how is presentation done in university

Countway Practical Presentation Skills

Presentation Slides

Story Telling

Presentation Software

Body Language

• Showtime! (Tips when "on stage")
• Upcoming Classes & Registration

On this page you will find many of the tips and common advice that we cover within our Practical Presentation Skills Workshop.

If you are hoping to attend a workshop in the future, please check the schedule of upcoming classes, and reserve your spot. Space does fill up each week, so please register early!

Creating slides to accompany your presentation can be a great way to provide complimentary visual representation of your topic. Slides are used to fill in the gaps while you tell the story.

Start your presentation with a brief introduction- who you are and what you are going to talk about. 

Think about your presentation as a story with an organized beginning (why this topic), middle (how you did the research) and end (your summary findings and how it may be applicable or inform future research). You can provide a brief outline in the introduction so the audience may follow along. 

Keep it simple with a few key concepts, examples and ideas.

Make sure your audience knows the key takeaway points you wish to get across.

A good way to practice this is to try and condense your presentation into an elevator pitch- what do you want the audience to walk away know? 

Show your enthusiasm!

If you don’t think it is interesting- why should your audience?

Some Good Alternatives to PowerPoint:

• Google Slides
• Keynote (Mac)  
• Prezi  
• Zoho Show  
• PowToon  
• CustomShow  
• Slidebean  
• Haiku Deck  
• Visme  
• Emaze  
• and more…  

Your body language speaks volumes to how confident you are on the topic, how you are feeling up on stage and how receptive you are to your audience. Confident body language, such as smiling, maintaining eye contact, and persuasive gesturing all serve to engage your audience.

• Make eye contact with those in the audience that are paying attention and ignore the rest!
• Speak slower than what you would normally, take a moment to smile at your audience, and project your voice. Don’t rush, what you have to say is important!
• Don’t’ forget to breathe. Deep breaths and positive visualization can helps slow that pounding heart.
• Work on making pauses where you can catch your breath, take a sip of water, stand up straight, and continue at your practiced pace.
• Sweaty palms and pre-presentation jitters are no fun. Harness that nervous energy and turn it into enthusiasm! Exercising earlier in the day can help release endorphins and help relieve anxiety.
• Feeling shaky? Practicing confident body language is one way to boost your pre-presentation jitters. When your body is physically demonstrating confidence, your mind will follow suit. Standing or walking a bit will help you calm those butterflies before you go on stage.
• Don’t be afraid to move around and use the physical space you have available but keep your voice projected towards your audience.
• Practice, practice, practice! Get to the next Practical Presentation Skills workshop in Countway Library http://bit.ly/countwaypresent and practice your talk in front of a supportive and friendly group!

• Excessive bullet points
• Reading your slides instead of telling your story
• Avoid excessive transitions and gimmick
• Numerous charts (especially all on the same slide)
• Lack of enthusiasm and engagement from you
• Too much information and data dump
• Clutter and busy design
• Lack of design consistency 

Now you are on stage!

When delivering the talk, watch out for these bad habits:

•  Avoiding eye-contact
• Slouching or bad posture
• Crossed arms
• Non-purposeful movement
• Not projecting your voice
• Speaking away from the microphone
• Speaking with your back to the audience (often happens when reading slides)
• Next: Upcoming Classes & Registration >>
• Last Updated: Jan 29, 2024 8:37 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/presentation

• Memberships
• Institutional Members
• Teacher Members

RESOURCES: Reading / Writing / Listening / Speaking / Argument / SPSE / Reading Tests / Summary / Dictogloss / Grammar / Vocab / Critical Thinking / Instant Lessons / Medical English / Graphs / New 2024 /

 Academic Presentations

Academic presentations are an integral part of university study and assessment. Academic presentations may be presented individually or as a group activity but both require the key skills of planning and structuring key information. The key difference between an academic presentation and a general presentation is that it is usually quite formal and includes academic research to evidence the ideas presented. The presentation will include references to credible sources and demonstrate clearly your knowledge and familiarity of the topic.

Presentation lessons / worksheets

Click on any link to be taken to the download

Presentation Information

Intro to presentations, academic presentations, presentation phrases , what is an academic presentation , presentation ppt slides, improve your ppt slides, create effective ppt slides, a basic ppt presentation  , graphs & charts, presentation feedback,  marking criteria, teacher feedback form, peer feedback form, peer-to-peer feedback form, terms & conditions of use, academic  presentation information.

• Good Presentations
• Structure / organisation
• Signposting Language

Giving a good academic presentation

• Think about the aim of your presentation and what you want to achieve.
• Concentrate on your audience: who   they are and  what   they (want to) know.
• Choose the topic that interests you: involvement and motivation are key to confidence.
• Give your presentation a  clear   and  logical   organization so that everyone can follow.
• Present information  visually : this adds interest to your talk and makes it easier to follow.
• Practise giving your presentation until you are familiar with the key points; this way you may discover any potential problems and check the timing. Besides, practice will also make you feel more confident.

Basic outline / structure

• Introduction: introduce the topic, some basic background, thesis (your stance or argument).
• Outline: provide basic bullet points on the key parts of the presentation.
• Main body: divide the main body into sections.
• Evaluation: always include evaluation. This can be a separate section or part of the main body.
• Conclusion: summarise key points, restate the thesis and make a recommendation / suggestion / prediction.
• Reference list: create one slide with all your sources.
• Questions : be prepared to answer questions.
• Cope with nerves: breathe deeply; it calms you down and stops you from talking too quickly.
• Control your voice: speak clearly and try to sound interesting by changing intonation and rhythm.
• Watch your body language: try to give the impression that you are relaxed and confident.
• Maintain eye contact with your audience: it keeps them interested in what you are saying. For this reason, you should not read.
• Provide visual information, but do not give too many facts at a time. Give your audience enough time to take them in.
• Keep attention by asking rhetorical questions.

 Advanced Signposting Language –

key language phrases for presentation

Presentation Speaking Criteria

This i s a basic criteria to assess presentation speaking skills. It has three key criteria: Language accuracy & language range,  fluency &  pronunciation, and   presentation & engagement.    Example  /   Level: ** *** [B1/B2/C1]   TEACHER MEMBERSHIP

An Introduction to Academic Presentations

  introduction to presentations (new 2023).

This lesson is designed to introduce students to academic presentations. It contains information on how to plan, structure, and deliver an academic presentation. It includes a listening worksheet, presentation signposting phrases and a mini-presentation activity. Example . Level: ** * ** [B1/B2/C1] TEACHER MEMBERSHIP / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

£4.50 – Add to cart Checkout Added to cart

Presentation Phrases (Signposting Language)

  presentation phrases sheet : a range of standard english phrases .

Suitable phrases to use for greeting, structuring, examples, transitions summarising and  concluding .

Free Download

What is an Academic Presentation?

Presentation Worksheet

 This lecture discusses the key ideas of giving an academic presentation including referencing, signposting, delivery and rehearsal.  2-page listening worksheet with answers. A great introduction to giving a presentation.   Example.  Level *** ** [ B1/B2/C1]   Video [7:00]  / MP3 /   TEACHER MEMBERSHIP  / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

Improve your PPT Slides

Improve your Presentation PowerPoint Slides

These are PPT slides from the above video or  go here . It’s a great way to explain how to present effective slides by using the correct fonts, focusing on key points and using animation to help audience engagement. The slides can be adapted to sort your style and method of teaching.   Video  [12:00]   Level *** ** [B1/B2/C1]  / TEACHER MEMBERSHIP / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

£4.00 – Add to cart Checkout Added to cart

Create PPT slides people will remember – Duarte Inc [CEO]

Harvard Business Review: How to plan an informed presentation and what is needed to create really effective slides that keep an audience engaged. More HBR listening worksheets are   Example   Video  [03:08]   Level: ** * * * [B2/C1]  / TEACHER MEMBERSHIP  / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

A Basic PPT Presentation

This is a video example of a ‘basic’ presentation on Domestic Violence using signposting language and a basic structure

      Memberships (Teacher / Institutional)

      Full access to everything -  £100 /  £200 /   £550

  Join today * x

Academic  Presentation Marking Criteria

A basic criteria that can be used to assess and grade a students’s presentation – full criteria in paid version (below).

online resources

Medical English

New for 2024

DropBox Files

Members only

Instant Lessons

Marking Criteria

OneDrive Files

Critical Thinking

Topic-lessons

Feedback Forms

6-Week Course

SPSE Essays

Free Resources

Charts and graphs

AEUK The Blog

12-Week Course

Advertisement:.

Ten smart ways to ace your next academic presentation

Using examples and practical tips, Dorsa Amir explains the techniques that ensure your presentation communicates its message effectively – from slide design to structuring your talk

• More on this topic

You may also like

Popular resources

.css-1txxx8u{overflow:hidden;max-height:81px;text-indent:0px;} Students using generative AI to write essays isn't a crisis

How students’ genai skills affect assignment instructions, turn individual wins into team achievements in group work, access and equity: two crucial aspects of applied learning, emotions and learning: what role do emotions play in how and why students learn.

As a presenter, your main job is to guide the audience through your argument in the clearest, most engaging, most efficient way possible. You must respect the audience’s time and attention. This means being mindful of how long your presentation is, what you’re including in your slides, and importantly, how it is all packaged and presented.

A great presenter is one who is intentional: each element in the presentation serves a clear function and is intended to support the audience’s understanding of the content.

Here are 10 tips to keep in mind to ensure your presentation hits the mark

1. Any time you put something on your slides, its primary purpose is to help the audience, not you

Many presenters will add copious text or other elements to help themselves remember points they want to make. However, this is usually less helpful for the audience (most of this information belongs in presenter notes, and not on the slides). Think of yourself like a director of a movie. What do you want the audience to focus on at any given moment? What features on your slides will enhance the verbal point you are making and which will distract from it? Be intentional about what you include on your slides, and only include elements that serve a clear and helpful function for the audience.

2. Condense text to the main question or key points of the slide

It may be tempting to write out snippets of the script wholesale and add them to the slides, but this often results in PowerPoint karaoke, where the audience is simply watching you read the text out loud to them. While text is certainly useful for helping to concretise points or make slides more accessible, be judicious about what you include. Each slide should make one or two clear points. It’s better to have more slides with less content than fewer slides that are jam-packed. Of course, the amount of text you include will also be determined by the type of presentation you are giving. If students will be using your slides as a study aid, for example, you may want to include more information than if you are creating a research talk for a conference.

3. Avoid using too many colours, fonts or animations

Consider elements such as fonts, colours and animations as tools in your presentation toolkit. These elements should be used sparingly and only when they serve a clear purpose. I’m sure you’ve all attended a talk with colours bright enough to burn your retinas or crammed with “fun” fonts such as Comic Sans. Try to refrain from doing that. Animations that allow certain elements to appear or disappear along with your presentation — such as bullet points that appear as you say them — can help direct the attention of the audience. Colour contrasts are primarily helpful for visual segmentation or bringing attention to particular elements. Fonts, colours or flashy animations that are purely decorative are more distracting than helpful.

4. Avoid colour combinations that are hard to read

Be mindful of how colours interact with each other to either facilitate or inhibit comprehension. White text on black (or the reverse) is often a safe bet. Don’t overdecorate! (See above).

5.  If you’re showing a graph, orient the audience to the axes before plotting the data and make sure they can actually see all of it

I typically show the axes and labels first, making sure to orient everyone to the variables and how they are going to be visualised, and then I reveal the data. This ensures that everyone understands how to interpret the visualisation they are about to see. It is also helpful to restate the key prediction and tell the audience what they should expect to see if the prediction is true, and then plot the data. Use large sizes and clear fonts. I’ve heard way too many people say things like: “You probably can’t read this but…” To that, I want to say: “But you’re the one making the slide! You did this to us!” Don’t be that person.

6.  Use high-resolution images or videos

This is especially true for presentations that will be projected onto a larger surface. If it’s fuzzy on your computer screen, it will look even fuzzier when magnified and projected. Try to integrate high-resolution images and vector graphics to avoid this. When your images contain text, delete those portions and re-enter the text in text boxes that will scale up much more clearly when magnified.

7. When illustrating results, identify one or two key graphs to make your point

The temptation is often to show the audience every single result you found, but this dilutes the overall message you are trying to send. There’s no need to visualise everything: you should focus on the key graphs that tell most or all of the story. If you have built up the presentation in the right way, when the audience see your data visualisation, they will immediately understand what you found and whether it supports your hypothesis. That’s how clear and accessible the graph should be.

8.  Don’t overload the audience with unnecessary complex jargon or acronyms

Every time you introduce a new term or a brand new acronym (BNA), you are asking the audience to do you a favour and commit this new item to working memory. The audience doesn’t know your presentation; they don’t know what’s going to be important later and what isn’t. They’re trusting that you are only presenting information to them that is relevant and they’re doing their best to follow along. Make this process as easy and enjoyable as possible for them. Be judicious with what you ask them to remember or commit to memory. If you can explain a concept without jargon, avoid the jargon!

9. Enhance accessibility

The Web Accessibility Initiative has a great set of guidelines that I will summarise here. Use easy-to-read fonts in large sizes. Make sure there is enough contrast between colours to make them discernible. When giving virtual talks, consider turning on automatic closed captioning. If it’s feasible, provide annotated slide handouts. During the presentation itself, speak clearly and loudly, avoiding unnecessarily complex vocabulary or culturally specific idioms. Where possible, use a microphone. You should also try to verbally describe pertinent parts of visual information on your slides, such as graphics or videos.

10. Use outline slides and marker slides to segment information

Research shows that we understand and remember information better when it comes in bite-size pieces; think of chapters in a book. To incorporate this structure into your talk, break apart the presentation into smaller pieces. Always incorporate an outline slide that previews the structure of the talk and gives the audience a sense of what to expect. Also, use marker slides to communicate that a new section is beginning. And make sure to wrap up each section with a summary slide.

Dorsa Amir is a postdoc in the department of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,  sign up for the Campus newsletter .

Students using generative AI to write essays isn't a crisis

Eleven ways to support international students, indigenising teaching through traditional knowledge, seven exercises to use in your gender studies classes, rather than restrict the use of ai, embrace the challenge, how hard can it be testing ai detection tools.

Register for free

and unlock a host of features on the THE site

• Log in
• Site search

6 steps to a successful presentation

If you feel nervous at the thought of having to stand up in front of your peers and deliver a presentation you're not alone, but you're unlikely to get through university without having to do it. Follow these six steps to ensure success

Your tutor or lecturer mentions the word 'presentation' and the first thing you do is panic but there's no need.

Depending on your subject, you might be expected to summarise your reading in a seminar, deliver the results of a scientific experiment, or provide feedback from a group task. Whatever the topic, you'll usually be presenting to your tutor and fellow students.

While   getting up and making your case in front of an audience isn't easy, especially when you're not used to it, it really is good practice as many graduate employers use presentations as part of the recruitment process.

To help ensure that your presentation stands out for the right reasons, Graham Philpott, head of careers consultancy at the University of Reading provides some advice.

Prepare carefully

Give yourself plenty of time to prepare thoroughly, as a last-minute rush will leave you flustered when it comes to delivering your presentation.

'There are two important things to think about when preparing for a presentation,' says Graham. 'What do you want the audience to do once you have finished, and who are the audience? If you know these two things, preparation becomes so much easier.'

Plan out the structure and format of your presentation. 'A simple and successful way to structure your presentation is - agenda, message, summary - or to explain it a different way, tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you've just told them,' advises Graham.

To help plan your content, Graham explains that 'there are only two purposes to a presentation, one is to inform, the other is to persuade. So, your content will either tell the audience what they need to know or convince them.' To make sure you stay on track ask yourself what you're hoping to achieve.

You can make detailed notes as part of your planning, but don't rely on these on the day, as reading from a prepared text sounds unnatural. If you want to take a memory aid with you use small index cards, as referring to A4 sheets of paper during your presentation can be distracting and highlight your nerves if your hands shake.

At the planning stage also consider the timings of your presentation. Time limits are set for a reason - falling short or going over this limit will likely result in a loss of marks, especially if it's part of an assessment or exam.

Don't forget to also devise answers to common questions you may be asked at the end of your presentation. You might think this adds to your workload, but it actually prevents you from being caught off guard on the day.

If you have to give a group presentation, discover  three tips for successful group work .

Use visuals wisely

'A presentation doesn't necessarily need a visual aid,' says Graham. 'However, if you decide to use them, they can help the audience understand what you're saying, and give you a framework to talk around.'

Bear in mind that visual aids should complement your oral presentation, not repeat it, nor deliver the presentation for you. While your slides should offer a summary of points, or illustrate the concept you're discussing, you need to remember that you are the main focus.

When putting together your slides and visual aids:

• Keep them simple . Stick to one idea per slide to avoid cluttering them and use short phrases or sentences.
• Think about accessibility . Does the design of your presentation interfere with its readability? Will everyone in the audience be able to read your slides? To ensure your presentation is accessible minimise the number of slides, use high contrast colours and a large, clear font. If using graphics, make them as simple as possible and avoid over-complicated charts or graphs. If using videos, make sure they are captioned.
• Don't let them distract you . If you intend to provide hand-outs for your audience, distribute them at the beginning or end of your presentation. Doing it halfway through can disrupt your flow.

Don't fall into the trap of merely reading aloud what is written on your slides - instead use them as a starting point from which you can expand and develop your narrative.

It's also worth pointing out that a presentation is only as good as its content. Your presentation could look visually beautiful, but if it lacks knowledge or substance your audience is unlikely to be fooled. 

Consider your audience

Speaking of your audience, it's essential that you keep them in mind at every stage - from the preparation of your presentation right through to the delivery.

To show that you have thought about the audience consider how much background information they will need. Do they already have some knowledge of the topic you're presenting?

Spending the first half of your presentation telling an audience what they already know will be frustrating for them. Equally, if you go straight into the detail, they may get lost. It's vital you get the balance right.

The tone of your presentation will also depend on your audience - if its purpose is to demonstrate to your seminar group that you've understood a certain topic you could strike a light-hearted tone. If it's an assessed piece of work on the other hand, you'll need to be more serious.

Practice with a friend

Before the main event you should run through your presentation in full more than once. 'It's also a good idea to practice the presentation out loud. This will give you a much better idea of how long it takes, and whether there are any parts that don't flow very well,' adds Graham.

'It might feel cringey, but practicing to an audience - friends, coursemates, family, your careers consultant if it's for a job - will really help too. Their feedback will be especially important when it comes to checking that your main point is getting through, loud and clear.'

Ask your practice audience to sit at a distance to check that everyone attending can hear you speaking and that they can see the slides. If possible, try to do this practice run in the room you'll be giving your presentation in.

This level of preparation will enable you to work out whether your presentation is the right length when spoken aloud and give you the chance to get used to expressing yourself in front of others.

 While you practice make sure that you:

• Speak slowly  - nerves can make you rush but try and moderate your speech. Take a breath at the end of every sentence or point you make.
• Face the audience  - to give a confident impression regularly make eye contact with your audience. If using a screen stand at a 45-degree angle so you have a good view of both your audience and your slides. Don't turn your back on your audience.
• Leave time for questions  - factor this into your overall time limit and be prepared to field any questions that come your way.

Another good tip is to record the practice run - you can do this on your phone or on Teams or Zoom. Play it back and reflect on it. Ask yourself if it's clear, concise, and if it makes sense. Pay particular attention to less obvious factors such as your facial expression and mannerisms. Do you come across well? Are you talking too fast or waffling? Are you smiling and personable?

Be positive

Leading up to the presentation try developing a positive attitude. This may seem easier said than done, especially if you're nervous but it will make a huge difference to how you perform.

Acknowledge your nervousness but don't let negative thoughts win. Instead of thinking about all the things that could go wrong visualise a positive outcome and focus on what you can do to ensure it runs smoothly.

On the day nerves can conspire to make you think that the room is against you, but this isn't the case. Remember that your tutor and your coursemates want you to succeed. To set your presentation up for success make sure your introduction is strong. Start with a confident attitude and a smile.

Don't rely on technology

We've all witnessed the agony of a presenter struggling with a faulty USB stick, failing to connect to the internet or not being able to get the projector to work. However, with a little bit of planning, you can minimise the risk of technology tripping you up.

If possible, test your presentation beforehand with the same equipment that you'll be using during the main event. Otherwise, arrive early on the day and have a run through. Make sure you know how to link your laptop to the projector and if your presentation includes links to web pages or video clips make sure these lead to the right places and are working beforehand. Bring back-ups of your documents and print out a few copies of the slides to share if things go wrong.

And if a piece of technology does fail, don't panic. It will happen to everyone in the room at some point. If you prove yourself prepared in the face of a disaster and handle it with grace it could impress your tutor more than if everything went according to plan.

Find out more

• Learn more about university life .
• Discover how to manage student stress .
• Find out how to get the most out of lectures and seminars .

How would you rate this page?

On a scale where 1 is dislike and 5 is like

• Dislike 1 unhappy-very
• Like 5 happy-very

Thank you for rating the page

Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

How to Make a Successful Research Presentation

Turning a research paper into a visual presentation is difficult; there are pitfalls, and navigating the path to a brief, informative presentation takes time and practice. As a TA for  GEO/WRI 201: Methods in Data Analysis & Scientific Writing this past fall, I saw how this process works from an instructor’s standpoint. I’ve presented my own research before, but helping others present theirs taught me a bit more about the process. Here are some tips I learned that may help you with your next research presentation:

More is more

In general, your presentation will always benefit from more practice, more feedback, and more revision. By practicing in front of friends, you can get comfortable with presenting your work while receiving feedback. It is hard to know how to revise your presentation if you never practice. If you are presenting to a general audience, getting feedback from someone outside of your discipline is crucial. Terms and ideas that seem intuitive to you may be completely foreign to someone else, and your well-crafted presentation could fall flat.

Less is more

Limit the scope of your presentation, the number of slides, and the text on each slide. In my experience, text works well for organizing slides, orienting the audience to key terms, and annotating important figures–not for explaining complex ideas. Having fewer slides is usually better as well. In general, about one slide per minute of presentation is an appropriate budget. Too many slides is usually a sign that your topic is too broad.

Limit the scope of your presentation

Don’t present your paper. Presentations are usually around 10 min long. You will not have time to explain all of the research you did in a semester (or a year!) in such a short span of time. Instead, focus on the highlight(s). Identify a single compelling research question which your work addressed, and craft a succinct but complete narrative around it.

You will not have time to explain all of the research you did. Instead, focus on the highlights. Identify a single compelling research question which your work addressed, and craft a succinct but complete narrative around it.

Craft a compelling research narrative

After identifying the focused research question, walk your audience through your research as if it were a story. Presentations with strong narrative arcs are clear, captivating, and compelling.

• Introduction (exposition — rising action)

Orient the audience and draw them in by demonstrating the relevance and importance of your research story with strong global motive. Provide them with the necessary vocabulary and background knowledge to understand the plot of your story. Introduce the key studies (characters) relevant in your story and build tension and conflict with scholarly and data motive. By the end of your introduction, your audience should clearly understand your research question and be dying to know how you resolve the tension built through motive.

• Methods (rising action)

The methods section should transition smoothly and logically from the introduction. Beware of presenting your methods in a boring, arc-killing, ‘this is what I did.’ Focus on the details that set your story apart from the stories other people have already told. Keep the audience interested by clearly motivating your decisions based on your original research question or the tension built in your introduction.

• Results (climax)

Less is usually more here. Only present results which are clearly related to the focused research question you are presenting. Make sure you explain the results clearly so that your audience understands what your research found. This is the peak of tension in your narrative arc, so don’t undercut it by quickly clicking through to your discussion.

• Discussion (falling action)

By now your audience should be dying for a satisfying resolution. Here is where you contextualize your results and begin resolving the tension between past research. Be thorough. If you have too many conflicts left unresolved, or you don’t have enough time to present all of the resolutions, you probably need to further narrow the scope of your presentation.

• Conclusion (denouement)

Return back to your initial research question and motive, resolving any final conflicts and tying up loose ends. Leave the audience with a clear resolution of your focus research question, and use unresolved tension to set up potential sequels (i.e. further research).

Use your medium to enhance the narrative

Visual presentations should be dominated by clear, intentional graphics. Subtle animation in key moments (usually during the results or discussion) can add drama to the narrative arc and make conflict resolutions more satisfying. You are narrating a story written in images, videos, cartoons, and graphs. While your paper is mostly text, with graphics to highlight crucial points, your slides should be the opposite. Adapting to the new medium may require you to create or acquire far more graphics than you included in your paper, but it is necessary to create an engaging presentation.

The most important thing you can do for your presentation is to practice and revise. Bother your friends, your roommates, TAs–anybody who will sit down and listen to your work. Beyond that, think about presentations you have found compelling and try to incorporate some of those elements into your own. Remember you want your work to be comprehensible; you aren’t creating experts in 10 minutes. Above all, try to stay passionate about what you did and why. You put the time in, so show your audience that it’s worth it.

For more insight into research presentations, check out these past PCUR posts written by Emma and Ellie .

— Alec Getraer, Natural Sciences Correspondent

Share this:

• Share on Tumblr

• 301 Academic Skills Centre
• Study skills online

Presentation skills

Techniques to develop your skills and confidence as a presenter.

Overcoming presentation worries

Standing up in front of other people and sharing your ideas can be a stressful experience, but also extremely rewarding intellectually.

In formal presentations, you make both the strength of your knowledge and any gaps in it immediately and publicly visible.

This is risky and rewarding because it means you are both teaching others and learning from them. That is, you are doing what education is all about.

In addition, the way you communicate and how you present yourself will influence the response of the audience, and that can make you feel self-conscious.

But, by learning more about the best strategies and techniques for formal presentations in academic settings, you can make the most of this valuable learning environment.

301 Recommends:

Our workshop on Planning and Delivering Presentations examines what makes a presentation effective, and what things to consider when preparing for delivery. You will learn a planning technique which will lead to clear and concise delivery, so you can go into your presentations feeling confident and well-prepared. The workshop will also provide you with tips on getting your message across.

This short  Study Skills Hacks video  offers tips and suggestions on preparing for a presentation and getting it right on the day.

Planning your presentation

Three main focus points.

The more you plan your presentation, the more confidence you will have in the information you are delivering. You need to consider three things throughout this process: topic, time limit, and audience.

1. Your topic

Your topic is what your presentation should be about.

This seems obvious, but unless you keep a clear idea of the message you are trying to convey, it's easy to go off on a tangent. You will then lose the clarity of your presentation.

2. Your time limit

Again, this seems obvious, but you will be kept to time and you need to prepare for this.

If you're asked to deliver a short presentation, keep this in mind as you do your background research, to avoid doing unnecessary amounts of reading. You only have a certain amount of time you can spend on your preparation, so make sure you use your time wisely.

3. Your audience

Your audience is key to how you deliver your presentation.

You need to consider what they already know, what they need to know, and the type of language that is appropriate for your delivery.

Unlike a written piece of work, an audience only gets one chance to engage with the content of a presentation.

With this in mind, your presentation should follow a very simple structure of reinforcement:

• Tell your audience what you are going to tell them.
• Tell them again what you told them.

This may sound repetitive, but that's exactly what you want: to repeat the key points so that they are clear to your audience and provide a take-home message.

Having a clear structure not only helps your audience to follow your presentation but helps you to keep track of what it is you are trying to explain.

301 Recommends: Horizontal Planning

Use the  Horizontal Planning Template (google doc)  to organise your presentation. Start from the middle with roughly three main points, before moving out to complete a plan for your introduction and conclusion.

Starting in the middle is essential as it will allow you to pin down the main areas of your message, before moving on to identify how to introduce these main points to your audience and summarise them again at the end.

Individual presentations

Spoken reports detailing your work can take place in a range of settings: the small group classroom, in a one-to-one tutorial, in the workplace or at an academic conference. 

Presentations take different forms, from a read-out mini-lecture to an improvised explanation or elaboration of a series of key points, a question-and-answer session, an audience-activity workshop, or a blend of all of these.

An individual presentation can feel intense as you take centre stage. However, the advantage of this is that you have complete control over your preparation (see below), content and timing.

If you are finding the prospect of a solo presentation in front of an audience stressful, there are a number of strategies you can use to build confidence and overcome the nerves:

• Think about how to organise your presentation. Are you planning to present using the slides as a prompt (in which case be sure to look up from the screen to engage your audience)? Or are you planning to use notes or flash cards? Flash cards can be a great way to give yourself some key prompts and something to do with your hands. 
• If you are finding it difficult to engage with your audience directly, try focusing on a point at the back of the room. This will encourage you to look up and present to the room, while avoiding the pressure of direct eye contact.
• Think about your physical presence. There is evidence that standing tall can help to increase confidence and can make the audience perceive the speaker as more confident. 

Group presentations

Group presentations share many of the demands of the individual format, but collaboration brings its own benefits and challenges. Strength in numbers can provide a sense of comradeship and relieve individual pressure. But working together means you need to find ways to share the burden of work equally and incorporate the efforts and skills of each group member.

The additional pressures of a group presentation can be particularly significant when a presentation forms part of university coursework.

Like any form of group work, group presentations rely on sharing responsibility and developing strategies to manage group disagreements or imbalances. Remember to take time to understand one another's strengths and areas of confidence so that tasks and responsibilities can be divided up in a way that makes the most of individual skills and abilities. 

And just like an individual presentation, making sure you find the time to practice and rehearse the presentation together as a group can be decisive to its success on the day. Consider the following points and build them into your rehearsal time:

• What order are you presenting in?
• Who is taking over from whom? Can you stand in a logical order to cut down on transition times?
• Who is advancing the slides, or are you taking it in turns?
• Who is managing time and how are you going to warn group members to speed up?
• Don't forget to build in time for transitions between presenters!

Read more about group work and collaboration here .

Presenting online

Whilst the fundamentals of good in-person presenting remain true when presenting online, there are some important considerations that are unique to presenting remotely.  Read tips on online presentations here.

Preparation

Most importantly, for all kinds of presentations, allow time to practice! Make sure you think about how you are going to deliver your presentation and make it engaging.

This is especially important if you are presenting in a group, as transitions can be costly time-wise if unrehearsed. Make sure you have time to revise and edit your presentation, with enough time to rehearse the final edit too.

Make sure you have your ending prepared! Do not simply stop, think about how you will signal to your audience that you are done and ready for questions (if appropriate).

Finally, make sure that you are as comfortable as possible on the day. Plan out what you are going to wear the night before, arrive early to check equipment, and have a bottle of water with you.

The majority of your confidence will come from having a well-researched, structured and practised presentation, so don't worry, take a deep breath, and you will now be ready to go!

Once you have delivered your presentation, seek feedback from your peers or tutors, to help you develop your skills further. Think reflectively about the whole presentation process, as you continue to build this skill.

Learn more about how to use feedback here.

• Preparation is key! You need to consider your topic, time limit, and audience. If you are working as a group, be organised in allocating how this preparation will be done.
• A strong structure will help your presentation to flow. Signpost and wrap up for your audience, make it easy for them to follow, and easy for yourself too.
• Practise! Think about what you are going to say, time how long it takes you to say it. Make sure you are fully comfortable and confident before you need to present. If you are presenting as a group, decide who will say what, and practice transitions.
• Think about yourself as the presenter: plan what you'll wear, take some water with you
• Build-in contingency plans: know where you can cut things out or add bits in to keep to time, and plan how you will deal with difficult questions.

Library-  Group work vs collusion  

Student Services Information Desk (SSiD)-  Public Speaking and Communicating with Impact 

Counselling Service-  Communicating with Impact Workshop  

Counselling Service-  Public Speaking Workshops 

Creative Media Team-  Production Resources  

English Language Teaching Centre (ELTC)- Language Resources  

Digital Learning- Guidance for creating accessible content .

Digital Learning-  Creating accessible PowerPoint presentations

University of Manchester-  Working in Groups  

University of Reading-  Effective Group Work  

Learn Higher-  Group work  

BBC BiteSize-  Speaking Skills 

Related information

Poster presentations

Online group work

Be the first to hear about our new and upcoming workshops!

The 301 Academic Skills Centre newsletter is a fortnightly email for study skills, mathematics and statistics.

Be the first to find out about our:

• new and upcoming workshops,
• special events and programmes, and
• new and relevant online materials and resources.

Sheffield is a research university with a global reputation for excellence. We're a member of the Russell Group: one of the 24 leading UK universities for research and teaching.

A Checklist for Giving the Perfect Presentation

Part of the university experience that many students often come to dread is the thought of having to give a presentation to their fellow students and professors.

It doesn’t matter how much studying you do, or how well you know the topic you’ll be discussing , it’s often difficult to feel confident when you have to stand up in front of everyone .

However, giving presentations is a common occurrence at university so it shouldn’t be something that leaves you feeling overly nervous.

If you want to ace your next presentation and impress your professors and fellow students, here are some of the top tips that you should follow.

10 steps to giving the perfect university presentation

Presentations can be scary, but if you follow our simple ten-point plan, you’ll be able to pull off the perfect presentation and get the best grade possible.

1. Start with an outline

When you first receive your assignment from a professor, the easiest thing is to forget about it until the last minute – but this can be a big mistake to make!

The secret to giving a great presentation lies in the preparation and, the earlier you get to it, the greater your change of obtaining a great grade.

This doesn’t mean that you have to write everything straight away, just starting with an outline is a good enough start .

In your outline, you should cover the points you want to discuss, along with any important topics and references that you may need to collect to back up your points.

Once you have the outline completed, you can add additional information as you go along.

2. Create your slides in advance

Once you have an outline in place, it’s always good to start getting your slides in order.

Your slides are an important part of your presentation as they act as a visual aid to everyone watching you present. 

Start putting the information from your outline into the slides and then building on your points to make your presentation more informative.

You can also experiment with different slide orders to see what flows best and makes the most sense for your assignment.

3. Don’t forget about the importance of design

Although you may not gain many points for having an aesthetically pleasing presentation, it always helps to draw in everyone’s attention. Good design enhances the clarity of the information you’re presenting .

If in doubt, going clean and minimal is often the best approach. A design that’s loud and flashy as it can make text difficult to read, and may distract your audience from the important information you’re sharing.

4. Write your own separate speaking notes

It doesn’t look professional if you’re constantly turning to look at your presentation slides to see what you are speaking about. Instead, write yourself some flashcards of everything you want to say .

These speaking notes shouldn’t be a word-for-word script for what you want to say. They should just be basic pointers to keep you on track and prevent you from forgetting any important information.

Remember that during your presentation, your eyes should be on the audience, not just looking down at your flashcards for what to say next.

5. Get familiar with the room you’ll be presenting in

If you worry about nerves, getting to feel a bit more confident with the room you’re presenting in can help calm you down before a big presentation . 

Find out what room you’re going to be presenting in and see if you can take a look beforehand. This will give you the opportunity to figure out where you can stand, where everyone will be sitting, and how to get the projector up and running etc.

6. Pick an outfit you feel confident in

This may feel like a small thing, but the clothes you wear can make a big difference to how you feel and how you present yourself.

With presentations, it’s always best to dress slightly more smartly than you usually would at university . This will help you to feel professional and confident – which is always important when giving a presentation.

It’s also important to wear something that you feel completely comfortable in. It’s not helpful to look the part if all you can think about during your presentation is how uncomfortable your shoes are!

7. Get feedback on your slides

Before presentation day, it’s a good idea to carry out some test runs where you give your presentation to your friends or family .

This is a good time to ask them for feedback, and to let you know if there’s anything you could improve on before the real presentation.

8. Practice, practice, practice

One of the most important tips to get ready for your presentation is to do as much practice as possible beforehand .

The more time you spend going over your notes, practicing speaking to an audience and memorizing the order of your slides, the higher the chance of everything going smoothly on the big day.

You should be practising to the point where you feel that you don’t need your notes anymore – this is a sign that you have most things under control.

9. Set yourself up for success on the day

On the day of your presentation, get to the room early so you can set everything up and make yourself feel comfortable .

The worst thing to do is rush to your presentation and forget everything that you’ve practised just because you’re feeling flustered.

Give your speaker’s notes one last read and then try to relax; the calmer you feel, the better things will go.

10. You’ve got this!

After going through all of the tips we’ve mentioned above, you shouldn’t have anything more to worry about when it comes to your presentation.

All that’s left to do is give your presentation and look forward to getting a great grade from your professor!

At EU Business School, our courses offer students a range of opportunities to improve their presentation and communication skills. Find out more about our courses here.

You may also like

Unlocking the World: 6 Reasons Why You Should Study International Relations

The AI Frontier: Preparing for the Future of Work

10 Common Job Interview Questions – And How To Deal With Them

Are You Interested in Working in the Diplomacy Sector?

Management Failure, And How To Avoid It

Living The High Life: Study Fashion And Luxury In Switzerland

Comments are closed.

More in: Education Trends

Clearing 2024/2025: How To Call Universities 

4 Directions To Take After University Graduation

6 Great Reasons to Study in Europe 

Lost your password?

• EU Students
• EU Business School
• Guest Speakers
• Study in Barcelona
• Study in Switzerland
• Study in Munich
• Study Online
• EU Programs
• Business Trends
• Learning From Leaders
• Study Abroad – Life & Culture
• ON Research Talks
• Bachelor’s
• Master’s
• Further Education
• Summer/Winter School
• Tution Fees
• Career Services
• Academic Calendar
• Student Services
• Company Visits
• Speakers On Campus
• Sports & Student Life
• What’s On
• Mission and Values
• Accreditations
• Rankings and Memberships
• EU Publications
• Academic Code
• Request more Information

Latest Posts

Eu alumnus & lecturer, ugo ikpeazu, on monetizing time.

How to give the perfect presentation

What makes a great presentation? There are lots of different ways to deliver a presentation, but there are five key factors that will make it a success.

Are you covering everything you have been asked to talk about? Does the information suit your audience? Make sure your content is simple, addresses the purpose of the presentation and is easy for the audience to follow.

If possible, try to avoid memorising a script, as it might throw you off when you realise you’ve tripped up. Instead, make the effort to understand your content and the topic you’re presenting. The more confident you are of your own knowledge, the easier it will be to speak about.

2. Delivery

Talk clearly and not too fast or too slow. Also make sure you’re talking to your audience, not your screen!

Don’t forget that your tone of voice can also affect your delivery. You can be formal or more casual when delivering a presentation but try not to be monotone. Putting emphasis and emotion into your words will show your passion for the subject and make it more interesting for others.

3. Body language

Good eye contact is key during a presentation. It will help your audience to engage with you. Plus, picking three or four people in the room to look at regularly helps deal with nerves, as it feels like you're talking just to them.

Use gestures to emphasise your points but watch out for nervous actions like touching your face or swaying from side to side. Most importantly, get comfortable before you start presenting and remember to smile!

4. Practise

Once you’re happy with your presentation, stand up in front of a room (even if it’s empty) and rehearse your slides. This will help you get used to the content and the pace of the presentation. It will also improve your confidence. Get someone to watch you or use your phone to film yourself. It’s not easy to watch yourself back but it will help you spot any nervous actions or places where you keep slipping up.

5. Be positive

Visualise the presentation being a success. Try to push all the negativity out of your brain and tell yourself the presentation will go well.

Your audience is probably looking forward to hearing from you and won’t be as critical as you are about your own presentation skills, so relax, you’ll do great!

Related Content

What is a lecture, what is a freshers fair, learn how to speed read, learn how to work smart and say no.

• EXPLORE Random Article

How to Give an Excellent Presentation (College Students)

Last Updated: March 3, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Patrick Muñoz . Patrick is an internationally recognized Voice & Speech Coach, focusing on public speaking, vocal power, accent and dialects, accent reduction, voiceover, acting and speech therapy. He has worked with clients such as Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Roselyn Sanchez. He was voted LA's Favorite Voice and Dialect Coach by BACKSTAGE, is the voice and speech coach for Disney and Turner Classic Movies, and is a member of Voice and Speech Trainers Association. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 86% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 128,741 times.

College seminars are conducted to test the presentation skills of a student or a group and also allow the student to convey their knowledge to the audience. When students don't come prepared, the presentation may become disorganized, unclear, and dull. It would make them confused during the presentation and lead to vague answers during the questionnaires.

• Think of your main topic and break it down into 3 specific ideas. This will help you to focus your discussion and remain clear. Keep the 3 ideas simple and have them in your mind. Write out your main points, then picture what you're talking about so you can visualize what you're going to talk about.
• To help you create the "soft humor," don't take yourself too seriously. Second, identify the fears and insecurities around the topic so you can address these in a way that shows we all have these fears, insecurities and taboos and that our feelings are normal. This helps keep you in the moment and present with the audience and allows you to recognize the reality of the effect of your topic on yourself and the audience.
• Tell the audience you're excited about what you're talking about. This can make your excited mood infectious and lead them to be willing to come on this journey with you.

• You could try doing something fun, like bringing with you a relevant object, doing a magic trick or a dance move to take things out of the ordinary and add some life to your talk.
• Another fun approach is to try a meditation and ask the audience to relax - feel your toes relax, your feet, etc.
• If you want the audience to move around, don't hesitate to ask. Ask them to stand up and stretch, to shake hands with the person next to them, or to do a twirl on the spot.
• You could try asking the audience to say a bunch of affirmations out loud with you, to get them caught up in the mood you're creating and help them to see its relevance to them too.

• You can ask the audience to imagine something along with you, asking them to close their eyes and think about something with you, then resume with eye contact following this.

What Is The Best Way To Start a Presentation?

Community Q&A

• Take 10 belly breaths if you have last minute stage fright. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Use images in your slides. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Come early to the venue where you will be presenting. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Answer the questions asked after the presentation. Do not divert or change the topic. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://education.seattlepi.com/give-good-speech-presentations-college-1147.html
• ↑ https://www.princeton.edu/~archss/webpdfs08/BaharMartonosi.pdf

About this article

Reader Success Stories

Mohammad Shamshad

Oct 8, 2016

Did this article help you?

Sandip Kulkarni

Apr 2, 2019

Robbin Singh

Sep 19, 2016

Nandini Soni

Mar 16, 2016

• About wikiHow
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

7.4 Public Speaking and Class Presentations

Learning objectives.

• Know how to overcome nervousness and anxiety associated with public speaking and giving class presentations.
• Effectively use the six-step process to prepare for and deliver a class presentation.
• Create effective visual aids for use in class presentations.
• Work with a group to successfully plan and deliver a class presentation.

Public speaking—giving an oral presentation before a class or another group of people—is a special form of interaction common in education. You will likely be asked to give a presentation in one of your classes at some point, and your future career may also involve public speaking. It’s important to develop skills for this form of communication.

Public speaking is like participating in class—sharing your thoughts, ideas, and questions with others in the group. In other ways, however, public speaking is very different. You stand in front of the class to speak, rather than from your usual seat—and for most students, that changes the psychology of the situation. You also have time outside of class to prepare your presentation, allowing you to plan it carefully—and, for many, giving more time to worry about it and experience even more anxiety!

Overcoming Anxiety

Although a few people seem to be natural public speakers, most of us feel some stage fright or anxiety about having to speak to a group, at least at first. This is completely normal. We feel like everyone is staring at us and seeing our every flaw, and we’re sure we’ll forget what we want to say or mess up. Take comfort from knowing that almost everyone else is dreading giving class presentations the same as you are! But you can learn to overcome your anxiety and prepare in a way that not only safely gets you through the experience but also leads to success in your presentation. The following are proven strategies for overcoming anxiety when speaking in public:

• Understand anxiety. Since stage fright is normal, don’t try to deny that you’re feeling anxious. A little anxiety can help motivate you to prepare and do your best. Accept this aspect of the process and work to overcome it. Anxiety is usually worst just before you begin and but eases up once you’ve begun.
• Understand that your audience actually wants you to succeed. They’re not looking for faults or hoping you’ll fail. Other students and your instructors are on your side, not your enemy. They likely won’t even see your anxiety.
• Reduce anxiety by preparing and practicing. The next section discusses the preparation process in more detail. The more fully you prepare and the more often you have practice, the more your anxiety will go away.
• Focus on what you’re saying, not how you’re saying it. Keep in mind that you have ideas to share, and this is what your classmates and instructors are interested in. Don’t obsess about speaking, but focus on the content of your presentation. Think, for example, of how easily you share your ideas with a friend or family member, as you naturally speak your mind. The same can work with public speaking if you focus on the ideas themselves.
• Develop self-confidence. As you prepare, you will make notes you can refer to during the presentation. You’re not going to forget what you want to say. The more you practice, the more confident you’ll become.

Guidelines for Presentations

Preparing and delivering a presentation in class (or in business or other settings) is a process very similar to the learning process discussed in Chapter 4 “Listening, Taking Notes, and Remembering” , Chapter 5 “Reading to Learn” , and Chapter 6 “Preparing for and Taking Tests” and the writing process discussed in Chapter 8 “Writing for Classes” . The process breaks down into these six basic steps:

• Analyze your audience and goals
• Plan, research, and organize your content
• Draft and revise the presentation
• Prepare speaking notes
• Practice the presentation
• Deliver the presentation

Step 1: Analyze Your Audience and Goals

Who will see and hear your presentation—and why? Obviously, other students and the instructor. But you still need to think about what they already know, and don’t know, about your topic. If your topic relates to subject matter in class lectures and readings, consider what background information they already have and be careful not to give a boring recap of things they already know. It may be important, however, to show how your specific topic fits in with subjects that have been discussed already in class, especially in the beginning of your presentation, but be sure to focus on your new topic.

New terms and concepts may become familiar to you while doing your research and preparation, but remember to define and explain them to other students. Consider how much explanation or examples will be needed for your audience to grasp your points. If your topic involves anything controversial or may provoke emotion, consider your audience’s attitudes and choose your words carefully. Thinking about your audience will help you find ways to get their attention and keep them interested.

Be sure you are clear about the goals for the presentation. Are you primarily presenting new information or arguing for a position? Are you giving an overview or a detailed report? Review the assignment and talk with the instructor if you’re unsure. Your goals guide everything in the presentation: what you say, how much you say, what order you say it in, what visual aids you use, whether you use humor or personal examples, and so forth.

Step 2: Plan, Research, and Organize Your Content

Starting with the assignment and your goals, brainstorm your topic. Jot notes on specific topics that seem important. Often you’ll do reading or research to gather more information. Take notes as you would with any reading. As you research the topic at this stage, don’t worry at first about how much content you are gathering. It’s better to know too much and then pick out the most important things to say than to rush ahead to drafting the presentation and then realize you don’t have enough material.

Organizing a presentation is similar to organizing topics in a class paper and uses the same principles. Introduce your topic and state your main idea (thesis), go into more detail about specific ideas, and conclude your presentation. Look for a logical order for the specifics in the middle. Some topics work best in chronological (time) order or with a compare-and-contrast organization. If your goal is to persuade the audience, build up to the strongest reason. Put similar ideas together and add transitions between different ideas.

While researching your topic and outlining your main points, think about visual aids that may help the presentation.

Also start thinking about how much time you have for the presentation, but don’t limit yourself yet in the outline stage.

Step 3: Draft and Revise the Presentation

Unless required by the assignment, you don’t need to actually write out the presentation in full sentences and paragraphs. How much you write depends on your own learning and speaking style. Some students speak well from brief phrases written in an outline, while other students find it easier to write sentences out completely. There’s nothing wrong with writing the presentation out fully like a script if that helps you be sure you will say what you intend to—just so you don’t actually get up and read from the script.

You can’t know for sure how long a presentation will last until you rehearse it later, but you can estimate the time while drafting it. On the average, it takes two to three minutes to speak what can be written on a standard double-spaced page—but with visual aids, pauses, and audience interaction, it may take longer. While this is only a rough guide, you can start out thinking of a ten-minute presentation as the equivalent of a three to four-page paper.

Never wait until the last minute to draft your presentation. Arrange your time to prepare the first draft and then come back to it a day or two later to ask these questions:

• Am I going on too long about minor points? Could the audience get bored?
• Do I have good explanations and reasons for my main points? Do I need more data or better examples? Where would visual aids be most effective?
• Am I using the best words for this topic and this audience? Should I be more or less informal in the way I talk?
• Does it all hold together and flow well from one point to the next? Do I need a better introduction or transition when I shift from one idea to another?

Visual Aids in Presentations

Except for very short informal presentations, most presentations gain from visuals—and visual aids are often expected. If encouraged or allowed to include visuals in your presentation, plan to do so. Consider all possible types:

• Charts or graphs
• Photos or other images
• Video clips
• Handouts (only when necessary—they can be distracting)

Use the available technology, whether it’s an overhead projector, PowerPoint slides, a flip chart, or posters. (Talk to your instructor about resources and software for designing your visuals.) Follow these guidelines:

Design your visuals carefully. Here are some basic rules:

• Use a simple, neutral background. A light-colored background with text in a dark color works best for words; a dark background used like matting works best for photos.
• Minimize the amount of text in visuals—more than eight words per slide is usually too much. Avoid simply presenting word outlines of what you are saying. Make sure text is large enough for the audience to read.
• Don’t use more than two pictures in a slide, and use two only to make a direct comparison. Montages are hard to focus on and distract the viewer from what you’re saying. Use images only when they support your presentation; don’t use clip art just as decoration.
• Don’t put a table of numbers in a visual aid. If you need to illustrate numerical data, use a graph. (Microsoft Excel can make them for you easily.)
• Don’t use sound effects. Use a very brief recording only if directly related to your main points.
• Don’t use visual special effects such as dissolves, spins, box-outs, or other transitions. They are distracting. Use animation sparingly and only if it helps make a point.
• Don’t use so many visuals or move through them so quickly that the audience gives all its attention to them rather than to you.
• Practice your presentation using your visual aids, because they affect your timing.
• Explain visuals when needed but not when they’re obvious.
• Keep your eyes on your audience, only briefly glancing at visuals to stay in synch with them.
• Don’t hand out a printout of your visuals. Your audience should keep their eyes on you instead of fiddling around with paper.

Step 4: Prepare Speaking Notes

As mentioned earlier, it’s not a good idea to read your presentation from a written page rather than deliver it. To keep your audience’s attention, it’s important to make eye contact with them and to use a normal speaking voice—and you can’t do this if you keep your eyes on a written script.

Speaking notes are a brief outline for your presentation. You might write them on index cards or sheets of paper. Include important facts and data as well as keywords for your main ideas, but don’t write too much. (If you forget things later when you start practicing, you can always add more to your outline then.) Be sure to number your cards or pages to prevent a last-minute mix-up.

Think especially about how to open and close your presentation, because these two moments have the most impact of the whole presentation. Use the opening to capture the audience’s attention, but be sure it is appropriate for your audience and the goals. Here are some possibilities for your opening:

• A striking fact or example (illustrating an issue or a problem)
• A brief interesting or humorous anecdote (historical, personal, or current event)
• A question to the audience
• An interesting quotation

Then relate the opening to your topic and your main point and move into the body of the presentation.

Your closing mirrors the opening. Transition from your last point to a brief summary that pulls your ideas together. You might end with a challenge to the audience, a strong statement about your topic, or a personal reflection on what you have been saying. Just make sure you have a final sentence planned so that you don’t end up uncomfortably fumbling around at the end (“Well, I guess that ends my presentation”).

Step 5: Practice the Presentation

Practice may be the most important step. It is also the best way to get over stage fright and gain confidence.

Practice first in an empty room where you imagine people sitting, so that you can move your eyes around the room to this “audience.” The first time through, focus on putting your outlined notes into full sentences in your natural speaking voice. Don’t read your notes aloud. Glance down at your notes only briefly and then look up immediately around the room. Practice two or three times just to find the right words to explain your points and feel more comfortable working with your notes. Time yourself, but don’t obsess over your presentation being the exact length required. If your presentation is much too long, however, adjust it now in your notes so that you don’t start memorizing things that you might accidentally still say later on even though you cut them from your notes.

Once you feel good speaking from your notes, practice to add some more polish to your delivery. You might want to record or videotape your presentation or ask a friend or roommate to watch your presentation. Pay attention to these aspects of how you speak:

• Try to speak in your natural voice, not in a monotone as if you were just reading aloud. If you will be presenting in a large room without a microphone, you will need to speak louder than usual, but still try to use a natural voice.
• In usual conversation, we speed up and slow down and vary the intensity of our words to show how we feel about what we’re saying. Practice changes in your delivery style to emphasize key points.
• Don’t keep looking at your notes. It’s fine if you use words that are different from those you wrote down—the more you rehearse without looking at your notes, the more natural sounding you will be.
• Be sure you can pronounce all new words and technical terms correctly. Practice saying them slowly and clearly to yourself until you can say them naturally.
• Don’t forget transitions. Listeners need a cue when you’re moving to a new idea. Practice phrases such as “ Another important reason for this is…” or “Now let’s move on to why this is so.…”
• Watch out for all those little “filler” words people use so often, such as “like,” “you know,” “well,” and “uh.” They’re very distracting to most audiences. Listen to or watch your tape to see if you are using these fillers or ask your friend to point it out.
• Pay attention to body language when practicing. Stand up straight and tall in every practice session so that you become used to it. Unless you have to stand at a podium to use a fixed microphone in your presentation, practice moving around while you speak; this helps keep the audience watching you. Use hand and arm gestures if they are natural for you, but don’t try to make up gestures for the presentation because they will look phony. Most important, keep your eyes moving over the audience. Practice smiling and pausing at key points.
• Finally, it’s a good idea to be ready in case of an accident. Most likely your presentation will go smoothly, you’ll stay on track with your notes, and your PowerPoint slides will work fine, but sometimes a mishap happens. Be ready to joke about it, rather than becoming flustered. If the computer fails and you lose your visuals, say something like, “Well, that’s a shame, I had some really great photos to show you!” If you drop your index cards or notes, or accidentally skip ahead in your presentation and then have to backtrack, make a joke: “Sorry about that, I was so excited to get to my next point that I’m afraid I lost control there for a moment!” Let your audience laugh with you—they’ll still be on your side, and you can defuse the incident and move on without becoming more nervous.

Step 6: Deliver the Presentation

Be sure to get enough sleep and eat a healthy breakfast. Don’t drink too much caffeine or else you’ll become hyper and nervous. Wear your favorite—and appropriate—clothing and comfortable shoes.

You may use computerized visual aids when you give a presentation to a class.

John Haynes Photography – OLPC – CC BY-ND 2.0.

Remember, your audience is on your side! If you’re still nervous before your turn, take a few deep breaths. Rehearse your opening lines in your mind. Smile as you move to the front of the room, looking at your audience. You’ll see some friendly faces smiling back encouragingly. As you start the presentation, move your eyes among those giving you a warm reception—and if you see some student looking bored or doing something else, just ignore them. But don’t focus on any one person in the audience for too long, which could make them nervous or cause them to look away.

Don’t keep looking at your watch or a clock: If your rehearsal times were close to your assigned time, your presentation will be also. If you do notice that you’re running behind schedule, it may be that you’re saying too much out of nervousness. Use your notes to get back on track and keep the pace moving. But it’s better to deliver your presentation naturally and fluidly and be a bit long or short than to try to change your words and end up sounding unnatural.

At the closing, deliver your last line with confidence, sweeping your eyes over the audience. If appropriate, ask if there are any questions. When you’re done, pause, smile, say “Thank you,” and walk back to your seat.

Later on, ask other students and your instructor for comments. Be open minded—don’t just ask for praise. If you hear a suggestion for improvement, file that in your memory for next time.

Group Presentations

You may be assigned to give a presentation in a small group. The six-step process discussed previously works for group presentations, too, although group dynamics often call for additional planning and shared responsibilities:

• Schedule a group meeting as soon as possible to get started. Don’t let another student put things off. Explain that you’re too busy and won’t have time at the last minute.
• Begin by analyzing your audience and your goals together as a group to make sure everyone understands the assignment the same. Discuss who should do what. While everyone should talk about what content to include, from here onward, you will take on specialized roles. One or more may begin research and gathering information. Others who are good writers may volunteer to draft the presentation, while one or more others may develop the visual aids. Those who have public speaking experience may volunteer to do all or most of the speaking (unless the assignment requires everyone to have a speaking role). You also need a team leader to keep everyone on schedule, organize meetings, and so on. The best team leader is an even-tempered student with good social skills, who can motivate everyone to cooperate.
• Steps 2 and 3 can likely be carried out individually with assigned tasks, but group members should stay in touch. For example, the person developing the visuals should be talking to those doing the researching and drafting to see what visuals are needed and get started finding or creating them.
• Before preparing notes in step 4, meet again to go over the content and plan for visuals. Everyone should be comfortable with the plan so far. Make final decisions about who will do each section of the presentation. Set the time for each segment. Then speakers should prepare their own speaking notes. Let someone with strong speaking skills open or close the presentation (or both), with others doing the other parts.
• The whole group should be present for practice sessions in step 5, even if not everyone is speaking. Those not speaking should take notes and give feedback. If one student is doing most of the presenting, an alternate should be chosen in case the first choice is sick on the scheduled day. The alternate also needs to practice.
• During the delivery, especially if using technology for visual aids, one student should manage the visuals while others do the presenting. If several students present different segments, plan the transition from one to another so that the presentation keeps flowing without pauses.

Additional Resources

For Class Presentations

Using PowerPoint. A step-by-step illustrated tutorial for learning how to create effective visual presentations with PowerPoint. https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/powerpoint/

“How to Give a Bad Talk.” A humorous look (with some very good advice) on what not to do when preparing for and giving a class presentation. http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~pattrsn/talks/BadTalk.pdf

Class presentations on YouTube. Search YouTube with the phrase “class presentation” and look for video examples of actual students giving class presentations. Observing and critiquing the presentations of other students are good ways to get started preparing your own and learning from others. Here’s a good example of a student group presentation on a topic we can all relate to (how body language works):

In this presentation, take note of

• how students make good eye contact with the audience;
• the first student’s natural speaking voice and tone, and how she did not have to use her note cards very often (obviously she practiced well);
• some differences among these students;
• the use of PowerPoint slides within the presentation (some better than others);
• the appropriate occasional use of humor;
• the division of presentation responsibilities within the student group;
• each presenter’s interaction with the audience.

Key Takeaways

• Public speaking skills are important because you will likely give presentations in class and perhaps in a future job.
• Overcome anxiety about public speaking by understanding your feelings, preparing well and practicing your delivery, and focusing on your subject.

Follow a six-step process to prepare and deliver a presentation:

• Deliver the presentation and seek feedback
• Use visual aids to support a presentation, creating visuals that are relevant, attractive, and powerful.
• The success of a group presentation depends on effective group meetings, successful division of roles, and repeated group practices.

Checkpoint Exercises

If you have given a class presentation in the past, what worked best for you? (If you have not given a presentation yet as a student, what aspect do you think will be most difficult for you?)

__________________________________________________________________

Name the two most important things you can do to reduce anxiety about a class presentation you will have to give.

For each of the following statements about class presentations, circle T for true or F for false:

Describe how best to use body language (facial expressions, eye movements, gestures, etc.) when giving a presentation.

If you were assigned along with three other students to give a group presentation in the class using this textbook, what would be your preferred role in the preparation stages? Your least preferred role? If you had to take your least preferred role, what single thing would you want to work hardest on to make the presentation successful?

College Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

About Stanford GSB

• The Leadership
• Dean’s Updates
• School News & History
• Commencement
• Business, Government & Society
• Centers & Institutes
• Center for Entrepreneurial Studies
• Center for Social Innovation
• Stanford Seed

About the Experience

• Learning at Stanford GSB
• Experiential Learning
• Guest Speakers
• Entrepreneurship
• Social Innovation
• Communication
• Life at Stanford GSB
• Collaborative Environment
• Activities & Organizations
• Student Services
• Housing Options
• International Students

Full-Time Degree Programs

• Why Stanford MBA
• Academic Experience
• Financial Aid
• Why Stanford MSx
• Research Fellows Program
• See All Programs

Non-Degree & Certificate Programs

• Executive Education
• Stanford Executive Program
• Programs for Organizations
• The Difference
• Online Programs
• Stanford LEAD
• Seed Transformation Program
• Aspire Program
• Seed Spark Program
• Faculty Profiles
• Academic Areas
• Awards & Honors
• Conferences

Faculty Research

• Publications
• Working Papers
• Case Studies

Research Hub

• Research Labs & Initiatives
• Business Library
• Data, Analytics & Research Computing
• Behavioral Lab

Research Labs

• Cities, Housing & Society Lab
• Golub Capital Social Impact Lab

Research Initiatives

• Corporate Governance Research Initiative
• Corporations and Society Initiative
• Policy and Innovation Initiative
• Rapid Decarbonization Initiative
• Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative
• Value Chain Innovation Initiative
• Venture Capital Initiative
• Career & Success
• Climate & Sustainability
• Corporate Governance
• Culture & Society
• Finance & Investing
• Government & Politics
• Leadership & Management
• Markets and Trade
• Operations & Logistics
• Opportunity & Access
• Technology & AI
• Opinion & Analysis
• Email Newsletter

Welcome, Alumni

• Communities
• Digital Communities & Tools
• Regional Chapters
• Women’s Programs
• Identity Chapters
• Find Your Reunion
• Career Resources
• Job Search Resources
• Career & Life Transitions
• Programs & Services
• Career Video Library
• Alumni Education
• Research Resources
• Volunteering
• Alumni News
• Class Notes
• Alumni Voices
• Contact Alumni Relations
• Upcoming Events

Admission Events & Information Sessions

• MBA Program
• MSx Program
• PhD Program
• Alumni Events
• All Other Events

10 Tips For Giving Effective Virtual Presentations

What to know before you go live.

September 26, 2016

Presenting online? Try these suggestions to improve your results. | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

As audiences go global and you need to reach more people through technology (including webinars, conference calls and teleconference), you must consider the challenges to connecting with a virtual audience. Here I pinpoint 10 valuable best practices to ensure you communicate successfully.

1. Be Brief

Audiences begin to lose attention after roughly 10 minutes of hearing from the same presenter. If you have more than 10 minutes of content, use interactive activities to keep your audience engaged (for example, take a poll, give quizzes, or ask audience members for their opinions via chat).

2. Be Simple

Keep slides simple — avoid too many words, graphics and animation features. Less is definitely more!

Light yourself well | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

3. Be a TV Personality

Look straight into your camera, not the screen. Wear clothing that is neutral in color (no plaids or stripes). Light yourself well and from above. Be mindful of what appears behind you in the background. Invest in a good microphone.

4. Be Standing

Even though your audience cannot see you, stand when you present. This allows you to stay focused and use good presentation delivery skills such as belly breathing, vocal variety, and pausing.

5. Be Prepared

Practice delivering your presentation with your technology in advance of your talk. Make sure all of the features of the technology work. Record your practice using the recording feature of your tool. Watch and listen to learn what works and what you can improve.

6. Be Assisted

Have someone available to deal with technical issues and to field email/text questions. Also, if you have multiple remote audience members in one location, be sure to pick one of them to be your “eyes and ears.” Ask them to queue up questions and facilitate discussion on your behalf.

7. Be Specific

Ask pointed questions to avoid too many people answering at once. For example, rather than ask, “Are there any questions?” try “Who has a question about the solution I provided?” Set a ground rule that people state their names prior to speaking.

Imagine your audience | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

8. Be Synchronized

Transitions are critical. You must connect what you just said to what is coming next when you move from point to point. Transitions between topics and slides are good opportunities to get people reengaged to your talk.

9. Be Connected

Imagine your audience even though you can’t see them. You can place pictures of audience members behind your camera so you can look at people as you present.

10. Be Early

Encourage your audience to access your call or webinar in advance of the start time so you can iron out any technical issues in advance and get them familiar with the technology.

Matt Abrahams is a Stanford GSB organizational behavior lecturer, author, and communications coach.

For media inquiries, visit the Newsroom .

Explore More

Power, culture, persuasion, and the self: communication insights from stanford gsb faculty, lose yourself: the secret to finding flow and being fully present, speak your truth: why authenticity leads to better communication, editor’s picks.

April 04, 2016 A Big Data Approach to Public Speaking Key takeaways from analyzing 100,000 presentations.

November 19, 2014 Matt Abrahams: The Power of the Paraphrase An expert on public speaking shows how paraphrasing can help you navigate tricky communication situations.

• Priorities for the GSB's Future
• See the Current DEI Report
• Supporting Data
• Research & Insights
• Share Your Thoughts
• Search Fund Primer
• Teaching & Curriculum
• Affiliated Faculty
• Faculty Advisors
• Louis W. Foster Resource Center
• Defining Social Innovation
• Impact Compass
• Global Health Innovation Insights
• Faculty Affiliates
• Student Awards & Certificates
• Changemakers
• Dean Jonathan Levin
• Dean Garth Saloner
• Dean Robert Joss
• Dean Michael Spence
• Dean Robert Jaedicke
• Dean Rene McPherson
• Dean Arjay Miller
• Dean Ernest Arbuckle
• Dean Jacob Hugh Jackson
• Dean Willard Hotchkiss
• Faculty in Memoriam
• Stanford GSB Firsts
• Certificate & Award Recipients
• Teaching Approach
• Analysis and Measurement of Impact
• The Corporate Entrepreneur: Startup in a Grown-Up Enterprise
• Data-Driven Impact
• Designing Experiments for Impact
• Digital Business Transformation
• The Founder’s Right Hand
• Marketing for Measurable Change
• Product Management
• Public Policy Lab: Financial Challenges Facing US Cities
• Public Policy Lab: Homelessness in California
• Lab Features
• Curricular Integration
• View From The Top
• Formation of New Ventures
• Managing Growing Enterprises
• Startup Garage
• Explore Beyond the Classroom
• Stanford Venture Studio
• Summer Program
• Workshops & Events
• The Five Lenses of Entrepreneurship
• Leadership Labs
• Executive Challenge
• Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program
• Selection Process
• Training Schedule
• Time Commitment
• Learning Expectations
• Post-Training Opportunities
• Who Should Apply
• Introductory T-Groups
• Leadership for Society Program
• Certificate
• 2023 Awardees
• 2022 Awardees
• 2021 Awardees
• 2020 Awardees
• 2019 Awardees
• 2018 Awardees
• Social Management Immersion Fund
• Stanford Impact Founder Fellowships and Prizes
• Stanford Impact Leader Prizes
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Stanford GSB Impact Fund
• Economic Development
• Energy & Environment
• Stanford GSB Residences
• Environmental Leadership
• Stanford GSB Artwork
• A Closer Look
• California & the Bay Area
• Voices of Stanford GSB
• Business & Beneficial Technology
• Business & Sustainability
• Business & Free Markets
• Business, Government, and Society Forum
• Get Involved
• Second Year
• Global Experiences
• JD/MBA Joint Degree
• MA Education/MBA Joint Degree
• MD/MBA Dual Degree
• MPP/MBA Joint Degree
• MS Computer Science/MBA Joint Degree
• MS Electrical Engineering/MBA Joint Degree
• MS Environment and Resources (E-IPER)/MBA Joint Degree
• Academic Calendar
• Clubs & Activities
• LGBTQ+ Students
• Military Veterans
• Minorities & People of Color
• Partners & Families
• Students with Disabilities
• Student Support
• Residential Life
• Student Voices
• MBA Alumni Voices
• A Week in the Life
• Career Support
• Employment Outcomes
• Cost of Attendance
• Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program
• Yellow Ribbon Program
• BOLD Fellows Fund
• Application Process
• Loan Forgiveness
• Contact the Financial Aid Office
• Evaluation Criteria
• GMAT & GRE
• English Language Proficiency
• Personal Information, Activities & Awards
• Professional Experience
• Letters of Recommendation
• Optional Short Answer Questions
• Application Fee
• Reapplication
• Deferred Enrollment
• Joint & Dual Degrees
• Entering Class Profile
• Event Schedule
• Ambassadors
• New & Noteworthy
• Ask a Question
• See Why Stanford MSx
• Is MSx Right for You?
• MSx Stories
• Leadership Development
• Career Advancement
• Career Change
• How You Will Learn
• Admission Events
• Personal Information
• Information for Recommenders
• GMAT, GRE & EA
• English Proficiency Tests
• After You’re Admitted
• Daycare, Schools & Camps
• U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents
• Requirements
• Requirements: Behavioral
• Requirements: Quantitative
• Requirements: Macro
• Requirements: Micro
• Annual Evaluations
• Field Examination
• Research Activities
• Research Papers
• Dissertation
• Oral Examination
• Current Students
• Education & CV
• International Applicants
• Statement of Purpose
• Reapplicants
• Application Fee Waiver
• Deadline & Decisions
• Job Market Candidates
• Academic Placements
• Stay in Touch
• Faculty Mentors
• Current Fellows
• Standard Track
• Fellowship & Benefits
• Group Enrollment
• Program Formats
• Developing a Program
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Strategic Transformation
• Program Experience
• Contact Client Services
• Campus Experience
• Live Online Experience
• Silicon Valley & Bay Area
• Digital Credentials
• Faculty Spotlights
• Participant Spotlights
• Eligibility
• International Participants
• Stanford Ignite
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Operations, Information & Technology
• Organizational Behavior
• Political Economy
• Classical Liberalism
• The Eddie Lunch
• Accounting Summer Camp
• Videos, Code & Data
• California Econometrics Conference
• California Quantitative Marketing PhD Conference
• California School Conference
• China India Insights Conference
• Homo economicus, Evolving
• Political Economics (2023–24)
• Scaling Geologic Storage of CO2 (2023–24)
• A Resilient Pacific: Building Connections, Envisioning Solutions
• Adaptation and Innovation
• Changing Climate
• Civil Society
• Climate Impact Summit
• Climate Science
• Corporate Carbon Disclosures
• Earth’s Seafloor
• Environmental Justice
• Operations and Information Technology
• Organizations
• Sustainability Reporting and Control
• Taking the Pulse of the Planet
• Urban Infrastructure
• Watershed Restoration
• Junior Faculty Workshop on Financial Regulation and Banking
• Ken Singleton Celebration
• Marketing Camp
• Quantitative Marketing PhD Alumni Conference
• Presentations
• Theory and Inference in Accounting Research
• Stanford Closer Look Series
• Quick Guides
• Core Concepts
• Journal Articles
• Glossary of Terms
• Faculty & Staff
• Researchers & Students
• Research Approach
• Charitable Giving
• Financial Health
• Government Services
• Workers & Careers
• Short Course
• Adaptive & Iterative Experimentation
• Incentive Design
• Social Sciences & Behavioral Nudges
• Bandit Experiment Application
• Conferences & Events
• Reading Materials
• Energy Entrepreneurship
• Faculty & Affiliates
• SOLE Report
• Responsible Supply Chains
• Current Study Usage
• Pre-Registration Information
• Participate in a Study
• Founding Donors
• Location Information
• Participant Profile
• Network Membership
• Program Impact
• Collaborators
• Entrepreneur Profiles
• Company Spotlights
• Seed Transformation Network
• Responsibilities
• Current Coaches
• How to Apply
• Meet the Consultants
• Meet the Interns
• Intern Profiles
• Collaborate
• Research Library
• News & Insights
• Program Contacts
• Databases & Datasets
• Research Guides
• Consultations
• Research Workshops
• Career Research
• Research Data Services
• Course Reserves
• Course Research Guides
• Material Loan Periods
• Fines & Other Charges
• Document Delivery
• Interlibrary Loan
• Equipment Checkout
• Print & Scan
• MBA & MSx Students
• PhD Students
• Other Stanford Students
• Faculty Assistants
• Research Assistants
• Stanford GSB Alumni
• Telling Our Story
• Staff Directory
• Site Registration
• Alumni Directory
• Alumni Email
• Privacy Settings & My Profile
• Success Stories
• The Story of Circles
• Support Women’s Circles
• Stanford Women on Boards Initiative
• Alumnae Spotlights
• Insights & Research
• Industry & Professional
• Entrepreneurial Commitment Group
• Recent Alumni
• Half-Century Club
• Fall Reunions
• Spring Reunions
• MBA 25th Reunion
• Half-Century Club Reunion
• Faculty Lectures
• Ernest C. Arbuckle Award
• Alison Elliott Exceptional Achievement Award
• ENCORE Award
• Excellence in Leadership Award
• John W. Gardner Volunteer Leadership Award
• Robert K. Jaedicke Faculty Award
• Jack McDonald Military Service Appreciation Award
• Jerry I. Porras Latino Leadership Award
• Tapestry Award
• Student & Alumni Events
• Executive Recruiters
• Interviewing
• Land the Perfect Job with LinkedIn
• Negotiating
• Elevator Pitch
• Email Best Practices
• Resumes & Cover Letters
• Self-Assessment
• Whitney Birdwell Ball
• Margaret Brooks
• Bryn Panee Burkhart
• Margaret Chan
• Ricki Frankel
• Peter Gandolfo
• Cindy W. Greig
• Natalie Guillen
• Carly Janson
• Sloan Klein
• Sherri Appel Lassila
• Stuart Meyer
• Tanisha Parrish
• Virginia Roberson
• Philippe Taieb
• Michael Takagawa
• Terra Winston
• Johanna Wise
• Debbie Wolter
• Rebecca Zucker
• Complimentary Coaching
• Changing Careers
• Work-Life Integration
• Career Breaks
• Flexible Work
• Encore Careers
• Join a Board
• D&B Hoovers
• Data Axle (ReferenceUSA)
• EBSCO Business Source
• Global Newsstream
• Market Share Reporter
• ProQuest One Business
• Student Clubs
• Entrepreneurial Students
• Stanford GSB Trust
• Alumni Community
• How to Volunteer
• Springboard Sessions
• Consulting Projects
• 2020 – 2029
• 2010 – 2019
• 2000 – 2009
• 1990 – 1999
• 1980 – 1989
• 1970 – 1979
• 1960 – 1969
• 1950 – 1959
• 1940 – 1949
• Service Areas
• ACT History
• ACT Awards Celebration
• ACT Governance Structure
• Building Leadership for ACT
• Individual Leadership Positions
• Leadership Role Overview
• Purpose of the ACT Management Board
• Contact ACT
• Business & Nonprofit Communities
• Reunion Volunteers
• Ways to Give
• Fiscal Year Report
• Business School Fund Leadership Council
• Planned Giving Options
• Planned Giving Benefits
• Planned Gifts and Reunions
• Legacy Partners
• Giving News & Stories
• Giving Deadlines
• Development Staff
• Submit Class Notes
• Class Secretaries
• Board of Directors
• Health Care
• Social Impact
• Sustainability
• Class Takeaways
• All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions
• If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society
• Grit & Growth
• Think Fast, Talk Smart
• Spring 2022
• Spring 2021
• Autumn 2020
• Summer 2020
• Winter 2020
• In the Media
• For Journalists
• DCI Fellows
• Other Auditors
• Academic Calendar & Deadlines
• Course Materials
• Entrepreneurial Resources
• Campus Drive Grove
• Campus Drive Lawn
• CEMEX Auditorium
• King Community Court
• Seawell Family Boardroom
• Stanford GSB Bowl
• Stanford Investors Common
• Town Square
• Vidalakis Courtyard
• Vidalakis Dining Hall
• Catering Services
• Policies & Guidelines
• Reservations
• Contact Faculty Recruiting
• Lecturer Positions
• Postdoctoral Positions
• Accommodations
• CMC-Managed Interviews
• Recruiter-Managed Interviews
• Virtual Interviews
• Campus & Virtual
• Search for Candidates
• Think Globally
• Recruiting Calendar
• Recruiting Policies
• Full-Time Employment
• Summer Employment
• Entrepreneurial Summer Program
• Global Management Immersion Experience
• Social-Purpose Summer Internships
• Process Overview
• Project Types
• Client Eligibility Criteria
• Client Screening
• ACT Leadership
• Social Innovation & Nonprofit Management Resources
• Develop Your Organization’s Talent
• Centers & Initiatives
• Student Fellowships

Tips for Online Students , Tips for Students

Presentation Tips For Students – Show And Tell Like A Pro!

Updated: July 15, 2022

Published: May 4, 2020

Giving a presentation to fellow classmates can be a bit daunting, especially if you are new to oral and visual presenting. But with the right PowerPoint tips, public speaking skills, and plenty of practice, you can present like a pro at your upcoming presentation. Here, we’ve laid out the best college presentation tips for students. And once you have one successful presentation, you’ll get better each time!

The Best Presentation Tips for Students

1. arrive early and be technically prepared.

Get to the room early and make sure you leave plenty of time for technical set up and technical difficulties. Have several backup drives (including an online version if possible) so that you are prepared for anything!

2. Know More

Be educated on more than just what you are sharing. That way, you can add points, speak candidly and confidently, and be prepared to answer any audience or teacher questions.

3. Share Your Passion With Your Audience

Connect with your audience by showing that you are passionate about your topic. Do this with the right tone, eye contact, and enthusiasm in your speech.

Photo by  Austin Distel  on  Unsplash

4. pace yourself.

When student presenters are nervous, they tend to speed up their speech. This can be a problem, however, because your speed may be distracting, hard to understand, and you may run under your time.

5. Rehearse Thoroughly

Don’t just practice, rehearse your college presentation. Rehearse the entire delivery, including standing up, using gestures, and going through the slides.

6. Show Your Personality

You don’t need to be professional to the point of stiffness during your college presentation . Don’t be afraid to show your personality while presenting. It will make your presentation more interesting, and you will seem more approachable and confident.

7. Improvise

You can’t be 100% certain what will happen during your presentation. If things aren’t exactly as you expected, don’t be afraid to improvise and run off script.

8. Pump Yourself Up

Get yourself excited and full of energy before your college presentation! Your mood sets the tone for your presentation, and if you get excited right before, you will likely carry that throughout and you’ll make your audience excited about your topic as well.

9. Remember To Pause

Pausing not only only prevents filler words and helps you recollect your thoughts, it can also be a powerful indicator of importance within your presentation.

10. Create “Um” Alternatives

Try hard not to use filler words as they make you look unprofessional and uncertain. The best alternatives to “um” “like” and “so” are taking a breath or a silent pause to collect your thoughts.

11. Using Your Hands

Using your hands makes your college presentation more interesting and helps to get your points across. Point at the slide, use common hand gestures, or mimic a motion.

12. Eye Contact

Eye contact is one of the most important presentation tips for students . Many students are nervous, so they look at their notes or their feet. It is important that you show your confidence and engage your audience by making eye contact. The more presentations you give, the more eye contact will feel natural.

13. The Right Tone

The best public speakers vary their tone and pitch throughout their presentation. Try to change it up, and choose the right tone for your message.

Preparing an Effective College Presentation

1. open strong.

Grab your fellow students’ attention by starting strong with a powerful quote, intriguing scenario, or prompt for internal dialogue.

2. Start With A Mind Map

Mind mapping is literally creating a map of the contents of your college presentation. It is a visual representation and flow of your topics and can help you see the big picture, along with smaller details.

Photo by  Teemu Paananen  on  Unsplash

3. edit yourself.

Some students make the mistake of including too much information in their college presentations. Instead of putting all of the information in there, choose the most important or relevant points, and elaborate on the spot if you feel it’s necessary.

4. Tell A Story

People love stories — they capture interest in ways that figures and facts cannot. Make your presentation relatable by including a story, or presenting in a story format.

5. The Power Of Humor

Using humor in your college presentation is one of the best presentation tips for students. Laughter will relax both you and the audience, and make your presentation more interesting

PowerPoint Tips for Students

1. use key phrases.

Choose a few key phrases that remain throughout your PowerPoint presentation. These should be phrases that really illustrate your point, and items that your audience will remember afterwards.

2. Limit Number Of Slides

Having too many slides will cause you to feel you need to rush through them to finish on time. Instead, include key points on a slide and take the time to talk about them. Try to think about including one slide per one minute of speech.

3. Plan Slide Layouts

Take some time to plan out how information will be displayed on your PowerPoint. Titles should be at the top, and bullets underneath. You may want to add title slides if you are changing to a new topic.

Photo by  NeONBRAND  on  Unsplash

4. the right fonts.

Choose an easy-to-read font that isn’t stylized. Sans serif fonts tend to be easier to read when they are large. Try to stick to only two different fonts as well to keep the presentation clean.

5. Choosing Colors And Images

When it comes to colors, use contrasting ones: light on dark or dark on light. Try to choose a few main colors to use throughout the presentation. Choose quality images, and make sure to provide the source for the images.

6. Use Beautiful Visual Aids

Keep your presentation interesting and your audience awake by adding visual aids to your PowerPoint. Add captivating photos, data representations, or infographics to illustrate your information.

7. Don’t Read Straight From Your Notes

When you read straight from your notes, your tone tends to remain monotonous, you don’t leave much room for eye contact. Try looking up often, or memorizing portions of your presentation.

8. Avoid Too Much Text

PowerPoint was made for images and bullets, not for your entire speech to be written in paragraph form. Too much text can lose your adiences’ interest and understanding.

9. Try A Theme

Choosing the right theme is one of those presentation tips for students that is often overlooked. When you find the right theme, you keep your college presentation looking interesting, professional, and relevant.

10. Be Careful With Transitions And Animations

Animations and transitions can add a lot to your presentation, but don’t add to many or it will end up being distracting.

Public Speaking Tips for Students

1. choose your topic wisely.

If you are able to pick your topic, try to pick something that interests you and something that you want to learn about. Your interest will come through your speech.

2. Visit The Room Beforehand

If your presentation is being held somewhere outside of class, try to visit the location beforehand to prep your mind and calm your nerves.

3. Practice Makes Perfect

Practice, practice, practice! The only way you will feel fully confident is by practicing many times, both on your own and in front of others.

Photo by  Product School  on  Unsplash

4. talk to someone about anxiety.

If you feel anxious about your college presentation, tell someone. It could be a friend, family member, your teacher, or a counselor. They will be able to help you with some strategies that will work best for you.

5. Remind Yourself Of Your Audience

Remember, you are presenting to your peers! They all likely have to make a presentation too at some point, and so have been or will be in the same boat. Remembering that your audience is on your side will help you stay cool and collected.

6. Observe Other Speakers

Look at famous leaders, or just other students who typically do well presenting. Notice what they are doing and how you can adapt your performance in those ways.

7. Remind Yourself Of Your Message

If you can come up with a central message, or goal, of your college presentation, you can remind yourself of it throughout your speech and let it guide you.

8. Don’t Apologize

If you make a mistake, don’t apologize. It is likely that no one even noticed! If you do feel you need to point out your own mistake, simply say it and keep moving on with your presentation. No need to be embarrassed, it happens even to the best presenters!

When you smile, you appear warm and inviting as a speaker. You will also relax yourself with your own smile.

The Bottom Line

It can be nerve racking presenting as a college student, but if you use our presentation tips for students, preparing and presenting your college presentation will be a breeze!

Related Articles

• TutorHome |
• IntranetHome |
• Contact the OU Contact the OU Contact the OU |
• Accessibility Accessibility
• StudentHome

Help Centre

Giving presentations.

The ability to create and deliver an effective presentation is important for certain fields of academic study, for example, business studies and languages. However, this skill is also very important in the workplace. This article gives you some useful advice on developing your presentation skills.

• How to approach the overall task of creating a presentation
• How to prepare your script
• How to practise your presentation

The most important thing with live presentations is to communicate clearly and make yourself understood. If you experience stage fright, do your best to prepare well. Good, solid preparation will go a long way to help you cope with your nerves. These tips can help make your presentation go smoothly.

Listen to an experienced presenter and mentor of postgraduate students, Trevor, give his advice about what you should consider before, during and after giving a presentation.

Purpose of your presentation

Trevor Collins: I've got some experience of working with students here and one of the things that comes up is fear. People are always very anxious about giving presentations. Fear's a perfectly natural thing. The nervousness that we experience is kind of important. It stops us from making an idiot of ourselves. Those fears when it comes to presentations are really key and it's the one thing you never want to lose. You always want to try and remember to be nervous because the day that you forget your nerves, you'll make an idiot of yourself. So, in terms of fears, I guess, the things that people are anxious of is making a fool of themselves - which is important - and you want to try and use that energy to make you do some preparation. There is fear that your content isn't good enough, so what you're going to talk about, and there's lots of stuff in terms of preparation you can do to avoid that. And there's also fear of the audience, that people are going ridicule you, or not enjoy your presentation, or think less of you. But actually, in most cases, that also can be avoided with some preparations. There's things around that kind of fear. So the fears that you have are important. The best way to build on that is to start off your preparation by thinking about the purpose of the presentation, so why you're giving it, what's important for you. And so, for example, if you're doing a presentation in order to get some grant funding, you want to impress the funders, you want to show your experience and your expertise. If you want to do it as part of a job interview, again you want to show your expertise but you also want to show other skills like open mindedness and thoughtfulness. The success criteria for a presentation comes right down to the purpose of them. So you've got to start by thinking of the purpose for you on that presentation. And the other thing to mention is the audience, trying to know who the audience are and where they're from, what they're interested in, why are they attending the presentation that you're currently giving. So why is it important? By thinking of those things, thinking about the purpose and the audience, you can start to make preparations that'll avoid a lot of the fears that people have, and they can sort of counteract those fears, so that when the day comes, you're able to perform the presentation really well. Everyone's frightened, everybody's nervous, but those nerves are really important. The day that you lose your nerves, you'll be a wreck. It'll just be a disaster.

Preparing your presentation

Trevor Collins: So if you've thought about the purpose and the audience that you're presenting to, the next thing then is the preparation itself. And that is the whole key to doing a good presentation is just to be well prepared. It's not that some people have got an innate ability to give good presentations, or a personality that suits presentations, it's just not the case. Everybody can do a good presentation. It comes down to just being prepared for it and that's all it is. In preparation, you can break it down into different stages. There's the planning of it, what you're going to say and why it is important to say, so that you can sort of think about a take-home message. There's the practising it, so that's really rehearsal. So going over a presentation and doing it, ideally with an audience. You know, if you can get your friends to listen to you and just talk a presentation through, it gives you a really clear idea about how long it will take to present the material that you've prepared. And that's the biggest thing for solving a lot of fear, fear of running over time, or not having enough to say. If you've already rehearsed it, if you've talked through it, you'll know exactly how long it will take, so it avoids a lot of anxiety. And so as well as practising, the third thing then is the on the day, the performance, and if you approach it as a performance, think about it, it's a bit like having stage direction, you know. You've got equipment and things in the room and you need to use those things as best you can, so if you're going to need water, make sure you take a bottle of water with you. If you're going be using any computer equipment, make sure the computer equipment's set up and the position's correct and the lights are okay. And if you're going to use a microphone make sure all that equipment's functional and working, ideally before you start the presentation. So all of those things are really important to do the performance on the day. So if you've planned well, if you've practised it and if you give a good performance, those are things that'll get you a good presentation.

Practicing your presentation

Trevor Collins: For any given presentation, you really want to say a very explicit message, a very clear take-home message that people can remember. So that's all about the planning and the defining what the material should be. Once you've got that and you've got a set of presentation slides or other materials, then you can practise it, and that's just rehearsal. Going through the material a number of times, so that you know exactly what you're going to say, when you're going to say it, and how long it takes you to say that. So the timing of it is really key, especially for academic presentations or even work-based presentations. The amount of time is fairly fixed, so you really do want to make your presentation fill the time available, but not go over time and you get that information through practising, through rehearsal. And if there are things that you could do differently, that you could do better, you want try and make sure that you remember those, so that next time you give a better performance. Sometimes people ask about, you know, those people that seem really natural, they just get up and give a clear presentation and are really good. Actually, through talking to people that seem to give very coherent presentations, it's often the case that those people are very well rehearsed, it's rarely the case that people just naturally get up and do it. And, in fact, sometimes when people do just think on their feet, they actually start to blur the message, so rather than staying to the clear take home message of the planned presentation, they can dilute it with extra discussion. So as long as you've done the planning and preparation, there's no reason why it can't go well, and it should go well because you know exactly what you're doing.

Post-mortem on your presentation

Trevor Collins: The last thing then to think about would be your post mortem. So just to go back over the thing and think about what went well, what could have gone better and think about if there's things that, if you're doing another presentation in the future, what you'd do differently. Now to make those decisions you really need to get an objective opinion about how it went. The best way to do that is to get people from the audience to give you feedback. So actively go out and ask your friends to listen to your presentations, and tell you what went well. If you can get people to write down the questions and tell you afterwards the kind of answers that you gave, you can start to reflect on how well it actually went, with an objective point of view. And that way you can alter, hopefully, how you'll do the presentations in the future. So it'll get to a stage where you're not only able to prepare and present the information, but you're also able to improve on your performance each time.

Techniques for your presentation

Trevor Collins: In terms of techniques for doing good presentations, some people use scripts, some people use cards. There's lots of different methods and one of the things about preparing and planning a presentation is to find out what works for you. So, typically, if you've got a script it needs to be written as a script, rather than a written document. So the purpose of the script is for it to come to life and, to make a script work well, you need to get eye contact. You need to shape it as a spoken form, rather than a written form. So scripts can be good, but they need to be written well and they need to be well prepared and well rehearsed. A lot of people use notes because they're much more flexible in that regard. You can have your main points and you can talk around those points. So that's another technique and it's not that one's better than the other, it's just one's more useful in certain contexts or for some people they find one more natural than the other. So, for example, if you're giving a very short presentation, especially if it's for broadcast medium and you've only got a minute or two, that's a context where it's really useful to have a script, because it's a very fixed amount of time and you can't afford to run over. So you need a written script that'll hold you to it. Whereas if it's a more fluid discussion environment, sometimes bullet points are better, just a card of notes that you can discuss with people and engage with the audience better. But in each case, it's a case of trying to think through and rehearse it, that it is an engaging experience. It's a dialog with the audience, not a monotone from a written page. A lot of people are now using PowerPoint or other presentation software and they're using it as a crutch, as a support rather than taking control of the presentation themselves. So sometimes you get an example where people will read off a presentation slide and literally repeat what's on a slide - sometimes referred to as 'death by PowerPoint'. So you're using the PowerPoint instead of giving a clear presentation. Which is again easy to avoid by a little bit of preparation and planning. You don't need to repeat the message. You can use your visual aid, but use it as an aid in a visual way. If you can use graphics or other forms of explanation that support your oral presentation, that's really often a lot more effective.

Benefits of doing presentations

Trevor Collins: When we think about presentations, it's often important to think about the reason of why we give them, and why it's an important part of doing academic work or other work. And it's all down to communication. So how we can explain our ideas and, through explaining our ideas, we can influence other people. And that's part of the goal. So presentations are important in all kinds of different situations. The other thing to say about presentations is the benefits that they give to you. It gives you a better clarity about your work, so you've got a very clear idea about what the presentation is about because you've written it, and the other benefit of doing them is the feedback that it gives you on your work. So, if you've done some research the whole goal is to try and find how that research can inform other people, and you do that through giving presentations.

Checking what is required

Read through the assignment task carefully. Check all of the instructions and make sure you know

• the topic and exactly what you are trying to present
• how long your presentation should last
• who your expected audience will be (i.e. who you are trying to convince and whether they will be hard to convince).

Preparing your script

• Make simple notes in large writing so you can follow them easily. Notes are more useful than full sentences.
• Incorporate words, expressions or structures from the module.
• Highlight key words or those you find difficult to say.
• Make a note of when to pause.

There are a range of study skills booklets available to students. If you're not already signed in, sign in to see them all including Communicating and presenting  which gives you further information on this subject.

• Try recording some short sentences then listen, evaluate and record again if necessary, to support the natural delivery of your passage.
• Practise recording, listening and re-recording several times.
• Finally record, and listen again a day or two later when you are fresh.
• Try useful expressions that indicate when you are moving on or summing up. for example: 'This brings me to the next point, which is ...', 'So, to sum up ...'

Delivering the presentation

• Avoid simply reading from your notes. It can make your delivery sound monotonous and affect your pronunciation and fluency, which would lose marks. Only look at your notes when you need to.
• Pace the speed of your delivery. Speaking too fast can affect the clarity, but speaking too slowly may mean you run out of time.

Last updated 1 year ago

The Open University

Follow us on social media.

• Accessibility statement
• Conditions of use
• Privacy policy
• Cookie policy
• Manage cookie preferences
• Student Policies and Regulations
• Student Charter
• System Status

© . . .

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

Partner Center

Ideas and insights from Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning

Powerful and Effective Presentation Skills: More in Demand Now Than Ever

When we talk with our L&D colleagues from around the globe, we often hear that presentation skills training is one of the top opportunities they’re looking to provide their learners. And this holds true whether their learners are individual contributors, people managers, or senior leaders. This is not surprising.

Effective communications skills are a powerful career activator, and most of us are called upon to communicate in some type of formal presentation mode at some point along the way.

For instance, you might be asked to brief management on market research results, walk your team through a new process, lay out the new budget, or explain a new product to a client or prospect. Or you may want to build support for a new idea, bring a new employee into the fold, or even just present your achievements to your manager during your performance review.

And now, with so many employees working from home or in hybrid mode, and business travel in decline, there’s a growing need to find new ways to make effective presentations when the audience may be fully virtual or a combination of in person and remote attendees.

Whether you’re making a standup presentation to a large live audience, or a sit-down one-on-one, whether you’re delivering your presentation face to face or virtually, solid presentation skills matter.

Even the most seasoned and accomplished presenters may need to fine-tune or update their skills. Expectations have changed over the last decade or so. Yesterday’s PowerPoint which primarily relied on bulleted points, broken up by the occasional clip-art image, won’t cut it with today’s audience.

The digital revolution has revolutionized the way people want to receive information. People expect presentations that are more visually interesting. They expect to see data, metrics that support assertions. And now, with so many previously in-person meetings occurring virtually, there’s an entirely new level of technical preparedness required.

The leadership development tools and the individual learning opportunities you’re providing should include presentation skills training that covers both the evergreen fundamentals and the up-to-date capabilities that can make or break a presentation.

So, just what should be included in solid presentation skills training? Here’s what I think.

The fundamentals will always apply When it comes to making a powerful and effective presentation, the fundamentals will always apply. You need to understand your objective. Is it strictly to convey information, so that your audience’s knowledge is increased? Is it to persuade your audience to take some action? Is it to convince people to support your idea? Once you understand what your objective is, you need to define your central message. There may be a lot of things you want to share with your audience during your presentation, but find – and stick with – the core, the most important point you want them to walk away with. And make sure that your message is clear and compelling.

You also need to tailor your presentation to your audience. Who are they and what might they be expecting? Say you’re giving a product pitch to a client. A technical team may be interested in a lot of nitty-gritty product detail. The business side will no doubt be more interested in what returns they can expect on their investment.

Another consideration is the setting: is this a formal presentation to a large audience with questions reserved for the end, or a presentation in a smaller setting where there’s the possibility for conversation throughout? Is your presentation virtual or in-person? To be delivered individually or as a group? What time of the day will you be speaking? Will there be others speaking before you and might that impact how your message will be received?

Once these fundamentals are established, you’re in building mode. What are the specific points you want to share that will help you best meet your objective and get across your core message? Now figure out how to convey those points in the clearest, most straightforward, and succinct way. This doesn’t mean that your presentation has to be a series of clipped bullet points. No one wants to sit through a presentation in which the presenter reads through what’s on the slide. You can get your points across using stories, fact, diagrams, videos, props, and other types of media.

Visual design matters While you don’t want to clutter up your presentation with too many visual elements that don’t serve your objective and can be distracting, using a variety of visual formats to convey your core message will make your presentation more memorable than slides filled with text. A couple of tips: avoid images that are cliched and overdone. Be careful not to mix up too many different types of images. If you’re using photos, stick with photos. If you’re using drawn images, keep the style consistent. When data are presented, stay consistent with colors and fonts from one type of chart to the next. Keep things clear and simple, using data to support key points without overwhelming your audience with too much information. And don’t assume that your audience is composed of statisticians (unless, of course, it is).

When presenting qualitative data, brief videos provide a way to engage your audience and create emotional connection and impact. Word clouds are another way to get qualitative data across.

Practice makes perfect You’ve pulled together a perfect presentation. But it likely won’t be perfect unless it’s well delivered. So don’t forget to practice your presentation ahead of time. Pro tip: record yourself as you practice out loud. This will force you to think through what you’re going to say for each element of your presentation. And watching your recording will help you identify your mistakes—such as fidgeting, using too many fillers (such as “umm,” or “like”), or speaking too fast.

A key element of your preparation should involve anticipating any technical difficulties. If you’ve embedded videos, make sure they work. If you’re presenting virtually, make sure that the lighting is good, and that your speaker and camera are working. Whether presenting in person or virtually, get there early enough to work out any technical glitches before your presentation is scheduled to begin. Few things are a bigger audience turn-off than sitting there watching the presenter struggle with the delivery mechanisms!

Finally, be kind to yourself. Despite thorough preparation and practice, sometimes, things go wrong, and you need to recover in the moment, adapt, and carry on. It’s unlikely that you’ll have caused any lasting damage and the important thing is to learn from your experience, so your next presentation is stronger.

How are you providing presentation skills training for your learners?

Manika Gandhi is Senior Learning Design Manager at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at [email protected] .

Let’s talk

Change isn’t easy, but we can help. Together we’ll create informed and inspired leaders ready to shape the future of your business.

© 2024 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.

• Privacy Policy
• Copyright Information
• Terms of Use
• About Harvard Business Publishing
• Higher Education
• Harvard Business Review
• Harvard Business School

We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies and revised Privacy Policy .

Cookie and Privacy Settings

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Search for Arboretum Director Narrows

The search for the next director of the Arboretum is underway.

A pair of sandhill cranes stand in front of the Arboretum Visitor Center. (Photo by Althea Dotzour / UW–Madison)

The search and screen committee, led by Florence Hsia, UW–Madison associate vice chancellor for research in the arts and humanities, has selected four finalists.  The PVL for the position is here: UW–Madison Arboretum Director PVL

The Arboretum is a global source of knowledge of and a model for restoring ecologically sustainable relationships between people and the land through integrative, innovative, and collaborative approaches in science, stewardship, education, and public engagement.

Finalist Public Presentations

Finalists will give their public presentations on the dates and times listed below. The presentations will be hybrid with an in person option to attend, as well as a Zoom option . The presentations will be video-recorded and made available here after the presentations for review and feedback.  If you have trouble viewing the recordings, we recommend trying a different browser.

To provide feedback on one or more of the candidates, please complete this Form by June 24, 2024.

Candidate 1: Teresa Schueller, associate professor of biology, ecology and environmental science, UW–Milwaukee, and director, Waukesha Field Station

9-10 a.m. Thursday, May 30 at Union South (see Today in the Union listing at the union for the room. Please note that this event might be moved to the Memorial Union. Watch this site for updates and check to confirm the location before the presentation.)

Link to Zoom option

Teresa Schueller Bio

Teresa Schueller CV

Candidate 2: Bradley Herrick, ecologist and research program manager, UW–Madison Arboretum

10-11 a.m. Tuesday, June 11 at the Biotechnology Center Auditorium

Brad Herrick Bio

Bradley Herrick CV

Candidate 3: Patrick Bohlen, professor of biology, University of Central Florida

9-10 a.m. Friday, June 14 at the Biotechnology Center Auditorium

Patrick Bohlen Bio

Patrick Bohlen CV

Candidate 4: Andrew Hipp, director of the herbarium and senior scientist, The Morton Arboretum, and lecturer, The University of Chicago

1:30-2:30 p.m. Monday, June 17 at Union South (see Today in the Union listing at the union for the room. Please note that this event might be moved to the Memorial Union. Watch this site for updates and check to confirm the location before the presentation.)

Andrew Hipp Bio

Andrew Hipp CV

• myTU for Students
• Towson Online Services
• OneCard/TU ID Card
• Academic Calendar
• University Store
• Graduate Programs
• Application
• Request Information
• Take a Campus Tour
• Housing & Dining
• Tuition info
• Financial Aid
• Family Network
• Family Weekend
• Undergraduate Admissions
• Emergency Text Alerts
• Tiger Connect
• Alumni Events
• Alumni Benefits
• TU Magazine
• Request a Transcript
• Office of Alumni Relations
• myTU for Faculty & Staff
• BTU-Partnerships at Work for Greater Baltimore
• Entrepreneurship at TU
• Center for Applied & Economic Research
• Center for GIS
• Regional Economic Studies Institute
• Dr. Nancy Grasmick Leadership Institute
• Sponsorship & Advertising Opportunities
• Hiring TU Students
• Calendars & Events
• Directories
• Facts & Figures
• Mission & Strategic Plan
• Rankings & Achievements
• Administration
• Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Consumer Information & Accreditation
• Undergraduate Studies
• Graduate Studies
• International Initiatives
• Colleges & Departments
• Off-Campus Locations
• Extended & Professional Education
• Summer Session
• Academic Services & Resources
• Commencement
• Graduate Admissions
• Tuition & Expenses
• Counselor & Advisor Resources
• Visit Campus
• Student Involvement
• Student Services & Resources
• Health & Wellbeing
• Safety & Security
• New Student & Family Programs
• Anchor Mission
• BTU-Partnerships for Greater Baltimore
• Entrepreneurship
• Strategic Partnerships & Applied Research
• Community Programs & Resources
• Arts & Culture
• Campus Landmarks & Features
• Planning Events & Conferences at TU
• Admissions & Aid
• Student Life
• Campus & Community

Information For

Treasurer Hub

The Treasurer Hub is where all aspects of student organization finances within our Student Government Association (SGA) is simplified for you. This one-stop shop is designed to empower treasurers and finance officers with easy access to essential tools and resources. 

Navigate through our links for grant applications, budget submissions and more, as we strive to enhance your financial management experience.

Student Organization Budgeting Process

Treasurer workshop presentation.

The Treasurer’s Workshop is available to provide important budgetary information for student organizations such as the budgeting process, financial operations, and important deadlines.

Initial Budget Submission

*This step is not mandatory but is highly recommended to prepare your student organization for the budget hearing. If a group submits an initial budget, they must also sign up for an FAC Meeting.

• Deadline: March 1, 2024

Financial Advisory Committee (FAC) Meeting

The Financial Advisory Committee (FAC) meetings allow you to review and make any necessary changes to your student organization budget with the assistance of your SGA senator and treasurer.

Available Dates: March 4, 2024 – March 8, 2024

Step 4: Final Budget Submission

Your final budget submission is due by March 15, 2024.

Budget Hearing

The budget hearing is a formal review and approval of a student organization’s budget by members of the senate, vice president and treasurer.

Dates: March 25, 2024 – March 29, 2024

Frequently Asked Questions

“i did a fundraiser and now i need to supply tax information. where do i go”.

Please complete the W9 form .

“Can I submit my budget over email?”

No. Budgets are only valid when they are submitted within the provided Formstack. Any budget emailed to the treasurer and/or senators will not count and will not be reviewed.

“Do I have to submit an initial budget or attend an FAC Meeting?”

No. Both the initial budget and FAC Meeting are additional resources. During this time, groups are given the opportunity to make any necessary changes to their organization’s budget   before  the final  budget  submission deadline.   This process is highly recommended.

“Do I have to attend the Budget Hearing?”

It is highly recommended that you attend the budget hearing. The SGA senate has the jurisdiction to approve or deny any budget they believe does not meet the SGA financial policy. Your attendance will allow for effective communication between all members.

At revered Black school, Biden leans into faith and tells grads he hears voices of dissent

ATLANTA – President Joe Biden on Sunday warned graduates at one of the country's most revered African American academic institutions of "extremist forces aligned against the meaning and message of Morehouse" College in a commencement address that sought to lay out the stakes of the 2024 election.

"Graduates, this is what we're up against," Biden said during a 27-minute speech that leaned heavily into themes of faith and democracy in an appeal to Black voters. "They peddle a fiction, a character about what being a man is about − tough talk, abusing power, bigotry. Their idea of being a man is toxic."

"But that's not you. It's not us," he said.

Biden's remarks to the 414 graduates at Morehouse , an all-male historically Black college in Atlanta, came as he is struggling to unite Black voters , particularly Black men, around his candidacy. Many Morehouse students and faculty criticized Biden's participation when it was announced because of his support for Israel's war in Gaza.

"In a democracy, we debate dissent about America's role in the world. I want to say this very clearly: I support peaceful, nonviolent protest," Biden said on Sunday in response to the complaints. "Your voices should be heard. I promise you, I hear them."

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

No major disruptions, but peaceful protests target Biden

Although there were no major disruptions during Biden's speech, a few students walked out when Biden received an honorary Morehouse degree. More than a dozen graduates and at least three faculty members wore keffiyehs, while one student entered the ceremony draped in a Palestinian flag.

As Biden delivered his address, at least one female faculty member stood in the opposite direction, her fist raised, in a sign of protest.

Biden, wearing a maroon gown at the outdoor ceremony, said his administration is "working around the clock for more than just one cease-fire," but also to "bring the region together." He reiterated his support for a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians live in peace.

"This is one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world. There's nothing easy about it," Biden said. "I know it angers and frustrates many of you, including my family, but most of all, I know it breaks your heart. It breaks mine as well."

Biden added that leadership is about "fighting through the most intractable problems" to "find a solution by doing what you believe is right, even when it's hard and lonely."

About a mile away, pro-Palestinian protesters held a rally organized under the banner of "Say No to Genocide Joe Speaking at Morehouse." Morehouse's valedictorian also raised Israel's war in Gaza during his remarks before Biden took the lectern.

"It is my stance as a Morehouse man – nay as a human being – to call for an immediate and the permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip," graduating senior DeAngelo Jeremiah Fletcher said, with Biden sitting just steps behind him. Biden applauded in response.

Biden touts record with Black voters

Polling shows Biden is vastly underperforming his 2020 performance among Black voters, a reliably Democratic constituency, as some drift to Donald Trump, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee.

A New York Times/Siena College poll of six battleground states, including Georgia, found Biden has support from 60% of Black voters and Trump, while Trump is backed by 20% of Black voters. Biden won Black voters in the 2020 election by a 87%-12% margin, according to exit polls.

Ahead of Biden's arrival, Anwar Karim, a sophomore studying film at Morehouse and a member of Atlanta University Center Students for Justice in Palestine, told USA TODAY he was disappointed in his school’s choice of commencement speaker. He also decried Morehouse’s decision to award Biden an honorary degree, which is typically awarded to the school’s commencement speaker after a faculty vote.

“Morehouse College is dedicated to producing men of consequence who lead lives of service and leadership, and I just have to beg the question, when it comes to Biden, what is an example of his leadership?” Karim said Friday.

Biden commits to showing 'democracy is still the way'

In his speech, Biden touted his presidency as one that has delivered to Black Americans, pointing to efforts to invest in Black families and communities, cut child poverty, expand work opportunities, reduce prescription drug prices and cut student loan debt. He called out the "poison of white supremacy" and "systemic racism."

He said he is committed to "show that democracy, democracy, democracy is still the way," even in the face of inequality for Black Americans.

"What is democracy if Black men are being killed in the street? What is democracy if the trail of broken promises still leave Black communities behind?" Biden said. "What is democracy if you have to be ten times better than anyone else to get a fair shot? Most of all, what does it mean, as you've heard before, to be a Black man who loves his country even if it doesn't love him back in equal measure?"

Biden railed against new voting restrictions in Georgia and the "constant attacks on Black election workers." He also said those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 "are called patriots by some," a clear reference to Trump.

“Not in my house," Biden said.

In the days leading up to his Morehouse visit, the White House focused on Black outreach. Biden met on Thursday with plaintiffs of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, on the 70th anniversary of the dismantling of the "separate but equal" precedent. On Friday, Biden met with leaders of the "Divine Nine" HBCU sororities and fraternities.

More: In a nod to history, Biden meets with Brown v. Board of Education families

In Atlanta on Saturday, Biden spoke to Morehouse alumni and others at a campaign event at Mary Mac's Tea Room. "The fact is, this election, lots at stake, lots at stake. It's not about me. It's about the alternative as well," Biden said. "My opponent's not a good loser, but he is a loser."

Introducing Biden, Morehouse President David Thomas said, "No administration in history, since the inception of historically Black colleges and universities, has invested more in our institutions than the Biden administration."

"And if you look at his policies, it is very clear that those investments are not charity," Thomas said.

Biden, 81, closed his remarks with a reference to his age, a liability that has hung over his reelection. When he started his political career, Biden said he was told he was "too young." Now he hears he's "too old."

"Whether you're young or old, I know what endures: The strength and wisdom of faith endures. And my challenge to you is to still keep the faith as long as you can," Biden said. "Together we're capable of building a democracy worthy of our dreams."

Sign Language Interpreter & Coordinator

• Madison, Wisconsin
• STUDENT AFFAIRS/INCLUSION ADMINISTRATION
• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
• Staff-Full Time
• Opening at: May 23 2024 at 14:40 CDT
• Closing at: Jun 6 2024 at 23:55 CDT

Job Summary:

Do you enjoy interpreting in a dynamic post-secondary environment and working collaboratively? The McBurney Disability Resource Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is hiring an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. Our team strives to deliver high quality services, innovate, remove barriers, and provide effective access Interpreting will happen on-site in various environments on and off-campus, including, classes, work settings, interviews, presentations, conferences, and tours. Virtual platforms will also be used for some requests and events. The direct service responsibilities will be balanced with working closely with our team of interpreters, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) Services team, and units at UW to coordinate requests, and provide consultation and trainings for partners.

Responsibilities:

• 25% Prepares for interpreting requests by utilizing provided preparation materials, researching outside sources, and communicating with colleagues
• 50% Interprets or transliterates for advanced or technically complex academic content or institutional events that include sensitive or high impact requests utilizing ethical analysis to determine optimal options in interpreting situations
• 5% Provides consultation and answers questions regarding best practices for interpreting and working with deaf individuals for the University community
• 5% Supervises a team of hourly, staff sign language interpreters
• 15% Coordinates sign language interpreting services for campus requests
• Provides American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting both on-site and through virtual platforms for student classes, student trainings and extracurriculars, employee accommodations, presentations, conferences, campus and statewide requests.
• Secures preparation materials and prepares for all interpreting requests.
• Develops innovate practices, processes, and uses of technology for unique interpreting cases to provide high quality access in a constantly evolving higher education environment.
• Provides training as needed for campus partners and staff.
• Records picture-in-picture sign language interpreting for training videos and other media.
• Meets and consults with instructors and campus partners regarding integrating sign language, media captioning, and accessibility best practices for Deaf and hard of hearing students and participants.
• Recruits, supervises, and actively collaborates with a qualified team of higher-education sign language interpreters.
• Schedules appropriate staff and agency interpreters, coordinates logistics for requests, sets up related technology, communicates with internal team/students/requesters, and ensures that service providers have relevant preparation materials.
• Manages invoicing/billing for agencies and timesheets for hourly interpreters, and provides reports on service usage.
• Provides backup for colleagues on the DHH Team.

Institutional Statement on Diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals. The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world. For more information on diversity and inclusion on campus, please visit: Diversity and Inclusion

Preferred Bachelor's Degree

Qualifications:

Required: - Current Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf Certification, National Association of the Deaf Certification, or equivalent certification. - Current or eligible Wisconsin Sign Language Interpreter-Advanced Hearing State License. License information: https://dsps.wi.gov/Pages/Professions/SignLanguageInterpreter/AdvancedHearing.aspx   - Minimum of 4 or more years of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting experience with Deaf and hard of hearing people, preferably in a post-secondary setting. - Flexibility in scheduling to accommodate schedule demands. Preferred: - Certificate of completion or equivalent from an accredited interpreter training program is strongly preferred. - Familiarity with common video conferencing platforms and experience interpreting for remote requests. - Knowledge of deafness, services, and accommodations of Deaf and hard of hearing students in a post-secondary situation. - Understanding of communication methods and technologies used by Deaf and hard of hearing students. - Ability to track details and coordinate interpreters to ensure high quality interpreter services.

Work Schedule:

Regular Business Hours: outside business hours may be needed occasionally, depending on the department's needs.

Full Time: 100% It is anticipated this position requires work be performed in-person, onsite, at a designated campus work location.

Appointment Type, Duration:

Terminal, 25 month appointment. This position has the possibility to be extended or converted to an ongoing appointment based on need and/or funding

Negotiable HOURLY The starting salary for this position will depend on experience and qualifications; pay is commensurate with certification, education, and experience. In this University Staff position, interpreters are paid for their interpreting time, preparation time and consultative time for a total of 40 hours per week at the hourly rate. This position also qualifies for shift differentials (between 6:00 pm-6:00 am) and compensation time or overtime for hours over 40 in a week. If you have questions about salary information, please contact Terri Oehrlein. Employees in this position will receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and paid time off; competitive insurances and savings accounts; and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund. Further Benefits information can be found at https://www.wisconsin.edu/ohrwd/benefits/download/univstaff.pdf  

Additional Information:

The McBurney Disability Resource Center is the office for students with disabilities and classroom accommodations on the UW-Madison campus. As part of the student accommodation process, we work collaboratively with students and instructors to provide and support effective student accommodations. While the McBurney Center primarily focuses on student accommodations, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) Services Program also fills campus interpreting and captioning requests for departments, faculty, staff, guests, and campus events. We strive to create an inclusive campus environment that allows students to engage, explore, and participate in the Wisconsin Idea. We work with over 5,100 students annually, have a strong collaborative team, and partner with students, instructors, staff, student organizations, and others throughout the campus. McBurney Disability Resource Center is part of Student Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison , led by the vice chancellor for student affairs. Our staff is dedicated to serving students and to helping them succeed in and out of the classroom in areas including health and well-being, identity and inclusion, leadership and engagement, and student advocacy. Student Affairs includes departments led by the dean of students; departments that provide identity-based spaces and leadership resources; the Wisconsin Union; University Health Services; and University Recreation and Wellbeing. Please note that successful applicants are responsible for ensuring their eligibility to work in the United States (i.e. a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without the need of an employer sponsorship) on or before the effective date of appointment.

How to Apply:

Please click on the "Apply Now" button to start the application process. As part of the application process, you will be required to upload a current resume, a cover letter addressing your experience and qualifications related to this position, and a list with the contact information of at least three professional references. The application must be completed and submitted by the deadline to be considered for this position.

Terri Oehrlein [email protected] 608-265-5298 Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAY_SERVICE for further information.

Official Title:

Sign Language Interpreter(EI007)

Department(s):

A04-STUDENT AFFAIRS/MCB/ADMINISTRATION

Employment Class:

University Staff-Fixed Term

Job Number:

The university of wisconsin-madison is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer..

You will be redirected to the application to launch your career momentarily. Thank you!

Frequently Asked Questions

Applicant Tutorial

Disability Accommodations

Pay Transparency Policy Statement

Refer a Friend

You've sent this job to a friend!

Website feedback, questions or accessibility issues: [email protected] .

Learn more about accessibility at UW–Madison .

© 2016–2024 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System • Privacy Statement