In this video we're looking at effective presentations
in this particular video
we're going to be concentrating on
preparation, organisation, some language
and answering questions.
First of all the purpose
presenting is a frequently used life skill
also, importantly, it's very portable
the skills you learn in presenting publicly
are very transferable
A lot of people, however, get nervous about it
but presenting is a skill
and as a skill you can improve with purposeful practice
everything we talk about in this video
and others in the series is about accessing message
So, I want you to think about these two questions
What do you think makes an effective presentation
and what makes an ineffective one?
Pause the video and make some notes
OK, as we go through this video
and others in the series
compare those notes to the sort of things
we'll be talking about
There are three key structural elements
to any presentation
The first one is around what you say
this is about the content, the topic, the message
The second element is about how you say it
how you organise the presentation
your engagement with the audience
and this is around your body language
your voice, the visuals
The third element is how it looks
the visuals, it might be a PowerPoint slide
or a Canva or a Prezi
and then there's you, the presenter,
We can further divide these into content and delivery
The content I'll be dealing with today
in terms of task brief, audience preparation, structure
and the delivery aspects
we'll be dealing with in other videos in this series
it's important to understand that
all of those three elements
interact with each other
and they are equally as important
In terms of content,
TED curator Chris Anderson says
the main job of the speaker is to transfer an idea
into the mind of the listener
So, everything I'm talking about
everything we're talking about
in these videos
concerning presenting
is about transferring and accessing message
In terms of preparation then
you need to know your audience
and importantly the task
First, the audience.
You need to know approximately who they are
and, more importantly even,
what they expect you to talk about.
It's really important for your confidence to know
that most audiences want to know
what you are talking about they are interested
So, take confidence from that
In terms of the content, this should be
evident to you in the task
Now, if you're doing an academic task
you need to read that brief carefully
and this might be an assignment
it could be a job brief
if you're doing something
more oriented towards professional skills,
it could be a conference theme, it could be a project
it could be a lot of things
but that task brief should tell you very clearly
what it is you're doing
Read the brief carefully, as I said,
and highlight key terms and use them in the talk
this is a key strategy
In terms of organisation and structure
oral presentations have three parts to them
the first part is introduction
where you set the context
and you give the structure of the talk
the middle part is the body, and the body importantly
is chunked into sections
those sections, that sequence of those chunks,
will be determined by the task brief
that's why it's important to read carefully
Next, and last, is the conclusion
where you tell them what you now know.
Now, remember, most talks, in fact pretty much all talks,
you need to talk to time,
so in terms of the percentage of your time
spend 5% on both the introduction and the conclusion
and 90% on the body
that's where most of your effort goes
Back to language and that idea of using
key language from the brief in the task
one of the key ideas is to combine
content language from the task brief
with what we call 'functional language'
let's look at an example from a task brief
Now, I've highlighted the key term
'social context of the institution'
something that you might say
is outlined here on the slide
where we have that key term
reflected in what you're saying
and then what you have
is functional language following it
'The social context
of the institution can best be understood
by two key measures'
'the first', 'the second', 'let's focus on'
this functional language is key
to helping the audience keep up
with key parts of your talk
and the functions are
sectioning, transitioning, rephrasing,
clarifying, linking, emphasising,
justifying, interpreting or highlighting
there are a lot of functions you use
when you're speaking to an audience
The key thing I want to point out here
so if we are using the function language
with body language and content language
it makes for a very clear and powerful message
look at this language here
read through it
and have a look at what it does
when you say something like, 'This shows that',
'This tells us', 'What this means is'
this language is really important
it's your voice
it takes you from the descriptive to the interpretive
and that's what academic markers
want you to do that's what they expect
In terms of dealing with questions
listen, don't panic,
the questions will be something
that you've presented on
you should be confident about that
allow yourself time to think about your answer
you don't have to answer straight away
you can always clarify by asking questions
A key tip before you present,
try to think about what type of questions
might be asked
That's the end of this video
for more Academic Skills resources
go to our website
for more videos in this series
go to our YouTube channel