𝕊𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕝 𝕤𝕦𝕔𝕔𝕖𝕤𝕤 ✎🌻

Presentation tips

Hi, everyone! My name is Crystal and today we will be talking about different presentation tips. Public speaking can be quite hard! And as a student myself, I'm aware that it can sometimes be difficult to do a good job at giving presentations. Whether it's that you don't know where to look or that you aren't prepared, even the littlest of doubt in what you're doing can affect your whole performance. So today, I'm going to share with all of you, some tips that I have learned over time that have helped me get better at giving presentations.

❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄

#1 - Powerpoint Tips and Being Prepared

The first thing that should be done before giving any presentation is making sure that you are prepared. That means being prepared for any technical issues that might occur and to be prepared to present. To prevent technical difficulties, make sure to have backups for pictures, devices, and anything else that might come to mind. Also, make sure that your presentation is the best it can be. That means having more visuals rather than words. This helps keep your audience's attention on you rather than on the screen. Third, remember to keep the color and font of your words simple. Next, when picking your visuals, remember to choose wisely and to pick good quality images, Finally, remember to not have too many slides to the point where your presentation grows boring for your audience. In this case, less is more.

#2 - Know MORE

This might seem a bit confusing, what do you mean to know more? What I mean, is that whiling giving your presentation, know what you're talking about. It shouldn't just be a bunch of words that you've memorized, you should understand the matter. And by knowing more, you can avoid the matter of not being able to answer a question that one of your fellow peers might have about your topic.

#3 - Pace Yourself

Pacing yourself doing your presentation is very important. Don't be so fast that none of your audience can hear a single word that you're saying. But don't be so slow that everyone gets impatient. Stay at a nice consistent pace and make sure to pause occasionally to collect your thoughts and to show the importance of your topic.

#4 - No Ums

One of the more common things that people do during presentations is that they use the word um or uh. These words are generally used because speakers need to recollect their thoughts, they're out of breath, or they don't know what to say next. The best alternative to avoid this mistake, pause. Either take a breath or take a silent pause. By doing this, you seem more professional and certain while saying um will do the opposite.

#5 - Eye Contact

In my opinion, eye contact is one of the hardest things for students to do. And not many realize it. On instinct, when we're giving a presentation, we either want to look at the screen or our notes because they help tell us what we need to say. But many don't look at anything but that. Or students will stare at their professors or teachers. That's alright, but after a while, it can get creepy, plus you have more people in your audience other than your teacher. So, while giving your presentation, shift your gaze from one pair of eyes to another. Don't hold their gaze long enough to make it creepy nor short enough that it looks like your panicking. Good eye contact also helps students keep their audience's attention on them.

#6 - Using Your Hands

Hand motions, though many don't realize it, are an essential part of public speaking. It helps entertain the audience. And it can also help get your point across. But, remember to not overuse your hand motions. If you do that, you may look more uncertain or nervous which can hurt rather than help you.

# 7 - Do NOT Be Afraid to Improvise

A lot of times, presentations might not go to plan. Whether that be through technical issues or you forgetting something because life isn't perfect. So if you run through problems, remember to carry on. If you forget something, pause for a second, and then come up with something that can help you out. If you are stumped with a question, try your best to answer it to the best of your extent. If you run into technical issues, either have a backup or explain what isn't there. The worst thing you can do during a presentation is to freeze up or fall completely silent. This ends up alerting your audience that something is wrong. So go on with your presentation. Your audience won't know if you mess up or skip something because they don't know your script, but by doing nothing, they do know.

#8 - The Right Tone

Finally, remember to use the "right" tone during your presentation. Don't speak so softly that no one can hear you nor so loudly that you're practically yelling. You need to be loud enough to sound confident. Also, the way you speak is important. That means that if you speak very monotonous, you will lose the attention of your audience. But if you're super pumped up and speak eagerly, your audience will be glad to listen to you speak. Finally, something that a lot of excellent public speakers do is changing their volume and pitch depending on the information their sharing. This is an excellent strategy to keep your audience's attention on you and it helps keep the presentation lively and helps relay your point across to the audience.

❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄

I hope that these tips are found to be helpful for all of you. I learned all of these tips a couple of years ago and I use them every single time I do a presentation. They have helped me be a more confident public speaker. The biggest thing about public speaking is that you have to do it over and over again to get better. So if you're not that good at it at first, I promise that as time passes by you will get better. Please let me know if these tips help you or if you have any questions!

~ Crystal ❄

Icebluedolphin2365