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Elements of Professional Presentations
| Presentation Skills |
Presentation Technology | Presentation Suggestions |
Other Resources |
Your objective in every professional presentation
is to deliver your message to your audience. There are various reasons for
delivering your messages (e.g., persuade or inform)
and each requires a different delivery, but every delivery must follow two main
rules:
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You must use your presentation skills and technology to help your audience understand your message. You must
not allow your skills and your technology to distract your audience.
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First, preview your
message for your audience. Second, deliver your
message to your audience. Finally, review your
message for your audience.
Presentation Skills
There is an art and a science to delivering
presentations that effectively communicate your message to your audience.
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Tone-
You must establish a "climate" (tone) for your presentation that is appropriate
for your audience and your message. Tone refers to a variety of characteristics,
including the degree of formality, emotion, humor, arrogance, and tactfulness,
that you use. It determines how your audience responds to you.
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Transitions- You
must 1) advise your audience when you are
transitioning (moving) to a new topic or new speaker
and 2) establish the connection between the
material covered and the material to be covered. Your verbal reminders are like
the headings in a written document- they keep your audience connected to and
aware of your message.
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Eye
Contact- You must establish and maintain a visual
connection with your audience by looking at the audience. You can (must) refer
to your notes and visual aids on the screen during your presentation, but do not
talk to your notes or the screen. When you talk, look at your audience.
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Voice-
Your voice is one of the main channels of communications in presentations. To use
your voice effectively, you must control its volume,
speed, and pitch
(how high or low your voice is). If presentations make you nervous, closely
monitor your speed and pitch. Always monitor your volume and never let it remain
constant (monotone) throughout your presentation. You should use inflection
(changes in volume and pitch) to emphasize key points in your message.
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Gestures-
Your body language communicates up to 75% of the message that your audience
receives. Thus, it is imperative that your gestures and posture help you deliver
the message that you are trying to deliver. You should use gestures judiciously
to emphasize key points and help your audience "draw" visual images that enforce
your message.
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Presentation Technology
PowerPoint has become the de facto standard
technology for professional presentations. It is a powerful program with many
features that easily can be used to enliven your presentations to the point of
distracting your audience.
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Color- The colors that you use have a profound effect on the audience's
mood and ability to receive your message (http://psychology.about.com/blsub_soimg_color.htm).
For example, the color red grabs attention while the color blue helps people
retain what they read. However, a color's impact may vary by culture.
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Layout & Composition- The primary role of a PowerPoint slide is to
present an outline of the key issues that you are talking about- the audience is
supposed to listen to your detailed explanation, not read what
you are reading from a slide. Your outline should be well-spaced on the body of
the slide so that your audience can easily read your main points.
Use the key combination CTRL-Enter to enter a blank line between the text on
your slide.
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Multimedia- The proper use of art, photos, videos, and sounds in a
presentation can attract audience attention and enhance audience retention of
your message. For example, when talking about the importance of network
security, it would be useful to use an audio or video clip from a news source
about a recent breach of network security at a major company or the impact of a
recent computer virus.
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Animation- The main use of animation should be to control the timing of
the display of the information on a slide. If your slide presents two or three
points, you do not want your audience reading the second and third points while
you are talking about the first one. You also do not want your audience
distracted because you inappropriately used animation.
Use the Custom Animation tool to delay the presentation of your information
until you are ready to talk about it.
Remember: Your goal
is to deliver a message, not display your ability to use every feature in
PowerPoint. Only use a feature to the extent that it helps you deliver your
message.
Presentation Suggestions
Presentations using CWU distance education
resources require special attention to help your audience appreciate your
efforts:
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Introduce yourself and your teammates at the
start of the presentation, and at the transitions from one speaker to
another speaker.
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Use fonts that are at least 26 points in
size.
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Select your colors carefully. Make sure that
your text and your background have high contrasting colors, but generally do
not use red or "noisy" backgrounds.
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Leave the lower right-hand corner of the
slide clear of text so that the video of your image can be displayed during
your presentation.
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If using a photo (graphic), it can be better
to include a link to the photo on the relevant PowerPoint slide such that
the photo will open in a photo viewer application when the link is clicked.
Other Resources
Other links for PowerPoint presentations;
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