Presenting Information

to Other’s
Presented to
Sir Rizwan Bhatti

Group Member’s
• Mahnoor Farooq 23
• Syed Baqar Ali
44
• Muhammad Awais 02
• Mehnaz Ansar 22
Introduction
Almost everybody who is employed in a managerial or professional role has
to present information or offer explanations to others. From time to time
the presentation will be before a large audience, in a formal setting. More
frequently it will be to a small, sometimes informal, group of colleagues,
subordinates, customers or senior managers.

A customer may invite a supplier to come and talk to some of his colleagues
about the advantages of a new product. If the manager from the supplying
company makes a poor presentation she may fail to win a large order.

If, on the other hand, the presentations are successful, the customer may
place a new order, the managers may be enthusiastic about the introduction
of the new appraisal scheme and the project leader may create the
impression that she is very competent, and could possibly manage a bigger
project next time around.
Ingredients of a good
presentation
• Preparation, i.e. what we need to do beforehand.
• Getting and keeping interest, i.e. what we need to do to involve the
audience from the start and to keep them involved until the end.
• Getting the message across, i.e. those explaining and presenting
skills which enhance clarity of expression and ease the burden of
listening.
• Aids to understanding, i.e. the use of examples, visual displays and
demonstrations.
• Closure, i.e. the best way to end the presentation.
Preparation
The importance of preparation cannot be over-emphasised. Thorough
preparation is the basis of success. . We need to define the objective of
the presentation, research the audience, identify what information
needs to be presented, plan how the presentation is to be structured,
and finally, review the environmental arrangements.
Clarifying the objective
• Inform those who will be affected that a new scheme is to be
introduced;
• Explain to them how the new scheme will work;
• Persuade them to accept the new scheme in preference to
existing arrangements.
If their objective is to persuade them to accept the new scheme
their presentation is likely to be very different from one that is
merely intended to inform them about its introduction.
Researching the audience
Presentations need to be planned with a specific audience in mind. The
background and experience of the audience will influence how much
they already know about a subject, The audience’s past experience of
the presenter may affect the way they interpret what they hear. The
status of the audience may also be important because it may be
necessary to restrict access to certain kinds of information. A
presentation that was originally prepared for the board may need to be
modified before it can be given to a group of middle managers or
customers. The size of the audience is also important.
Defining the content
Before preparing the script for a presentation, an essential first step is
to decide what information the listener will need if the objective of the
presentation is to be achieved.
These may include:
• The target of the scheme (individual or group);
• The aspects of performance that will be measured (total value of
sales, number of new customers)
• The methods used to calculate the bonus and soon.
Structuring the presentation
Hargie et al. (1994) report that there is a wealth of research into teaching
which suggests that the teacher’s ability to prepare, structure, organise and
sequence facts and ideas with the maximum of logical coherence is related
positively to pupil achievement.
Tubbs and Moss (1994) note that research has failed to point to a single
pattern of organisation and structure that will always be effective, and they
argue that presenters need to identify a structure that is best suited to their
particular purpose. Some of the alternatives they have identified are:

• Topical organisation – this pattern involves the speaker moving from topic
to topic in a way that clearly demonstrates how they are related.
• Chronological organisation – a common chronological structure involves
starting with a review of the past, moving on to a discussion of the present
and, if appropriate, projecting into the future. Another variation starts with
an examination of the current situation and moves backwards in time to
explore its origins.
• Spatial organisation – a structure that uses territory, space or
geographical location as the basis for organising the presentation.
• Problem–solution organisation – a way of structuring that starts
with the statement of a problem and then moves on to consider a
way forward or action plan that will lead to a more satisfactory state
of affairs.
• Causal organisation – a pattern that involves either moving from
cause to effect (poverty contributes to low levels of educational
achievement) or effect to cause (low levels of educational
achievement can be attributed, at least in part, to poverty).
Pemberton (1982) suggests that where the purpose of the presentation
is to persuade people to our view, an effective overall structure is to:
1) State the proposition.
2) Anticipate objections and concede possible flaws in the argument.
(Even if the presenter decides not to disclose such flaws it is useful to
have identified what they may be.)
3) Prove the case. Do this by focusing on the strongest arguments. She
argues that quality is better than quantity and cautions against
overloading the presentation with too many arguments.
4) Provide practical evidence.
5) End by repeating the proposition.
Reviewing arrangements
Seating arrangements can also be manipulated to either encourage or
discourage discussion. Seating people in rows makes it more difficult for
the audience to assess each other’s reaction or to interact between
themselves, whereas curved rows or horseshoe arrangements makes
this easier.
Keeping the audience’s
attention
The lecturer who is teaching a recreational class at night school is
reasonably safe in assuming that members of the ‘audience’ are there
because they want to be there and because they want to hear what the
lecturer has to say. This may not be the case for the manager who is
making a presentation about the company’s new appraisal scheme. The
audience may be enthusiastic, neutral or even hostile to the idea of
appraisal. Even those members of the audience who are known to be
enthusiastic may be preoccupied and not in the ideal frame of mind to
listen.
Motivating the audience to
listen
Think carefully, then, of the purpose you're trying to achieve in
your presentation, and always consider carefully your audience's
demographics, experience, and needs. Then use any and every
means at your disposal to achieve that purpose. Don't just
educate; move your audience. Don't inform listeners; inspire
them.
Keeping their interest
How to keep audience Interest.

• Say, show or do something that is shocking or unexpected. ...

• Keep your audience guessing.
• Storytelling. Tell an interesting story that complements your
presentation.
• Involve. Ask your audience to participate.
• Divide your information into elements (points)
• Make your presentation shortor to main the interest
Getting the message across
Turney et al. (1972) grouped presentation skills under four headings:
clarity, examples, emphasis and feedback. A fifth is the presenter’s
ability to answer questions.
Clarity
1) Defining technical terms and jargon.
This has been shown to be correlated with pupil achievement, which is
a good indication that the appropriate use of language can contribute
both to understanding and recall.

2) Explicitness
Reducing the implicit and increasing the explicit information content of
a presentation contributes to clarity.

3) Verbal fluency
Verbal fluency is another important skill contributing to clarity. (which
they measure in terms of sentence length, number of subordinate
clauses and hesitations such as ‘uh’, ‘um’, etc.)
Examples
Examples can offer evidence in support of a statement and can be used
to relate new and unfamiliar concepts to a situation the audience have
already experienced.
The selection of examples is important. They need to be ones that the
audience can relate to and can use in the way the presenter intended.
How the examples are used is also important. Turney et al. (1975)
reports that one pattern which has been recommended strongly by
some researchers is the statement–example–statement rule.
Emphasis
During the course of a presentation a number of different points may need to become the
focus of attention. Therefore, as the presentation progresses, the point of emphasis will
change. Turney groups the sub-skills of emphasis into two categories
1) purposeful variations in aspects of personal behaviour.
Reference has already been made to how we can vary our behavior in order to maintain
the attention of the audience. Varying behavior can also focus the audience’s attention on
specific aspects of the presentation. Examples of how behavior can be varied to achieve
this end include the following:
• Verbal markers that highlight main stages in the presentation.
• Mnemonics can also provide a structure for a sub-part of the presentation and an
aide-mémoire that will assist with recall. For example ‘Cram’
• Non-verbal markers, such as pausing, pointing or changing one’s voice, can also be
effective.
2) providing information that indicates a basic direction or purpose.
This involves structuring the presentation so as to emphasise certain aspects of the
message. We can use carefully selected repetition at various points in the presentation.
This repetition can take a number of forms.

Summaries are another form of repetition. Introductory summaries may be used to alert
the audience to important points and the main thrust of the presentation, and terminal
summaries may be used to re-emphasise selected parts of the presentation.
Feedback
The effective presenter is alert to feedback. The non-verbal behaviour
of members of the audience can signal whether they are interested,
involved and whether they have understood or been convinced by what
they have heard. Useful signs of interest are eye contact, facial
expression and posture (are they ‘on the edge of their seats’ or
slumped in a corner and nearly asleep).
Answering questions
There will be occasions when we may want to encourage
questions in order to vary the pattern of the presentation,
maintain attention, promote a feeling of involvement and avoid
the audience feeling steamrollered.
Visual aid and demonstration
Visual aid serve three main purposes. They introduce variety , thereby
capturing audience’s attention and interest. Visual aids can be grouped into a
number of broad categories. The first is charts and blackboards . flip charts
have the advantage that sheets can be torn off and displayed around the
room and also be prepared in advance. The main disadvantage is flip chart
size. In a large hall, it may be difficult to see what is on the chart.
Slides, either overhead projector, conventional 35mm slides, can be projected
onto a screen of appropriate size. The main disadvantage with the overhead
projector is that we may misplace slides or display them the wrong way round
or upside down.
Demonstration can be very effective way of getting a message across.
Demonstration may not always work or may not be visible to all section of the
audience.
Some general Principles associated with the use of visual aids and
demonstration are concerned with the degree of congruence between the
spoken and visual message , visibility , complexity and variety.
Congruent with spoken message
Visual aid can be used as a substitute for words or to
complement what the presenter is saying. It can be difficult to
concentrate on what we are saying if this does not fit with the
message provided by the visual aid or demonstration. When
using slides that contain words we may need to pause so that the
audience has time to read what is on the screen. We use should
be the same words which are on the slide and use additional
word for providing an elaboration. It can be very distracting for
the audience if the presenter use different words.
Visibility
Care needs to be taken with sight lines. No body' s view should be
obscured. Models and displays should also be large enough to be
seen by everybody.
Complexity
Slides and charts need to be kept simple. Graphs , pie charts and
bie charts can be a much more effective way of getting the
message across than columns of figure that people , may find
difficult to read and assimilate. Where slides or pie charts contain
lettering the impact can be improved by using as few words as
possible.
Variety
Visual aid demonstration can introduce variety, but too much
variety can disrupt the smooth flow of a presentation. It can
become too much bumpy and jumpy if we switch from white , to
slide projector to flip chart. Too much variety may result in our
failing to take sufficient care over sight lines and talking to the
whiteboard or flip chart rather than to the audience. Thus while
variety has some advantage it can it can also lead to problems if it
is overdone.
Closure
Presentation have a beginning, a middle and an end. Closure is
the management of the end of the presentation. It involves
indicating to the audience that we have covered all the
appropriate material.
Developing presentation Skills
The final section of this chapter designed to facilitate the
development of presentation skills. It involves making a
presentation to a friendly audience of work who are prepared to
give you feedback on both your formal presentation and your
management of follow_up_questions and answer session. You
can use this feedback to help you identify what you need to
attend to if you are to improve your performance.