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

exercises.

·  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.