Presentation Phobia (3): From Power Point Poison to Standing Ovation

In a previous article I presented the concept of the Three Ps of Presentations: Plan, Prepare, and Practice. In the planning stage, you must establish the circumstances around your presentation, determine your audience’s needs and interest, and organize your information. When you prepare, you need to organize your information into an order which is logical and meaningful to your audience.

In this article, I continue with the Prepare stage because establishing structure to your content is only part of preparation.

Make Speaking Notes

Don’t rely on just your Power Point slides. Often speakers fear that if they have note cards, the audience will think they are unprepared. In fact, it sends the opposite message. It shows the audience that you DID prepare and that you wanted to make sure you didn’t miss a point.

Prepare your speaking notes on cards no smaller than 3 in. X 5 in. Write in large, bold letters that you can see at a glance and, and use brief headings to develop the information in sufficient detail. Avoid using a full sheet of paper for your notes. If you are nervous, your hand may quiver and the paper will shake. You also may be tempted to include far too much information on it and end up reading from the paper.

The amount of information you include will depend on the subject, your familiarity with it, and your previous speaking experience. Your notes should not be so detailed that you cannot quickly pick out points, nor so skimpy that you have to rely too much on your memory.

Prepare Visual Aids

Visual aids help clarify and explain your concepts. They are especially important when discussing complex, technical information. Some people are visual learners and need to see the information as well as hear it. Examples of visual aids are PowerPoint slides, poster boards, physical props, equipment, and hand-drawn diagrams.

Here are some tips for creating effective visuals:

• Strive for simplicity: let each visual make just one point. The visual should support your spoken words; you should not have to explain it.
• Use a font that is visible from the back of the room. (This means you need to know where you are presenting.)
• Use upper and lower case letters; avoid all CAPS
• Use color to highlight key words or parts, but in moderation. Some colors, such as green and blue or red and orange are hard to tell apart from a distance.
• Place a short title above or below each slide.
• Give credit to the original source for diagrams, graphs, and images, just as in a written document.
• Select an appealing design that provides contrast between the background and text.
• Avoid dazzling transitions. They take the attention away from you and your content.
• Print copies of your slides to use as a prompt or to offer as a handout, but it shouldn’t be your only handout.

Practice working with your visuals and make sure you know exactly which slide comes next. This also helps you ensure that your speaking notes match up to your slides.

Prepare Handout Notes

During the preparation stage you need to decide whether to provide printed material for your audience. If so, you will also have to decide whether to make it copies of your Power Point slides or a summary report of the main topics. There is a trend today to only provide copies of slides. This is easy, but may not be effective. Although it may take longer, I encourage you to write a short document to distribute to your audience. This is a useful resource to remind them, in your words, of what your key points were. A bulleted list doesn’t suffice.

When is the best time to distribute your handouts? There are three approaches:

In my next article, I’ll discuss the third P, Practice. Here’s a fresh reminder of what NOT to do in presentations: www.spectrum.ieee.org/apr08/comedy

Email me at LisaM@rgilearning.com if you have questions or comments.

Lisa Moretto is a Sr. Consultant with RGI Learning. For 17 years she has helped engineers improve their oral and written communication skills. Further explore our website (www.rgilearning.com) or call (585) 461-3617 to learn about RGI’s courses.

© 2008 RGI Learning

back