Doing a Presentation

Doing a presentation in another language is not easy; but it can give you a great feeling of satisfaction and achievement. It is also a useful professional skill.

Here are some tips for successful presentations:

1. Look up and make eye contact
No matter what your subject is, people will be more interested in what you say if you look at them. Try to keep eye contact with your audience. Remember to address the whole audience, not just a small number seated in the middle.

2. Use notes instead of reading from a script
Avoid reading word for word from a prepared script if you can. Instead, prepare notes based on the keywords in your presentation. If you need to read, save it for quotations or statistical information. If you feel that you must read from a script, make sure that you look up regularly and make contact with your audience. Also, improvise some additional comments if you can. Be ready for brief questions during the presentation.

3. Use your voice and body
Do not rush your presentation. Speak slowly and vary the tone of your voice. Make sure that keywords and dates are clear. Remember that we do not only communicate with our voice. Our physical posture, hands and face also communicate. Look out for opportunities to use your hands to emphasise key points.

4. Use visual aids
Photographs, maps, pictures, cartoons, objects - any visual material can help to enhance a presentation. If you use a visual aid, make sure that it is relevant to your words at that point. Also, give the audience a few seconds to look at a picture before you move on to another one.

5. Break up your material into sections
When listening, we can handle less information than when we are reading. Organise your information into sections - four or five is a good number for a short presentation - and pause when you move from one section to another. Try to stay on topic. For a long presentation, preview the section headings for the audience using a slide or flipchart, and review these headings in the middle and at the end of the presentation. Ask for brief questions when you move from one section to another but defer more detailed questions until the end.

6. Introduce the topic
Instead of launching into a long description of a topic in the first minute, introduce it gently to the audience. Ask a question ('How many people have been to India?') or begin with a personal experience or short anecdote ('While researching for this talk I remembered an incident that happened to me a few years ago'). Questions and anecdotes need to be relevant and short, but they can prove to be an effective way of breaking the ice. But don't let an introduction take over your whole presentation!

7. Review and remind
As your presentation progresses, include some brief reminders of earlier points ('As we saw earlier...'). At the end, try to review and summarise your topic, preparing yourself for questions.

8. Humour and light touches
Although not always appropriate, look for opportunities to use humour or light examples in your presentation. If the topic does not invite humour, try to 'hook' the reader's attention by referring to a recent well-known event in the news or relating the topic to an experience that everyone will recognise. Another 'light touch' approach is to focus on a human example first before giving analysis of a serious problem.

9. Keep on time
Practise your presentation so that you do not overrun your time or have to rush the ending. Make sure you leave some time for questions.

10. Leave something behind
Give the audience a copy of your speech, arrange to send them a summary by email at a later date, or place your material on a web site.