COMMUNICATION
AND
PRESENTATION
SKILLS
LECTURE# 22,23&24
Prepared by Ms. Fatima Kiran
DELIVERING THE PRESENTATION
• An effective presenter puts themselves
center-stage. An ineffective presenter tries to
hide behind notes, a lectern, slides or
computer-generated graphics. To become
more effective, you need to take control of
the three core elements of the event:
PRESENTATION
• the material;
• the audience;
• yourself.
• Whatever you are presenting, you will also
need to use all the skills of persuasion
• working out your big idea: your message;
• validating your message using SPQR
(situation–problem–question–response)
• arranging your ideas coherently;
• expressing your ideas vividly;
• remembering your ideas;
• delivering well.
• Everyone is frightened of the unknown. Any presentation
involves an element of uncertainty, because it’s ‘live’.
You can’t plan for the audience’s mood on the day. You
may not even be able to foresee who will be there. You
can’t plan for any sudden development that affects the
proposal or explanation you are giving. You can’t plan for
Preparing for every question that you might be asked. This is, of
course, the greatest strength of presentations: you and the
the audience are together, in the same place, at the same time.
presentation • Prepare well, and you will be ready to bring the
presentation to life. You can prepare in three areas:
• 1. the material;
• 2. the audience;
• 3. yourself.
• Many presentations fail, not because the
presenter is weak, but because the material
is disorderly. The audience tries its utmost to
Managing understand but gets lost. You have to
the material remember that they will forget virtually
everything you say. They may remember
rather more of what you show them, but
only if it is quite simple.
Your presentation will be successful if the
audience feels that you have spoken directly to
them. If you can demonstrate that you have
tailored your material to their needs, the
audience will be more inclined to accept it.
Analyzing So think about your audience carefully
your • How many will there be?
audience • What is their status range?
• Will they want to be there?
• How much do they already know about the
matter? How much more do they need to
know?
• What will they be expecting? What is the history, the
context, the rumor, the gossip?
• How does your message and your material relate to
the audience? Relevance defines what you will
research, include and highlight. It will also help you to
decide where to start: what your point of entry will be.
• Is the audience young or old? Are they
predominantly one gender or mixed?
• Are they technical specialists or generalists? They
will want different levels of detail.
• Where are they in the organization? Different
working groups will have different interests and
different ways of looking at the world.
• Many presenters concentrate so hard on the material
that they ignore the audience. They have no idea of
the messages that their body is sending out. They are
thinking so hard about what they are saying that they
have no time to think about how they say it. You are
performing. Your whole body is involved. You must
Controlling become aware of what your body is doing so that
you can control it, and thus the audience. A few
the audience basic principles will ensure that you keep the
audience within your control.
• Eye contact
• Your face
• Gestures
• Movement
• Many presenters are as worried about the
question session as about the presentation
itself. A few guidelines can help to turn your
question session from a trial into a triumph:
• Decide when to take questions. This will
Answering probably be at the end. But you might prefer to
take questions during the presentation. This is
questions more difficult to manage but can improve your
relationship with the audience.
• Anticipate the most likely questions. These
may be ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ that you
can easily foresee. Others may arise from the
particular circumstances of the presentation.
• Use a ‘plant’. Ask somebody to be ready with a question
to start the session off. Audiences are sometimes hesitant
at the end of a presentation about breaking the
atmosphere.
• Answer concisely. Force yourself to be brief.
• Answer honestly. You can withhold information, but don’t
lie. Someone in the audience will almost certainly see
through you.
• Take questions from the whole audience. From all parts of
the room and from different ‘social areas’.
• Answer the whole audience. Don’t let questions seduce
you into private conversations. Make sure the audience has
heard the question.
• If you don’t know, say so. And promise what you’ll do to
answer later.
METHODS of
DELIVERING
PRESENTATION
• Delivery is what you are probably most
concerned about when it comes to giving
presentations. This doesn’t necessarily mean
you must wear a suit or “dress up”, but it
does mean making yourself presentable by
DELIVERING
being well groomed and wearing clean,
PRESENTATION appropriate clothes. It also means being
prepared to use language correctly and
appropriately for the audience and the topic,
to make eye contact with your audience, and
to look like you know your topic very well.
• There are four methods of delivery that can
help you balance between too much and too
Methods of little formality when giving a presentation.
• Impromptu Presentations
Presentation
• Manuscript Presentations
Delivery • Extemporaneous Presentations
• Memorized Presentations
• The manuscript method is a form of speech
delivery that involves speaking from text.
With this method, a speaker will write out
her speech word for word and practice how
Manuscript she will deliver the speech. A disadvantage of
this method is a person may sound too
Presentations practiced or stiff. To avoid sounding
rehearsed, use eye contact, facial expressions
and vocal variety to engage the audience.
Use frequent glances at highlighted key
points instead of reading the speech word for
word.
• The memorization method is a form of
speech delivery that involves fully
memorizing a speech, from start to finish,
before delivering it. This method of delivery
Memorized allows a speaker to move around the stage or
PRESENTATION platform and maintain eye contact with the
audience without relying on a script or notes.
For speakers who deliver their speeches by
memorization, add inflection to the voice and
keep notes nearby to avoid forgetting an
important key point.
• The impromptu speech is spur-of-the-
moment, with little to no time to prepare for
this type of speech. For this method, you
may be asked to give a few remarks, or share
Impromptu your thoughts with the group. The important
thing to remember with this type of speaking
PRESENTATION
is to know your main point, limit your
thoughts to two to three ideas, and wrap it up
with a conclusion. If you can think well
enough on your feet, your conclusion will
connect to your opening remarks or main
idea. Impromptu speeches are best kept brief.
• The extemporaneous method is ideal for most
speaking situations. While it requires a great
deal of preparation, it allows for great flexibility
for the speaker, often delivering a much more
engaging speech. For this method, a speaker will
Extemporaneous organize a speech with notes or an outline, and
practice the delivery, but not word-for-word. A
Presentations speaker may highlight key points in the speech
and memorize a few portions of the speech, but
will also speak in a more conversational tone.
The extemporaneous method of delivery gives a
speaker the flexibility to deliver a speech in a
natural manner while maintaining eye contact
and engaging an audience.
