Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: Putting together the best prepared materials
• Part 2 of 3: Determine the trajectory of the presentation's main message
• Part 3 of 3: Practice your presentation

Presentation planning is a useful skill in both professional and academic fields. Whether you want to sell your product or just get a good rating, planning your presentation will take a lot of time and attention from you. In order to best present the materials at your disposal, you will need to consider the audience for which the presentation is intended, as well as the angle from which you will present your information. This is the starting point for preparing the slides and the presentation itself. Before submitting your prepared presentation to the public, you should carefully rehearse your presentation. This will help you to identify and change in advance the information in the presentation that is redundant or incomplete.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Putting together the best prepared materials

1. 1 Consider the purpose of your presentation. When planning your presentation, you should always keep the final presentation in mind. Think about exactly what you want to convey with your presentation, and try to do it in the best possible way within the time allotted for preparation.
   • Try to jot down a list of key ideas. See if you can highlight the most important one. If you wanted the audience to grasp one key message in the presentation, which one would it be?
   • Presentations are often intended only to convey information. However, it is not enough to list the bare facts to the public. Try to make her understand what all these facts mean. Explain what general conclusion they can draw from the information you have.
2. 2 Consider the audience for the presentation. The audience that will listen to you will initially have certain expectations from your performance. Try to get a better understanding of the composition of your audience, their level of preparedness and views. This will help you better structure your presentation around what the audience wants to know from you.
   • In this case, one of the key questions for you will be the following: "How well is the public familiar with the topic of my presentation?" You may need to fill in some knowledge gaps in the audience, so try to keep in mind what the audience may not be aware of.
   • In addition, you need to understand what the audience expects from your presentation. Decide if you want to sell people a new product, introduce a new idea, or even change their way of thinking. Think about the composition of your audience. Do you have to perform in front of a diverse crowd or in front of a tight-knit group eager to hear your speech?
3. 3 Choose the main points of your presentation. What statements, facts, and views best illustrate the theme of your presentation? They should form its basis. You also need to consider the length of your presentation. If the presentation is given 10 minutes, then it should include no more than three main points.
   • Think about which provisions complement each other best. The information you present should flow smoothly from one position to another. Let's say you're trying to convince a company's management to start a recycling program. You have three points at your disposal: 1) industrial waste is the main cause of global warming; 2) recycling of waste will help the company save money; 3) polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate.
   • Despite the fact that each of the above provisions individually is good, the last of them does not combine with the first two.The first two points address the topic of how you can improve the public image of the company and increase its profits, while the third point is a simple fact. Try to replace this provision with something more relevant to the recycling program.
4. 4 Find the best evidence base for your words. Read carefully the results of the research you will be introducing to the public. Look for the strongest evidence in it. They should be composed of information that will really make the public think about the need to make changes. The evidence base you are using should fulfill the following three objectives.
   • She should explain your position, that is, explain to people what they might not immediately understand. For example, give a brief overview of the impact of environmental pollution on climate change.
   • The information should look competent. You must refer to the research carried out, the scientific work at your disposal and other competent information. For example, you might mention the scientific consensus that global warming is the result of human activity, and mention a few relevant studies.
   • Finally, the information should be vividly illustrated. Nobody likes to sit in monotonous lectures. Try to supplement your statements with visual information in the form of images and videos. For example, you might show a photo of a company's monthly waste.

Part 2 of 3: Determine the trajectory of the presentation's main message

1. 1 Start with a catchy introduction. When the foundation of your presentation is ready, you can start preparing its introduction. Start your presentation with a catchy introduction that will draw the audience's attention to the topic you are discussing.
   • First, introduce yourself. This can be done very briefly. For example, say the following: "Hello! My name is Natalya Ivanova, and today I would like to address you with an interesting topic."
   • Find a way to get the audience's attention. How to do it? Ask the audience an intriguing question or present a fact that will immediately catch the audience's attention. For example, say, “Have you ever seen a body of water with a green film of oil on the water? water resources around the world. "
2. 2 Present your research to the public and familiarize people with the main points of it. The base of your presentation should take up 60-70% of your presentation, so include your best key messages from your presentation. Your best bet is to think of the foundation of your presentation as a road leading you to your main conclusion. It is for this reason that you should arrange the information of your speech as logically as possible.
   • Let's say you're trying to get a company interested in changing an existing recycling program. In this case, you can start the story with what are the volumes of industrial pollution on a global scale.
   • Explain the negative consequences of the current situation. Demonstrate how pollution affects climate change. Then let the company know what it can do on its part. Provide a brief overview of possible changes in the company's internal policy and what effect they might have.
   • This will clearly show the main line in your speech. You will start by explaining the problem, point out its implications, and then offer your solution.
3. 3 To make your statements clearer, use connecting phrases in your speech. They will help you eliminate meaningful gaps between different positions.With the help of connecting phrases, you will prompt the audience that you are going to move on to another semantic part of the speech, so as not to cause confusion.
   • Among the common connecting phrases, it is necessary to mention the following: "Another important issue is ...", "Based on the above data, it becomes clear that ...", and "All of the above allows you to go to the main idea ..."
   • For example, you might say, "Now that I have shown you the effects of industrial emissions, you can move on to the main point of my talk. What can you do on your part to stop pollution?"
4. 4 Use the prepared visuals and graphs as you speak. The audience can easily get bored with unsubstantiated listing of facts and monotonous speech. It's a good idea to spice up your presentation with graphical information. Video materials can also be of great help.
   • If you have graphs and charts available to support your claims, use them in your presentation. The visual presentation of information helps to make it easier to understand.
   • It is a good idea to look for videos to include in your presentation. A short video of someone's succinct interview on a topic you are talking about will help spice up your presentation a bit.
   • It is also good to use illustrations. It is recommended that every slide you present has some kind of image on the topic at hand.
5. 5 Make a final conclusion. The final part of the presentation should summarize all the statements you made and make the audience reflect on the information you presented. The duration of the withdrawal should not exceed 5-10% of your entire speech, so do not go beyond this.
   • Use just one slide to conclude your presentation. Remind the audience of the main theme of your talk. Start off like this: "As you can see, ..." - and then briefly repeat your main idea.
   • For a final conclusion, visual information can also be useful. So try to supplement your speech with a slide to help you summarize what you said. In this case, a graph or chart is good.

Part 3 of 3: Practice your presentation

1. 1 Try to add 1 or 2 minutes of speech to each slide in your presentation. Time your rehearsals. If you don't fit in 1-2 minutes, your audience may get bored.
   • If you don't fit in 2 minutes, abbreviate some of the information on the slide. You can't just speak quickly to meet the allotted time, as this will make you harder to understand.
   • To be understood correctly, speak measuredly. You should not speak too quickly or too slowly. You need to make sure that you can communicate all the information you need to the public while maintaining a constant speaking rate.
2. 2 Do not deviate from the main topic. When rereading the prepared presentation, try to identify all non-essential information. You may mention interesting facts, but are they really relevant to the topic you are talking about? When looking for an opportunity to shorten your speech, cross out any irrelevant information from it.
   • See if there is anything superfluous in your presentation? Sure, it would be great to illustrate the effects of global warming, but does this require as many as five examples of environmental destruction? Perhaps it will be enough to limit ourselves to two or three examples.
3. 3 Take a look at your performance from the outside. It is a good idea to record and then replay your performance. Listen to your speech and try to identify what you still need to work on.
   • There should be enthusiasm in your voice. There should be no noticeable shyness in it. Speech should not be overflowing with meaningless "hum".
   • Make sure to use linking phrases around your speech.Remember that when moving from one semantic part to another, it is necessary to use phrases like "The above allows me to go to ...", and not just jump from one topic to another.
   • Keep track of the time. Make sure your talk is not too long.
4. 4 Rehearse your speech until you no longer need your text recordings. Listeners are not very interested when a speaker reads a report from a piece of paper. While it can be helpful to use small key message cards at times, you should keep your need for notes to a minimum. Continue to rehearse your presentation until you are able to present your speech smoothly without awkwardly referring to notes.