14.6 Knowledge Check

Tara Lawrence; Wayne Miller

14.6 Knowledge Check

This chapter on how to prepare for and deliver well-executed presentations examined the aspects of interpersonal presentation skills, such as your own verbal and non-verbal presentation behaviours. This knowledge allowed you to move on to planning the presentation strategy. You did this by using tools such as FAST and AUDIENCE, respectively. With these frameworks in place, you began to brainstorm and keep track of your ideas using an outline to write your presentation. This included writing an attention-grabbing intro, a body to develop your main point or theme, and a conclusion that ended on a high note.

Presentation Aids were introduced by focusing on visuals or other tools that can aid your presentation by lending emphasis, clarity, and support. You learned about several tools and techniques, such as how to to use slide decks (e.g., PowerPoint) and colours effectively to support your presentation. Lastly, you read the section on delivering the presentation, which included learning how to prepare to present, how to manage anxiety, and how to cope with mistakes.

What you’ve learned in this chapter will serve as good preparation for future presentations, whether they be at college, university, work, church, or in many other circumstances. Finally, never give up the opportunity to make a presentation. It’s natural that your first instinct is to say no, but the more you make presentations, the more comfortable with it you’ll become making them. It is actually a pretty nice skill to develop.

Good Presentation Tips

Delivering a good presentation involves many factors.

Interpersonal skills required include: physical presence, speaking skills, engaging the audience, using a variety of visuals, and facilitating questions and answers.
Forward planning is key. First presenters need to decide on the type of communication format. Planning the presentation also includes: an effective outline, a strong introduction, a functional organized body, and a strong conclusion.
Presentation aids should be developed to portray professionalism and increase impact on the audience. Visual aids should be chosen to fit well with the topic and vibe, and should enhance the quality of the presentation.
During the delivery of the presentation, considering the audience’s needs will help make the presentation more relevant. Dealing with mistakes and misfortunes is part of the process and should be handled with flexibility and humour.
Invariably something in a presentation doesn’t go as well as you would have liked. However, you likely did many things well and still pulled it off. The mistakes are factors to learn from, and help your next presentation go even better. You only get good at delivering presentations by delivering presentations – and critiquing, evaluating, and improving each time.