Preparing Your Presentation

Probably even more important than your style and delivery, is the time you spend preparing your presentation.?I believe there is power in the number 3.?Build your presentation around the number 3. ?

For example, you will have the introduction, the main body (key points) and your summary (Conclusion.). ?Begin by making an outline and not writing paragraphs.?With key points, also limit them to a maximum of 3.

Another method for structuring a presentation is using the questions, “What?” - “Why?” and “How?” to communicate your message to your audience. ?

“What?” identifies the key message you wish to communicate.?From the perspective of the audience, think about what is the benefit of your message.?What will they gain, what can they do with the information, and what will the benefit be?

“Why?” addresses the next obvious question that arises in the audience.?Having been told “what”, the audience will naturally then start to think “why should I do that?”, “why should I think that?” or “why should that be the case?”?Directly addressing the “why?” question in the next stage of your presentation means that you are answering these questions and your talk is following what the audience perceives as a natural route through the material. The result is that you have the audience on your side immediately.

“How?” is also the next question that naturally arises in the audience’s mind: how are they going to achieve what you have just suggested.?Try not to be too prescriptive here so, instead of telling people exactly how they should act on your message, offer suggestions as to how they can act.?

Once you have a first draft of your presentation, it is important to review and edit it.?Take a break from the presentation before editing so that you can look at your writing with a fresh pair of eyes.?

When editing presentation content, consider the following:

? ??Ensure that the language you use is appropriate for the audience.?Are there any?terms they may not be familiar with??If so use more familiar terms.

? ??Is your language presentation friendly??Choose to use easily-understood words (such as those you would use in a conversation) rather than technical or obscure words.

? ??Eliminate long sentences.?Remember that you will be talking through your ideas and that the audience will be listening rather than reading. ?Keep sentences short, and simple to ease the audience’s understanding.

? ??Identify ways of grabbing the audience’s attention.?Are there additional visual materials that you could include to illustrate your key points??

? ??Check, and double check, that any presentation slides or illustrations, titles, captions, handouts or similar are free from spelling mistakes.

Now you are ready to learn about developing your presentation skills.