Oral Presentations

Oral Presentations
Oral presentations are a common requirement in many courses. They
may be short or long, include pictures or other visual aids, and be done
individually or in a group.
Planning and structuring an oral presentation is similar to the
process of writing an essay, except you need to be conscious of a live
audience and use spoken language instead of written.
The major steps in oral presentations are planning, structuring,
preparing, and presenting.
1. Plan
Purpose - What is important about your topic/book? What are the
important events or focus of your presentation?
Audience - To whom are you presenting? What does your audience
expect to gain from listening to you?
2. Structure
Like an essay, an oral presentation needs an introduction, body and
conclusion.
Introduction - Give a brief (and relevant) anecdote or provocative
question to engage your audience or introduce your topic with an
engaging sentence or statement.
Body – Stay on topic and include all the criteria and relevant
information for the presentation.
Conclusion - End presentation with a clear concluding statement, or
maybe a final question for your audience to ponder.
- Don’t end presentations with “that’s it” or “…and yeah.”

3. Prepare
The more prepared you feel, the less nervous you're likely to be.
There are a few key considerations in preparation for an oral
presentation, namely time limits, speaking from notes, body
language and use of voice.
• Time limits:
- Practice the presentation a number of times to get the pacing
right and ensure you fit the information into the time
provided.
- Don't finish too early either or it seems that you don't have
sufficient knowledge of the topic/book/material.
• Speak from notes:
- Try not to read your entire paper as you will tend to lose eye
contact, intonation and good posture.
- Use bullet points and then rehearse filling in the gaps while
practicing.
• Body language:
- Try to use roving eye contact with the audience while
maintaining good posture and using appropriate gestures
with your hands.
• Voice:
- Speak loudly, clearly and slowly.
- Use pauses effectively when making particular points, and
maintain interesting intonation patterns - avoid speaking in
a monotone voice.
4. Present:
If you've prepared well, you should be ready for a confident
presentation. By now you should have the presentation fitting
comfortably into the time limits and you should be speaking fluently
just from dot-point notes. When you're actually in front of the
audience, remember your body language and voice projection. Try to
relax and enjoy the experience of sharing your information. Don’t
forget to ask if anyone has any questions at the end.