10 Tips for an Effective Presentation

In some point of your professional life, you probably will have to make a presentation, which you would want to be effective. This post contains information about how to prepare you for a presentation and make the presentation effective.

As a business student, I am making a lot of presentations lately. At first I faced some problems- which were common but not forgiving. Some lucky people can make presentations without any effort, they are naturally gifted speakers. But most of us have to practice and prepare preparations before moving to the actual thing. When it comes to presentations you will have to keep in mind the following things:

K.I.S.S.

To make a good presentation you will have to KISS (Keep It Short & Simple). Keeping short and simple is the best way to retain audience’s attention and deliver the massage.

Keep it short and simple.

Do Your Homework

This is very important. Gather all the necessary information required for the presentation. You should also gather information which is related to the topic, but which you are not going to present in the actual presentation. This helps to have a better understanding of what you are going to talk about. But most importantly, it helps you to prepare yourself for the upcoming “question & answer” session.

Speak about something which you have earned the right to talk about through experience or study.

Don’t be Shallow

Your speech should be short, but it must have adequate information. Remember that, presentations are to inform others or persuade others. You will not be able to do that if your presentations can not exceed the audience’s knowledge.

Reduce, Reduce & Reduce

After you collect the data and categorize it, it is normal to be a little broader than you would want it to be. Read out the script and cut out the unnecessary parts. Keep it to-the-point.

Know Your Audience

Before preparing the script you should try to know your audience. You should know who you will be talking to. You will have to modify your speech according to your audience. For example, if you are going to talk about some medical issues to some business students, you will have to make it really simple, as your audience doesn’t know anything about it.

Make Notes

After you have gathered data, drafted and revised it, you will have to make notes of the presentation. Notes will help you to remember the key terms of the presentation so that you don’t get lost during the presentation. Some might consider keeping notes in hand a bad practice, but I say it is better to look at the notes occasionally than getting stuck in a place.

* Notes can be of just the key points
* Or the whole speech, cut out in several smaller pieces of paper (one sixth of an A4 sized paper )
* Pages must be numbered, so that you don’t break the serial.
* If you decide to write the whole speech in pieces, make sure that you use bold format for the keywords.
* Don’t read out from the notes. Look at them to keep track of your speech.

Make a Good First Impression

Some say that first impression is the last impression. Make sure that you look confident when you enter the stage and deliver the first paragraph of your presentation. It is better not to look at your notes during the first 30 seconds or more.

Be Confident

Confident is the most essential key for any form of public speaking. But I am writing it down as the 8th point because I think that you will be confident if you follow the 7 things mentioned above.

Say What You are Going to Say

At the start of your speech, state the topic clearly. State what your are going to discuss and mention it when you are discussing it. after you are done talking about it, say that you have discussed it. It makes easier to understand the lecture.

Say what you are going to say...
Say it...
Say that you have said it...

Slideshows and PowerPoint
Slideshows and PowerPoint have become an inseparable part of presentations. I’ll talk about them in my upcoming post:

Making Presentations: Slideshows

Related posts from the web:
How to make a good presentation
How to make effective presentation


Next pot in this series:
Making Presentations: Slideshows
Presentations: Answering Questions