STRUCTURING A PRESENTATION

Definition of a Presentation
Before we examine how to structure a presentation, let’s define some terms. Imagine all the
different kinds of speaking you’ll be doing in business: casual chatting, phone conversations,
panel discussions, interviewing, conferences, seminars, meetings, speeches, question-and-
answer periods, presentations ─ and probably others. These activities easily fall into two
groups: those in which you are speaking to one other person and those in which you are
speaking to a group of people. Let’s put aside the one-to-one speaking and concentrate on
speaking to a group.
What then, are the different ways you will speak to a group of people? What, in other words,
are the differences among speeches, brainstorming sessions, question-and-answer periods,
lectures, discussions, panel discussions, meetings and presentations?
Usually you speak to a group of people in one of three situations:
1. When you are doing most of the speaking yourself, either to inform, or to persuade,
2. When you have more give-and-take with your audience, to answer questions, or
3. When your audience is doing most of the talking, to solve problems as a group.
Certainly most people would agree that terms such as speech or lecture imply that the speaker
is doing most of the talking; question-and answer periods or panel discussions involve
answering questions; and meetings, or brainstorming sessions mean that the audience is doing
most of the talking. There are expectations about these different situations. You may have sat
through a meeting that consisted of nothing but announcements. You may have heard lectures
that turned into free-floating question-and-answer sessions.
To narrow our definition one step further, think of the various ways in which you might do such
speaking: a manuscript is completely prepared in advance and written out; an impromptu
speech is completely unprepared and spur-of-the-moment. In between these two extremes, we
find the prepared presentation. By prepared presentation, then, I mean you prepare what you
say, but you do not read it word for word.
This kind of presentation is extremely common in virtually all kinds of businesses. You use it to
explain or persuade. For example, suppose you are working on company newsletter. You have
some recommendations to make about upgrading it with new printing, graphics, and colors, but
the upgrading will increase your department’s costs. When you appear before the budget
committee, you will give a presentation to persuade. Or suppose, you are a real-estate broker.
You want to develop a certain building, but the site is not zoned for development. When you
appear before the zoning board, you’ll give a presentation to persuade. Or, suppose you are an
agent for a health-insurance company. If you are asked to explain your company’s benefits to a
group of employees, you’ll be giving a presentation to inform.
In each case, you’ll be talking with a group, not to a group. In a business presentation, you do
not need a read a paper, as an eminent professor does at an academic conference. Unlike the
audience at the academic conference, your business audience may well be insulted by your
reading to them. “If this is all written out,” they may think, “why bother to take all this time
hearing it? Why not just give everyone a copy of the document?” If your audience has taken the
time to be with you, they deserve to be talked with. In a business presentation, you do
notmemorize and recite a paper either, the way an eminent actor does on stage. Most recited
speeches end up sounding formal, stilted, and literary ─ not at all the way you would talk with
someone.
How then, do you go about preparing “what to say” in a presentation? As in any
communication, you go through the same first steps:
1. Establish your objective (“As a result of this presentation, my audience will ________” );
2. Analyze your audience;
3. Structure your main points, write an outline of what to say.
You do not have to write your presentation word for word. Since you don’t want to bore your
audience by reading word for word, why go to the trouble of writing it word for word? Since
you possibly won’t have the time to memorize every presentation you give in business, just
make notes you can refer to. When you are actually presenting, you will be forced to use your
own words and look at the audience. The important idea, then, is to work from a brief outline.
Using Note Cards
Most business presenters prefer to use five-by-seven inch or four-by-six inch note cards for
their outlines. Regular-size paper is too large and awkward to move. On the other hand, three-
by-five inch cards are too small; changing card constantly can be distracting. The larger five-by-
seven or four-by-six cards, on the other hand, are not only easier to hold, they also make it
possible to move ─ to your visual aid, for example ─ taking your notes with you.
Print your main ideas on one side of the card only. Never print complete sentences; instead,
pare your thoughts down to words, phrases and numbers. Always include at least five minutes’
worth of information on each card. In other words, use about one card for a five-minute
presentation, two cards for a ten-minute presentation, and so forth. The whole advantage of
using cards ─ your ability to interact with your audience ─ is lost if you write out sentences on
cards and read them. Color-code your main points: underline them in red, for example.
Timing
Since presentations are not written word for word, most presenters have major problems with
timing. When you finish writing something, obviously, you know exactly how many pages it is.
When you are preparing a presentation, however, you do not know how long it will take to
speak it aloud. Most people are terrified about running out of things to say. In fact, most people
misjudge so badly that they end up talking at least twice as long as they expected to.
When you are designing a presentation, then, aim short. Your presentation will probably take
longer than you anticipate; it will probably grow as you work on it; actual delivery, audience
interaction, and use of visuals will make it longer than you may think; and if it’s a bit short, so
what? Which would you prefer if you were in the audience ─ a presentation that ran short and
gave you an unexpected pre- lunch break, or a presentation that ran long and cut into your
lunch hour? Slightly short presentations have virtually no drawbacks. Slightly long presentations
can be disastrous: you may have to rush, or even omit important points.
The other aspect of timing has to do with audience breaks. According to the research, for best
attention the longest you should speak without break is forty to fifty minutes. If you have to
speak longer, include time for breaks. It is preferable to have several short breaks than fewer
longer ones. For example, if you are speaking for three hours, insert two ten minute breaks
rather than one twenty-minute break. Always try to end on a high note just before a break. And
if your presentation breaks into sections of unequal length, place the longest section first.
Presentation Structure
So you’ve got your cards set and your timing thought out. What should you say? When you
present information orally, you need to say it in a very different way than you do when you
write. Here are three steps to go through as you compose your presentation:
1. Limit your main points;
2. Make your main ideas stand out;
3. Use an effective opening and closing.
Limit Your Main Points Once again, always remember that speaking is not the same as writing.
You simply cannot present your audience with the same amount of detail as you can in writing.
Speakers very often commit this error of overwhelming their audience with information. How
many points can the audience process? Some cognitive psychologists say seven; others say
four. To play it safe, however, limit the number of main points you make in a presentation to
three, four or five.
Making three to five points does not mean stating sentences and then sitting down. What it
does mean is that you group your multitudinous ideas into three to five main categories. For
most presentations, however, you will want to differentiate between your thought process and
what you have decided to communicate. In other words, your job as a speaker is to pick out the
important points. That will make it simpler for your audience to understand.
For example, you had to explain a very complicated 17-step process for running a machine. You
could categorize and limit the steps to three subsets within the process: starting the machine,
running the machine, and shutting down the machine. The audience will easily remember the
main points, and then can use those main points to recall some or all the smaller points.
Make Your Main Ideas Stand Out Once you have limited number of main points, make sure
each stands out. One way to do this is always to include a preview. A preview is an agenda, an
outline, an idea of where you are going with your presentation. If you think again about the
contrast between listeners and readers, you will realize that your readers can skim over a
document, see how long it is, and read your headings and subheadings before they start in on
the rest of the document. Your listeners, on the other hand, have no idea what you will be
covering unless you tell them. One of the main problems in a business presentation is lack of a
preview. Always state a preview explicitly before you begin discussing your main points.
One speaking expert uses a file folder analogy to explain previews. Your preview gives your
audience the chance to make “file folders” in their minds, each labeled with a main point. Then,
as you discuss each point, they put the information in the correct folder. With no folders ready,
they spend their time during the presentation wondering where to put the bits of information,
instead of listening. At the end they have a pile of scraps of papers that make no sense to them.
A preview might sounds like this: “In the next twenty minutes, I will discuss the significance of
each of the three routes to be constructed for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor: the
eastern route, the central route, and the western route.” Thus the point of the preview is to
give your audience a skeleton, a very general outline, of what you will be discussing.
In addition to starting with a preview, you can also make your main points stand out by
providing very explicit transitions. Transitions are defined as words and phrases such as first,
second, and on the other hand that signal where you are headed. Using the file folder analogy
we can say that transitions tell your listeners, “Now take out the next file folder.”
Instead of short transitions, use more explicit transitions when you speak. Here are some
examples of explicit transitions: “the second recommendation is …” instead of “second”; or
“another benefit of this system is …” instead of “in addition”.
Finally to make your main points stand out, use internal summaries. This is a simple concept;
summarize between your major points or sub-points. For example, say: “Now that I have
explained the major benefits of this new process, I’d like to discuss how the process actually
works.” This internal summary tells your audience you have finished the benefit section and are
moving on to the process section.
Many presenters complain that they feel awkward about repeating themselves so often during
presentations. I can only counter this argument by reverting once again to the idea of being
audience-centered. Yes, you may feel awkward repeating yourself, but more important, your
audience will not feel awkward. Your audience simply will not remember your main points
unless you make it easy for them to do so by providing them with the preview, explicit
transitions, and internal summaries.
Use an Effective Opening and Closing
The final differences between writing and speaking have to do with openings and closings.
When you speak, you neither start nor finish as quickly as you do when you write. What sounds
natural in writing sounds abrupt in speaking.
Opening: An effective presentation opening consists of what many speech experts call a
grabber. The word grabber is meant to imply that you must “grab” your audience’s attention
before you start in on your main points. Think about your listeners, sitting out there in the
audience. They are all thinking about other things: the phone messages they have to answer
back in their offices, the reports they are in the midst of writing, perhaps even their dinner in
the evening. You ─ as a speaker ─ must get their attention. If you simply start into your first
point, they won’t hear it.
When most people think of a grabber, the first idea that comes to mind is to tell a joke. You do
not, however, have to be humorous or entertaining to gain interest. Using humor in business
communication is tricky. When you choose in certain situations to pep up your communication
with humor, keep in mind these four rules.
1. First humor in a business setting should never be offensive to any member of
your audience. Therefore, avoid racial, ethnic, and bawdy jokes; avoid shocking
references to sex, disease and death. To avoid offending your audience you
should try to know as much about them as possible. Be sensitive to the possible
reaction of everyone to whom you are speaking.
2. Besides not offending or discrediting anyone in audience, don’t put yourself
down. Neither one person or group nor you yourself should be the target of your
humor. In business, especially when you are young, unknown, or un-practiced,
belittling yourself may encourage your audience to look for faults, may bore
them with the details of your anxieties, or may lead them to believe you lack
confidence or competence.
3. Rule number three is to use humor in small doses. You are not being paid to be a
stand-up comic; you don’t want to be the company clown; you want to avoid
telling too many jokes. As one expert says, “Use humor in business the way you
use spices in a meal ─ sparingly, to accent the basic flavor.”
4. The fourth rule is that your humor should be related to the topic or occasion.
In summary, if you feel comfortable opening a presentation on a humorous note, fine. But don’t
feel you have to. You can grab your audience’s attention in one of two effective ways: by
referring to the unusual or referring to the familiar.
Referring to the unusual gains audience attention by telling people something they don’t know,
to arouse their curiosity. Such openings include: rhetorical question (that is, a question you do
not intend your audience to answer), a promise of what your presentation will deliver, a vivid
image, a starting example or story, or an important statistics.
Referring to the familiar gains audience attention by tying into something your listeners
already know; you appeal to your understanding of them rather than to their curiosity. Such
openings include references to your audience, the occasion, the relationship between you and
your audience, the relationship between the audience and the topic, the relationship between
you and your topic, or someone or something familiar to the audience. As examples: “It’s great
to be back at the Islamabad office again”; “I know you all want to hear about our new bonus
plan”.
Remember that your opening should be brief.
Closing: The final step in structuring an oral presentation is to use an effective closing. Your
audience is more likely to remember your first and last words.
If you ever doubt that your audience listens at the end of a presentation, try saying, “So, in
conclusion …” or “To summarize, then …” and watch the nonverbal signs from your audience.
They perk up and listen. What happens so often in business presentations, however, is that
speakers waste this valuable time. You’ve probably heard speakers wind up by saying
something as useless as “Well, I guess that’s about all I have to say” or “I guess that’s about
it.”Avoid this syndrome!
Instead, use a strong transitional phrase, such as “In conclusion,” or “To summarize,” to
introduce your closing remarks. Then, for formal presentations, close with a restatement of
your main points (Again, you may feel you are being repetitive, but this kind of reinforcement is
extremely effective if you are explaining or instructing.) As other options, you could close with a
reference to your opening: the rhetorical question, the promise, the image, the story, or
statistics you used to “grab” your audience’s attention. Finally, you might choose the classic
sales-presentation ending endings close with the “what next?” step. What precisely do you
want your audience to do? Be sure to refer to the benefits they will accrue from taking that
“what next” action.