Presentations- Preparation Tips

Preparing presentations tips language of advice practice

Discuss the advice below, crossing off any which should never be done under any circumstances. Leave any which are debatable or might be good advice in some situations as they are. 

• I suggest starting by brainstorming a mind map onto a large piece of blank paper, using pencil and eraser.
• I recommend brainstorming in your own language and then translating into English.
• You should only write good ideas down during the brainstorming stage.
• It’s generally a good idea to research before brainstorming.
• It’s worth trying to roughly organise your ideas into categories as you brainstorm.
• It’s a good idea to organise your ideas into bigger categories whenever your ideas dry up (= stop flowing), then brainstorm more examples of each.
• If possible, three is the magic number (three main sections to your presentation, about three ideas in each section, three bullet points on one PowerPoint slide, etc).
• You should definitely write down a description of your audience’s knowledge and interests and an aim before you edit the ideas down.
• Editing your ideas down by crossing off the worst ideas and circling the best content on the mind map works well.
• Make sure you keep the audience in mind when editing your ideas down, especially what they will already know about the topic, what they will want to know about the topic, and what you can realistically achieve by telling them about that topic.
• Add details to each of the sections on your mind map, enough so that you might be able to give a short presentation just by looking at it.
• It might be a good idea to get some feedback on your ideas before writing your PowerPoint and presentation notes.
• It’s best to write a full script for the whole presentation (exactly what you want to say word for word, written in full sentences and paragraphs).
• The best way to avoid reading from a script in your presentation is to write one and then memorise the whole thing, like learning a speech or Shakespeare play.
• You really must write out the body of your presentation in note form (avoiding full sentences, taking out all unnecessary grammar words, highlighting things you will need to look at when you say them like quotes and statistics, etc).
• Another option is to add notes to your PowerPoint, print it out and speak from that.
• The best system is to write your presentation notes in the same order as you will actually do those things in your presentation (writing your introduction first, then writing the body, and finally writing the summary/ conclusion).
• You should probably write full sentences and paragraphs on your PowerPoint.
• A good general tip is to cut down what is in your PowerPoint as much as possible (information, data, words, slides, design such as number of fonts and ClipArt, etc).
• Don’t forget to proofread your PowerPoint, using spellcheck and perhaps asking someone else to check it for you.
• It’s well worth looking up the pronunciation of important, difficult words in a dictionary.
• A great way of preparing for the Q&A is to brainstorm questions that people are likely to want to ask you and then write down your answers.
• It’s also worth writing down useful phrases for dealing with questions like “Yes, what would you like to ask me?” and “That’s a difficult question” in your prep for the Q&A.

Hint: There are seven above which probably need to be crossed off. Suggested answers with bad ideas in boldSome might be debateable, so please check if you chose anything different.

• I suggest starting by brainstorming a mind map onto a large piece of blank paper, using pencil and eraser.
• I recommend brainstorming in your own language and then translating into English.
• You should only write good ideas down during the brainstorming stage.
• It’s generally a good idea to research before brainstorming.
• It’s worth trying to roughly organise your ideas into categories as you brainstorm.
• It’s a good idea to organise your ideas into bigger categories whenever your ideas dry up (= stop flowing), then brainstorm more examples of each.
• If possible, three is the magic number (three main sections to your presentation, about three ideas in each section, three bullet points on one PowerPoint slide, etc).
• You should definitely write down a description of your audience’s knowledge and interests and an aim before you edit the ideas down.
• Editing your ideas down by crossing off the worst ideas and circling the best content on the mind map works well.
• Make sure you keep the audience in mind when editing your ideas down, especially what they will already know about the topic, what they will want to know about the topic, and what you can realistically achieve by telling them about that topic.
• Add details to each of the sections on your mind map, enough so that you might be able to give a short presentation just by looking at it.
• It might be a good idea to get some feedback on your ideas before writing your PowerPoint and presentation notes.
• It’s best to write a full script for the whole presentation (exactly what you want to say word for word, written in full sentences and paragraphs).
• The best way to avoid reading from a script in your presentation is to write one and then memorise the whole thing, like learning a speech or Shakespeare play.
• You really must write out the body of your presentation in note form (avoiding full sentences, taking out all unnecessary grammar words, highlighting things you will need to look at when you say them like quotes and statistics, etc).
• Another option is to add notes to your PowerPoint, print it out and speak from that.
• The best system is to write your presentation notes in the same order as you will actually do those things in your presentation (writing your introduction first, then writing the body, and finally writing the summary/ conclusion).
• You should probably write full sentences and paragraphs on your PowerPoint.
• A good general tip is to cut down what is in your PowerPoint as much as possible (information, data, words, slides, design such as number of fonts and ClipArt, etc).
• Don’t forget to proofread your PowerPoint, using spellcheck and perhaps asking someone else to check it for you.
• It’s well worth looking up the pronunciation of important, difficult words in a dictionary.
• A great way of preparing for the Q&A is to brainstorm questions that people are likely to want to ask you and then write down your answers.
• It’s also worth writing down useful phrases for dealing with questions like “Yes, what would you like to ask me?” and “That’s a difficult question” in your prep for the Q&A.

Underline useful language for giving advice above, then use similar language to give more tips on presentations, e.g. tips on starting and ending presentations.