Once you have spent time and energy preparing your presentation, you will most likely want to deliver it confidently and with conviction. An otherwise well-prepared presentation may fall apart if the delivery is not convincing.
Below is a list of useful tips on how to practice your performance and what to bear in mind when delivering your presentation.
To help your audience follow your presentation, engage in metacommunication – i.e. communicate about how you are communicating.
When starting your presentation |
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During your presentation |
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When ending your presentation |
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Your metacommunication is closely linked to your presentation outline and your wording of the material. Consequently, consider your metacommunication when you prepare your presentation.
An engaged audience is an audience that listens and remembers your words also after your presentation, because they found the presentation relevant and interesting. But how do you engage your audience in a presentation that is mainly one-way communication? Essentially, it’s about the audience feeling seen and heard, and having a sense that you’re speaking to them – not just in front of them. Consider the following approaches to engage your audience:
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:
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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. |
Your body signals are part of your presentation, and they affect how your audience perceive you and your words. So you should think about how you can signal credibility with your body language, and use your body to emphasise your points.
Practice by recording yourself to see how you use your body language, and whether it appears natural and supports your words.
When making a presentation, think about: | |
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. |
Your voice is your instrument when you make a presentation. Like any other instrument, you have to learn how to use it. When making a presentation, you often use your voice in a different way than when you talk to people in conversation.
Practice by recording yourself, so you can hear whether you speak clearly, articulately and not too fast.
When making a presentation, think about: | |
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. |
Pausing | Pauses are good for three reasons:
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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. |
Using visual tools can support your oral presentation. Make sure that your visual tools do not take over your presentation because they contain a lot of text or other content attracting the audience’s attention. Remember that you want your audience to listen to you rather than focusing on something else.
Feedback often focuses on academic content, but if you ask for feedback also on your communication and performance, this may help you to perform better next time.
After giving your presentation, you will often have an opportunity to ask for feedback from the class or your teacher. If you are not comfortable asking the entire class or your teacher for feedback, you might talk to your study group or study partner and agree to give each other feedback after making your presentations. If there is something in particular that you want feedback on, remember to ask for this in advance, for example:
What was the overall impression of the form of your presentation and oral communication?
Did some elements work particularly well, and why? For example: There was a good structure/clear and articulate speech/good use of the blackboard, because...
Could some elements be improved next time, and if so, how and why? For example: Speak more freely without reading from the manuscript, include less text on the slides or stop rubbing your hands because...
Be open. Receiving feedback requires that you are interested in improving, and that you are willing to change the way you do things.
