How to Give a

“Knockout”
Presentation

Dr Archana Shrivastava

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 Outline

• General Guidelines

• Slide Do’s and Don’ts

 Handouts

• Delivery Do’s and Don’ts

 How to Handle Questions Handouts

• Final Thoughts

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 General Guidelines

A good presentation is a
“POPTA” presentation

What does POPTA stand for?

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 General Guidelines
• Purpose
 You need to define your purpose for giving
the presentation
 Often your goal is a high level overview,
even for a technical presentation
 Don’t tell them everything you did, you’ll
bore them

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 General Guidelines
• Organization
 Always have an outline
 Tell them what you’re going to tell them,
then tell them, what you told them
 Hint: I am doing this for this presentation
 Problem then solution
 Not just “data then solution” or “solution
then problem”

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 General Guidelines
• Preparation
 An unprepared presenter loses the
audience before even starting
 Practice makes perfect and builds
confidence
 Arrive early, make sure everything is set
up
 Dress appropriately
 Slides should be done well in advance

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 General Guidelines
• Time
 Be sure you know how much time you have while
preparing the presentation
 Not 5 minutes before you start
 It is better to end early than to go over
 Always have a watch or clock in view
 You’ll never have enough time to tell everything so
stick to the most important
 Rule of thumb
 At most 1 slide per minute of presentation
 Better to plan 2 minutes for each slide

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 General Guidelines
• Audience
 Be sure you know your audience well
 Tailor presentation to your audience
 Failure to do this is probably the biggest mistake people
make
 Are there multiple audiences?
 If so, direct different slides to different audiences
 Watch the audience for clues

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 Slide Do’s and Don’ts

• You shouldn’t put everything on the slide

• Do include 50% white space
• Your comments should be more
compelling than the slides
- Generally 1 main point for each slide
• Do use animation
 Don’t overuse it
 Makes it difficult and annoying to navigate

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 Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• Do include written conclusion for every
graph
 Don’t forget to add meaningful labels, titles,
captions, etc. to graphs
Percentage of People Needing Presentation Skills

100

80
Percentage

60

40

20

0
Yes No Yes No
Academia Industry

Conclusion - It is important to learn presentation skills!

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 Slide Do’s and Don’ts

• Don’t use yellow text

 Do use dark text and bold
• Do use formatting and color to emphasize
(e.g. POPTA)
• Don’t include unrelated pictures

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 Slide Do’s and Don’ts

• Do chek yor speling for mestakes

 Typos instantly destroy credibility and convey
lack of preparation
 Do have someone else read through
presentation
• Do acknowledge previous work and help
• Do use a template if using PowerPoint

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 Slide Do’s and Don’ts

• Do use a light background like this

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 Slide Do’s and Don’ts

• Or like this

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 Slide Do’s and Don’ts

• Or like this

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 Slide Do’s and Don’ts

• Don’t use a dark background like this

 Even if using a lighter font color
 Harder to read, especially from the back
 More likely to put people asleep
 Handouts often don’t look very good

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 Slide Do’s and Don’ts
• Do use occasional “spice” or “pace breakers”
 Humor
 Pictures  Surveys
 Sound
 Quizzes
 Animation
 Questions (Not just
 Videos
Yes/No)  Physical Objects
 Top Ten Lists
 Etc.
For example . . .
A pace breaker can do this for your audience
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 Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Don’t read or “parrot” the slides
 Otherwise, why give a presentation?
• Do use the slides as a cue
 Let audience read
 Create slides and use animation that
emphasize your points

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 Delivery Do’s and Don’ts

• Do plan breaks for longer presentations

 10 minutes for every hour
• Do be passionate about the topic
 Have fun, this is your opportunity
 If your audience doesn’t know why your topic is
important, you’ve lost them
• Don’t forget to practice
 Record yourself, tape yourself, or use a mirror
 Reading through slides does not count as practice

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 Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Do relax, use nerves to your advantage
 Breathe deeply, pause as needed
 Don’t go too fast
 Do watch out for mannerisms
 “Um . . um”
• Do empty your pockets and hands
• Don’t point at computer, point at the
screen

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 Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Do use body language to help make a point
 Purposeful movements

• Do use appropriate posture

 Don’t play with keys or coins in your

pocket
 Don’t use a pointer, pen, pencil or chalk to point at
an individual may be perceived as offensive
 Don’t look at your feet or at the ceiling (indication
of nervousness or timidity)
 Don’t stare
 Don’t just look only at the training aids or chalk
board (this can be perceived as impolite)

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 Delivery Do’s and Don’ts

• Do face audience more than slides

 Don’t talk to the screen or wall
• Do vary your voice
 Don’t speak in monotone
 Most people speak too soft, not too loud
• Do memorize slide numbers for key slides
 Or transition points
• Do get honest feedback from someone you trust

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 Delivery Do’s and Don’ts
• Don’t forget to smile

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 Handling Questions
• Welcome them
 Lots of questions are either a sign of:
 Interest in what you are talking about
– Audience internalizing
 Failure to communicate an idea
– Meaning that the person still wants to
understand

• Always repeat the question

1. For you to make sure you understood it
2. For audience to make sure they heard it

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 Handling Questions

• Answer the question to the audience

 Then check back to the individual for
confirmation
• Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”
 Better than mumbling or fumbling an
answer

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 Final thoughts
• POPTA
• Good slides go a long way
• Practice, practice, practice
• Remember that the audience wants you to
succeed
• Use other resources (Books, web, etc.)
• Anyone can learn to be a better presenter!

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Thank You ! ! !

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