiences that inspire you and make you feel
positive about yourself. It is less about superstitious belief than a system of triggering
positive feelings about yourself and the performance you are about to give.
• focussing on the passion for the work, your message and purpose rather than on your
performance.

Avoid:
(i) disasterising (imagining that it all goes wrong): if you catch yourself disasterising, you
have to simply say to yourself “I am disasterising. Nothing bad has happened and in fact
it will go well.” Then engage in some positive visualisation.
(ii) striving for perfection: your audience does not expect you to be perfect so there is no
reason for you to set such unrealistic standards for yourself. If you are a perfectionist,
redefine your version of perfection so that it realistically reflects what an inexperienced
PhD student ought to be able to do.

Also:
• Speak slowly enough to be understood, fast enough to sound enthusiastic.
• Have water available if your mouth goes dry. Dehydration leads to performance loss.
Avoid salty foods prior to your speech (crisps, salted nuts) and avoid dehydrating drinks
(coffee, tea, alcohol).
• Avoid alcohol as it will not prevent nerves but could make you sound silly.
• Avoid food that causes gas, and get energy from pasta, rice, etc rather than sugars.
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8. Presentation-tips posters.

Who are you talking to?

Level

Individual/Audience

Motivation Background

What will you say?

Call to action Action

Conclusion Convincing

Methods & Results Informing

Orientation Understanding

Introduction Attention
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9. Presentation Observation Sheet

(adapted from: Goodlad, S., 2000, Speaking Technically, Imperial College Press, London.)

For each section, please circle the statement which you think applies and write the
numerical score in the space at the right of the sheet.

Name of Speaker:___________________________________________

CONTENT AND ORGANISATION

Awareness of audience knowledge and interests

Clear statement of the Weak Introduction No statement of the purpose

purpose of the talk and of the talk or how it related to
how it related to your your interest
interests

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________

Pacing of Material

Ideas and facts too Ideas and facts well Ideas and facts too
thinly spread. Boring. paced: easy to follow densely packed.; confusing.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________

Amount of Material

Too little (under-ran time) Satisfactory Too much (over-ran time)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________

Clarity and Organisation

Material logically organised Material weakly Material badly

and coherent. organised. organised

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________
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Theme / Dramatic Shape

Speaker explained how talk Speaker did not explain

was organised and /or gave how talk was organised
it some dramatic shape & theme Shapeless talk.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________

Summary

Excellent summary of No summary of

Main points main points

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________

Other comments on content and organisation.

USE OF VISUAL AIDS

Positive use of visual aids (i.e. slides, film, exhibits, demonstrations etc.)
e.g. helped to emphasise important points; helped to pace material; legible / clearly visible;
added interest to the talk; adequate time allowed for us to see

Other comments on the use of visual aids.

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THE SPEAKER
Audibility

Clear Difficult to hear Inaudible

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________

Quality (e.g. varied tone and volume of voice to emphasise key points)

Lively/varied tone Dull

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________

Speed

Too fast About right Too slow

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________

General Manner (note down any satisfactory / unsatisfactory aspects)

Agreeable Poor

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________

Notes on general manner.

Eye Contact

Insufficient Satisfactory Too much

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________
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Posture & Movement

Awkward and / or Relaxed Sloppy posture;

tense posture too relaxed

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________

Too static About right Too much movement

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
_______________________________________________________________

Gestures (e.g. effective use of hands)

Effective/natural Awkward

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
______________________________________________________________

Other comments on the speaker.

Comments on Overall Impression.

 Presentations, Q&A, quizzes, games, individual exercises and group work. Participants
will be encouraged to participate and share examples from their own experience. All
Methodology participants will receive a comprehensive workbook packed with tips and advice on how
to write better business letters, memos, faxes, e-mails and other documents.

Workshop Highlights
Common problems in today’s writing
Get the foundations right
Understand punctuation
Touch up your grammar
Local specialities
Introduction to business writing
What do you know about business writing?
The 3 R’s of reader-friendly writing
The importance of writing as you speak
Touch up your tone
Writer-centred writing
Your 7 steps to success in business writing
Shirley’s 4 Point Plan
In-depth look at openings and closings
Create a visual appeal in your documents
Good writing in the 21st Century
Compose SMART subject lines
Use modern terminology
Remember the KISS principle
If you wouldn’t say it, don’t write it
Turn on the style
Polish up your professionalism
Passive vs active voice
Be positive and proactive in your writing
The importance of proofreading
E-mail at work Head Air Traffic Services,
Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore
Highs and lows of e-mail
Are you an angel or a devil on e-mail?
Business e-mail netiquette
Top 10 courtesies online

Registration
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(including refreshment breaks, 2 buffet lunches and comprehensive workbook)

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