Amity School of Languages Name of Institution

Guidelines to make an Effective

Presentations
MBA (G, IB, AB) Semester - III
Business Communication
Prof (Dr) Shefali Bakshi
Dy. Director (ASL, MOC)

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• 1. Typical Problems with Presentations

• Student Audience bored with presentations
• Nervousness
• Talking too fast
• Don't talk loud enough
• Don't look at audience
• Giving impression that you would like to be
somewhere else.
• Other students do not know about subject
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• 2. How to Make Presentations Enjoyable

• This is not a performance in which you are being
judged
• It is a communication; people listen to what you
have to say
• "Your only task is to get something transferred
clearly from your mind to the mind of your
listeners." (1)
• Put your self in the position of your listeners.
What is the best way to get your message
across? 3
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• 3. Preparation (1)
• Identify the scope of your topic
• Organize it into sections
• Select information to present
• Practice the presentation
• Find out how long you are expected to talk
• Do not select large topic;
• Choose small number of points which listeners can
digest
• Explain each point carefully, with examples
• Narrow your focus in your preparation.
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• 4. Visual Aids
• Helps listener understand your points
• Blackboard: problem of writing down all your points;
takes time; distracts listeners
• Transparency sheets: prepare material ahead of time
• Blank Transparency sheets: write on them; special pens
• Prepare photocopies; hand out
• Aim for simplicity and uncluttered visual aids. Use only
important information; don't overload with too much
information.
• Visuals must be seen clearly by whole audience; don't
make them too small.
• Use several sheets, each with small number of points.
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• 5. Speaking from Notes or Writing It

Out
• Speaking from notes is more effective than
reading them. This helps create a sense of
direct communication with audience.
• Reading from text can be "absolutely
deadly". It sounds memorized.

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• 6. Making Your Topic and Organization Clear (3)

• Start by telling your audience what you are going to talk
about
• List the points or subjects you are going to talk about
• Start slow - Clearly explain your topics
• Include any background necessary for your listeners to
grasp your topic
• Organize your points clearly
• Use a natural sequence of points that flow
• Show the relation of your points to each other and to
your overall topic
• Failure to do the above means you will lose your
audience
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• 7. Helping Your Listeners Understand

• Listening is more difficult than reading;
• Your audience is easily distracted;
• Your audience cannot go back and check things they missed;
• Therefore you must help your audience understand what you are
saying.
• Restate important ideas in different words to help your audience
grasp them
• List your points
• Use frequent summaries
• Show connections between one part of your talk and another
• All of this helps your audience form mental pictures of your subject
matter.

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• 8. Practising the Talk

• After preparation is done, practice your talk - repeatedly.
• Time yourself;
• If it is too long, shorten it
• Don't talk faster to cover your material; you will lose your listeners
• Do not run overtime; that shows poor preparation
• Better to be too short than too long
• Do your practising in advance, not five minutes before your
presentation
• Each practice from notes will be a bit different; that's OK.
• Anticipate questions, especially objections, and how you might
answer them.

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• 9. The Common Anxieties

• We naturally feel nervous speaking publicly in front of an
audience
• We assume our audience will criticize or ridicule us.
• Audience might wonder whether we really know our
subject
• Audience watching for our mistakes
• Audience judging us as poor speakers
• We think our audience will detect our nervousness - our
shaky voice and hands.
• We think we have to adhere to some image of THE
public speaker, and follow formal, professional guidelines
for speaking
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• Coping With These Anxieties:

• We should just be ourselves, and relax.
• Remind ourselves that our audience is just like us, not a
pack of critics
• Our audience is not looking for faults in our speaking;
they will ignore minor slips and mistakes.
• Our audience is here to obtain some information from
our presentation
• Don't act embarrassed over slips and mistakes you
might make
• Show you are interested in your own topic; if you display
boredom with your topic, so will your audience
• Show your audience that you have something important
to communicate to them. They will respond positively. 11
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• 10. Nervousness (5)

• A little bit of nervousness:
– Shows that you are not too arrogant.
– Gives you extra energy to give a really good presentation;
channel your nervousness into positive energy.
• Your feelings of nervousness will not be evident to your audience;
examples
– Increased heart rate
– Sweaty palms
– Shaky hands
– Butterflies in your stomach
• Combat nervousness by thorough preparation; the day of the
presentation should then be easy.
• If after all this you are still nervous beyond the limits you can
tolerate, seek help from the McMaster Counselling Services. They
have programs to help you make presentations.
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• 11. Being Yourself and Acting Naturally (5-6)

• Act naturally, speak the way you would in normal
everyday conversation
• Use your normal voice, gestures, and
expressions
• Don't "Make a Speech". That would be artificial;
your voice will take on a strange pitch and tone.
• "People are most effective as speakers when
they allow themselves to be the people they are
naturally…"
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• 12. Showing Interest in Communicating

• Show your listeners that you have
something important or interesting to say.
• Show that your personally are interesting
in the topic of your talk
• Talk to the whole group, or the entire
audience
• Do NOT talk to the teacher or instructor.

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• 13. Eye Contact
• If you do not look directly at your audience, they will feel left out, and
so pay less attention to what you have to say.
• Don't look at the ceiling or the far wall
• Look directly into the eyes of your audience
– If it is a small group, you can do this individually
– If it is a large audience, you will have to look directly at groups or
sections of your audience
• If maintaining eye contact makes you lose your place in your notes,
use your finger on the margins of your notes to keep your place.
• If you read your notes, it is difficult to maintain eye contact; so this is
not advisable
• Be spontaneous; Don't talk in a monotone; Slightly slow down to
emphasize points , Look directly at your audience when you want to
emphasize particular points, Add impromptu comments as if they
just came to your and were not part of your prepared presentation
that you practiced on. 15
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• 14. Volume, Speed, Confidence
• Speak loud enough so that your audience can hear you.
• For a large audience or room, you may wish to use a microphone;
test it out before your talk; you do want to fool around with adjusting
the mic once your talk begins
• If you are nervous, you may start to talk fast; slow it down.
• If you are reading any text directly from a page, go slowly; prepared
written text tends to be more packed with information, more tightly
worded, and more formal; it will take your audience longer to digest
it than if you were to speak more informally.
• Pause at the end of sentences and sections. Speak with confidence;
it helps to convince your audience of what you are trying to say.
• Do not raise your voice at the end of each sentence as if you are
asking a question, and seeking assurance from your audience.
• If you lose your place or get tongue tied, act normal about it; don't
appear nervous. At this point a one-liner that pokes fun at yourself is
sometimes quit effective in breaking the ice in an awkward moment. 16
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• 15. Movements and Gestures (7)

• Don't focus or think about what to do with your hands, or
facial expressions; these will come naturally if you focus
on your talk.
• Don't fiddle with your hair or your jewelry, pace back and
forth, or swivel in your chair, as you speak. If you are
doing some kind of repetitive movement, try to control it.
It distracts your audience. It can be extremely irritating to
your audience.
• Sit or stand straight. Place both feet on the floor. But
don't be too stiff; relax your body. Hang loose.

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• 16. Answering Questions
• Tell your audience whether you will accept questions during your
presentation, or prefer to hold them to the end.
• Treat a question and answer session at the end of your presentation
as an informal discussion of your subject rather than as a series of
challenges of things you have said. Your audience is primarily
interested in seeking more information, clarification of points you
made, and the raising of related points. These can add to your
presentation. Welcome such questions and statements.
• Make sure you understand a question before answering it; if you do
not understand it, ask the questioner to repeat it, or to express it in
some other way, or to give examples.
• Answer a question as simply as possible without being long winded,
or going off on unrelated tangents.
• If you do not know the answer to a question, say so. Your audience
does not expect you to know everything. Ask your audience whether
they have the answer. Tap into the knowledge of your audience.
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• 17. Audio Visual Aids (additional points)

• Audio visual aids are now commonly used in presentations. There is
practically nothing on this in the booklet, Making Class
Presentations. So the following is additional material and
suggestions.
• Test your equipment in the room you are going to use well before
your presentation. Do not test it somewhere else. The room will
have special conditions. They will affect your presentation, and your
equipment.
• Do not overwhelm your audience with your audio visual aids. Glitz
can overwhelm and drown out the content of your message.
• Make sure that your visual aids can be seen from all parts of the
room.
• Check the lighting before hand. Too much lighting can drown out
your visuals. Not enough lighting can make the taking of notes by
your audience impossible. Try to use dimmers if they are available.
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• Overhead Transparencies
• Keep the sequence of your transparencies in order. Do not mix them
up. You do not want to go searching for the correct transparency in
the middle of your talk.
• Do not photocopy onto your transparencies normal typed pages
(say in 10, 12, or 14 font size). Your audience will not be able to
read small text. Put only a few points on each transparency. Make
each point large enough so that the person in the back row can see
it.
• Make sure the text and visuals are dark enough that they can bee
seen by the audience.
• Do not use tables or charts with small statistics on them. They are
very hard to read. Use a sheet of paper to control which points the
audience sees. Cover the points at the bottom which you do not
want your audience to see until you get to them.
• Writing on blank transparencies with a black felt pen is a way to
record feedback from your audience so that everyone can see it. It 20
helps interactivity.
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• Microphones
• Try not to use a mic if at all possible. It can be distracting. If your
voice does not carry to the back of the room, then use one.
• Try to use a wireless mic that clips on to your collar or clothing. This
will not restrict your movement.
• If you use a stationary mic, your will be tied to one location, such as
a podium. This might be OK for formal presentations, but it will make
movement across the front of the room practically impossible.
• If you have a hand held mic with a cord, make sure you do not get
caught up in the cord, or trip over it.
• Test the volume and pitch of the mic before your presentation. You
do not want a high pitched squeal irritate the eardrums of your
audience in the middle of your presentation.

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• Video and Film

• Video and/or film can be an effective way to create
impact.
• Use video sparingly only to illustrate a point. You do not
want to have a video or film take over the major portion
of your talk.
• Integrate the video clip seamlessly into the rest of your
presentation.
• Ensure the video quality is high or acceptable.
• Ensure that the sound track works properly.
• Do not fiddle with video equipment in the middle of your
talk. Have it set up and ready to go before you begin
your presentation. 22
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• Slides
• A slide projector can be an effective tool to
provide visual representations of some of your
points.
• Use slides sparingly. Do not overwhelm your
audience with too many slides.
• Try to control, with a remote control or clicker,
the sequencing of your slides.
• If you get a helper or aide to advance the slides,
ensure they know the spots in your talk when
they should advance to the next slide without
prompting from you. 23
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• Computer-Aided Presentations
• Computer-generated slides, such as Microsoft
PowerPoint, have become standard in many
professional presentations. They are used increasingly
by students in classroom presentations.
• One advantage of computer-generated slides is that they
can be revised right up to the beginning of your
presentation.
• You can prepare your PowerPoint slides from any of the
student computer labs on campus, or at home if you
have a computer and the appropriate software. Other
possibilities are Wordperfect, Harvard Graphics, Lotus,
etc. Make sure your slide show fits on a single diskette
for easy transfer to the computer you will use in the
classroom. 24
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• Contd: -
• Try to ensure a good balance of text and graphics.
• Use a modest number of computer slides. Do not overwhelm your
audience with a Multimedia show that emphasizes format over
content.
• Test the slide show on the computer you are going to use and in the
room you are going to use before your presentation.
• Follow the guidelines for transparencies and slides. In particular,
make sure that the text on the slides is viewable from all parts of the
room.
• Always use colour contrast between foreground and background.
Never put text on a noisy background. This drowns out the text.
• Make sure you prepare a hard copy handout of your slides in case
something goes wrong. You can fit three to six slides on a single
sheet of paper for photocopying and hand out. Use double sided
copying to save paper.
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