Actually I prefer to share different topic each time I post something here, but due to how presentation becomes a daily routine nowadays, I love to share what I learned in class. I need to refresh mine too :D So lets begin!
Picture is courtesy of click here
There are 4 keys of making presentation :1. What
2. Who
3. Why
4. Where
Ok, lets check it one by one :
1. What
Think about these two things :
a. What do I want from them?
b. What do they want for me?
When we are preparing the content of our preparation, we have to make sure that we will give the right shot. Make sure the expectation from our presentation before doing that is not a bad idea.
2. Who
Think about our target audience, not just an audience but as a target audience is the people whom we hope will listen to our presentation. Things that being considered we should know is :
a. Where are they from?
b. What do they know?
c. What words they know?
We have to consider the condition of the audiences. Although our research is so sophisticated, but if the audiences do not come from the same field, it won`t work. The core of presentation is to communicate, use the words that will be understood by your target audiences.
3. Why
People are sleeping at the lecture or meeting room? The audience`s fault? Or maybe the presenter just don`t give the audience a reason to listen.
Why is the idea or the research is important? What is new? Considering these two things well and maybe we will need less coffee and reduce the caffeine usage ;p
Give the audience a hook, to make they stay listening to us. For example, a shocking phenomenon, surprising statistical number which make they want know more about it.
4. Where
Prof Weeks told me that basically human is a kind of creature that hate to wait or to guess in a blank. So give our audience a map such as an outline or the point of discussion, where we are going to as a predictor.
Such a simple keys ryte? That is the point of the presentation, KISS which stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid! This is the favorite rule of my lecturer, just keep it simple bcuz people can not receive many things in a short time, simpler is better and maybe give deeper impact.
Example of presentation script :
1. Introduction
2. Background
3. My main idea is X (Thesis Statement, check on it on my previous post here)
4. I am going to say A, B, C etc (predictor)
5. Body :
Lets talk about A
Lets talk about B
Lets talk about C
6. Conclusion
7. My main idea has been X (Repeat your thesis statement)
8. I have talked about A, B, C (Repeat your keywords)
9. So..... (Final Comment)
Of course you can modify it, but the example above is a good start esp. for beginner (like me :D)
Study Case :
In addition, when I was working in a company, I often being asked to prepare presentation for my supervisor. From 20 slides I prepared for him, he deleted more than 10 of it. He told me something really important : ‘Never present ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ ｔｈａｔ ａｌｌ ｐｅｏｐｌｅ ａｌｒｅａｄｙ ｋｎｅｗ， ｉｔ ｉｓ ｊｕｓｔ ａ ｗａｓｔｅ`
And it is proven in one of my class this week, when someone presented a topic by just copying from the textbook. One of my classmate told him that he wasted his time listening to him considering he has very tight schedule. It was a bit harsh to say it directly in front of other people but I think he is right, to give our best is one of the way to respect the audience for their willingness to listen for us.
Last but not least
Thanks God we have the dearest Ms. Power Point! But Prof. Weeks, told me that recently people depends on it too much. Many of us feel so hopeless when we have to present something without the aid of this century`s amazing invention. Our own voice, our gesture, our way of thinking is much much much more important than couple of powerpoint slides. Lets take our confidence and the show must go on!^^
