How you carry yourself when you are giving your presentation is just as important as all that work you put into researching for it. A presentation is two parts: information and show. After getting the information together, here's how you perfect the show:
• Speak loudly but do not yell.
• Speak slowly and clearly.
• Smile, maintain good posture, and make eye contact with audience.
• Be succinct: keep your presentation simple but make your words count.
• Be engaging. How can your audience be interested in your presentation if you aren’t?
• Vary your tone, don’t “read” your script; even if you are actually reading it, it doesn’t have to sound that way.
• If you mention a foreign word, put it on a slide – some people will not really understand a new word without seeing it too.
• Likewise, if you come across a word you are unfamiliar with, look up the pronunciation or ask a teacher for help.
Your slides cannot save your presentation if your script is underdeveloped. Slides ≠ your presentation. They are a separate entity, and you cannot depend solely on them to convey your information. On that note:
• DO NOT put your entire script in the slides.
• DO NOT read your slides as you present.
• Use slides for what they are: visual aids. Include pictures--use them to highlight ideas, words, or concepts.
• Don’t use fancy transitions and effects, they draw attention away from your presentation.
• Spell-check your slides, and have someone else look them over, too.
• Use standard fonts.
• If technical difficulties are irresolvable, be prepared to give your presentation sans slideshow.
Advice on how to set up your presentation:
• Don’t inject too much opinion into your presentation unless the project directs you to specifically do so. You are a reporter; be impartial.
• In conjunction with the above, do not seek to sensationalize simply to get attention. You must maintain credibility in the eyes of your audience.
• Prepare a conclusion for your presentation so that your audience knows it’s over, don’t just trail off or get to the last slide and say “that’s it.”
Though it may be tempting to skip the practice stage, don't give in! The more you practice your presentation, the more natural you will sound.
• If you have a verbal tic (“um,” “like,” “so, yeah,” “uh,” etc.) practice speaking slowly and rehearse your script.
• Try to pace your breathing in rehearsal so that you do not speed up, run out of breath, panic, and get flustered.
• Rehearse in front of real people. Enlighten your parents during dinner, call friends over for a movie night and surprise them with a presentation on Surrealism during the intermission, whatever it takes.
• Use observations from rehearsal to eliminate awkward phrasing, awkward pauses, and to mark your script exactly where you need to change slides.
• Make sure to time your rehearsals so that you will stay within/meet your time limit.
Remember, if you're in a class and have to give a presentation, it's likely your audience is made up of future or past presenters. Be a good audience for them!
• Do not heckle, comment, or raise your hand during the presentation. Questions should come at the end.
• Stay in your seat. The middle of someone else’s presentation is not the right time for a bathroom break.
• If you are late to class, wait in the doorway until the presenter is done, then enter.