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RYERSON UNIVERSITY

LEARNING SUPPORT SERVICES

How to Prepare for and Give an Oral Presentation

Preparing Content

1. Know your purpose. Ask

If I am giving this presentation to explain/inform, what do I want myaudience to know?

If I am giving this presentation to persuade, what do I want my audienceto believe or to do?

2. Analyse your audience. Ask

Who is my audience?

What does my audience expect from this presentation?

Why should my audience be interested in and care about this topic? What does my audience already know about the topic? What does the

audience need and want to know?

What is the audiences attitude toward the subjectpositive? negative?neutral?

3. Determine how much you already know about and/or what approach you could take tothe topic. Try

brainstorming by putting the topic in the centre of a blank page andsurrounding it with whatever ideas, thoughts, questions, etc. come to mind

making a list of ideas, facts, examples, etc.

freewriting on the topic for ten minutes (writing continuously withoutstopping to make corrections)

answering questions related to the topic such as who, what, where, when,why, how?

4. Tentatively determine your main focus for the presentation. Ask

What point do I want to make about my topic?

How do I want to present the information? For example, will I explainhow to do something, explain causes and/or effects, describe problems and

offer solutions, present and support an opinion?

What key pieces of evidence/support can I use to develop this point?

5. If necessary, conduct research to add to your existing knowledge.

6. Write and revise drafts of the presentation until you are satisfied that it is interesting,well supported, clearly organized, and expressed in clear, simple diction and sentencestructure. Writing a good presentation is a complex process. The following are onlygeneral guidelines about how to develop and organize your presentation.

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INTRODUCTION:

Provide context by giving any necessary background information and

explaining the importance of the topic.

Provide an overview by telling your audience what to expect, i.e., the main

point of the presentation and the way you have organized the major piecesof supporting information.

BODY:

Support your main point with enough relevant, up-to-date information,such as facts, examples, statistics, definitions, anecdotes, quotations fromexperts, reasons, and humour (if appropriate and tasteful).

Organize the material effectively as the topic requires, e.g.,chronological order or from simplest concepts to most complex.

Use transitional (joining) words and phrases within and between

paragraphs to show how ideas are connected.

CONCLUSION:

The conclusion should give the presentation a sense of completeness.Don just trail off or say, Thats it.

Reinforce the main points through summarizing them and stressing theirimportance.

If needed, offer recommendations.

When you have written the presentation, prepare note cards so that you can use them asprompts rather than reading from a full script. Then PRACTICE, PRACTICE,PRACTICE, preferably in front of friends or family members.

Delivery Techniques

Before the presentation, check out the room (the location of the podium,the lighting, the equipment if you are using visual aids).

Immediately before the presentation, relax by taking a few deep breaths

Show controlled enthusiasm for your subject.

Dont confess to being nervous. You will not appear as nervous as youfeel. Besides, the audience is on your side and will be willing to overlooka few small slips.

Use a heightened conversational style of speaking. Use your normal

tone of voice, dont speak too quickly or slowly, enunciate clearly, andavoid fillers such as um. Unless you are asking a question, dont raiseyour voice at the end of a sentence.

Use a relaxed, comfortable posture (but dont lean on the podium), dontshift from foot to foot or pace, dont jingle keys or coins in pockets orfidget with notes, and use gestures that are natural to you.

Maintain eye contact by looking randomly at or slightly above the heads

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ofdifferent members of the audience.