Presentation time !

This was an interesting lecture again. Though the majority of us don't really like to do presentations, we 'must' do one or two at the end of each semester. So this time we have a presentation due for LFS throughout the next two weeks for which this session was very important.

The basic structure of a formal presentation is,

• Introduction

A brief description of what the presentation is going to be about and even introduce your self to the audience so that the audience will be aware of what you are going to talk about.

• Body

This is where all the facts relating to the topic is going to be included. A further description about the topic will be written under different sub topics along with necessary examples.

• Conclusion

Finally you state the topic and summarize everything that you've spoken earlier for the listeners to make it easy to understand and recall what you had spoken throughout the presentation.

Delivery guidelines

• Speak clearly
• Maintain pace without rushing in to everything or going too slow
• Have a slight pause where ever needed but not unnecessarily
• Have pitch variations accordingly
• Face the audience without turning your back to them
• Maintain eye contact with the audience to make sure that they are on the same track as you are
• Speak loud enough so that the whole audience can hear you
• Maintain good posture, hand gestures and facial expressions to make it more interesting

Visual aids

• Use appropriate visual aids
• Limit the number of slides if it is a power point presentation
• Have the facts in point form in the slides without having paragraphs with a whole lot of information in them
• Use colors which are visible when it's shown through a projector (black, red, blue)
• Before the presentation begins check whether the relevant audio or video clips are working properly

Group presentations

• Allocate topics to each speaker to avoid two people talking at the same time
• Rehearse well together with all the team members and time the whole presentation
• Be aware of each other's parts just in case a group member fails to show up at the presentation

The following link includes further guidelines on how to do a good presentation:
http://www.rogerdarlington.me.uk/Presentation.html
http://go.owu.edu/~dapeople/ggpresnt.html