Oral Presentations to

Impress

Industrial Civil Engineering

UCM
March 2017
 The Presentation Process

Identify Consider Structure

the purpose your your
& objective audience presentation

Deliver Practise Prepare your

the the notes &
presentation presentation visual aids

Evaluate your
performance
What is the PURPOSE of your oral
presentation?
What are you hoping to achieve with
your presentation?
Are you using PERSUASIVE
LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES effectively?
Being clear about its purpose helps you
to decide what to INCLUDE or OMIT
Ask yourself, ‘Did I achieve my
purpose?’
 Learn from Experience

Consider a presentation that you have seen that

was very effective. What made it so? (think
of career talks, classroom presentations,
visiting professionals etc.)

Consider a presentation that you have seen that

you thought was unsuccessful. What made
it so?
 Introduction
In an order that suits you, include the
following in your introduction:
The issue
Your point of view or CONTENTION
Objectives
Background to the issue
Tell the audience what’s in it for them
Attention grabber - image, quote, statistic,
tone, demonstration
 The Body
Consider each of the following points when you
design each key point (or paragraph) of your
presentation:
 Give accurate/researched details
 Smooth and logical order of ideas
 Use PERSUASIVE LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES
to persuade and influence your audience
 Tell them how this applies to them
 Make sure the point backs up the claims you
made at the start of your presentation
 The Conclusion
 Summarise your key points
 Remind them of the advantages of your
point of view
 Tell them how they should USE your ideas
 Closing attention grabber - can be similar to
the one in the introduction or linked in some
way, or completely different
 Invite questions - but don’t delay too long if
no-one has any to ask
 End on a high - avoid saying ‘That’s it!’
How do you remember what you
want to present?

Memorising
Using notes

Using visual aides as notes

Reading from complete text???

Never!
Audio-Visual Impact

Visual
Audio
 Using Visual Aides
How could YOU use the following aides
in your presentation?

White board?
Charts/diagrams?
PowerPoint?
Video?
Impact of Body Language

What we say

How we say it

Body
Language
 Body Language to Avoid!

Continuous staring at one person or

object - vary your eye contact
Constantly rubbing, itching, moving!
Constantly clearing your throat
Crossing your arms or legs
Shuffling your feet and swaying
Swinging or leaning on the lectern or
leaning on the board/wall
 Engaging Body Language

Stand up straight and face the audience

front-on
Hold your head up high - gives a sense
of pride and confidence
Use your hands to emphasise and
reinforce
Vary your gestures
 So, why should you rehearse?

 To get the content order right

 To adjust timing
 To commit to memory (just a suggestion!)
 To decide what to emphasise
 To practice variations in voice tone and body
language
 To make sure visual aides are visible and will
be used effectively
 Nervous?

Avoid negative thoughts

Prepare and practice
Think about your audience
Think of yourself succeeding
Act confident and you’ll FEEL confident
Be proud of what you achieve!
 In summary… PREPARE!

Purpose - establish what it is

Research your topic
Experiment with visual aids
Plan your ideas
Audience - know what they want
Rehearse your presentation
Early - prepare early to avoid rushing
Good Luck!