7 Presentation Tips

Many students face a lot of problems when they deal with public speeches. They begin to worry about their pronunciation, appearance, etc. However, you should realize that presentations and public speeches are the most popular assignments at the university or college. Of course, there are some specialized courses in each university dealing with public presentations. However, few students visit these classes due to the lack of time and other student reasons. Therefore, our team of professional narrators, literary critics, and public speakers has collected all the latest tips and tricks on how to make your speech and presentation memorable and exciting. Read today to be the best one tomorrow!

Tips and Tricks on How to Make Your Exciting Speech and Presentation

1. Examine your topic

It does not matter whether your topic is difficult or easy, you should become the expert on it for the next ten or fifteen minutes. There are three basic tips you should remember. First of all, try to explore in-depth your issue before making any presentations. It will give you good background knowledge and the ability to estimate and verify all the information. Thus, it will help you to answer all the follow-up questions. Second, never start your presentation with some problematic and unclear statements. If you are good at this issue, it does not mean that your audience also knows something about it. Therefore, make the first slide as an introduction to your topic, where you will explain the context of the problem, its topicality, and your research question. Third, sometimes, students present all the information they have found since it seems that each fact is of the utmost importance. However, your task is not just to present all the information on a particular issue but to give your research question and your view on the problem using your background knowledge. Thus, it is so crucial to make a clear presentation structure: introduction, main body, and only after – conclusions.

2. Slides number

Sometimes, it is hard to be brief when you issue-topic is wide. Therefore, even many professors make their presentations too long. There is a golden rule: you need two minutes per each slide. The average slides number of the perfect presentation is 10-20. It means that your performance should last approximately 20-40 minutes and depend on your professor's requirements or topic peculiarities. Besides, mind your speed of speech. Please, ensure that you have enough time and the proper speed of speech to present all the necessary information. Follow this tip during the entire presentation.

3. Slides content

Forget about copy-pasting your speech on the slides. It is the biggest mistake when you start to read text from your slide or when your slides reiterate your speech. Use the rule of 5 bullet points. Each slide should include from 1 to 5 crucial points you want to tell. In this case, it will allow you to make short informative statements, avoid text-heavy slides, and attract your audience's attention to your speech. One more thing to remember: your PPT is just your supplement but not the central core of your presentation. Much more important is what and how you are telling. Therefore, it will be useful to make handy cards with your speech text. In this way, you may be calm and do not worry that you might forget something during your presentation.

4. Visualization

Depending on whether your presentation is academic or more public, there are various ways to make it more attractive. If you should make an educational presentation, it will be useful to use some infographics, diagrams, statistics, graphs, images, etc. So, we highly encourage you to use different sources and materials. It will allow you to make your presentation interesting, eye-catching, informative, and readable. If your task is to create a public presentation, you may use all the same things and even more. Usually, public speakers use some memes, short videos, animations, and even GIFs. It helps them to draw the attention of the listeners’ to the most significant items, as well as to make them laugh or relax. Thus, using different types of visual materials will help you to make your presentation unique and memorable.

5. Engage your audience

Many students strongly believe that they make their presentation just for their professor to pass the exam. They are completely wrong. The idea of public presentations is to practice your speech and to teach you how to interact with the audience. The audience is the “litmus paper” whether your presentation is successful or not. Therefore, you should remember these straightforward rules to interact with your audience better.

• Do not be too serious. Of course, your mood, emotions, appearance, and intonation depend on the chosen topic. You cannot be funny when you are talking about Genocide. If your topic does not allow you to make a couple of jokes, you may follow these ways. You may start your presentation with a rhetorical and controversial question or statement. You may begin with a statement of the authoritative person to highlight and underline your topic's magnitude and topicality. You may announce numbers and facts related to the topic. All these things will engage your audience in your presentation.
• Gestures and eye-contact. The best way to interact with your audience is to use your body. Facial expressions will allow you to express your emotions or your attitude to what is said. Hand gestures will allow you to visualize particular statements partially. Your posture, walking while talking shows your confidence or lack of it. So, for example, if you are in the corner of the room or if your hands are drawn up, it indicates that you are uncertain and closed. If you are free to walk around the room, gesture with your hands, change the intonation and speed of the speech, this indicates that you are sure and you are open to the audience.
• Do not give your audience to be bored. Remember that human cannot keep attention for more than 10 minutes. That is why each minute you should change something in your speech: speed, gestures, intonation, volume, etc. Also, you may ask questions, divide the audience into groups, run the voting, etc. You may do whatever you want, the only vital thing is not to allow your audience to be bored.

6. Appearance and dressing

Once, Coco Chanel has said: "You will not have a second chance to make a first impression." Your appearance and dressing play a crucial role in your presentation. Each detail - earrings, watch, shoes, trousers, hairdo, the color of your clothes, and presentation design - change the perception of you and your speech. However, remember that you should feel comfortable. Often, inexperienced speakers wear their best new suits and suffer from discomfort during their speech. Therefore, first of all, realize that you should feel comfortable both inside and outside. Furthermore, your clothes and appearance should suit the format of your presentation. For example, we highly recommend not dressing up your shorts on the official meetings. Try to prepare your clothes in advance and check whether it is suitable or not.

7. Practice makes perfect!

Even experienced speakers do practice before own presentations. Try to rehearse in front of the mirror or your relatives and friends. Pay attention to your speed of speech, intonation, gestures, sentence formulations, and time.

Follow all these tips and tricks and become an outstanding and memorable presentation speaker!