"How can I keep the audience interested?" – don’t send them to sleep through
boredom. People respond better to
presentations if they are both interested in the topic, and involved in the
presentation itself. Think about questions your audience
may have about the content of the presentation – and try to answer these
during your presentation.
"Do I know my subject?" – it gives you greater confidence. If you know what you’re talking about!
KISS – Keep it straightforwardly simple – don’t try to explain huge amounts
of theory in ten minutes – you’ll get lost and
confused, your audience will get bored and frustrated.
The beginning should tell your audience what you are going to tell them.
Begin positively - engage the audience’s attention -
establish rapport. How can you do this? Get them involved. Speak directly
to your audience, use eye contact, and show them
that you are doing this presentation for them – that you want them to learn
or do something new or better as a result of your
input.
The middle bit is usually longest and can have several sections. Structure
this with a logical sequence – moving from one area or
topic to another using verbal or visual links. OHP acetates are useful for
breaking the middle bit up into smaller chunks. Link
each bit with a bridging point e.g.: "and now we`ll move on to the second
issue…."
The end of your presentation should be a summary, a conclusion, a logical end to what has gone before. You could:
Summarise – use key points, tell your audience
what you have just told them – briefly
Ask if anyone has any questions?
Thank your audience
Say " and now to conclude….." or "I`ll finish off
by…………"
Give out any handouts
Have a clear ending NOT "and that’s it…………" and shuffle off!
Try to get feedback on your performance – were you speaking too fast or
too slow? Were your visual aids clear? Did you
move logically from one point to another? Were you interesting? Or deathly?
A few hints and tips
Breathe slowly – it calms you down
Speak UP, Voice DOWN. Yes your audience wants to
hear you, so speak audibly, but don’t shout
Tone, pace and volume. Speaking in a monotone is
very wearing on the audience – an instant turnoff
The tone of your voice is important – be enthusiastic,
not pedantic. Speak at your normal pace – too slow and the
audience nods off, too fast and they don’t understand
a word
Use of jargon and colloquialisms. Not everyone speaks
the same technical language – use full phrases not acronyms,
unless you are sure everyone is familiar with them.
Avoid slang terms
Always STAND. It gives you confidence, and helps
with voice projection
Be aware of your gestures – if you conduct an orchestra
while you speak, your audience will be distracted
Use a prop - but don’t play with it. Holding a pen
or handout is a useful way of keeping your hands occupied. BUT – if
you are nervous and the handout shakes, or you keep
flipping the pen top, it will detract from your presentation
Don’t keep your hands in your pockets – it looks
very unprofessional
provide your audience with a copy
Use pictures and diagrams - a picture is worth a thousand words…
Don’t
Block the audience’s view
Put more than one idea onto an acetate
Write right up to the edge - leave a margin
Point at the screen
Leave the light on between transparencies
Use too much colour
Fidget
Use humour unless you know your audience well
Summary
Prepare - thoroughlyWatch other speakers to learn what works and what does not. Figure out what you like and what you don't like about what they do and then try to do or not do those things. Ever been annoyed at a speaker who puts of an overhead with such tiny print you can't read it at all? Then be sure you use a larger font. How about those people who constantly block the screen so you can't see it? Maybe you should try not to do the same thing.
Use large fonts. Anything smaller than 24 point is probably a mistake.
If you photocopy a paper from a book and project
that, you deserve severe punishment. The only exception is if you are trying
to impress the audience with the density of
something, or otherwise make a point that specifically requires dense and
unreadable text.
Use lots of figures. A picture is worth a thousand words. If your work is very mathematical, try to develop a talk that is entirely in pictures. Then go back and add one or two words per slide.
Point to the projection (screen), not the source. You want to point out part of a picture or a bullet item on a slide to make it clearer what you mean. Walk up to the screen and point at the bullet or picture. Do not point to the transparency on the projector itself. There are several reasons for doing this: You are not blocking the projection. Ever had someone point at the overhead while their shoulder is blocking the light from most or all of the projection? Ever been in an audience where the speaker is continuously standing between you and the text being projected? Doesn't that annoy you? The slide doesn't jiggle. It's annoying to have a slide jiggle every time the speaker touches it. So don't touch the slides.
There are occasions when you cannot reach the projection to point at it
directly. Put your hand into the light and make shadow
pictures: use the shadow of your hand to point at the part you want to deal
with. You probably do not want to use a pointer.
Do not use a pointer. A pointer seems particularly useful if you cannot
reach the projection. Those laser pointer things seem
totally cool, too, don't they? Well, they're annoying and should be outlawed.
Why?
If you're nervous, the pointer dramatically magnifies the shaking of your hand. It looks like you're conducting an orchestra or something. That leaves a bad impression. Even if you're not nervous, it still jiggles unpleasantly. This is why wooden pointers, folding pointers, and laser pointers are all equally bad. People cannot find where a laser points very quickly. You probably zip it around and circle things. You're making your audience dizzy. Or you say "like this here" and they don't see where you point because the laser is already somewhere else. Very few speakers are capable of speaking without playing with the thing that's in their hands. It's distracting. Watch the speaker who folds and unfolds the pointer repeatedly. Yuck. You shouldn't have things in your hands. Period.
A Fine Point: Using your shadow is infinitely better than using a pointer. But, if you can reach the screen, you should touch it (the screen) to point to things, instead of using your shadow. The audience will like the tactility of this gesture. It's ok if your hand makes a slight noise when you hit the screen, or the screen shakes. This discontinuity may wake a few people up. Seriously.
Do not adjust the slide unless
it's falling off. Ever watch someone adjust each overhead over and over again?
Ever want to
slap them and tell them to stop? It's pointless. Who cares if it's 10 degrees
off vertical? The little jiggering of the slide doesn't
make it easier for the audience to read it. And it makes you look really nervous.
Get away from the projector and point at the
screen. You won't be blocking the view of your audience and you won't look
as nervous. Of course, if the slide's about to fall
off the projector....
Be sure the projection is on
the screen. How many times have you watched a speaker talk and talk and talk
without ever
noticing that the projection is somewhere to the left of the screen and you
can't read it? You want to yell but are afraid you'll
annoy people. So you should be sure it's pointing the right place. Of course,
if you walk up to the screen and point at the
projection, you're addressing this problem at the same time, aren't you?
(Amazing how multi-purpose these tips can be.) Using
large margins is helpful for this one, too, since there is less text to spill
off the sides.
Be sure the text is projected
at the top of the screen. This is related to the previous point, but refers
more to where the
text is than to where the projection is. Position the slide so that the first
line of text is as far toward the top of the screen as
possible. That means that people in the back can see what's on the screen
even though some big-headed person is partially
blocking their view. Having trouble figuring out where the slide should be
lined up? Point to the screen and you'll clear up this
problem, too.
Watch the time. Try not to go over your given time. Even if you start late, it's a courtesy to the audience to end as close to on time as possible. A good lecture room will have a clock positioned so that you can see it. (A spectacular lecture room will not have one positioned where the audience can see it, so they're less likely to fidget.) Pay attention to it. If you're running behind, skip a slide, or gloss over one, or talk a bit faster, or don't accept questions. Yes, your work is exciting and interesting, but your audience has other appointments, too. If not, they'll talk to you afterward.
Walk in front of the projection occasionally. This one seems kind of silly,
but it serves two purposes. First, it gets you to
the other side of the room so that the people on that side will have you
in the way of the projection (only sometimes since you'll
usually be up near the screen); it is only fair to share the discomfort. Second,
the sudden bright flash of light reflecting back to
the audience as you break the projection beam will wake a few people up.
Seriously.
Talk to the audience, not the screen. This sounds simple, but it's amazing
how many people look at the screen and talk at it
rather than at their audience. If you haveto face the screen, speak a bit
louder while you're facing it so that your voice will
reflect from it and back to the audience. Better: don't talk to the screen.
Contort your body, or point at the screen and then turn
around.
Do not cover up parts of the slide. The "overhead striptease" act is one
of the most common and most annoying features.
What in the world do you think you're accomplishing by feeding the words
on the slide to the audience one line at a time? It's
infuriating. It makes it harder to pay attention to the speaker, too: the
audience keeps having to read a line, look back at you
and listen, watch you fiddle with the slide, read another line, turn back
to you, and so on and so forth. Tiresome. Why not let
the audience skim the slide and then talk about it all at once? Are you afraid
they'll be so busy reading that they won't hear you
talk? Then make your talking more interesting. (The term "overhead striptease"
is alleged to have been coined by Tufte.)
Consider using an overlay transparency if you need to keep something in suspense.
They're sometimes a bit hard to get lined
up, but not too bad. However, beginners should use this technique sparingly,
until you practice a lot and get the multiple-overlay
technique to be fast, slick, and good-looking.
Modern machine-driven overheads (e.g., from Powerpoint) make it really
easy to do these sort of "multiple overlay" talks.
These are a bit easier, and sometimes even quite effective.
Summary: Never cover up your slides! avoid the striptease! Overlays are
often useful to build up a palimpsest of information
gradually -- much better than putting up one dense hairy slide to annoy the
audience. Audiences tend to like overlays pretty
well.
The only thing worse than the "overhead striptease" is leaving part of
the slide covered and never revealing what's under it. You
will be convincing the audience that something embarrassing is under there
(a naked person?). Bad move. Who cares if it's an
old slide that's no longer quite appropriate; just don't talk about the extra
stuff. Adds a bit of mystery to your talk, but in a nice
way.
Do not read your slides to the audience. Why would I want to come to your
talk to hear you read your slides? Unless
you're a famous poet or novelist reading your own work, what is the point?
(Not even sure there's a point then.) The slides
should be an outline of the talk to help the audience follow what you're saying.
Or complex equations or pictures or something
that you can't convey easily with words. A simple trick is to leave out all
of the articles and connectives--e.g., "simple trick: omit
articles, connectives". Then if you have no better imagination, you can read
it back to the audience with the articles and
connections put back in. At least your presence serves a purpose then.
Use props. Talks are about show and tell and keeping your audience amused, so you can inform them painlessly about what you are doing. Whenever possible, bring and use props: videotapes, robots, pieces of robots, models of molecules, a gear your algorithm. etc... However, if you use videotapes, be sure to have them cued up beforehand and practice turning them on and off so it goes smoothly.
Use color. Use colored pens if you are making your talk by hand.
If you're using the computer, use Powerpoint, or Adobe Illustrator, and print
out your slides on a color printer. For better or worse, audiences these
days expect color; it's easy to use, and you can convey more information with
it.
In my opinion, it is better to have nice colorful hand-drawn slides with
lots of figures, than to have B&W slides with no figures.
If you are using colored pens, use the permanent kind. The erasable kind may seem more convenient, but during a talk, you sweat, and they smear all over. It's awkward, and avoidable.
Use several different colors. If you have a hand-drawn talk, it is criminal
to use only one color.