SESSION TEN

PRESENTATION SKILLS

Lecture Outline

10.1. Introduction

10.2. Learning Outcomes

10.3. Types of presentation

10.4. Categories of Presentation

10.5. Preparation

10.6. The Audience

10.7. Structure

10.8. Timing

10.9. Delivery

10.10. Form of Language

10.11. Visual Aids

10.12. Tips for Power Point Presentation

10.13. Verbal

10.14 Non Verbal

10.15 Feedback

10.16. Summary

10.17. Review Activity

10.1. Introduction
Well-developed presentation skills enable you to communicate clearly, precisely and

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effectively in a variety ofmodes or registers and settings. Oral presentation skills rank
among the most important soft skills. The ability to communicate with the audience
and giving effective presentations is an important prerequisite for effective learning
processes and successful workplace relationships. Thus, the need to build and enhance
your presentation skills cannot be overemphasized; for learners who wish to become
competent, confident and competitive communicators.

In this session/lecture, we first introduce the basic premises of delivering a

presentation. To achieve this, we shall examine in detail it's preparation, structure,
timing, form of delivery and language, equipment and facilities, visual aids and
material for distribution. We shall also cover other aspects including verbal (voice,
intonation, appropriate language) and non-verbal communication (eye contact, body
language, hand gestures) communication, the importance of audience interaction,
responding to questions, handling your nerves during a presentation. We conclude by
focusing on rehearsal activities and different forms of feedback that will enhance your
presentation skills.

10.2. Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lecture the learner should be able to;
1. Communicate clearly, effectively and confidently with a range
of audiences in arange of different contexts;
2. Research, design and deliver his/her research with confidence;
3. Use different support electronic and other visuals to deliver
effective oral presentations;
4. Apply effective verbal and non-verbal skills in the delivery of
presentations;
5. Interact with confidence with audiences and in total control of
your nerves;
6. Demonstrate an ability to think critically and reflectively when
dealing with feedback on your presentation skills.

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10.3. Types of Presentation

We can identify three types of presentations:

a) Information-giving
This is predominantly descriptive, giving or summarizing information. You may
be asked to do this as part of a mini-teaching session, sharing theoretical or factual
information. Here the point is to see what you have understood and how you have
extracted the main facts from your reading and to relay these to the group. You
will need to make decisions about what information to include.

b) Discursive
Here you will need to debate the strengths and limitations of an approach or
develop an argument, exploring and weighing up different perspectives,
challenging your audience to accept a different viewpoint. For this, you will need
to decide your ‘angle’ – are you for or against it, weight pro and cons? Pull your
audience in, challenge and confidently debate.

c) Demonstrative
This type of presentation tends to be used in the context of training: for example,
when demonstrating your ability to illustrate your understanding of a technique
or teaching a practical skill to others. (Craig, C., 2009).

10.4. Categories of Presentations

Presentations are key activities and might include:

▪ Group and individual presentations for a given topic as part of a module assessment.
▪ Seminar presentations giving a paper to an academic or your peers for teaching or
showing evidence of your understanding of the topic.
▪ Providing an overview of some research carried out by you or your group.

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 ▪ Demonstrating the use of a piece of equipment or software such as PowerPoint to
show that you have developed the essential skills to use it appropriately.
▪ Dissertation-related presentations and Vivas to demonstrate your ability to manage a
research project.
▪ Job interviews that ask you to where you have been asked to present for several
minutes on a given topic. (Chivers B., Shoolbred M., 2007).

In-text Question 1.

Name 3 types of presentation that you know

10.5. Preparation

How information or ideas are delivered strongly affects how they are understood by
the audience. Even tiny inaccuracies in a presentation can make it hard to follow.
Thus, for communication to take place effectively presented information has to be
received as intended by the speaker – and not misinterpreted. The crucial element of
any presentation is the information that you have to deliver and the audience that has
to receive it. Poorly prepared presentations are those which include just a bit of
everything. Thus, before you start working on the presentation, answer the following
questions:

i. Who is your audience?

ii. What is the main aim of the presentation and what message you want to deliver to the
audience in the time limit set?
iii. What is the current knowledge level of the audience and what new knowledge or
awareness do you want the audience to have gained from your presentation?
iv. What is the most effective way to communicate this knowledge?

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You should remember that planning a presentation can be even more demanding than
working on a written assignment. The main challenge is to try to fit all gathered
information that you usually consider relevant into the time that is allocated.

10.6 Your Audience

You should be clear on the aim of your presentation, identify the personality types in
your audience and adjust your presentation accordingly. You must be clear on the aim
of your presentation at the outset so that you can stay focused when preparing it.
Think of your aim as the final destination, and your presentation as the journey. Your
objective is to ensure that the presentation delivers you, and your audience, to the
correct and clearly defined destination. It is only if you are clear about your aim that
you will carry conviction in your forthcoming presentation.

Once you have decided on your aim and written this down you can begin to consider
the content of your presentation. However, before you can plan the content in detail
you will need to know how to analyze the audience that you will be presenting to - to
help you to translate the message appropriately. There are three questions that you
need to ask concerning the characteristics and composition of the audience;

i. What personality types are likely to be in your audience?

ii. How can we recognize them in advance?
iii. What happens if you are presenting to a mixed audience?

Analysis of audience characteristics can be undertaken based on a simple but effective

model that classifies people as being one of four types. Each candidate should be
classified as one of the four personality types shown:

a) Emotive people are people-oriented and they tend to be; sociable, animated,
spontaneous, unstructured and welcome change. They prefer the broad picture but
can’t be bothered with the details. Emotive people often have a short attention span,
so keep the presentation short and focused and keep it at the overview level, avoiding
discussion of any details.
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b) Directive people: They are high in dominance but low in sociability. They tend to be;
aggressive, intense, pushy, determined and opinionated. Their goal-driven nature can
be misinterpreted as unfriendly, especially if they encounter resistance to their aims at
work. When presenting to these people stick to the facts, cover each point clinically
and proceed to the next.

c) Reflective people: They are low in both dominance and sociability. They tend to be;
precise, questioning, aloof, serious, scientific and stuffy. They often occupy product-
related jobs - such as scientists and engineers, and they pay attention to detail. When
presenting to these people supply lots of detail and have plenty of support information
at hand to address the detailed questions that are likely to be raised.

d) Supportive people are high in sociability and low in dominance. Their traits make
them easy to recognize, being; loyal, steady, solid and reliable good workers. The
majority of people are from this group, but you should bear in mind that they tend to
fear change and will worry if given cause. You should therefore avoid risking being
seen as uncaring or aggressive and should take time to pre-empt any contentious
issues.

10.6.1. Audience Analysis

Further, you may need to conduct an audience analysis: As well as understanding

the personality types that you will be presenting to there are some other key
questions that you should ask about your audience. •

i. How many people will attend?

ii. Why are they attending?
iii. What do they want from the presentation?
iv. How are they likely to react to the presentation?
v. What level of knowledge do they have already?

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Each of these questions should provide you with information that should help you to
fine-tune the content of your presentation as well as making you better prepared when
you come to deliver it.

Take Note

An understanding of your audience’s existing knowledge will

enable you to adjust the level at which you pitch your presentation.
Remember the more you know about your audience the more you
will be able to translate your presentation for them, hence, the
clearer your message will be.

10.6.2. Encoding and Translating

The majority of people communicate in a fundamentally flawed way - in that they

adopt the egocentric communication model. This involves the presenter deciding
what they want to say and how they want to say it, with little or no regard for the
characteristics or needs of their audience. This model is termed egocentric because of
the significance that the presenter attaches to his or her role in the communication
process. The presenter is essentially adopting the following attitude: “I have decided
what to say and the way I’m going to say it. I will then say it and assume that the audience
agrees, more or less, with my interpretation”. This process, of packaging a message, is
called encoding and it determines which human senses (hearing, vision, touch etc.)
will be used to transmit the message.

The next step is translating to minimize the chance of your message being
misinterpreted. Translating involves you encoding the message as before, but then
translating the message, to take into account a variety of issues from the audience’s
point of view. By translating the encoded message for its intended audience, the
chance of misinterpretation is greatly reduced. When done properly the result of this
translation step is to frame the message in terms that are better suited to the audience
- in other words, a far more relevant and focused message for the audience to decode.

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10.7. Structure

Whether the audience can understand what you are trying to communicate will be
determined by how you structure your presentation. You should develop a clear
structure that will help to map out and guide you in your preparations and your final
delivery. The best approach is to decide your ‘bottom line’ – the key message that you
want your audience to take away – and then work backwards from this so that
everything you include leads to this conclusion. (Craig, C., 2009). As a very general
principle, the rule of three is offered.

1. Tell them what you are going to tell them.

2. Tell them.
3. Tell them what you have told them.

You need to think about how to build your presentation by dividing the material into
sections where each section deals with one important point. Structure your ideas so
that you move seamlessly from one point to another. The structure of your
presentation will depend on the topic that you are dealing with, but in general, there
should include:

▪ An introduction, outlining the aim of your presentation and the areas your talk will
focus on
▪ The main body, containing the substance of your talk and developing the ideas
outlined in the introduction
▪ A conclusion, drawing together the main points and containing the ‘take-home
message’ for the audience.

10.7.1. Introduction

It is of key importance to get a good beginning. Apart from introducing yourself and
the subject of your presentation, you should plan carefully about what point of entry
will stimulate your audience and at the same time, form a springboard into the main
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topics of your delivery. When thinking about your openings, keep your audience and
their ‘needs’ very firmly in mind. A good beginning can make the presentation; a poor,
inappropriate one can seriously undermine it. Many people tend to fail to have a
proper introduction that contextualizes the topic.

10.7.2. Main Presentation

This will be influenced by the general context and aim of your presentation and the
expected audience. You may need to decide between a big picture approach and one
that selects a smaller area with more detail. As you develop your knowledge of the
topic, you will feel more confident about what to include and what to exclude. Identify
the key messages. Three or four main points are normally sufficient for a presentation
of up to a half-hour. For a longer presentation, do not exceed seven main points to
avoid overloading your audience. Remember, less is almost always more. You should
also decide what is best covered through speech, text, images and what could be given
in a handout rather than used as presentation content. Remember to support your key
ideas by choosing clarifying examples.

10.7.3. Conclusion

Because of the relief of having made it through, otherwise, excellent presentations

often suffer from an uninspiring, hurried ending. Do not let the pace and energy of
your presentation drop at the end. This is the ‘tell them what you have said’ section.
You need to summarize your points, again using visual aids to reinforce them if
possible. Always leave your audience with something memorable, say a powerful
visual or a convincing conclusion, with a key idea, a central theme to take away and
want to reflect on later. It is also good practice to thank the audience for their patience
and to invite questions or discussion.

10.8. Timing

In most presentations, it is usually better to deliver less content at a reasonable pace,

than too much content at a faster pace that may leave the audience feeling

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overwhelmed and confused. You should fit the topic into the allotted time and plan
time for breaks, asides, questions. This means you should think clearly about what to
include and exclude from the final version of your presentation.

10.9 Delivery (Full Script versus Notes)

Inexperienced presenters attempt to write down the whole speech, even including
‘Good morning ladies and gentlemen. They prepare a closely drafted text, each line
filled, with very little space left. Experienced presenters have their style of notes, but
never fill the page with text. You can organize your speech notes in many ways and it
is very much a personal preference. When it comes to the actual presentation you need
to decide whether you will read from what amounts to a script, or whether, based on
your notes, you will speak without reading directly. Certainly, when a presentation is
delivered in one of these two ways there is a noticeable difference, and in most cases,
the reading of a script comes across definitely less well. It depends to a certain extent
on the way that you have written the script. If it is written in a formal academic tone,
then it will sound over formal. If you can write it in a more conversational style, then
you will have a better chance of making it sound natural.

10.10. Form of Language

It is important to recognize and respond to the difference between formal written

language and spoken language. When giving a presentation it is not obligatory to use
complicated language constructions, to use long words, or to speak in nested and
convoluted sentences. Explain or offer a simple definition, of technical terms as they
arise for the first time, particularly if you are dealing with an area of your subject that
is new to the audience. Use correct language and proofread (words used
appropriately; correct spelling and punctuation). It is essential to check your work for
errors. Also, follow general principles: avoid gender stereotyping; avoid racist and
racism stereotyping; avoid being aggressive, swearing or obscenities; use the language
that can include everybody.
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10.10.1 Environment (Equipment, Facilities)

You may have to find out when your presentation will take place. The danger spots
are immediately before or after lunch and last thing in the afternoon when your
audience may be distracted by thoughts of dinner or the journey home. During these
times, the more interactive your presentation can be, the greater the chance your
audience will be attentive and engaged. Another important aspect of planning
concerns the location of your presentation. This can have significant implications for
how you plan your content and organize yourself. Check the room where you will
present before the actual presentation. If you have access to the venue, it might help
to pay an early visit. If this is possible, listen to other presenters in the same room. The
aspects you might want to check include:

i. type and size of the room

ii. seating arrangements – fixed or movable
iii. lighting – artificial or natural?
iv. acoustics
v. equipment available, e.g. whiteboard, projector, OHP, flip chart, tape recorder
vi. location of power points
vii. position of speaker (you)
viii. facilities for special needs

10.11. Visual Aids / Material for Distribution

If you use more pictures and diagrams than text, you will possibly help the audience
to understand better what you are saying. This is because after three days an audience
will have retained 7% of what they read (bullet points, or other notes on the screen),
but 55% of what they saw pictorially (charts, pictures, diagrams). You should be aware
that visual aids are complementary to the presentation and you should not focus too
narrowly on visual aids because you will lose the key point of the presentation.

Visual aids can:

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 i. Help audiences understand the presentation itself. For example, writing up the agenda
of the talk on the board or as a handout will help an audience follow the structure of
the presentation itself. (clarify the meaning);
ii. Emphasise different parts of the presentation. Here you might underscore a keyword
or point by capturing it on a PowerPoint slide, by giving a supporting quote or
reference or by producing an illustrative image or object. (visual aids reinforce what
you say);
iii. Take the pressure off the speaker. For a brief while all eyes are on something else for
a moment. This is a good thing. (people tend to look at the visual aid rather at you, it
helps when you are nervous),

When you think about what makes presentations effective, it will be convenient to
consider how you can use images to communicate more effectively. It will be
useful to remember these general principles:

i. Use images to improve understanding. Sometimes, it is easier to use a picture instead of

words to improve audience understanding. When you show a picture, you can ask
them a question or suggest they think about the image in a certain way. You can then
remain silent while they think about the image or the task you have set them. Images
can also be used to direct audience attention away from you and onto the image on
the screen. This may help to steady your nerves as it gives you a few seconds to
perhaps take some deep breaths or check your notes.
ii. Use images to save time. If there is only a short amount of time you could include images
as a quick way to cover some of the content. You have probably heard of the phrase, a
picture paints a thousand words and this is very relevant to a student presentation.
iii. Use images for interest. Images use the visual sense whereas sound and speech use the
auditory sense. Providing content in a variety of formats means that the audience has
to use a range of senses. This keeps them active in the process of receiving the
presentation. We all have preferences and using a variety of communication
approaches ensures a wider appeal to different members of the audience.

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 iv. Use images for impact. Images are more relevant for some topics than others but even if
only a few can be included, they can be useful to create pauses and breaks in the
delivery, generate discussion themes or make a lasting impression.

10.12. Tips for PowerPoint presentations:

i. Avoid clutter slides at all costs

ii. Select a clear font such as Arial or Helvetica.
iii. Use bold rather than underline and avoid italics;
iv. A dark background (deep blue or black) and light coloured text (white or yellow) for
contrast will make your words stand out (Use of colour that detracts from the main
content of the slide, or that makes reading the text difficult.)
v. Use a font size of 20 or over: use a 36 point for titles and a 28 point for body text
vi. Spelling and /or grammar mistakes
vii. Use pictures and icons and beware of the special effects, e.g. spinning words or sound
effects
viii. Keep the presentation consistent, e.g. background and style. Do not suddenly switch
fonts halfway through. You may not notice but your audience will
ix. Less than 30 words per slide, 5–6 words for headings a maximum of five bullet points
per slide
x. Keep the number of slides down to one per minute or even once per 40 seconds

10.13. Verbal (Voice, Intonation, Appropriate Language)

You should remember that your voice is an incredible tool. On average 7% of what
the audience understand comes from the words that are used within the verbal
interactions, compared with 38% of information resulting in the tone of voice and 55%
is dependent on non-verbal cues. Use this to your advantage. Presentations are greatly
enhanced by varying the tone of voice to emphasize aspects of the content. Make sure
you project your voice to the back of the room. Try to vary the tone of your voice and
the speed or pace of delivery to emphasize different parts of what you say. Use silence
to your advantage. A short pause can emphasize a point you are making.
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10.14. Non-Verbal (Eye-Contact, Body Language, Hand Gestures)

a) Eye contact. Eyes are one of your best tools for involving the audience in what you are
saying. Good posture, movement and gestures will be of little use if you fail to support
them with appropriate eye contact. Great presenters understand that eye contact is
critical to building trust, credibility, and rapport. It is advisable to maintain eye contact
with your audience at least 90% of the time. Yes, you will have to glance at your notes
or slides from time to time, but only as a reminder of where to go next. You are
speaking for the benefit of your audience. Speak to them, not the slides.
b) Body language. You will also need to think about how you communicate using body
language. Body language can distract people from what you are saying, or even irritate
them. Hold your hands behind your back or hold a sheet of paper so you can’t fiddle.
Body language can encourage people to listen to what you are saying. Engage your
audience by smiling; leaning towards them; standing up to do a presentation (it gives
your authorities and helps project your voice); moving naturally (standing still is
distracting).
c) Hand gestures and facial expressions can be used to your advantage to emphasise
particular points. However, treat these with caution because inappropriate gestures
can also interfere with your presentation and detract from what you say. The way that
you stand will have a huge impact on the way that you breathe. The way that you
breathe will have a huge impact on how you sound. Think about whether you will be
sitting or standing during the presentation and which will be most appropriate for the
event. Avoid standing frozen like a statue, try not to pace about like a caged animal,
but aim to move naturally and appropriately.
d) Gestures. Using your hands can help in the same way that whole-body movements
can: to relax, stimulate and illustrate. If you find it hard to use your hands naturally,
then the best policy is to hold them by your sides. Try not to:
i. clasp hands behind the back. This looks much too formal.
ii. fold them in front. This is usually interpreted as a very defensive posture.
iii. keep them stuck in your pockets throughout the presentation. This can look
either casual or nervous.

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 iv. scratch, poke or stroke yourself. As you have probably observed, this is quite
a common nervous reaction amongst stressed presenters.
v. wring your hands together. This can look dishonest or slightly peculiar.
vi. fiddle with keys, pens, pencils, coins, lucky charms, worry beads, etc. You will
just look nervous.

10.15. Feedback

Presentation skills require much feedback and the preparation for the next
presentation should be based on feedback from the last. You should remember that
for communication to take place, information has to flow in two directions – that is,
the ‘receiver’ picks up the message from the ‘sender’ and confirms receipt by giving
some form of recognizable feedback – even if it is no more than a gesture (a grunt
seldom qualifies as good feedback). Without real feedback, you cannot be certain that
communication has taken place.

10.15.1. Forms of Evaluation

There are many different kinds of evaluation for your feedback during and after your
presentation. These can include:

a) Formal evaluation – Completed marking criteria sheets and any other written/verbal
feedback from tutors, lecturers, and/or peers (other students). Request additional
feedback or clarification if necessary (from tutors, lecturers, other students and
audience members). Incorporate appropriate suggestions next time you present
b) Informal evaluation – People’s body language; Comments made during or after the
presentation; Interaction between yourself and audience members, and the kinds of
questions that are asked.
c) Self-evaluation – Think about your presentation. What worked? What did not work?
Try and do some self-reflection and analysis after you have given your presentation.
Have a look at those notes you made for that presentation and, while the memories
are fresh, write down a few thoughts as to what, if anything, might have been done
differently, what extra visual aids might have been used, what examples could have

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been introduced. Make a note of also what went well and what can be reinforced if
you were to give the presentation again. Think back to the questions that were asked,
what did they indicate about the contents, the pitch, and the style?

10.16. Summary
Three types of presentation might be identified:

Information-giving. This is predominantly descriptive, giving or

summarizing information. You may be asked to do this as part of a
mini-teaching session, sharing theoretical or factual information.
Here the point is to see what you have understood and how you
have extracted the main facts from your reading and to relay these
to the group. You will need to make decisions about what
information to include.

Discursive. Here you will need to debate the strengths and

limitations of an approach or develop an argument, exploring and
weighing up different perspectives, challenging your audience to
accept a different viewpoint. For this, you will need to decide your
‘angle’ – are you for or against it, weight pro and cons? Pull your
audience in, challenge and confidently debate.

Demonstrative. This type of presentation tends to be used in the

context of training: for example, when demonstrating your ability
to illustrate your understanding of a technique or teaching a
practical skill to others.

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 Presentations are key activities and might include:

• Group and individual presentations for a given topic as part

of a module assessment.

• Seminar presentations giving a paper to an academic or your

peers for teaching or showing evidence of your
understanding of the topic.

• Providing an overview of some research carried out by you

or your group.

• Demonstrating the use of a piece of equipment or software

such as PowerPoint to show that you have developed the
essential skills to use it appropriately.

• Dissertation-related presentations and Vivas to demonstrate

your ability to manage a research project.

• A job interview where you have been asked to present for

several minutes on a given topic

Usually, the majority feel nervous when presenting something. It is

mainly because in a live presentation there is no second chance.
Plus, you should be aware that how information or ideas are
delivered strongly affects how they are understood by the audience.
Even tiny inaccuracies in the presentation can make it hard to
follow. Thus, for communication to take place effectively presented
information has to be received as intended by the speaker – and not
misinterpreted.

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 10.17. Review Activity
i. Explain your presentation to a friend
ii. Practice timing during a presentation

10.18 References and Further Reading

1. Bradbury, A., (2010) Successful presentation skills (4th ed.), Kogan
Page.
2. Cottrell, S.. (2008) The study skills handbook (3rd ed.), Palgrave
Macmillan.
3. Van Emden, J., Becker, L., (2010) Presentation skills for students (2nd
ed), Palgrave Macmillan.

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