Mastering Oral Presentations: Tips For Students
It took me a B grade to decide to master presenting skills!
I was in a Data Analysis class and got As on all my midterms. Then, I did my project, which was about a topic that I was deeply interested in! I spent lots of time reading and doing codes, and then I got 80! And just like that, my dream of getting A went down the drain! My class average was 89, just one point away from an A!
I learned from my mistakes and I’m gonna show you how I do my presentations now!
Table of contents:
Preparation phase:
1- It is always wise to stand on the shoulders of giants!
Yes, you are interested in that topic! You’re itching to start digging and writing about your discoveries! That’s all good and kudos for your motivation! But…slow down and learn from the experts in the field! Go to YouTube and WATCH at least one presentation on the subject! It doesn’t have to be the exact topic! There are lots of online conferences that provide recordings, take advantage of them. You’re watching the videos to get an idea of what’s expected! As you’re watching, take notes:
How do the speakers start?
Motivation, Background, Key result, Story, etc.
How are the slides?
Lots of formulas? Pictures? How many lines are on each slide? How many slides per minutes?
Define the outline
Quickly sketch out the general framework!
For example: Motivation-Main Results-Numerical examples-Real life application
Grade the speakers
- What did you like about their talk?
- What didn’t you like?
- What do you think is missing?
- How do you think they should improve it?
Mimic the structure, apply what you like, avoid what you don’t like! Keep all your notes in the same place! You’ll need those later!
2. Know Your Audience
Make sure your explanations are examples are accessible, interesting and relevant to the audience. If you are presenting for a class, don’t rewrite all the definitions or theorems you already learned from class! You can recap them briefly but don’t spend too much time on them!
If you’re presenting to a conference, the range of knowledge will be very vast and you need to accommodate everyone. Make sure you explain the keywords as easy as possible. The advanced scholars also need to take new knowledge from your talks so make sure you show something new.
3 — Ask your teacher!
The teacher who made the assignment knows best about what they think are great presentation. Here is a list of questions you can ask them:
- Is the presentation gonna be on a whiteboard or slides?
- How long will I present?
- What do you want to see in my presentation?
- What books or articles do you think I should read for this presentation?
- How are you going to grade the presentation? What are the criteria?
- Would you be willing to review my draft before the presentation?
- Should I submit a paper along with the presentation?
- How do you think the outline of this presentation will be?
Don’t feel bad about asking your teacher in each phase of the project! It’s gonna save you from lots of troubles.
Writing phase
4. Structuring Your Talk
If you already know how other people present in the field, what your teacher/organizers wait from you, who your audience is, it’s time to structure! A talk has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Make sure you assign a reasonable time and number of slides for each part! You don’t want a 35 minutes presentation to have a 20 minutes introduction!
5 — Use slides templates!
Whether you type your slides on Canva, Google Slides or Beamer, there are templates available online! Personalize them to have your name, your school logo and color scheme! It may take a bit of time to personalize a template, but you can always reuse it!
6— Focus on understanding the major results
If you’re presenting your own research, explain your own contribution! If you’re presenting a topic that is already well established, make notes of what results are important! You can also learn this from watching other presentations. Depending on the topics, use toy examples and real life application instead of abstract proof (Except your principal contribution is the proof itself)! You need both accessibility and technical depth, so make sure you find the right balance! In case of doubt, ask your teacher!
7. Use Storytelling
Your presentation is a story! It has to have a beginning and an end. All slides need to have a reason to be in the presentation. If a slide does not help explain or illustrate the main key points, remove it! It’s better to have one example explain well than 10 unrelated examples.
8. Visual Aids
How you present the topic matters! Use LaTeX for all equations. Include relevant figures, graphs, and diagrams. Avoid clutter and excessive text. If possible, show don’t tell! Use emojis and stock images to illustrate your points! Use tables if needed!
Editing phase
9 — Take a break between writing and editing!
Even 2 minutes counts! If you have more time, it’s even better to wait a day before editing so that you start with a fresh eye!
10 — Proofread on a PDF or printed version
When your editor mode is on, don’t open the word processor! Use a printed version or a pdf. Don’t go back and forth to writer/editor mode! Write the comments down! Read your work from start to end and note everything that you think is incorrect or needs improvement! Trying to write while editing will steal the critical eyes! After the proofreading session is done, go to the word processor and apply the change! Always start the edit from the end! Editing from the beginning changes the slide number. You can redo these steps multiple times!
11 — Rehearse
You should always rehearse your presentation at least once before the day D! Use a countdown timer with the allocated slot. Speak out loud! Have a notebook near you! If you see places where you want to change, write them down and continue! This will allow to see if your slides are easier to read! It’s always best to have a beta audience when rehearsing, but even if you don’t, always rehearse!
12 — Go back to the original materials
After you edit and rehearse, go back to the original book/paper to fact check! You may need to rewrite parts of the slides, but that’s okay! Make sure you present the facts!
Presenting
13. Handling Nerves
Even the best presenters are nervous before giving a presentation! They just don’t tell you! Remember that your audience is there to listen to you, no matter how you do it! You can try some grounding techniques right before and during the presentation. Walk during the talk. You can also imagine that all the attendees are just apples! Focus on your message!
14. Engage Your Audience
Maintain eye contact. As before, you can think of the audience as apples. Are you afraid of apples? Of course not! They aren’t scary right! You can look at them however you like! If you’re already used to presenting, try to foster a dynamic discussion. Have questions on your slides! Ask the attendees what they think. You can also do collaborative boards or have the audience talk to their peers!
15-Handling Questions
Have a pen and paper next to you during the presentation. At the end of your talk, ask for questions! You’ll be able to answer some questions, that’s great! There will also be questions you did not encounter before. Don’t panic! You can write the question down in your notebook and then say to your audience:
“That’s actually a really interesting question! I don’t have the answer yet and I’ll definitely look at that! We can talk about it later.”
Aftermath
16— Reflect and Improve
After each presentation, evaluate what worked well and what could be better. Write them down so that you can better your next presentations!
If you like this post, send the link to your friends and talk to you next time!
