Week 8 Presentation Skills

Lecture

This week's lecture focuses on presentations strategies and how to produce a presentation of university standard. The lecture slides provided valuable information on three presentation types, these being an oral presentation, a written presentation and a PowerPoint presentation. The structure of each presentation type was discussed and information given on what should be included in the introduction, body and conclusion of a presentation. Ways to engage and interest an audience were also focused upon, such as including pictures, sounds and animations in a presentation to enhance it.

Tutorial

In this week tutorial class we had to visit this site http://www.personal.psu.edu/uxg3/blogs/undergraduateresearch/2008/02/online-resources-for-how-to-pr.html and this week’s lecture slides to make 5 lists of strategies that will help us with our presentation. We were issued with a worksheet asking us to produce a MS PowerPoint presentation which included a title slide, an introductory slide, at least three main "body slides" and a summary slide. In this MS PowerPoint presentation we also had to include graphics and an animation to help enhance the presentation. Information was also provided on resources to access if we were having trouble completing this task. Once the presentation was complete we had to post pictures of it on our blog. My presentation was on mobile phones.

Top five lists

1. Examine the audienceBefore I deliver an oral presentation I examine the audience. This helps me decided what techniques I should use to engage them. If I sense the audience is a casual group then I am more inclined to use humour to make my presentation more appealing. However if they are a serious group then I will focus only on the main points of my presentation.

2. Practise makes perfectBefore I deliver a presentation I like to practise reading it out aloud. This helps me remember and better understand my presentation and increases my confidence to stand up in front of a group.

3. PreparationI believe preparation is very important before delivering an oral presentation. I always make sure my notes are well prepared, clear and written on Palm cards. If I am delivering a MS PowerPoint presentation I make sure all the equipment and technology is working correctly before I start. Good preparation helps me boast my confidence and as my mum always said "a stitch in time saves nine".

4. Stance, voice and facial expressionsThese days people tend to judge on first impressions. Thus if I am delivering a oral presentation I try to make sure my first impression is a good one. I stand up straight, speak loud and clearly, and ensure I look confident and knowledgeable. These techniques help gain the audience's respect and reassures them I know what I am doing and what I am talking about.

5. ContentThere is no use being really good at presenting an oral presentation if the content of that presentation is poor. I like to make sure the content of all my oral presentations is relevant to the topic and informative to the audience. This means I like to research my topic extensively to ensure the information I provide is correct and engaging.

The followings are 6 powerpoint slides on how to give a low impact presentation:

Resource - PowerPoint Tutorial

This resource provides a step by step approach to using MS PowerPoint. However as I have used PowerPoint before I did not need to refer to this information for help while creating my own MS PowerPoint Presentation.