Effective presentation skills

Why are presentation skills important?
If you have applied for a new job, you may have to give a presentation as part of your interview. Often, interview presentations give you the opportunity to present your ideas about the job which you are applying for, and to show why you are the best person for the job. If you are a student, you may have to give a presentation on the topic you are studying to your study group or your tutor. In this extract from Academic Listening, Susan Fearn and Christine Reeves give advice on preparing a presentation. Before you read, think about a presentation you have seen. Did you enjoy it? If you did, what made it enjoyable or interesting? If you didn’t, why was it not successful?

1. Good speakers organise their subject matter carefully, with a beginning, a middle and an end, using marker phrases to signpost key points and changes of topic. It doesn’t matter whether you are listening to a lecture, a seminar or a business presentation, you need to recognise where the speaker is going.
   (Susan Fearn)
2. Most presentations begin with some sort of introduction – both of yourself, if you don’t know the audience, and of the topic.You could give an outline of what you are going to talk about – ‘What I’m going to talk about is …’ But
   remember at this stage to say if or when you are going to invite questions.When giving a main point, you should remember to signpost that it is important and to show you are moving on to the next point. And, of course, you should give a conclusion and summary of your main points. If you use this basic framework for a presentation, you’ll find that it gives you much more confidence.
   (Christine Reeves)

• According to Susan Fearn, what are the most important features of a good presentation? Why are they important?
• According to Christine Reeve, what should you include in
  (i) your introduction and (ii) your conclusion?

Answer

• A beginning, a middle and an end, to show listeners where the talk is going.
• (i) introduction: tell the audience who you are if they don’t know you; give them an outline of the topic of the presentation.
  (ii) conclusion: give them a summary of your main points.

The keys to effective presentations

If you have to prepare a presentation for work or study purposes, the five steps shown below will help to make your planning easier.

1. Greet your audience. It’s important that your audience is comfortable listening to you. Say ‘hello’ and introduce yourself if you do not know them.
2. Give an outline of your topic at the beginning.Tell the audience what the different stages will include and if they can ask questions during the talk, or at the end. But remember – keep this section brief.
3. Make sure you make a clear point in each section. Use signposting phrases such as ‘So, the most important point to notice / remember / think about is …’.
4. Use visual aids to make your points. Illustrating your points with pictures, diagrams and even gestures (using your hands and facial expressions) will help the audience to understand what you are saying more effectively. However, don’t ask the audience to read a lot of text. Reading and listening at the same time is difficult.
5. Summarise your main points at the end, and leave time for questions.And don’t forget to thank your audience for listening!

Presentation task

Imagine you have been asked to give a presentation on the topic ‘Learning English with the BBC World Service’ to a school or college in your area.

Try to plan what you would include in each section. How would you introduce the topic? What would your main points be? Brainstorm points to make, and plan how you would make those points in English.