Engagement is contagious 

If you are energetic and enthusiastic, and if you show that you find the topic fascinating and are actually enjoying making the presentation, your enthusiasm will rub off on your audience. 

Conversely, if you seem disengaged in your own presentation, this will also rub off on your audience. 

Examples 

Examples make something abstract more tangible and easier to understand for your audience. A tangible example will activate the audience's imagination and may trigger emotions and senses. 

It is important to use examples that your audience can relate to - and that are relevant to your presentation. 

Anecdotes and stories 

Stories are the best way for humans to understand and remember. Therefore, anecdotes and stories are an efficient way to engage your audience. Like examples, stories activate our senses and emotions. 

Make sure that your anecdotes and stories are relevant to your topic and presentation. 

Stories can make your presentation more personal, and consequently, again, more engaging. 

Rhetorical questions 

Rhetorical questions are questions that you ask, and then either answer yourself or leave unanswered. They serve to ensure progress, and, not least, they make the audience “think along your lines” during your presentation. 

They are a good way to address the audience without requiring a response. Examples of rhetorical questions are: 

• "But is the method actually useful for solving this problem?" 

• “How can we understand this text?” 

• “But is he in fact wrong when he argues that...? “ 

Relate to the audience or the specific situation  

Relating points, examples or your topic directly to your audience or to the specific context of your presentation will make your presentation more personal and relevant. 

There are many different ways to do this, and even some tiny aside can have an effect. Perhaps a reference to the weather outside, a person or object in the room or the time of day. 

Relate to real-life situations or recent events 

You can relate points, examples or your topic to a real-life situation relevant for your audience, for example political or historical events. 

This will make your presentation more interesting for your audience. 

Eye contact 

Eye contact is important because it builds a relationship with your audience. Eye contact makes the audience feel that you're talking to them, not just in front of them. Consequently, eye contact affects your credibility. 

Try to keep your eyes moving over the audience rather than locking your eyes for too long on specific members of the audience. It may be easier to focus briefly on a person’s forehead or nose if you feel sensitive about looking them in the eye. 

Being natural 

Be yourself. Nothing is more untrustworthy than a speaker who is clearly trying to be someone else. It can seem unnatural, artificial or staged. By being yourself, you signal credibility and you are authentic, and this makes your audience listen more attentively. 

Positioning and movement 

Consider the best place to position yourself in relation to your audience, visual tools (blackboard, poster, PowerPoint, etc.), rostrum, etc. 

Make sure you have a good view of the room, and that the majority of the audience can see you, but make sure you don’t block the screen if you are showing PowerPoint slides or similar. 

Consider whether you want to and can move around during your presentation. Moving to another place in the room can grab and shift the attention of your audience. In this way, you can use movement to emphasise a new angle or a new point, or you can show that you are reaching the end of your presentation. 

Gestures 

Some people make lots of gestures, while others only make very few. The main thing is that your gestures do not distract or seem unnatural. 

Think about using gestures that match the situation and underline your points. 

Eye contact 

Eye contact is important because it builds a relationship with your audience. Eye contact makes the audience feel that you are talking to them, not just in front of them. Consequently, eye contact affects your credibility. 

So it is important that you look up from your notes or manuscript and that you avoid turning your back on the audience. 

Try to keep your eyes moving over the audience rather than locking your eyes for too long on specific members of the audience. It may be easier to focus briefly on a person’s forehead or nose if you feel sensitive about looking them in the eye. 

Volume 

Adjust the volume of your voice to the room and the number of people in the audience. 

It is important that your audience can hear you without making an effort as this could move focus away from your message. 

In order to increase the volume of your voice without straining it, it is important that you breathe from down in your stomach and not your chest. Using your abdominal muscles when speaking will generate more sound. 

However, be careful not to shout, as this is exhausting for you as well as your audience. 

Speed 

Avoid speaking too fast. Even when you feel you are talking slowly, you should most likely talk even slower. 

If you speak too fast, your breathing will become superficial and hectic. This will make your speech seem stressed and your words will run together, making it hard for the audience to understand what you are saying 

Slow speech is easier to understand and gives you time to breathe and use your abdominals, and this improves your sound and volume. 

If you have to speak too rapidly to get through all the points you want to make in the time allowed, consider restructuring and shortening your manuscript when preparing your presentation. 

Articulation 

Articulate your words so that your audience can easily hear and understand them. If you talk slowly, it will also be easier to articulate more clearly. 

If you mumble, your audience may focus on understanding individual words, rather than focusing on your overall message. However, be careful not to over-articulate, as this may seem forced and unnatural. 

Use words that are easy to pronounce, and make sure that your manuscript uses spoken language. If you have to use difficult specialist terms, then practise them before the presentation. 

Read more about wording. 

Pausing 

Pauses are good for three reasons: 

1. They allow you to breathe deeply. 
2. They give your audience a chance to let your words sink in. This means you can use pauses to underline a point. For example, if what you are saying is difficult, controversial or abstract, a pause will allow the audience a moment to understand what you actually said before you move on. It only takes a few seconds, so don't be afraid of the silence. 
3. They allow you to slow down your speed of talking, thereby making it easier to understand what you are saying. 

Stress individual words 

Stressing selected words that are particularly important will draw the audience’s attention to these words. This can enhance their understanding of the key message of your presentation, or it can help them remember the most important words afterwards. 

Stress a word by raising your volume when pronouncing it, articulating it more clearly or saying it more slowly than the rest of the sentence. 

• PowerPoint, Prezi or similar 
• Blackboard or whiteboard 
• Handouts, e.g. with an outline of the presentation or a graph 
• Images or illustrations