One of the most important skills required in today’s professional world is the ability to deliver effective presentations. This series of lessons looks at what it takes to plan, organise and deliver a successful presentation.

The first two lessons help you to plan and structure your presentation. Lessons 3 and 4 focus on delivery techniques and the final lesson looks at how positive body language and good use of visual aids can improve the quality and effectiveness of your presentation.
If you fail to plan – plan to fail.
Planning and preparation is vital to the success of a presentation. Whether you are presenting to a small group of colleagues or to a large audience at a major conference, you should be as well prepared as possible. Do not underestimate the importance of good planning.

Choose from the words in the box to complete the text on effective presentations below. Not all the words are used.
 

           practising       researching    prepare         performance          practice          planning       

plan    presenting      well-prepared      present           giving            deliver          preparation
 

A presentation is essentially a public [1.00]   performance  and like all successful performers a presenter needs to be very [1.01] _______________. In the highly competitive world of professional football, for example, coaches and their players spend a great deal of time [1.02] _______________ the opposition. In a similar way, presenters need to do some research into their audience. Knowing who you are dealing with allows you to anticipate problems and to [1.03] _______________ how to deal with those problems if they arise.

If we continue the comparison between [1.04] _______________ and sport, we might consider the expression [1.05] “ ­­­­­­_______________ makes perfect.”  In other words, you need to be prepared to work hard and try things again and again to make sure you perform/present well when you are expected to do so.

Sports stars cannot rely on natural ability alone. However, by [1.06] _______________ their skills and by planning effective strategies they can make the most of their natural ability. It is the same for people giving presentations. If you have to [1.07] _______________ a presentation you probably have a sound knowledge of your subject, but no matter how good a speaker you are and how many times you have delivered similar presentations, you will still need to prepare in order to make your presentation as effective as possible.
NB
practice (noun)
practise (verb)
UK English
practice (noun)
practice (verb)
USA English
 
This activity help you to focus on how to prepare your presentation. There are a number of ways to approach the planning stage: you could simply write a list of points you need to cover with brief notes on each point or you could write down any ideas that come to mind and try to put them into a logical sequence. An alternative method is to create a mind map.

Mind maps are very effective in helping you brainstorm ideas while at the same time organising those thoughts and showing how they relate to other ideas. Basically a mind map combines notes with a graphic layout which shows how different ideas related to the same topic are linked.

The mind map below shows a presenter’s ideas on how to plan and structure an effective presentation Complete the mind map from the ideas in the list.
 

give you feedback on      large audience          small audience          opening          closing          

 PowerPoint        handouts      summary      seating    flipchart      transparencies   

questions easy to read/see       questions            report on        give an overview of              look at
 

Create your own mind map. If you already have a presentation topic that you would like to plan for, then use that. If not, you could use one of the ideas below.
Yourself – a personal mind map to introduce yourself to an audience.
Your company – background, history, products, services etc
Your role in your company – describe how you fit in to the organisation
Tourism in your country – where to go, what to see and do
Your favourite football team – background, history, achievements etc
There are no right or wrong answers to this activity. You should decide what information is relevant, but your mind map should be designed to organise your ideas in a way that will help you structure your presentation.
The mind map in Activity 2 included a section on Purpose. Although it may seem obvious, it is essential that you know why you are delivering a presentation and what you hope to achieve from it. However, what is perhaps not so obvious is how to define the real purpose of your presentation.

Look at these situations and decide what the real purpose of the presentation is in each case.

4.00 As an engineer, you have been quite closely involved in designing a new product, which will probably be due for pre-production tests in about six months. The head of the design team comes into your office one morning and says:
“Marketing have asked us to do a presentation for them on the project, so I’ve set it up for next week. Would you mind doing the technical specifications, since that’s the area you’ve been working in?”
 

Purpose:
4.01 You teach presentation skills at the British Council. The Director of Studies comes in one morning and says:
“You’ve got someone from Siemens in your course, haven’t you? Well, his boss seems impressed by what we’re teaching him, so would you mind going out and talking to him?”
 

Purpose:
4.02 You have recently organised a successful international sports event. One of the organisers of similar event in your hometown would like you to share your experience and asks:
“Would you mind coming and talking to our organising committee?”
 

Purpose:
4.03 You work in the Human Resources Department of a company that is going to move to new premises. The General Manager calls you in one afternoon and says:
“Look, there are lots of rumours going around about the new factory. People are saying there’s no bus service, the canteen won’t be big enough, there won’t be any air conditioning, all sorts of things. Perhaps you could call a meeting and talk to them?”
 

Purpose:

Purpose and audience are inseparable. Your objectives must relate to the people you are presenting to. Therefore you must also consider the audience’s purpose in attending your presentation when defining your own objectives.

The more you know about your audience the better prepared you will be and the more likely you will be to reach your audience. Basically, to succeed you need to be able to convince the audience they are achieving their objectives while you also achieve your own objectives i.e. a win-win situation.

Reorder the words to make a list of questions you could ask yourself when researching your audience.

5.00

from   what   they   want  do   me  ?

 

What do they want from me?

5.01

do  organisation  what  know  they  my  and  about  me ?

 

 

5.02

is  size  audience  of  the  what  the ? 

 

 

5.03

are  who  people  in  the  key  the  audience ?

 

 

5.04

willing  how  they   to  ideas  accept  my?

 

 

5.05

they do technical have myself background the same as?

 

 
Can you add any more questions to this audience analysis checklist?

5.06

 

 
Key aspects of a good presentation
This activity looks at some of the key points you should be aware of when preparing a presentation.
 

appearance               knowledge          company’s reputation             insider or outsider tone    organisation             structure        easy to follow           suitability to the audience status             gestures        volume          acceptability of accent        vocabulary choice  aids used       body language         facial expression      eye contact               pronunciation            warmth       subject matter           use of jargon                     sincerity
 
e.g. Your credibility in the eyes of the audience may depend on whether you are an insider or an outsider i.e.
whether you work in the same field as the audience members. This may affect the way you deal with the topic of your presentation and with the audience. A certain level of knowledge will be expected by the audience. Using technical jargon might be acceptable if you and your audience both clearly understand the terms. However, you will lose your audience if you use unfamiliar technical language.

Credibility

Clarity

Voice

Visual

insider or outsider

knowledge

 

 

use of jargon

warmth

 

In this lesson you have:

looked at the importance of careful planning for a successful presentation
experimented with mind maps as a way of brainstorming and organising your ideas
focused on defining the purpose of your presentation in order to achieve your aims
considered the importance of your audience and how their expectations are linked to your aims

The next e-m@il lesson in this module focuses on putting the preparation into practice. You look at structuring your presentation in a way that helps you achieve your objectives. The lesson builds on the work you have done on planning, stating your purpose and identifying your audience.