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 ry not to be nervous or intimidated by your audience. Give
the appearance of calm confidence, and focus all your energy
and concentration on the message in your presentation. If you
are focussed on your talk and not your nervousness, so will
your audience be.
 Some inexperienced speakers will attempt to memorize their talk,
or read it from a prepared text. One word of advice: don't!
If you need to refer to a set of notes, put them in point form,
not in complete sentences, or you will find yourself reading them out.
The best method is to use your viewgraphs or slides as visual
cues as to the points you would like to make. If you keep each
slide simple one idea to a slidenothing will be forgotten.
At the start, determine
the best place to stand so that you are not blocking the projection
or somebody's view.
When placing a slide on the projector, make sure that you
look back at the screen to see that all is visible, and adjust the slide
if necessary. It is best to point at the screen, if possible, rather
than at the projector. The projector moves if you get too friendly
with it.
If you must point at the projector (if the
screen is too far away, for example) be sure to keep the pointer steady.
Also, don't fiddle with your pointer, as telescoping it in and out
really detracts from what you are saying.
Don't fumble with your slides. Throw away ``tissue paper'' separators
before your presentation.
Remember to focus on your audience, not on the projector.
Aim to speak slowly and with enough volume to reach the
person in the audience who is farthest away.
Look around,
they won't bite, and you can see whether your points are sinking in.
Interact with the audience. Ask them if they are following you, or
ask them simple questions to see if they are. Liven them up a bit.
Take control of the questions, during or after the talk. Try to
steer the topic back on track, otherwise audience participation can
drive things far away from the main points of the talk. Take discussions
off-line if they are consuming too much time or will not readily be
resolved. Feel free to interrupt debates among audience members; after
all, it's your talk!
Humour can make a big difference, especially in dry technical
talks. Try to lighten it up a bit; especially after some
particularly heavy going. Cartoons can be an effective way
to draw parallels with points you are trying to make.
Even short verbal asides, rhetorical questions, or anecdotes can go a long way
to keeping up audience interest. |
n university, you are in a particularly good position to observe
others giving presentations. Take the opportunity to learn from
the mistakes that others make, and borrow (steal) techniques that
you find effective. Watch carefully for methods used by your
lecturers that improve your understanding. Be careful, though,
that you don't pay so much attention to the medium that you lose
the message.
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