Rehearsal

Notes

Structure

Content

Method

Time and length

Place

Audience

" Who am I making this presentation to?" Sometimes this will be obvious, but not always. You should try to inform yourself. How many people? Who are they? Business people? Professional people? Political people? Experts or non-experts? Will it be a small, intimate group of four colleagues or a large gathering of 400 competitors? How much do they know already and what will they expect from you?

" Where am I making this presentation?" In a small hotel meeting room or in a large conference hall? What facilities and equipment are available? What are the seating arrangements?

" When am I making this presentation and how long will it be?" Will it be five minutes or one hour? Just before lunch, when your audience will be hungry, or just after lunch, when your audience will be sleepy?

" How should I make this presentation?" What approach should you use? Formal or informal? Lots of visual aids or only a few? Will you include some anecdotes and humour for variety?

" What should I say?" Now you must decide exactly what you want to say. First, you should brainstorm your ideas. You will no doubt discover many ideas that you want to include in your presentation. But you must be selective. You should include only information that is relevant to your audience and your objective. You should exclude all other ideas. You also need to create a title for your presentation (if you have not already been given a title). The title will help you to focus on the subject. And you will prepare your visual aids if you have decided to use them. But remember, in general, less is better than more. You can always give additional information during the questions after the presentation.

A well organized presentation with a clear structure is easier for the audience to follow. It is therefore more effective. You should organize the points you wish to make in a logical order. Most presentations are organized in three parts, followed by questions:

Beginning	Short introduction	welcome your audience introduce your subject explain the structure of your presentation explain rules for questions
Middle	Body of presentation	present the subject itself
End	Short conclusion	summarize your presentation thank your audience invite questions
Questions and Answers

When you give your presentation, you should be as spontaneous as possible. You should not read your presentation! You should be so familiar with your subject and with the information that you want to deliver that you do not need to read a text. Reading a text is boring! So if you don't have a text to read, how can you remember to say everything you need to say? With notes. You can create your own system of notes. Some people make notes on small, A6 cards. Some people write down just the title of each section of their talk. Some people write down keywords to remind them. The notes will give you confidence, but because you will have prepared your presentation fully, you may not even need them!

Rehearsal is a vital part of preparation. You should leave time to practise your presentation two or three times. This will have the following benefits:

• you will become more familiar with what you want to say,
• you will identify weaknesses in your presentation,
• you will be able to practise difficult pronunciations,
• you will be able to check the time that your presentation takes and make any necessary modifications.

So prepare everything: words, visual aids, timing, and equipment. Rehearse your presentation several times and time it. Is it the right length? Are you completely familiar with all your illustrations? Are they in the right order? Do you know who the audience is? How many people? How will you answer difficult questions? Do you know the room? Are you confident about the equipment? When you have answered all these questions, you will be a confident, enthusiastic presenter ready to communicate the subject of your presentation to an eager audience.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-26