ECE498
Presentation Skills
How to prepare for an oral presentation
- Know your audience so that the level of your talk is appropriate
- Determine the main points you want to make (the fewer the better)
- Organize your talk around the main points
- Prepare visual aids to help make the points
- Keep the visual aids simple, clear, and uncluttered
- Keep text to a minimum - pictures and explanations are usually more effective
- Preview, state, review
- Tell the audience what they will hear
- Make the points
- Remind the audience of what they have heard
- Practice talk at least once before presenting
The "dos and don'ts" of oral presentations
Do
- Be positive, confident, and relaxed
- Make good eye contact with the audience to keep them engaged
- Speak somewhat slowly and enunciate each word clearly
- Project voice to the back of the room
- Keep your mind on the points you are trying to make
- When asked a question by the audience, repeat the question before answering
Don't
- Read from the visual aids.
- Fill dead time with "ums", "ahs", "oks", "like", "ya know", etc.
- Pace (unless it helps you keep your knees from shaking :)
- Do anything that will distract the audience from the main points of the talk
Most Importantly
- PRACTICE
- Get feedback
- Videotape - MOST effective
- Comments from peers and instructors
- PRACTICE SOME MORE