Presentation Skills

Structuring your Presentation

What Structure?
Structure is important because a well organized presentation creates an impression that you know
what you are talking about-you will gain the audience's trust and they will be more likely to
listen to you. A structure provides a logical flow so that you can provide the information that the
audience needs to follow your presentation. The structure will help you become more
comfortable following this flow. There is a natural structure to presenting and the following
structure formalizes this process.

 Purpose
To determine your purpose ask "What are the main points I want my audience to take away from
my presentation"? This provides focus for you and the audience is clear on what they will gain
listening to your presentation.

 Audience pre-assessment
It is important to identify the characteristics, knowledge and needs of your audience so that you
are delivering the 'right' presentation to the 'right' audience. Know who your audience is, what
they want/need to know and what is their background. This step is done before the presentation
or throughout.

 Opening your Presentation/Bridge

This is also known as the hook. It is designed to grab the audience's attention and provide them
with a reason to be interested in the presentation.

 Body of Presentation
This is the major portion of the presentation. It is necessary that it connects directly to your
purpose or bridge. Cover enough points to achieve your purpose (no more) and be sure to
support your points clearly and concisely.

 Closing your Presentation

This is the final impression that you will leave with your audience-make sure it is a strong one.
Connect back to your purpose and let them know where you have been. Leave your audience
with a clear understanding of your points.

10 - 20 - 30 Rule
In 2005, Guy Kawasaki, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley wrote on his blog about a rule of
thumb in making great presentations. Focusing on conciseness and visibility, he suggested the 10
- 20 - 30 Rule of PowerPoint Presentations.
 10 Slides
By having a limit of 10 slides, you will be managing the cognitive load for your
audiences. They can easily follow the flow of your presentations. It also challenges you
to design your presentations well: choose what's important and leave out what's
unnecessary

 20 Minutes
By giving yourself limited time on your presentation, you are challenging yourself to
leave out unnecessary details and focus on the important stories that will convey your
message. Even if your session has been allotted with more time, you can devote the
remaining minutes to discussions, questions or any technique that involves audiences
with your presentation.

 30-size Font
Depending on the room and screen size, most audiences will be able to see text that are at
least 30-size font. When designing your presentation, keep in mind that anything you
show must be visible to everybody in attendance, especially those in the back.
If you are concerned about fitting more text in a slide, always remember they do not
necessarily make a better presentation.
Keep in mind that these rules are very subjective and each situation is
unique. Apply them as a good rule of thumb to guide you in planning your
presentations. Other circumstances may come and you need to be flexible
however, have your visible and concise presentations.

6 x 6 Rule
Following the 6 x 6 rule, limits any text to 6 words per line and 6 lines per
slide. Similar to the 10 - 20 - 30 rule, it focuses on readability and
conciseness.
When used effectively, text can be useful in conveying ideas in
presentations. Too much text though can look monotonous and tiring for
audiences to read. You are reminded to distill your thoughts into short lines
and use your presence to expand into more detail. Audiences are there to
listen and watch you, not read your slides.
This slide is very text heavy using a small-sized font

This slide is visually less cluttered and allows audiences to see the main
ideas immediately.

Online Presentation Tools

Collaborative Presentation Tools
Google Presentation is a collaborative presentation tool that is part of the
Google Documents suite of applications. Google Presentation allows
presentations from PowerPoint and Keynote to be upload and edited within
the Google Presentation program. In addition, Google presentations can be
embedded on your webpage or in your online course. Google Presentation is
 a collaborative tool and up to 20 people are able to collaborate
simultaneously creating presentations.
Google Documents
10 Things to Know About Google Presentations - (More information)

Guide to Using Google Presentation

VoiceThread is a web-based application that allows users to quickly and
easily create a shared presentation of images, documents,and videos that
visitors can comment on in the form of voice (microphone), video/webcam
recording, phone call, audio file, or text. Commenters can also use a drawing
tool to draw on top of the media. The resulting group conversation can then
be shared with individuals and/or groups for playback. The application is
designed to be user-friendly and require minimum technical ability.
Voice Thread

Visual Aids
Using visual aids to represent your ideas are a great way to engage your audiences with your
presentation. Your thoughts and examples might get lost in a sea of text where audiences might
have a challenging time what to remember or take note of. Take some time to challenge yourself
with using visual aids such as images, videos, and illustrations.
Designing Presentations
 Presentation skills can be defined as a set of abilities that enable an individual to: interact with
the audience; transmit the messages with clarity; engage the audience in the presentation; and
interpret and understand the mindsets of the listeners. These skills refine the way you put
forward your messages and enhance your persuasive powers.

The present era places great emphasis on good presentation skills. This is because they play an
important role in convincing the clients and customers. Internally, management with good
presentation skills is better able to communicate the mission and vision of the organization to the
employees.

Importance of Presentation Skills

Interaction with others is a routine job of businesses in today’s world. The importance of good
presentation skills is established on the basis of following points:

 They help an individual in enhancing his own growth opportunities. In addition, it also grooms
the personality of the presenter and elevates his levels of confidence.

 In case of striking deals and gaining clients, it is essential for the business professionals to
understand the audience. Good presentation skills enable an individual to mold his message
according to the traits of the audience. This increases the probability of successful transmission
of messages.

 Lastly, business professionals have to arrange seminars and give presentations almost every day.
Having good presentation skills not only increases an individual’s chances of success, but also
enable him to add greatly to the organization.

How to Improve Presentation Skills

Development of good presentation skills requires efforts and hard work. To improve your
presentation skills, you must:

 Research the Audience before Presenting: This will enable you to better understand the traits
of the audience. You can then develop messages that can be better understood by your target
audience. For instance, in case of an analytical audience, you can add more facts and figures in
your presentation.

 Structure your Presentation Effectively: The best way to do this is to start with telling the
audience, in the introduction, what you are going to present. Follow this by presenting the idea,
and finish off the presentation by repeating the main points.

 Do a lot of Practice: Rehearse but do not go for memorizing the presentation. Rehearsals reduce
your anxiety and enable you to look confident on the presentation day. Make sure you practice
out loud, as it enables you to identify and eliminate errors more efficiently. Do not memorize
anything as it will make your presentation look mechanical. This can reduce the degree of
audience engagement.
Vocal effort
There are a number of instruments related to how we speak that we should be aware of how we
use and actively use.
Tempo
Talking in a fast tempo signals that what we’re saying is of low importance. Talking in a slow
tempo makes what we’re saying seem more important. It’s important to vary the tempo. Start
with a slow tempo to suppress nervousness. Use a high tempo for less important things and slow
down for important points and arguments.
Volume
Speaking with a high volume draws attention. Raise the volume for important things. However,
done right, lowering the volume suddenly can also be very effective to make what we’re saying
seem important. Begin presentations with a high volume. Vary the volume.
Pause
There are three types of pauses, pauses for effect, pause for thought and pause for breathing. Put
in pauses here and there in presentations. Underline key words/points by doing a pause for effect
first and a pause for thought afterwards. Put a pause for thought after all key points. Plan pauses
for effect.
Emphasis
Determines the value of what we’re saying. A good way to practice emphasizing is to read
children's books out loud.
Between sounds
Sounds such as “ehh…” should of course be avoided. A trick is to breath in whenever we feel
that such a sound is on it’s way to slip out.
Spicing
When we enter a meeting or attend a presentation we’re usually only able to stay fully focused
for the first three to ten minutes. Our concentration and ability to remember what is being said
then starts to slowly decline. It does so until about 30 minutes in to the presentation when it is
usually at 75%. After that the decline is much more rapid and it quickly reaches a very low level.
Therefor meetings and presentations shouldn’t be longer than 30 minutes. However, keeping
them that short often isn’t an option. Therefor we must try to find a way to fight the rapid
decline. Research has shown that by providing emotional stimulus every fourth minutes a
presenter or meeting organizer can stop the rapid decline that occurs after 30 minutes. There will
still be a steady decline, but it’s rate won’t be higher than it was for the first 30 minutes.
Therefor we should plan to emotionally stimulate attendants every fourth minute or so after
about 20 minutes in. Suitable stimulus is pretty much everything that was listed as examples
suitable for finales. That is pictures, films, stories or just about anything that sticks out from the
rest of the presentation/meeting.

PowerPoint usage
David gave a number of useful advice regarding the use of PowerPoint when giving
presentations. These included:
 The presenter should be in focus – Don’t be afraid to stand in front of the screen.
 98% of the presenter’s eye contact should be with the audience – Don’t look at the
screen.
 Keep the lights turned on – The audience can usually still see the screen and won’t fall
asleep.
 Don’t use a laser pointer – The presenter is the presentation.
 Only show the PowerPoint presentation when it’s actually needed – Start the
presentation with the PowerPoint presentation hidden.
 Use other tools as well – Writing on a white board stimulates discussions and questions
much better than a PowerPoint presentation.
 Precede the next slide – Don’t wait until a slide is visible to start talking about it. Otherwise
the presenter will spend the first few seconds reading it himself. Also, by first talking about
what’s on the next slide before showing it we can provide the audience with the right context
to view it in.

Design tips

 Have one, and only one, message per slide.

 No running text – The Human working memory is limited and we can only handle input
from one channel at a time. If we have slides with running text that we talk to it will cause a
conflict in the minds of the audience as they have to read and listen at the same time,
resulting in that they won’t absorb either type of input. Bullet points on the other hand is OK,
so replace running text with bullet points.
 Color IS information – Use color to clarify and emphasize. Avoid using red and green
though as they have special meanings.
 Use dark backgrounds to avoid being blinded – By using dark backgrounds the presenter
can stand in front of the projector and take center stage without being blinded by the bright
light from the projector.
 Use contrast to focus – Remove contrast from words or bullet points that we’ve already
talked about and use high contrast to make the audience focus on what is currently being
talked about.
 Size – Large objects attract the eye. The thing that’s most important should also be the
biggest thing on the slide.
 Have a maximum of six objects per slide – The human perceptive capability is drastically
decreased when it sees more than six objects. Use more slides with few objects instead of the
opposite.
 Images – Symbolism is key for us to remember things. Use images with high symbolic
value. Images with color is better than black and white images.
 Positioning – Emotionally stimulating things such as images should be located to the left and
logical things should be to the right in order to suite the wiring in our brains.
 Integration – Put things in their context. If you have a slide with an image and some bullet
points that describe the image, put the text inside the image with each bullet point next to
what it describes.
 Animations – Use animations very rarely and only when they actually are relevant.