1. Know your material thoroughly. What you have to say must be put in a logical sequence and worth the time and attention of your audience. Practise at home, in front of a mirror, family, or friends. Use a tape-recorder and listen to yourself. Videotape your presentation and analyze it. Know what your strong and weak points are. Emphasize your strong points during presentation.
   
   
2. When you are presenting in front of an audience, you are performing as an actor is on stage. How you are being perceived is very important. Dress appropriately for the occasion. Be solemn if your topic is serious. Present the desired image to your audience. Look pleasant. Remain calm. Appear relaxed. Speak slowly, enunciate clearly, and show appropriate emotion and feeling relating to your topic. Speak to the person farthest away from you to ensure your voice is loud enough to project to the back of the room. Vary the tone of your voice and dramatize if needed.
   
   
3. Standing, walking or moving about with appropriate hand gestures is preferred to sitting down or standing still with head down and reading from a prepared speech. Use audio-visual aids or props for enhancement if appropriate and necessary. Master the use presentation software such as Power Point well before your presentation. Do not over-dazzle your audience with excessive use of animation, sound clips, or gaudy colors which are inappropriate for your topic. Do not torture your audience by putting a lengthy speech in tiny print on an overhead and reading it out to them.
   
   
4. Speak with conviction as if you really believe in what you are saying. The material you present orally should have the same ingredients as that which are required for a written research paper, i.e. a logical progression from INTRODUCTION (Thesis statement) to BODY (strong supporting arguments) to CONCLUSION (restate thesis, summary, and logical conclusion).
   
   
5. Do not read from notes for any extended length of time although it is quite acceptable to glance at your notes infrequently. Speak loudly and clearly. Sound confident. Do not mumble. If you made an error, correct it, and continue. No need to make excuses or apologize profusely.
   
   
6. Maintain sincere eye contact with your audience. Use the 3-second method, e.g. look straight into the eyes of a person in the audience for 3 seconds at a time. Have direct eye contact with a number of people in the audience, and every now and then glance at the whole audience while speaking.
   
   
7. Speak to your audience, listen to their questions, respond to their reactions, adjust and adapt. If what you have prepared is obviously not getting across to your audience, change your strategy mid-stream if you are well prepared to do so. Remember that communication is the key to a successful presentation. If you are short of time, know what can be safely left out. If you have extra time, know what could be effectively added. Always be prepared for the unexpected.
   
   
8. Pause. Allow yourself and your audience a little time to reflect and think. Don't race through your presentation and leave your audience, as well as yourself, feeling out of breath.
   
   
9. Add humor whenever appropriate and possible. Keep audience interested throughout your entire presentation.
   
   
10. Use audio-visual aids to enhance your presentation. Be sure everything is set up and ready prior to the presentation and all necessary equipment works. If possible, check out the location ahead of time to ensure seating arrangements for audience, whiteboard, blackboard, lighting, etc. are ideal or suitable for your presentation.
    
    
11. Have handouts ready and give them out at the appropriate time. Tell audience ahead of time that you will be giving out an outline of your presentation so that they will not waste time taking unnecessary notes during your presentation.
    
    
12. Know when to STOP talking. Use a timer or the microwave oven clock to time your presentation when preparing it at home. Just as you don't use unnecessary words in your written paper, you don't bore your audience with repetitious or unnecessary words in your oral presentation. To end your presentation, summarize your main points in the same way as you would do in the CONCLUSION of a written paper. Terminate your presentation with an interesting remark or an appropriate punch line. Leave your listeners with a sense of completion. Do not belabor your closing remarks. Thank your audience and sit down.
    
    
13. Have the written portion of your assignment ready to hand in to your teacher as required.

Last modified: 24 October 1999