Creating effective presentations

Creating effective presentations

Presentation purpose and objectives

Determining the purpose and objectives of your presentation will
help you to focus on the kind of presentation you want to
develop.
What are the objectives of your presentation?
·  Why are you giving this presentation?
·  What do you want to accomplish?
·  What does the audience expect?
·  What do you what the audience to understand?
·  What do you want the audience to remember?

Types of presentations

The type of presentation that you develop is based on the content
of your material, the target audience, and your objectives. Different
types of presentations can include training or teaching a skill or
topic and sharing information.
Training or teaching a skill or topic
This form of presentation is designed to train or teach a new
ability, skill and or trade.

Presentation strategy

·  Introduce the skill or topic you will be teaching/training.
·  Establish the importance of what will be taught.
·  Explain the skill or topic through examples, elaboration, and/or
·  Conclude or review the information presented.
·  Suggest ways that your audience can obtain further information
to learn more.

Sharing information

This type of presentation is used to narrow an information gap
between you and your audience.

Presentation strategy

·  Introduce the information you are going to share with your
audience.
·  Explain how it relates to other information.
·  Establish why it is important to share this information.
·  Suggest where this information could possibly lead.

Presentation issues

No matter what strategy you use, there are some issues you should
address to make sure you are supplying your audience with the
information they need.
·  If there are certain aspects of your topic you will not cover, but
could be viewed by your audience as important, you might
want to address these things briefly and explain why you are
not covering them.
·  Determine if you will have to establish the history of your topic
in order to clarify things for your audience.
·  Decide if you will need to establish how the information you
are presenting will benefit your audience.
·  If there is an order to what you are discussing, make sure you
establish that in the beginning; it will make everything clearer
for your audience.
·  Always make sure you have proof to support what you are
talking about. This will establish your credibility as a speaker.

The audience

Knowing your audience is critical when designing your
presentation.
·  How much does the audience already know about your topic? This will determine
how much information you will have to give the audience at the beginning of your
presentation.

·  Is your audience willing to accept new ideas?
·  To how many people will you be speaking? With a small group it might be possible to
have a more thorough analysis of your topic. However, a large group often requires a presentation to be more general.

Remember the basic objectives of your presentation must meet the
needs and objectives of your audience.

Speech/Presentation development

·  Do not assume the audience knows what you mean; always
define words or phrases for purpose of clarity. How detailed
your definitions are will depend on your audience.
·  Consider limitations imposed by time. Many subjects cannot be
explained or fully developed in the available speaking time.
Under these conditions speeches/presentations must be
narrowed and focused.
·  Pay attention to the amount of time allotted to each portion of
the speech in order to ensure that more weight is given to the
more important aspects of your presentation.
Studying other presentations can give you ideas for your own.

Speech/Presentation writing

It is important to say more about less by focusing a speech instead
of trying to cover too much. Covering too much will make a
speech too sketchy to be effective. It is better to focus your
presentation on certain aspects of your topic. Your objective is to
organize your ideas and materials into a cohesive presentation,
which will make a positive impression on your audience.

Speech writing strategy

·  Develop an outline. Outlining your speech will give you a
better idea on coordinating a series of points, which have
elements in common. Each section of your outline should have
only one idea or statement.
·  Sequence your presentation outline. This will help give you a
structure on which to build.
Review the main ideas to make sure you are in line with the
objectives and purpose of your presentation.
Do not give an audience too much information, which will rresult in
them remembering less.
A speech is generally composed of 3 parts:
·  Introduction
·  Body or main part
·  Conclusion.
The purpose of an introduction is to:
·  Introduce yourself (why are you qualified to speak on this
subject and who you are)
·  Inform your audience what your speech/presentation is about
·  Gain the audience's attention
·  And give the audience some background information on your
subject.

Make the organization of your speech clear to your audience from
the beginning by providing an overview of the presentation format.
This format can entail presenting the main points you will be
discussing via an outline. A presentation outline will keep things in
order, put things in a time frame, and help the audience to recall
information.

Body or main part
The body of your speech is the elaboration of the main topic areas
presented in your introduction.
Conclusion
The conclusion refers back to the introduction and is your
opportunity to review what you have told your audience.
·  Wrap up the main points you have presented.
·  Answer any questions your audience may have.