Know the needs of your audience and match your contents to their needs. Know
your material thoroughly. Put what you have to say in a logical
sequence. Ensure your speech will be captivating to your audience as
well as worth their time and attention. Practice and rehearse your
speech at home or where you can be at ease and comfortable, in front of a
mirror, your family, friends or colleagues. Use a tape-recorder and
listen to yourself. Videotape your presentation and analyze it. Know what your strong and weak points are. Emphasize your strong points during your presentation.
When you are presenting in front of an audience, you are performing as an actor
is on stage. How you are being perceived is very important. Dress
appropriately for the occasion. Be solemn if your topic is serious.
Present the desired image to your audience. Look pleasant, enthusiastic,
confident, proud, but not arrogant. Remain calm. Appear relaxed, even
if you feel nervous. Speak slowly, enunciate clearly, and show
appropriate emotion and feeling relating to your topic. Establish
rapport with your audience. Speak to the person farthest away from you
to ensure your voice is loud enough to project to the back of the room.
Vary the tone of your voice and dramatize if necessary. If a microphone
is available, adjust and adapt your voice accordingly.
Body language is important. Standing, walking or moving about with appropriate
hand gesture or facial expression is preferred to sitting down or
standing still with head down and reading from a prepared speech. Use
audio-visual aids or props for enhancement if appropriate and necessary.
Master the use of presentation software such as PowerPoint
well before your presentation. Do not over-dazzle your audience with
excessive use of animation, sound clips, or gaudy colors which are
inappropriate for your topic. Do not torture your audience by putting a
lengthy document in tiny print on an overhead and reading it out to
them.
Speak with conviction as if you
really believe in what you are saying. Persuade your audience
effectively. The material you present orally should have the same
ingredients as that which are required for a written research paper,
i.e. a logical progression from INTRODUCTION (Thesis statement) to BODY (strong supporting arguments, accurate and up-to-date information) to CONCLUSION (re-state thesis, summary, and logical conclusion).
Do not read from notes
for any extended length of time although it is quite acceptable to
glance at your notes infrequently. Speak loudly and clearly. Sound
confident. Do not mumble. If you made an error, correct it, and
continue. No need to make excuses or apologize profusely.
Maintain sincere eye contact
with your audience. Use the 3-second method, e.g. look straight into
the eyes of a person in the audience for 3 seconds at a time. Have
direct eye contact with a number of people in the audience, and every
now and then glance at the whole audience while speaking. Use your eye
contact to make everyone in your audience feel involved.
Speak to your audience, listen to their questions, respond to their reactions, adjust and adapt.
If what you have prepared is obviously not getting across to your
audience, change your strategy mid-stream if you are well prepared to do
so. Remember that communication is the key
to a successful presentation. If you are short of time, know what can
be safely left out. If you have extra time, know what could be
effectively added. Always be prepared for the unexpected.
Pause.
Allow yourself and your audience a little time to reflect and think.
Don't race through your presentation and leave your audience, as well as
yourself, feeling out of breath.
Add humor
whenever appropriate and possible. Keep audience interested throughout
your entire presentation. Remember that an interesting speech makes time
fly, but a boring speech is always too long to endure even if the
presentation time is the same.
When using audio-visual aids
to enhance your presentation, be sure all necessary equipment is set up
and in good working order prior to the presentation. If possible, have
an emergency backup system readily available. Check out the location
ahead of time to ensure seating arrangements for audience, whiteboard,
blackboard, lighting, location of projection screen, sound system, etc.
are suitable for your presentation.
Have handouts ready
and give them out at the appropriate time. Tell audience ahead of time
that you will be giving out an outline of your presentation so that they
will not waste time taking unnecessary notes during your presentation.
Know when to STOP
talking. Use a timer or the microwave oven clock to time your
presentation when preparing it at home. Just as you don't use
unnecessary words in your written paper, you don't bore your audience
with repetitious or unnecessary words in your oral presentation. To end
your presentation, summarize your main points in the same way as you
normally do in the CONCLUSION of a written
paper. Remember, however, that there is a difference between spoken
words appropriate for the ear and formally written words intended for
reading. Terminate your presentation with an interesting remark or an
appropriate punch line. Leave your listeners with a positive impression
and a sense of completion. Do not belabor your closing remarks. Thank
your audience and sit down.
Facebook Blogger Plugin by Tanzaniastar
Post a Comment