Better English Writing - Geddes Grosset Webster’s Word Power 2014

Presentations
Writing for work or business

Many of us will have to make a presentation at work at some point in our working lives - either as part of an interview when we are applying for a job, or as a regular part of our job. It’s an effective way to communicate information to a group of people. Many people break out in a cold sweat just thinking about it, but there’s really no need. Follow these tips and you will be writing and giving polished, professional and confident presentations.

There is also an example of a PowerPoint presentation at the end of this section.

Planning a presentation

As with any other type of writing, it’s important to plan your presentation first.

There are four things you need to consider before you put pen to paper or touch your keyboard:

✵ purpose

✵ audience

✵ venue

✵ r emit.

Purpose

What’s the purpose of your presentation? What do you want the audience to know and remember about it? Once you have decided that, you can then go on to decide the most appropriate tone and style. For example, a presentation to a job interview panel would be formal and conservative, whereas a presentation to a media company for sponsorship would probably be much more creative and informal.

Audience

Who is your audience? What do they know about your topic? What are your audience’s needs and how can you meet them? For example, if they are members of an interview panel, they will want to know about your previous experience and ability to carry out the job. If they are members of a media company you are asking for sponsorship, they will want to know about who you are, what you are going to do with the money they give you and what they are going to get out of it.

Venue

Where are you making your presentation? Is it in a small, intimate room or a large hall? What kind of atmosphere are you trying to create? Will this venue affect your relationship with your audience? If it affects this negatively, can you change the venue to suit your needs?

Remit

A remit is slightly different from the purpose of the presentation. For example, somebody in your company might have asked you to make a presentation to a particular group using a specific template - and you have to stick to this.

Make sure that you are clear about the remit, and have all the rules and guidelines that you need before you start working on the presentation.

Structuring a presentation

A presentation should be clear, concise and logical. Don’t get tangled up in complex structures. You need to explain and discuss your points clearly. Here is a suggested structure for a presentation:

✵ Introduction

✵ Main points (linked together logically and coherently)

✵ Conclusion.

Introduction

This is where you must gain the audience’s interest and confidence. Wait until your audience is quiet, and then begin speaking with energy and enthusiasm.

Here are some key points in an effective introduction:

✵ introduce yourself

’Hello, my name is Anne Other ...’

✵ say what you are going to be talking about

’. and I am going to be talking about how my business can help yours.’

✵ say how you are going to approach the topic

’I am going to describe my background, what I write and how my writing services could help your business.’

✵ say what the outcome of the presentation is going to be

’I hope that as a result of my presentation, you will choose my company to

write your marketing and promotional materials.’

✵ tell the audience what they need to do

’At the end of my presentation I will take any questions.’

Main points (linked together logically and coherently)

These form the biggest part of your presentation. Here are some key points to help you develop this section:

✵ List the main points you want to make. What are you trying to tell your audience? What do you want them to learn?

✵ Think about the logical sequence for these points - think of this as a story - then put your points in this order.

✵ Now add supporting information and any diagrams or illustrations you think would be helpful.

✵ Keep it clear and concise, and always use plain English.

✵ Please be careful about using humour. People can interpret j okes so differently, and what one person finds funny, another might find offensive. Best to leave it out, unless your remit is to be a stand-up comedian.

Conclusion

Audiences remember the first and last things you say, so make an impact on your audience with a strong and effective conclusion. Summarise the purpose and content of your presentation, and reinforce the outcome.

Here are some key points in an effective conclusion:

✵ reinforce the purpose and content

’This presentation has described what I write and how my writing services could help your business.’

✵ say what your conclusions are

’I think that I have the experience and expertise to write your marketing and promotional materials.’

✵ say what you would like the next stages to be

’I would like to talk in more detail about the type of marketing and promotional materials you need.’

✵ say what is going to happen next

’I am happy to take any questions you have.’

✵ thank your audience

’Thank you very much for giving me the chance to pitch for this work.’

Delivering an effective presentation

When you are making a presentation, you are also giving a performance - or acting. The audience responds to you in the same way they would to any performance, so you need to think about how you use your voice and your body.

Here are some key points to help you deliver an effective presentation performance:

✵ Remember that practice makes perfect.

✵ Use body language, posture, eye contact and gestures.

✵ Use your voice.

✵ Breathe.

✵ Be enthusiastic and energetic.

✵ Be prepared.

Remember that practice makes perfect

Remember that delivering a presentation is really a performance, and that actors rehearse before a performance. It makes sense to practise your presentation before you make it. In fact, find an empty room, stand up and make your presentation. How did you perform? What do you need to improve or work on? The more familiar you are with your presentation, the more comfortable and confident you’ll be delivering it.

Use body language

You don’t just communicate with your voice. Your body can also say a lot about what you are thinking and feeling. So be aware of this and use it to your advantage.

First of all, think about your posture. If you cross your arms and hunch your shoulders, you will immediately give the impression that you are defensive and nervous. Stand up tall, with your shoulders back. This will not only make you look more confident and self-assured - it will help you to breathe better and to pr oj ect your voice more easily.

You need to make eye contact with your audience. If you don’t, they won’t feel that you are interested in them or that they are involved in your presentation. If you

have a small audience, make eye contact with all the members. If you have a large audience, you obviously won’t be able to make eye contact with every individual, so focus on different points around the room. This will make it look as if you are involving everybody. Don’t look at the floor or ceiling - this will come across as if you are bored or being rude.

People use gestures all the time to emphasise a point or to help them describe something, so use gestures in your presentation, too. It would look a bit odd if you just stood there with your arms stuck to your sides. Open your arms as a welcoming gesture, and make gestures to emphasise points or show you have finished.

Keep the gestures open, moving away from your body and towards your audience. This will help to make the audience feel included, and will help to break down any barriers.

On the other hand, however, be careful not to use too many gestures, and don’t gesticulate wildly - this will make you look nervous and unprofessional, and it will probably distract your audience rather than make them listen to you.

Use your voice

The way you use your voice can make or break an effective presentation. You need to think about the volume at which you speak, the speed of your delivery and the pitch of your voice.

Your voice needs to be loud enough for the audience to hear, but if it’s too loud, then it can be distracting. Use loud and soft to add some colour and interest to your delivery. Monotone is very boring.

If you speak too quickly, the audience won’t be able to understand you, but if you speak too slowly, they will probably fall asleep. As with volume, vary the pace of your delivery to add some energy and interest.

The pitch of your voice varies in normal conversation. For example, if you are asking a question the pitch of your voice automatically rises. If you are giving someone a row, the pitch becomes lower.

Pitch is a useful tool to use in a presentation. Vary your pitch - try this out when you are practising your presentation. Remember that you are giving a performance.

Breathe!

Many actors know the value of controlling their breathing. If you breathe steadily and deeply, this will calm your nerves and help you to control your voice. If you are nervous your breathing becomes fast and shallow, and this will make it more difficult to speak clearly and steadily.

Take a few deep breaths before you begin the presentation, and try to get into a steady breathing pattern.

Be enthusiastic and energetic

Show the audience that you are enthusiastic about your topic. If your presentation has a sense of energy, your audience will be more likely to feel interested and involved. If you are negative, lacking in energy and unenthusiastic, they won’t engage with you.

Be prepared!

Presentations can fail because you haven’t checked everything out beforehand. Disaster can happen, for example, if you haven’t made sure that your equipment works or the room has been booked.

It pays to do the following before your presentation:

✵ revise and edit your presentation to make sure you haven’t made any mistakes

✵ rehearse on your own in the room, hall or theatre where you are making your presentation to get a sense of what it’s like

✵ make sure the room, hall or theatre has been booked and is available on that day

✵ check the technology is working and that you have backup - just in case

✵ turn off your mobile phone.

What type of visual aid?

There are lots of different types of visual aids to help you make your presentation. Here are the most popular (in alphabetical order).

Flipchart

A flipchart is a large pad of paper on a metal stand. People usually write on a flipchart with coloured pens as they go through their presentation, although you could also prepare some sheets containing key points beforehand. You should write down one idea per sheet, otherwise it could get too cluttered for the audience to see clearly. You can flip backwards and forwards through the sheets to make and reinforce your points. Make sure your writing is clear and large enough to read from a distance, and don’t draw over-complicated illustrations or diagrams.

Handout

Handouts are very handy. They give your audience a full record of your presentation which they can take away and digest in their own time. However, the issue is when is the best time to hand out your handout? If you give them out at the beginning or during the middle of your presentation, the audience might look at them and not listen to you. If you hand them out at the end, they might have already made lots of unnecessary notes - and this can be very annoying. One way to solve this could be to say at the beginning of the presentation that you are going to pass round a handout at the end, so the audience can concentrate on listening without having to make notes.

OHP

An overhead projector (OHP) and OHP slides or transparencies are particularly popular in education institutions. The OHP is a device that enlarges and projects transparencies onto a screen, whiteboard or a wall.

There are three ways to produce your transparencies:

✵ write or draw them yourself using either cleanable or permanent pens, or produce them on a computer before the presentation

✵ write them during the presentation using cleanable or permanent pens to record your points and feedback from the audience

✵ a bit of both.

As with a flipchart, make sure that your writing is clear and large enough for the audience to read. If you are producing your text for the transparencies on computer, use 18 point text. Stick to one main idea per transparency, and don’t draw overcomplicated illustrations or diagrams, because these can be distracting.

PowerPoint

The visual aid that most people now use is Microsoft PowerPoint. But beware, you need to know how to use it effectively - if you don’t, your audience will get bored and restless. It’s not a good sign when you hear whispers, sweet papers rustling or pens tapping. But that’s not going to happen to you, because here are some key points to producing a successful PowerPoint presentation:

✵ Use a font that the audience can read - at least 20pt. If the text is too small, then the audience won’t be able to read it. Can the people at the back see it?

✵ Keep the background as simple as possible. If you introduce too much design, it will conflict with the text and again, the audience won’t be able to read it.

✵ Animations are useful when you want to illustrate a point. They can also inject some interest into your presentation. But if you overuse them, you risk distracting your audience and losing their attention.

✵ Vary your text and try to make your slides look clean and accessible. If slide after slide is peppered with bullet points, the audience will get bored and their attention will wander.

Video

A little bit of video can go a long way - so use it carefully. Like animation, it can inject interest into your presentation, but too much is distracting.

Whiteboard

A whiteboard is a large board that you can write on and then rub off. It is useful for presenting processes, a sequence of ideas, events or stages involved in scientific experiments. Many scientists use whiteboards in their presentations for this reason.

You can write the title of or key points of each stage of the experiment or process on the board, along with essential references. Make sure that your audience has noted everything they need before you wipe it off, though. And make sure that your writing or diagrams are clear and large enough for your audience to read.

Example of a PowerPoint presentation

Here is an example of a PowerPoint presentation.

The person making this presentation wants to persuade the company that she can write their marketing and promotional materials.