Week 3: Presentation Strategies

14 August 2007

SUMMARY OF LECTURE THREE

The first part of the lecture covered how a presentation should be structured. I found this particularly useful as each part (introduction, body and conclusion) was "dissected" and we were given some really good tips of what to include and how they should be structured eg. to include attention getters and a credibilty statement in the introduction, and connective devices that can be used to make a smooth transition from one point to the next.

The second part of the lecture covered the use of visual aids - that they should look professional and not too fussy, and how to prepare yourself to use them properly eg. always be prepared for things not to work and have a back-up. Some tips regarding the use of Microsoft PowerPoint were also discussed eg. avoid too many animations and avoid the use of sound unless it will enhance your message.


SUMMARY OF WORKSHOP THREE

I was able to tackle this week's workshop with more confidence than in previous weeks. The on-line PowerPoint tutorial was very useful and I also used "help"in PowerPoint. The "structuring your presentation" part of the lecture was helpful, too, in deciding what to include in each slide.


My PowerPoint presentation was about my children - my first slide (a beautiful photo) was a bit of an attention getter with a clear title stating the topic of the presentation. The second slide introduced the subjects giving little information about each, with a photo of each so the audience would want to learn more. The third and fourth slides were the main part of the body and showed more information of each of the subjects. The last slide provided the conclusion to the presentation as again it had a photograph of the subjects (a reminder to the audience of what they look like) and a statement of how I felt about the subjects.



Slide 1


Slide 2


Slide 3


Slide 4


Slide 5



SUMMARY OF "ORAL PRESENTATION ADVICE"

Top five strategies to deliver a top-notch presentation.


1. PREPARE what you are going to say and PREPARE professional visual aids to boost your message.

2. Keep the message SIMPLE - keep to a maximum of 3 key points in your message.

3.REPEAT these key points - tell the audience what you plan to deliver in the introduction, tell them in the main body and repeat the key points in the summary.

4. Understand the AUDIENCE and plan the presentation around what you perceive their interests are and be prepared to modify it slightly as you deliver.

5.PRACTISE the presentation with visual aids to get the timing right and discover any errors or problems with it.