Presentations are inevitable. They are one of the most important academic exercises that everyone has to do at least once during their time at college. Either it is about delivering a speech at a college event, presenting a science project in class, or summarising any book or paragraph in front of the class, every student is required to come out of their comfort zone and display the best of their presentation skills.
When all the eyes and ears fixated on you, it’s difficult to maintain the nerves and deliver a speech with confidence. With just a minor blip in the microphone, the anxiety creeps in, and eventually, the whole presentation will fall apart. But you know what the biggest perk of university presentations is? It prepares you for life ahead and develops confidence in you so that you won’t lose your nerves during job interviews and conferences at the office.
Apart from acquiring public speaking skills and confidence, the other most important thing about presentations is the content! No matter how perfect you are at public speaking, if the content fails to address what has been asked at the presentation, then you will end up getting a D! After all, it’s an academic presentation and not a stand up comedy show. Well, at this stage, the minor mishaps are quite acceptable, considering the fact that you’re not used to it. However, it is crucial to develop mandatory presentation skills as it is the primary requirement for many employers.
For your ease, “do my assignment” has gathered some useful tips ensuring that your presentation stands out for the right reasons!
Make use of the visuals
Adding visuals in the presentation is an effective way to capture the audience’s attention. Make sure to use visuals that go with the content of your oral presentation! Don’t fall in the trap of merely reading out aloud what’s written on the slides. The content in your slides should be a brief summary or an illustration supporting the concept you are discussing.
Use short phrases and bullet points instead of long sentences, as overcrowded slides look unpleasant and distort the purpose. Using images and other visual elements like GIFs or videos are great ways of grabbing your audience’s attention! But you can also use punchlines, humorous or rhetorical questions instead of speaking out straightforward information.
Consider your audience
Great presenters always consider the preference of the audience while designing their presentations. The delivery tone, content, usage of visuals all depend on the topic of your presentation.
Your teacher might not expect humour when you discuss the holocaust or global warming! To avoid embarrassment, it’s better to understand the severity of your topic and design a presentation in accordance with the audience’s ability to comprehend.
Your presentation must reflect that you have thought about the audience. Assess if the content is relevant to your them or if the information would add value to the presentation. Avoid generalisation and repetition. Spending half of the presentation explaining commonly known facts would be a frustrating experience for your audiences. Don’t complain if you see your audience yawning or dozing off in the middle of your presentation.
Practice with friends or in front of family members
The best way to gain command over your feelings of anxiety is through practice! Make sure to run through a mock presentation at least thrice before delivering the final one. Your friend and family members can be useful in pointing out your mistakes and checking the speed and clarity of your speech. In this way, you will get a chance to make necessary amendments in your tone, pitch or speed of the delivery. You might have to cut short the length of your presentation in case it exceeds the time limit.
Avoid generalisation and stereotyping
Refrain from making controversial statements in your presentations that may hurt or harm someone’s sentiments. Any sort of sexist remarks or stereotyping is strictly prohibited in academic presentations. So just in case you are thinking of adding a sexist humorous joke in the presentation, then don’t! You might end up in hot waters!
Gather accurate information
Ever happened that you go all dumb and blank when your teacher pointed out a mistake in the middle of the presentation? Well, to avoid
such embarrassment, make sure to double-check the sources before adding it to your presentation! Do Not solely rely on the internet; you can also refer to different books and other useful resources to gather content for your presentation.
Be confident and follow the above-stated guidelines to shine in class presentations. Have faith in yourself and put your best foot forward; everything will eventually go in your favor!
