This document provides guidance on developing effective presentation skills. It discusses delivering presentations confidently through strong vocal delivery, maintaining good posture and eye contact. It emphasizes speaking instead of reading aloud and using notes as an aid instead of reading from slides. The document also covers structuring the content of presentations clearly through well-organized sections and signaling the structure to the audience. It provides tips for introducing the topic, concluding effectively, and using language to guide the audience through the presentation.
7. learner@canterbury.ac.uk
Academic Learning Development
Body Language
What are the good things to do?
What are not good things to do?
Are you aware of any bad habits
that you have?
What about your expression, and
the way you stand and move?
8. learner@canterbury.ac.uk
Academic Learning Development
Good things to do
Speak, don’t read or recite
Look at your audience – eye contact
Smile at the beginning
Stand in a comfortable posture
Keep your body still
Use gestures to communicate
/emphasise meaning
Check your body language: give
your talk to yourself in the mirror or
record yourself
9. learner@canterbury.ac.uk
Academic Learning Development
What’s wrong with reading?
There are differences between reading
and speaking:
The sentence structure of written texts
is usually too dense and complex to
process
The rhythms of written and spoken
language are different
As a result – your audience is likely to
find your talk difficult to follow and to
be bored
10. learner@canterbury.ac.uk
Academic Learning Development
How do you remember what
you want to say?
Use notes:
Index cards
Print-outs of PowerPoint slides
Slides themselves
Index cards are easy to use because
They are small enough to hold in one hand
They don’t flop around
You can punch a hole in the corner, put them on
a key-ring, and flip them over as you go
11. learner@canterbury.ac.uk
Academic Learning Development
What to put in notes?
Not the whole talk
Have white space to be able to find
key points easily
Highlight the most important
information
Include headings, key points and sub-
points, key sentences, specific words
or phrases you find difficult, transition
words
Income
•Loans
•paying back
•Grants
•sources
•only some students
•Part-time jobs
•finding
•time from study
13. learner@canterbury.ac.uk
Academic Learning Development
Content
Topic
Make sure everything is relevant and important
Don’t have too many small points or details
Purpose
Topic and purpose should have a message
Audience
What does your audience already know?
What do they need/want to know?
Time
Don’t rush – cut something out instead
15. learner@canterbury.ac.uk
Academic Learning Development
Body: How to get your
message across
Information is usually presented in a direct way.
Audiences expect that you will make clear points and
that they can easily understand how your points fit
together.
Therefore,
Divide content into sections and subsections
Organise logically, don’t jump around
Outline your talk and explain where you are going
16. learner@canterbury.ac.uk
Academic Learning Development
Body: Sections of your talk
You can use categories charts to organise
the sections and subsections
Group your material into categories:
themes, aspects, topics, concepts etc.
Use hierarchy to decide what is the main
section and what are the subsections
Stress
effects
immediate
negative
panic
poor
judgement
positive
adrenalin
boost
longer
term
negative
lack of
sleep
health
18. learner@canterbury.ac.uk
Academic Learning Development
Outlining and signalling
It’s important to guide people through
your talk
Outline structure of presentation at
beginning
Clearly show main sections and
subsections
Longer presentations - outline each
section as you come to it
Make sure your talk follows the outline
19. learner@canterbury.ac.uk
Academic Learning Development
Language for presentations
Introduction
Good morning/afternoon/evening
Thank you for coming
I'm ____ [and this is my colleague,____ ]
The subject of this presentation is ___
In this presentation I am going to look at/
examine/ explain/ explore the concept of
___
will suggest/ propose/ argue that ___
In particular, I will discuss/ consider/
focus on ___
Outlining the presentation
at the beginning
Overview
I will be considering several / 'n' aspects
of ___
I will be looking at this from several/ 'n'
perspectives ___
This talk will be divided into 'n' sections
___
This presentation will cover the following
Stages
First, I will ____
It will start by ____
To begin with, I want to give you___
(some background about ___ / a short history
of ___ / a brief introduction to __ )
Secondly, Thirdly ... Finally
Then, I will ___
Next, I ___
After that, I ___
I will then move on to ___
Finally, I ___
I will finish by ___
To conclude, I ___
