LEARNING UNIT 2:

ORAL PRESENTATION
SKILLS
Elements of an Effective Presentation
Qualities of an Effective Oral Presenter
Preparing Your Presentation
 By the end of this unit, you should be
able to:
• Produce an effective oral presentation
for academic settings
Learning • Use accurate and appropriate
Objectives expressions in presenting
• Communicate ideas and opinions
clearly and precisely
PART 1: ELEMENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE PRESENTATION
 Task 1 What are the 7 deadly “sins” of speaking that
one should avoid?
While
listening to How to overcome these “sins” to ensure our
Julian’s talk, speech is more powerful?

pay attention
to the What are the elements of our voice that can
improve our presentation?
following
questions: Most importantly, look at how Julian presents
his talk. What can you take note of from his
style of presentation?
PART 2: QUALITIES OF AN EFFECTIVE ORAL PRESENTER
No Elements Distinguished Intermediate Novice
1 Volume Presenter is easy to hear. Audience is able to hear as a whole, but there are Presenter is difficult to hear.
times when volume is not quite adequate.

2 Rates Rates of speech are appropriate. Speaker may at times seem like s/he is rushing or The rates of speaking are too slow or too fast.
exaggerating pauses.

3 Mannerisms Speaker makes eye contact with everyone and has no Eye contact may focus on only one member of Very little eye contact is made with the audien
nervous habits. Speaker has excellent posture. the audience or a select few members. Mildly may sound like the speaker is reading
distracting nervous habits are present but do not presentation. Nervous
override the content. habits that distract the audience are present.

4 Engagement Presentation involves audience, allowing Audience is involved but inadequate processing Speaker does not involve audience.
time for audience to think and respond. or response time is provided.

5 Organization Presentation is well organized with a beginning, middle, and Speaker loses train of thought, does not Presentation shows little organization,
end. There is a strong organizing theme, with clear main stay with the proposed outline, or connections unclear purpose, and/or unclear
ideas and transitions. are attempted but not made clear for the relationships or transitions
audience.

6 Content Information is complete and accurate. Clear evidence of Research component is less evident Details and examples are lacking or not
research. than in distinguished category or well chosen for the topic or audience.
resources are present but less than adequate for Lacks evidence of research.
assignment.

7 Visual aids Visual aids are well done and are used to Visuals are adequate but do not inspire Very little or poor use of visual materials.
make presentation more interesting and meaningful. engagement with the material. No hand-outs provided.

8 Length Appropriate length. Clear summary is provided. Audience is Time is appropriately used, but may run slightly Presentation lacks conclusion and/or time is
involved in synthesizing the information. over or under allotted time and/or information is appropriately used.
not tied together or conclusion is inadequate.
PART 3: PREPARING YOUR PRESENTATION
A good
presentation
should be well
organized, with
a beginning,
middle and
end.
 Beginning:
The beginning of a presentation is very important! This is when you have an opportunity to grab the audience's
attention and set the tone for your presentation.

Use an attention grabber. Some attention-grabbing techniques include asking a thought-provoking question, showing
the audience am intriguing picture, telling a story or use a real-life example related to your topic, sharing a shocking
statistic related to your topic, sharing a powerful quote, playing a short video

Introduce yourself and the topic you will be discussing

Outline what you will be talking about.

 Body:

Discuss your main points in a logical order

It should be clear to your audience when you

are moving from one point to another

Use examples to support your points

 Summarize the main points

Avoid providing new information at this point, but you can state
any additional questions that you think your research has led
you too

Conclusion: Use language that lets your audience know that your
presentation is coming to an end

Avoid ending with "that's it!" or apologizing for your

presentation

Thank the audience for listening and invite questions

Practise, practise
and
practise