Presentation

gneGne

Im about to have a presentation in like 10 days and I'm not very good at it. I really need some tips on making it easier and more interesting for the listener without making use of help from beamers etc. Do any of you have some nice tips so I can also keep speaking fluently without watching my paper too much, making it look more natural?

RUNN1NGMAN

Practice, practice, practice. Actually standing up in front of (your mom, your g/f, your Cabbage Patch Kid) is the only way you're going to be comfortable talking about the material without looking at notes. Don't get too hung up about looking at notes though. A speaker who keeps looking down is a lot better than a speaker who just stops, trying to remember what to say.

There's no secret trick or anything, you just need to practice. Or rehearse, whatever you want to call it.

MrIamMe

Know your material inside and out.

Practise.

Ensure that you keep up with your notes during - if you do forget, you dont want to be shuffling through.

A short pause to quickly glance at a paragraph is significantly better than pausing during or um'ing or ar'ing.

Depending on the type of presentation, when you introduce a topic ensure that all teh items you talk about are in that topic introductions, and when finished ask for questions. When there are no more questions give a quick we have discussed these topics now moving on to....

At least thats how we do it in the military and it works amazingly well.

Vixx

Don't print your speech (or any part of it) out on a sheet of paper. Use small index cards and jot prompts down... little bullet points that will help remind you of your key points, as well as how to transition between parts of your presentation. This will keep you from constantly looking down, which is in many ways as bad as forgetting what you want to say, because instead of not knowing what comes next, your entire presentation ends up being boring and uninteresting.

Beyond that, yeah, practice! Know what you're supposed to say when you see a prompt on your notecards. Watch yourself in the mirror. Make gestures when appropriate, but don't over do it. Do not lock in your speech verbatim, either. Give yourself some wiggle room so that your speech feels more natural when you're speaking, rather than sounding like a tape recording.

Make eye contact with your audience. Speak slowly and articulate; when you're nervous you have a tendency to speak really fast, so resist this as much as you can.

Dunadan019

the best way to present is really to just know the material and talk to a few key points as if you were explaining something to say your best friend.

thats not the easiest way for most people though. if you have to memorize a script try to make it engaging by practicing inflection. the worst thing you can do with a speach is give it in a monotone droll. emphasize key words and ideas and add pauses in to re-engage the audience. dont actually engage (ask questions of) the audience though, this is a presentation not a high school lecture.

for a presenter without much experience i suggest memorizing and the best way to make it interesting is to inflect.

RedCreamSoda

Don't forget that when you are presenting that you feel more nervous than how you look! Above points about making bullets on a note card are great tips. Know what you are talking about, not necessarily the specific words.
Be sure to include language that is specific to your topic that shows that you know your niche, but be sure to explain the terms if your audience would not be familiar with them.
Don't imagine people in their underwear . . . you will only be distracted!
You still have 10 days, which means you have plenty of time to practice. Don't put it off.
Pay attention to your hands and feet. Plant your feet in one spot (this will help calm you as well), and choose effective motions for your hands. Talking with your hands shows nerves. I like to hold my hands in front of me with just my fingertips touching together (sort of a pyramid).
Most importantly have the self confidence that you know your topic. If you are confident in that, then you have nothing to worry about!

whuppins

I always kick myself when I forget to bring a bottle of water to a presentation. After a few minutes your mouth will be dry (whether from nerves or talking or both) and taking a swig of water gives you a moment to gather your thoughts and gives your hands something to do to keep them busy.

Usagi

Everybody's had some great suggestions and I'll add another shout to the Practice bandwagon, as that is the most important thing you can do. Even if you know the material inside and out, if you aren't comfortable speaking in front of people it will be awkward. Borrow your siblings, your parents, your friends, or even ask your teacher if you can do a dry run in front of just him/her.

Having water with you is good, but just water, nothing caffeinated because that will just make you more jittery and increase the speed at which you're talking. Try to eat something beforehand, I'm a big fan of granola bars because they're portable and don't leave crazy things in your teeth. Talk to your audience, not your hands and remember to keep breathing, you'll be fine!

Good luck!

Richard_Dastardly

Is this for class or for work?

Everything Vivi said. And, eye contact is important. I think it's important guage how un/interested the audience is via body language and evolve your presentation accordingly.

And, insert a joke or a anecdote that relates to the topic. It's ok if the joke is lame, just as long as you don't pause afterwards like you're waiting for laughter. Just steamroll right past it. It'll seem more natural that way, and your audience won't feel uncomfortable if the joke fails.

Lizz the Blizz

I had to speak in front of about 100 business people for the first time ever last week, and before I started preparing for it (I had to speak for about an hour), I always tried learning everything by heart and was a rather horrible speaker.

The funny thing is that every time I had to speak in front of people, everything I rehearsed came out horribly wrong, but whenever somebody asked me some direct questions, I started speaking from my experience, and explaining them the concepts in a very clear way.

So what I did for my presentation last week was put some short questions in my presenter's notes (you can do this in Powerpoint), and simply made sure I answered all of these while a certain slide was being viewed. I practiced the whole thing maybe 2 or 3 times to get the timing right, and voila: an hour-long presentation that got the point across perfectly, without stuttering or blacking out.

gneGne

Richard_Dastardly wrote: »

Is this for class or for work?

Hehe well it's for school and... it's in german. Not my native language, so it will be a lot harder. Still I feel like going for it this time, making it OK for the listeners. I'm not very good at presentations, but I know it is and will be even more important in my future.

Thanks for the suggestions so far! I especially like the one from Lizz, because that kinda looks what I have.

Kate of Lokys

I actually take a completely opposite approach than most people: to prepare for a presentation, I write out what I'm going to say, verbatim. Everything, including stage directions ([pause], [glance around the room], etc), introduction, and concluding remarks. I even include verbal tics, asides, colloquialisms - I write it exactly as I plan on saying it. Once it's typed, I print it out and just read it a couple of times, kind of mouthing the words. Then an hour or two before the presentation, I pull it out and go over it again, and with a pen, I jot down any additional details I thought of that I want to include.

When the moment of the speech is at hand, I set my typed notes down on the podium, and I refer to them about once every paragraph. The rest of the time, I'm looking around, making eye contact. I smile, I leave pauses for laughter at the appropriate times, I use hand gestures, all that good stuff. And I give pretty fuckawesome presentations, if I do say so myself: I gave a half-hour talk on the first three chapters of Ulysses in my Joyce class last week, and this week the prof - who probably doesn't even know my name, because I rarely talk during class and we've only had like six lectures - complimented me on how confident and comfortable I had been during it.

My method of writing everything out word for word works perfectly for me, much better than index cards. But, I know it only works for two specific reasons: first, I learn by writing things out, so the simple act of typing my speech gets it halfway memorized for me; secondly, I'm a speed reader, so when I glance down at my page of text, I can just take in the next full paragraph in about half a second. Your mileage may vary.