Give more effective presentations in English

 

The purpose of a presentation is communication. The ability to speak effectively is as crucial as the ability to write effectively, according to studies about kinds of communications most often required of employees.

 During a routine week, employees will actually spend more time speaking than writing; using the phone; conversing informally with colleagues, subordinates, and superiors on routine office topics; conducting meetings; working in problem solving groups; conducting employee evaluation sessions; participating in teleconferences and sales presentations; and frequently becoming involved in formal speaking situations before groups inside and outside the organization. Communication research also reveals that the higher an employee moves in an organization, the more important speaking skills become.

Typical problems with presentations:

Poorly prepared displays (slides) and poor delivery plague many technical sessions at statistical meetings. The speaker often speaks too quickly or too quietly, or uses displays that cannot be read clearly. Presentations often are data dumps of the presenter's work, instersting only to the few other colleagues in the room currently working on the same problem. Other usually not familiar with the research area usually leave the session befuddled, dazed, and annoyed rather than enlightened and engaged.

Your presentation will be most effective when the audience walks away understanding the five things:

· What is the problem and why is it a problem?

· What has been done about it before?

· What is the presenter doing about it?

· What additional value does the presenter's approach provide?

· Where do we go from here?

Remeber about visuals effect as they are an essential part of every presentation. They can add interest and excitement to your presentation and most importantly they're your key tool for helping the audience remember your message. Don't let the audience forget you
A major way to remain unforgettable to an audience is a " hook: " something unique about you or an uncommon approach to a common subject.

Being an effective speaker and an effective writer requires you to:

Analyze your audience

- How many people will be in attendance?

- What kind of work or profession do they do?

- What is their level of understanding about your subject?

Analyzing your situation is often difficult to separate from analyzing your audience; in fact, audience is one facet of the larger situation.

Just as readers determine the success of written communication, audiences determine the success of oral presentations. Writing or speaking is successful if the reader or listener responds the way you desire: the reader or listener is informed, persuaded, or instructed as you intend and then responds the way you want with good will throughout.

Just as writing effectively depends on you understanding your reader as thoroughly as possible, effective speaking depends on you understanding your listener. You cannot speak or write effectively to people without first understanding their perspective. You must know how your audience will likely respond based on its members' educational and cultural background, knowledge of the subject, technical expertise, and position in the organization.

When you analyze your audience, focus on its members' professional as well as personal attributes. Your audience members will pay attention to some things because they belong to a specific department or class; they'll react to other things because of their likes, dislikes, and uncertainties. You have to keep both profiles in mind. Your analysis will suggest what you should say or write, what you should not say, and the tone you should use.

To help you analyze your audience, ask the following questions:

· How much do my audience members know about the subject?

· How much do they know about me?

· What do they expect from me?

· How interested will they be in what I say?

· What is their attitude toward me?

· What is their attitude toward my subject?

· What is their age group?

· What positions do their occupy in the organization?

· What is their educational background?

· What is their cultural/ethnic background?

· What is their economic background?

· What are their political and religious views?

· What kinds of cultural biases will they likely have toward me and my topic?

In viewing this list, you will note the prevalence of questions on attitude-- the audience's attitude toward you as well as the subject. Some attitudes will matter more than others, according to the situation.

These questions are particularly crucial ones, since you need to know, before you begin planning your presentation, whether your audience will consider you trustworthy and credible. To be an effective speaker, you must know your audience, establish a relationship by being sincere and knowledgeable about the subject, then conform to their expectations about dress, demeanor, choice of language, and attitude toward them and the topic.

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