A/ Introduce

Employers are demanding graduates with excellent communication (written, oral, and
listening) skills. Thus, a student's presentation in the classroom becomes an important
element in delivering positive learning experiences. Or if you are a working
individual who may be just starting out in your career or who is already at the height
of your profession, you need to learn the basics of presentation skills and understand
its importance. Regardless of your position or designation in your office, you should
be ready in anything that may be required of you to do such as making a presentation.
But it is not easy to be speaking before a group of professionals. So, how do you to
have a effective presentation?

B/ Body

I/ Definition and structure of presentation

1) Definition of a presentation
The term of a presentation is very familiar with people in life. A presentation is an
efficient way of communication, which is widely used in every area today. It is
because of its popularization that there are many definitions of a presentation;
however, we will mention the clearest one as following:

Presentation is the practice of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an

audience or learner.

In addition to this definition, we list some other definitions for reference:

A presentation is a kind of communication between speaker and audience

A presentation is a form of communication with an audience

Presentation is a way of communicating ideas and information to a group

2) Structure of a presentation

A presentation consists of three parts: beginning, middle, and ending

part.

• Introduction
• Welcome audience

There are many ways to welcome audiences; you have to depend on each
situation to choose the most suitable greetings. These are some common
ways of greeting audiences:

Formal way: Lady and gentlemen, Good morning/ afternoon lady and
gentlemen

Less formal/ informal way: Good morning/ afternoon everyone, Hello

everybody, Hi everybody

• Attract audiences’ attention

It is not compulsory part in introduction; however, it is a useful stage

helping you succeed in your presentation. In order to attract listeners, you
can use each of following ways or combine them to get better effect:

Providing statistics, questions or famous quotations

Telling funny stories, prime example related to topic

Expressing personal feelings

Providing shocking sentences, situations related to topic

• Introduce the subject

You have to introduce the subject to the audiences clearly and exactly in
support for connecting your audiences and the focus of your presentation.

• Explain the structure of the presentation

It is an important part in introduction. You have to make it not only clearly

but also logically, helping your audiences have an overview of your
presentation.

• Explain rules for questions

Depending on your intention, you can announce some rules for people who
want to give you questions. Normally, people often regulate that comments
or questions are at the end of the presentation.
 • Body of the presentation

This part concludes the main content of the presentation which is provided
in smaller ones and arranged in a logical way.

• Conclusion

- Summarize main ideas in the presentation

It is necessary to sum up major points of the presentation for the reason

that it will help audiences engrave your presentation on their mind.

- Thank the audiences

It is important for you to show your gratitude to your audiences who are
spending time listening to your presentation.

- Invite questions

Last but not least, this is very important part that decides the success of
your presentation. It expresses not only audiences’ interest but also their
attention to your presentation.

II/ How to have an effective presentation

1) Preparing for presentation

Preparing for presentation is not easy. Even team meetings with your
colleagues can be stressful and challenging. Few of us are true extroverts, and even
fewer of us are comfortable with public speaking.
There's lots of great advice on public speaking and presenting out there. Some people
recommend memorizing a script and practicing it intensely for as long as you possibly
can. Other people suggest having key talking points and riffing on those. I’m not sure
anyone would suggest going totally unprepared, because that would be tantamount to
presentation-suicide … but from heavy-duty preparation to minimal preparation,
you’ll get it all, and everything in-between.

 Start with your key talking points: There’s no point writing a full script or
presentation until you know what points you want to hammer home. Then, you
can stick with a standard format: (a) tell them what you’re going to show them;
(b) show them; and, (c) tell them what you just showed them.
 Write a script: I think this is a good idea. It lets you write everything out
and start massaging the words the way you want. It also gives you a benchmark
against which you can practice and refine things.

 Don’t get hung up on specific words: It’s unlikely that missing or

changing any one word will totally ruin your presentation, so don’t worry about
perfection. The only person that knows you “screwed up” is you…

 Find your speaking style: Over time with enough practice you can learn to
speak and present in any style, but if you’re in crunch mode and don’t have
enough time, just try and find your own speaking style. Find your groove.
Some people are ultra-enthusiastic. Some are much calmer. For DEMO, I’m
aiming for calm confidence. I’m not a flashy guy. I want people to see the
practice I’m putting in, my enthusiasm and my confidence – but I’m not going
“Tony Robbins” on them.

 Practice in front of people: I haven’t done this yet, but I’ll be doing it
soon. If you haven’t given a lot of presentations this will feel awkward but it’s
better to get over those feelings now rather than when you’re on stage. So
practice in front of others. But be careful about taking their advice, especially if
the presentation is fast approaching. The risk is that you try to incorporate
changes you’re not really comfortable with, whether it’s in the actual script or
in your presentation style, and you end up causing more damage than good.
Given the opportunity you should seek expert help with your presentation, but
be careful about how you take any advice, especially late in the game.

 Practice with distractions: It’s great to sit in a bubble with no distractions

whatsoever and practice. You need the quiet time to memorize things and get a
feel for what you’re doing. But I’m also practicing while distracted – be it by
other sounds or visually (people walking by my office door, for example)
because it makes me feel more confident that I can pull it off. On the DEMO
stage there will be distractions. One person told me there’s a huge clock facing
you counting the seconds menacingly. There are big lights, TV screens and oh
ya … the people. I have to be prepared for anything, and practicing with
distractions is helpful.

Practice piece by piece: I’ve found it quite helpful to practice each section
of my presentation in pieces. I’ll focus on one part, memorize the core
 elements, run through it till I’m comfortable and then move to the next piece.
Then it’s just a matter of stringing the pieces together, which is easier.

 Think ahead: While practicing my DEMO presentation I’ve found my

comfort zone when I can think of the next 1 or 2 sentences while speaking. So
I’m on sentence #5 but my mind is already bringing up sentence #6 and #7. I
don’t have to think too far ahead but just enough that the transition from
sentence-to-sentence is ultra-smooth and simple. Each sentence triggers a
reminder for the next one.

 Practice hand gestures: If you’re giving a “naked” presentation (with

nothing in front of you like a table, etc.) then you need to be aware of what
you’re doing with your hands. And your feet. So think about your hand gestures
and how they relate to what you’re saying. If you plan to move around, pace in
sync with your words. I’ve been practicing this for a few days with great
success. The hand gestures and where I’m walking are triggers cuing what I
should be saying.

Find your comfort zone: All the advice in the world won’t help if you
can’t get comfortable with your preparation, practice techniques and ultimately,
the presentation itself. Do whatever makes you feel comfortable. The more
comfortable you feel, the more confident you feel, and the better things will go.

2) Delivering presentation

Besides a careful preparation, a presenter should learn how to deliver his presentation
most effectively. This is expressed in the most basic aspects: body language, voice
quality and time control.
a) Body language:
It’s true that body language can make or break your presentation; and what you do not
say is at least as important as what you do say. Your body is speaking to your
audience even before you open your mouth. Some kinds of body language such as eye
contact, facial expression, postures, gestures and movements of body can be used in
connection with the words of mouth. For example, maintaining eye contact with the
audience can help you to make a more effective speech because it shows that you are
speaking directly to each member of your audience. From there, you can build a warm
and friendly relationship with your audience.
b) Voice quality:
Do not speak too softly, too fast or mumble. Your audience must be able to hear and
understand what you say. Remember, your voice will be more interesting to the
audience if you can modulate it through at least 3 ways: speed, intonation and
volume. For example, you can give importance to what you are saying by a well-time
pause, lower speaking, talking deliberately as well as by stressing your points. The
important point is not to speak in the same, flat, monotonous voice throughout your
presentation- this is the voice that hypnotists use to put their patients into trance.
c) Time control:
Time control is a factor which makes many presenters confused most. You can
manage time well through a good preparation. Think about all possible situations
causing overtime before making a presentation. Maybe you have a lot of interesting
information to share with your audience but try to pick general and important points,
use fewer slides, and avoid getting in arguments with audience when answering
questions. You can also control your time by turning down an audience who is asking
a question in the middle of your presentation. Simply tell them you will address
everyone’s questions at the end of the presentation. Besides, people often spend too
much time on answering the questions of audience. So, you should answer these
questions as concisely as possible.
3) Finishing presentation
How you finish is just as important as how you begin. Leave plenty of time to finish
your presentation properly. Five minutes from the end of your presentation, start to
‘tell them what you told them’. Briefly summarize your key points. Finish by
underlining your mission statement either by using a quote, a story or a graphic. On
the other hand, you have to invite the audience to ask questions and tell them how
long the question-and-answer period will be. Certainly remember to thanks to
audiences.
IV/ Mistakes in presentation and tips
1) Some mistakes in presentation

Giving a speech isn't as difficult as it's made out to be, as long as you keep a few basic
principles in mind. Know what you want to accomplish. Understand the audience's
needs and motivations. Organize your material simply and clearly. But it is easy to
make mistakes when you're giving a presentation. There are some mistakes, which
you can face as presenting:

 Not preparing adequately

- Don't rehearse speech. Getting this right is important since to deliver the best speech
possible you should own it, understand it by heart so well that you could start
delivering it irrespective of where you're and what time during the day it can be. What
you ought to do to avoid this mistake is to rehearse your speech, ideally, as you are
watching mirror. Another good idea is to record yourself rehearsing and listen
returning to the recording to discover more small errors and misused words which you
wouldn't normally notice yourself

- Don't prepare for disaster. This can be a common problem when you walk on stage
not being ready for small errors or unpredictable situations to happen. This can be
avoided by to acknowledge that something will certainly happen. Your slides are
certain to be stuck, lights should go down or something like that similar can happen.
Naturally, it not necessarily might but when you are prepared because of it anyway,
you will end up prepared to react properly to them.Not

You Don't Know Your Topic!

You memorized the content (and it shows, by the way). Someone has a
question. Panic sets in. You never prepared for questions and all you know about this
topic is what is written on the slides. to Know your material so well, that you could
easily do the presentation without an electronic enhancement such as PowerPoint.
Nothing will ruin your credibility as a presenter faster, than not knowing everything
about your topic. Use key words and phrases and include only essential information to
keep the audience focused and interested. Be prepared for questions and know the
answers.

 Not Reading Your Audience

 When giving your presentation you really need to be mindful of the visual clues
your audience is giving providing for you. If you are only reading from your slides, or
notes, and never looking out to the audience then you are disengaged from them,
which is a bad thing. If people are nodding off, checking the phones, or typing on
laptops, then they are not listening to you. Moreover, if they are not listening to you,
what are the odds they will bother to fill out an evaluation form later?

Another part of reading your audience is to see who *is* engaged, so that you can
interact with them. Funny thing, but when you interact with one person in the
audience you immediately get the attention of the people near and around that person.
If you spread yourself out just right, you can engage the whole room by interacting
with only a handful of people. In addition, from there you can start to read your
audience better. You will see if they are responding to your current slide, for example,
or if you need to move along to the next slide.

Not Interacting With Your Audience

This is a difficult one for a lot of speakers, especially if they are in an unfamiliar
room. I see many speakers get their equipment set up and then stand at the front of the
room and wait for their start time. Often their first interaction with the audience is
something like “OK, we’ve got a few minutes before the scheduled start time and
some people are still coming in, so we’ll give everyone a few minutes to get settled
and then we’ll get started.”you need to interact with your audience, and not just at the
start but throughout your presentation. People need to feel engaged, they need to feel
comfortable, and so do you. And all of you will get there but only if you interact with
one another. Otherwise it is a very sterile environment, and such talks are rarely
successful ones. Find ways to interact with your audience and you’ll find that giving
talks not only gets easier but becomes rather enjoyable

No Inflection in Your Voice

There are many people talk as if they are just reading aloud and it is painful to
stay in our seat and listen. If you don’t have a passion for the material, then don’t
bother presenting. If you want to have a highly rated talk then you must find a way to
get everyone as passionate about the materials as you are. One way to get there is to
use inflection in order to stress the important parts of your talk. It means that is while
they may be all different vehicles of communication with an audience, each audience
wants to know that the person doing the talking is an actual human being and not a
robot. Inflection is the key here. You need to use inflection, pauses, and other speech
techniques to control the flow of the words. .

 Speaking too fast

 It’s difficult for audience to catch your presentation or even they can't
understand what you are saying if you speak too fast. It make listener feel not only
uncomfortable but also tired. Consequences, you should control your speed and
practice before starting a presentation carefully.

 Selling Short The Importance of Non-Verbal Communication.

We communicate far more than we know through our body language—through
our voice, eyes, gestures, posture and facial expressions. When you're presenting,
strong, positive body language becomes an essential tool in helping you build
credibility with your audience. Knowing how to use these skills goes far toward
assuring your success.

 Mistakes on slides

- Creating slides that are cluttered and difficult to read. Try to use a single font
that is large enough that it can be read clearly from the rear of the room. Ensure
that legends and other information on charts and graphs is similarly legible.

- Packing in as much text on each slide as possible. Try to use single words, short
phrases and simple graphics wherever possible. This requires thought to ensure
that your ideas can be conveyed as concisely as possible without losing meaning.
Judicious use of white space can make important data stand out and will enhance
your audience's ability to absorb the data you are presenting.

- Using color combinations with low contrast. Choose color combinations for your
background and text that make the text stand out clearly. Obviously, contrast is not
the only criteria, you also need to consider how the colors you select look together.
Avoid color combinations that people with impaired visions may have difficulty
distinguishing.

And so on…

 Ignoring time limits

Practice beforehand so that you can keep to your allotted time. If you plan on a
question and answer session, ensure that you leave sufficient time for it. In the event
that you get a late start, ensure that you still finish at the scheduled time. It's a good
idea to plan portions of your material that can be omitted under such circumstances.

2) Some tips for presentation

 Firstly, the best thing you can do to get ready for your presentation is to prepare
and practice. You can stand in front of a mirror or videotape yourself several times.
You should be so familiar with your speech that all you have to do is to glance at
those key words to prompt. However, you should take care of yourself by getting
plenty of rest the night before your presentation and not straining your voice the days
before your presentation. Moreover, it is advisable to check your appearance – hair,
clothing, etc. before entering the room
 Secondly, at the beginning, the most important thing is to hook the attention of
your audience and immediately establish rapport with them. Smiling may be the most
effective and simplest way to set up the relationship with them. Make eye contact
with as many people in the audience as your can. We can hook the audience by a
quotation that suits your speech, a thought-provoking question, a surprising fact or
statistic. One more thing, you need prepare an effective introduction and conclusion.
Besides, you should show your audience your flexibility and confidence. Be relaxed
in your stand and movement. Keep your hands at your side, allowing some gestures to
show relaxed, comfortable, knowledgeable speaking.
 Thirdly, in presenting process, you should choose your words so that you can say
shorter but better. One important thing is leading the audience through your
presentation with clear transitions and connectives between the ideas. Research has
shown that most of a message is delivered through nonverbal means. In detail, 7 % is
conveyed by actual words or content; 38% is transmitted by tone of voice and volume
of speech; 55% is delivered via non-verbal information, such as facial expressions,
posture, hand gestures, and how you carry yourself. You can stand to the side of the
screen or board and use your hand, pointer, or mouse to direct attention to important
points, with the information to your writing-hand side. The facial expressions need to
show concern, enthusiasm, empathy, and understanding. It is worth remembering that
when the audience stops looking at you, it can be the first sign that they’ve also
stopped listening. Therefore, we should practice establishing eye contact with your
audience to make them feel included. Regarding the content of your presentation, it
will be very boring and less persuasive if your presentation is just word and word and
lacks the practical information. We can enrich our presentation and make it attractive
by using the practical example, for example the illustrative video or clip or the actual
ex. A small discussion can make the listener fell more enthusiastic and interesting. If
you are using a Power Point or similar presentation software, that's great, but keep in
mind these two points:
-Do not put your entire content on the PowerPoint. It is necessary to hit those
main points and their supporting details in bullets, or in an easy to read format.
Your PowerPoint needs to be easy to follow and not cluttered.

-Leave a significant portion of your content for what you say to accompany
each slide.

 Finally, at the end of presentation, you have to summarize your main points. Just
like closing a sale, you want to do the ASK by motivating them to take action.
Research shows that it is in this closing that you make your mark in your ending what
your audience remembers most. This is the last thing they hear and it may be the only
thing they remember. Therefore, you should try to make it memorable.

C/ Conclusion

It's not difficult to have a effective presentation if you try your best to improve your
presentation skills. A good prepare will lead to implementing presentation more
successful and certainly you can finish speech impressively. Effective presentations
make you feel more confident and positive. In the end, you will realize that your work
personality will also improve. Moreover, your work colleagues will look up to you as
a model. You will not just create an impression in the company; you will also gain the
trust of the organization as a whole.