Presentation techniques

Is your very first presentation in a university class coming up? With the following tips you will be able to give a captivating presentation! And if you need some inspiration for good speeches, you can check out the platform TED talk, where scientists and experts talk about interesting topics of politics, economy, science and social studies usually in an inspiring way.

Use the power of thoughts

The power of thoughts will support you in your presentation. In the days, or even weeks, before your presentation, try to visualize how you are going to succeed with it. Visualize standing in front of your fellow students in a confident way with a smile on your face. Visualize how you will react to any questions and visualize how you are going to feel after the presentation. These thoughts only take up five minutes of your time every day and are an effective means to being successful. You could take some time during a break to sit on your balcony and imagine your success clearly, or you could do that during a walk outside or wherever you prefer. But the important thing is that you do it repeatedly and, at best, every day.

Make a plan

Of course, positive thoughts are not enough. As soon as you know the time and place of your presentation, you should start making a plan in order to finish in time. You should write down all important dates for your presentation, such as meetings with your professor and plan enough time to research the topic, practice the speech and prepare your PowerPoint presentation and maybe also handouts for the audience. Another important thing is to leave some extra time at the end in case anything goes wrong and you need more time. You will need more time for the first few presentations in your academic career but with more practice this will go much faster and easier.

It’s the content that counts

The best thing is to offer a presentation that has a well-researched content. If you have studied and researched the topic of your speech intensively, you will be able to easily answer questions of your audience or your professor. But this means a lot of work! To avoid any possible confusion, go and talk to your professor in advance about what you will be discussing in your presentation.

In preparing your speech it is best to first get a structure, the guiding thread should be clear for the audience. Think about what the other students are meant to learn from your presentation – the so-called Take-Home-Message. The speech should be as concise as possible, depending on the previous knowledge of your class. However, this is only possible if you also understood the topic well enough yourself. Another suggestion is to rather use short and simple main sentences and to use more verbs than nouns. Yes, you are at university but that doesn’t necessarily mean that every sentence has to be super complicated and full of difficult terminology. This lessens the chance that your audience stops listening and doesn’t learn any new information through your presentation.

More important facts to sort out beforehand:

• What is my target group?
• How big is my audience?
• What previous knowledge does my audience have?
• How long can/should the presentation be? (maximum should be 45 minutes)
• Which materials/technologies are available?

Start with the presentation

To captivate your audience right from the start, it is a good idea to use an opening that gets their attention. These methods proved very successful:

• With a question: This is also a good idea to give your presentation a structure. That way you can answer the question at the end of the speech and finish the circle.
• With a provocation: If it is compatible with your topic, this is a great way to wake up your audience. This is a good idea when you are the fourth speaker and some members of the audience have lost interest by then.
• With a comparison: This is a very classic opening and helps the listener to think in images in order to better memorize the topic.
• With a story: This can be a personal story or one about a famous person, depending on what fits better in the context. Starting a presentation like that is a good way to captivate the audience. People have loved to listen to stories ever since they were children.

Practice, practice, practice

I strongly suggest practicing the full presentation several times before the actual date. Usually, you practice only separate parts first, before giving the speech as a whole. This is pretty much like back in school when you had to learn a poem by heart. The more you practice the lower are the chances for you to have problems giving the speech. You will know the order of the slides (if you are working with a PowerPoint presentation) and could even continue the presentation in case of any technical problems. A good idea would be to record your practice run and watch the video to check what you did and where you could improve. You will never get a better and more detailed feedback than through a video recording. But this also requires you to be a bit brave.

Technology/material

In university presentations are usually supported by a PowerPoint presentation but of course you can also work with flipcharts or the blackboard. However, this is only a good idea if you have a clear handwriting and even the people in the last row are able to read what you have written down.

If you are using the power point there are a few things to remember:

• Keep the sizes of the program. That means as little text as possible and as much text as needed on each slide.
• Use rather notes than full sentences.
• Try to follow the rule of 3 minutes per slide.
• The PowerPoint presentation should not be stealing the show.
• Most rooms at the university of Greifswald have all technology needed, so you will only have to bring you own flash drive. But you should definitely check that before. When in doubt: Better be safe and bring your own laptop as well (if you have one). If you are using your own laptop it is advised to use a presentation profile. Not everybody has to see everything you have on your desktop or your background images.

During the presentation

The big day has come. You dressed up and feel comfortable in your outfit. A bottle of water is prepared. Feel free to drink some water during the speech when your mouth is starting to feel dry, this also gives you a short break.

You might be a bit nervous. That is okay, take some deep breaths in and out and use that energy for a great speech.

Keep eye contact with the listeners, look around the room a few times and show the audience it is very important for you to get their full attention.

If you are self-confident enough you can use the whole room. Move around and don’t just stand in the front with your notes.

Take some breaks during your speech. Ideally, you even marked them in your notes for the presentation.

Also: It is not a bad thing to speak fast, as long as you still speak clearly.

Additional tip: Become a member of a debate club! You will not only learn to discuss logically but also to confidently speak in front of other people. Another idea to deal with stage fright would be to join Greifswald’s student theatre.