10 Shattuck St, Boston MA 02115 | (617) 432-2136
| |
Copyright © 2020 President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.
Body language and movement, verbal delivery.
Robert Dolan, Effective presentation skills, FEMS Microbiology Letters , Volume 364, Issue 24, December 2017, fnx235, https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnx235
Most PhD's will have a presentation component during the interview process, as well as presenting their work at conferences. This article will provide guidance on how to develop relevant content and effectively deliver it to your audience.
Most organizations list communication skills as one of their most critical issues…and presentation skills are a large component of communications. Presentation skills are crucial to almost every aspect of academic/business life, from meetings, interviews and conferences to trade shows and job fairs. Often times, leadership and presentation skills go hand in hand. NACE Survey 2016 - Ability to communicate verbally (internally and externally) ranked 4.63/5.0 and was the #1 skill employers want. The information provided in this article is designed to provide tips and strategies for delivering an effective presentation, and one that aligns the speaker with the audience.
What type of speaker are you?
Facts and fears of public speaking.
Your blueprint for delivery.
Avoider —You do everything possible to escape from having to get in front of an audience.
Resister —You may have to speak, but you never encourage it.
Accepter —You’ll give presentations but don’t seek those opportunities. Sometimes you feel good about a presentation you gave.
Seeker —Looks for opportunities to speak. Finds the anxiety a stimulant that fuels enthusiasm during a presentation.
Public speaking can create anxiety and fear in many people. Dale Carnegie has a free e-book that provides tips and advice on how to minimize these fears www.dalecarnegie.com/Free-eBook
People are caught between their fear and the fact that many employers expect them to demonstrate good verbal communication skills.
Most interviews by PhD’s have a presentation component.
Academic interviews always have a presentation component.
If your job doesn’t demand presentation skills, odds are that you’ll need them in your next job
Develop your blueprint for delivery:
Information by itself can be boring, unless it's unique or unusual. Conveying it through stories, gestures and analogies make it interesting. A large portion of the impact of communications rests on how you look and sound, not only on what you say. Having good presentation skills allows you to make the most out of your first impression, especially at conferences and job interviews. As you plan your presentation put yourself in the shoes of the audience.
Values …What is important to them?
Needs …What information do they want?
Constraints …Understand their level of knowledge on the subject and target them appropriately.
Demographics …Size of audience and location may influence the presentation. For example, a large auditorium may be more formal and less personal than a presentation to your team or lab mates in a less formal setting.
Structure—Introduction, Content and Conclusion
Body Language and Movement
Verbal Delivery
Build rapport with audience (easier in a smaller less formal setting).
State preference for questions—during or after?
Set stage: provide agenda, objective and intended outcomes
Introduce yourself providing your name, role and function. Let the audience know the agenda, your objectives and set their expectations. Give them a reason to listen and make an explicit benefit statement, essentially what's in it for them. Finally, let them know how you will accomplish your objective by setting the agenda and providing an outline of what will be covered.
Deliver your message logically and structured.
Use appropriate anecdotes and examples.
Illustrate and emphasize key points by using color schemes or animations.
Establish credibility, possibly citing references or publications.
Structure your presentation to maximize delivery. Deliver the main idea and communicate to the audience what your intended outcome will be. Transition well through the subject matter and move through your presentation by using phrases such as; ‘now we will review…’ or ‘if there are no more questions, we will now move onto…’ Be flexible and on course. If needed, use examples not in the presentation to emphasize a point, but don’t get side tracked. Stay on course by using phrases such as ‘let's get back to…’ Occasionally, reiterate the benefits of the content and the main idea of your presentation.
Restate the main objective and key supporting points
For Q&A: ‘Who wants more details?’ (Not, ‘any questions?’)
Prompting for questions: ‘A question I often hear is…’
Summarize the main elements of your presentation as they relate to the original objective. If applicable, highlight a key point or crucial element for the audience to take away. Signal the end is near…‘to wrap up’ or ‘to sum up’. Clearly articulate the next steps, actions or practical recommendations. Thank the audience and solicit final questions.
Your non-verbal communications are key elements of your presentation. They are composed of open body posture, eye contact, facial expressions, hand gestures, posture and space between you and the audience.
Stand firmly and move deliberately. Do not sway or shift.
Move at appropriate times during presentation (e.g. move during transitions or to emphasize a point).
Stand where you can see everyone and do not block the visuals/screen.
Decide on a resting position for hands (should feel and look comfortable).
Gestures should be natural and follow what you are saying.
Hand movement can emphasize your point.
Make gestures strong and crisp…ok to use both arms/hands.
Keep hands away from face.
When pointing to the screen, do so deliberately. Do not wave and face the audience to speak
Look at audience's faces, not above their heads.
If an interview or business meeting…look at the decision makers as well as everyone else.
Look at faces for 3–5 seconds and then move on to the next person.
Do not look away from the audience for more than 10 seconds.
Looking at a person keeps them engaged.
Looking at their faces tells you how your delivery and topic is being received by the audience. The audience's body language may show interest, acceptance, openness, boredom, hostility, disapproval and neutrality. Read the audience and adjust where and if appropriate to keep them engaged. For example, if they seem bored inject an interesting anecdote or story to trigger more interest. If they appear to disapprove, ask for questions or comments to better understand how you might adjust your delivery and content if applicable.
Use active rather than passive verbs.
Avoid technical terms, unless you know the audience is familiar with them.
Always use your own words and phrases.
Cut out jargon/slang words.
Look at your audience and use vocal techniques to catch their attention. Consider changing your pace or volume, use a longer than normal pause between key points, and change the pitch or inflection of your voice if needed. Consider taking a drink of water to force yourself to pause or slowdown. View the audience as a group of individual people, so address them as if they were a single person.
If you experience nervousness before your presentation, as most people do, consider the following.
Be Organized —Knowing that your presentation and thoughts are well organized will give you confidence.
Visualize —Imagine delivering your presentation with enthusiasm and leaving the room knowing that you did a good job.
Practice —All successful speakers rehearse their presentations. Either do it alone, with your team, or video tape yourself and review your performance after. Another tip is to make contact before your talk. If possible, speak with the audience before your presentation begins; however, not always possible with a large audience. Walk up to them and thank them in advance for inviting you to speak today.
Movement —Speakers who stand in one spot may experience tension. In order to relax, move in a purposeful manner and use upper body gestures to make points.
Eye Contact —Make your presentation a one-on-one conversation. Build rapport by making it personal and personable. Use words such as ‘ we ’ , ‘ our ’, ‘ us ’ . Eye contact helps you relax because you become less isolated from the audience.
Clothes should fit well, not too tight. Consider wearing more professional business-like attire. Find two to three colors that work well for you. Conservative colors, such as black, blue, gray and brown, seem to be the safest bet when presenting or meeting someone for the first time in a professional setting. Depending upon the audience, a sport coat and well-matched dress slacks are fine. Generally, try to avoid bright reds, oranges and whites, since these tend to draw attention away from your face. Avoid jewelry that sparkles, dangles or makes noise. Use subtle accessories to compliment your outfit.
Other resources: www.toastmasters.org https://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/presentation-tips.html
https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/evaluation/documents/effective-presentations-a-toolkit-for-engaging-an-audience
Month: | Total Views: |
---|---|
November 2017 | 53 |
December 2017 | 57 |
January 2018 | 186 |
February 2018 | 111 |
March 2018 | 79 |
April 2018 | 101 |
May 2018 | 161 |
June 2018 | 64 |
July 2018 | 122 |
August 2018 | 101 |
September 2018 | 166 |
October 2018 | 199 |
November 2018 | 148 |
December 2018 | 108 |
January 2019 | 90 |
February 2019 | 118 |
March 2019 | 250 |
April 2019 | 302 |
May 2019 | 262 |
June 2019 | 179 |
July 2019 | 225 |
August 2019 | 358 |
September 2019 | 523 |
October 2019 | 807 |
November 2019 | 832 |
December 2019 | 615 |
January 2020 | 718 |
February 2020 | 626 |
March 2020 | 877 |
April 2020 | 1,027 |
May 2020 | 532 |
June 2020 | 658 |
July 2020 | 518 |
August 2020 | 576 |
September 2020 | 566 |
October 2020 | 713 |
November 2020 | 913 |
December 2020 | 726 |
January 2021 | 579 |
February 2021 | 693 |
March 2021 | 786 |
April 2021 | 665 |
May 2021 | 474 |
June 2021 | 502 |
July 2021 | 392 |
August 2021 | 504 |
September 2021 | 438 |
October 2021 | 616 |
November 2021 | 848 |
December 2021 | 610 |
January 2022 | 526 |
February 2022 | 607 |
March 2022 | 799 |
April 2022 | 766 |
May 2022 | 611 |
June 2022 | 431 |
July 2022 | 399 |
August 2022 | 464 |
September 2022 | 444 |
October 2022 | 675 |
November 2022 | 760 |
December 2022 | 568 |
January 2023 | 523 |
February 2023 | 547 |
March 2023 | 1,393 |
April 2023 | 869 |
May 2023 | 735 |
June 2023 | 456 |
July 2023 | 516 |
August 2023 | 516 |
September 2023 | 593 |
October 2023 | 1,001 |
November 2023 | 856 |
December 2023 | 655 |
January 2024 | 434 |
February 2024 | 501 |
March 2024 | 607 |
April 2024 | 887 |
May 2024 | 658 |
June 2024 | 406 |
July 2024 | 261 |
Citing articles via.
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide
Sign In or Create an Account
This PDF is available to Subscribers Only
For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.
Ideas and insights from Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning
When we talk with our L&D colleagues from around the globe, we often hear that presentation skills training is one of the top opportunities they’re looking to provide their learners. And this holds true whether their learners are individual contributors, people managers, or senior leaders. This is not surprising.
Effective communications skills are a powerful career activator, and most of us are called upon to communicate in some type of formal presentation mode at some point along the way.
For instance, you might be asked to brief management on market research results, walk your team through a new process, lay out the new budget, or explain a new product to a client or prospect. Or you may want to build support for a new idea, bring a new employee into the fold, or even just present your achievements to your manager during your performance review.
And now, with so many employees working from home or in hybrid mode, and business travel in decline, there’s a growing need to find new ways to make effective presentations when the audience may be fully virtual or a combination of in person and remote attendees.
Whether you’re making a standup presentation to a large live audience, or a sit-down one-on-one, whether you’re delivering your presentation face to face or virtually, solid presentation skills matter.
Even the most seasoned and accomplished presenters may need to fine-tune or update their skills. Expectations have changed over the last decade or so. Yesterday’s PowerPoint which primarily relied on bulleted points, broken up by the occasional clip-art image, won’t cut it with today’s audience.
The digital revolution has revolutionized the way people want to receive information. People expect presentations that are more visually interesting. They expect to see data, metrics that support assertions. And now, with so many previously in-person meetings occurring virtually, there’s an entirely new level of technical preparedness required.
The leadership development tools and the individual learning opportunities you’re providing should include presentation skills training that covers both the evergreen fundamentals and the up-to-date capabilities that can make or break a presentation.
So, just what should be included in solid presentation skills training? Here’s what I think.
The fundamentals will always apply When it comes to making a powerful and effective presentation, the fundamentals will always apply. You need to understand your objective. Is it strictly to convey information, so that your audience’s knowledge is increased? Is it to persuade your audience to take some action? Is it to convince people to support your idea? Once you understand what your objective is, you need to define your central message. There may be a lot of things you want to share with your audience during your presentation, but find – and stick with – the core, the most important point you want them to walk away with. And make sure that your message is clear and compelling.
You also need to tailor your presentation to your audience. Who are they and what might they be expecting? Say you’re giving a product pitch to a client. A technical team may be interested in a lot of nitty-gritty product detail. The business side will no doubt be more interested in what returns they can expect on their investment.
Another consideration is the setting: is this a formal presentation to a large audience with questions reserved for the end, or a presentation in a smaller setting where there’s the possibility for conversation throughout? Is your presentation virtual or in-person? To be delivered individually or as a group? What time of the day will you be speaking? Will there be others speaking before you and might that impact how your message will be received?
Once these fundamentals are established, you’re in building mode. What are the specific points you want to share that will help you best meet your objective and get across your core message? Now figure out how to convey those points in the clearest, most straightforward, and succinct way. This doesn’t mean that your presentation has to be a series of clipped bullet points. No one wants to sit through a presentation in which the presenter reads through what’s on the slide. You can get your points across using stories, fact, diagrams, videos, props, and other types of media.
Visual design matters While you don’t want to clutter up your presentation with too many visual elements that don’t serve your objective and can be distracting, using a variety of visual formats to convey your core message will make your presentation more memorable than slides filled with text. A couple of tips: avoid images that are cliched and overdone. Be careful not to mix up too many different types of images. If you’re using photos, stick with photos. If you’re using drawn images, keep the style consistent. When data are presented, stay consistent with colors and fonts from one type of chart to the next. Keep things clear and simple, using data to support key points without overwhelming your audience with too much information. And don’t assume that your audience is composed of statisticians (unless, of course, it is).
When presenting qualitative data, brief videos provide a way to engage your audience and create emotional connection and impact. Word clouds are another way to get qualitative data across.
Practice makes perfect You’ve pulled together a perfect presentation. But it likely won’t be perfect unless it’s well delivered. So don’t forget to practice your presentation ahead of time. Pro tip: record yourself as you practice out loud. This will force you to think through what you’re going to say for each element of your presentation. And watching your recording will help you identify your mistakes—such as fidgeting, using too many fillers (such as “umm,” or “like”), or speaking too fast.
A key element of your preparation should involve anticipating any technical difficulties. If you’ve embedded videos, make sure they work. If you’re presenting virtually, make sure that the lighting is good, and that your speaker and camera are working. Whether presenting in person or virtually, get there early enough to work out any technical glitches before your presentation is scheduled to begin. Few things are a bigger audience turn-off than sitting there watching the presenter struggle with the delivery mechanisms!
Finally, be kind to yourself. Despite thorough preparation and practice, sometimes, things go wrong, and you need to recover in the moment, adapt, and carry on. It’s unlikely that you’ll have caused any lasting damage and the important thing is to learn from your experience, so your next presentation is stronger.
How are you providing presentation skills training for your learners?
Manika Gandhi is Senior Learning Design Manager at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at [email protected] .
Change isn’t easy, but we can help. Together we’ll create informed and inspired leaders ready to shape the future of your business.
© 2024 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.
We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies and revised Privacy Policy .
We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.
Five tips to set yourself apart.
Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).
I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.
How it works
Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance.
Explore how BetterUp connects to your core business systems.
We pair AI with the latest in human-centered coaching to drive powerful, lasting learning and behavior change.
Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement.
Unlock performance potential at scale with AI-powered curated growth journeys.
Build resilience, well-being and agility to drive performance across your entire enterprise.
Transform your business, starting with your sales leaders.
Unlock business impact from the top with executive coaching.
Foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.
Accelerate the performance and potential of your agencies and employees.
See how innovative organizations use BetterUp to build a thriving workforce.
Discover how BetterUp measurably impacts key business outcomes for organizations like yours.
A demo is the first step to transforming your business. Meet with us to develop a plan for attaining your goals.
Learn how 1:1 coaching works, who its for, and if it's right for you.
Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the expert guidance of a BetterUp Coach.
Types of Coaching
Navigate career transitions, accelerate your professional growth, and achieve your career goals with expert coaching.
Enhance your communication skills for better personal and professional relationships, with tailored coaching that focuses on your needs.
Find balance, resilience, and well-being in all areas of your life with holistic coaching designed to empower you.
Discover your perfect match : Take our 5-minute assessment and let us pair you with one of our top Coaches tailored just for you.
Research, expert insights, and resources to develop courageous leaders within your organization.
Best practices, research, and tools to fuel individual and business growth.
View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions.
The latest insights and ideas for building a high-performing workplace.
The online magazine that helps you understand tomorrow's workforce trends, today.
Innovative research featured in peer-reviewed journals, press, and more.
Founded in 2022 to deepen the understanding of the intersection of well-being, purpose, and performance
We're on a mission to help everyone live with clarity, purpose, and passion.
Join us and create impactful change.
Read the buzz about BetterUp.
Meet the leadership that's passionate about empowering your workforce.
For Business
For Individuals
Jump to section
The importance of presentation skills, 6 presentation skills examples, how to improve presentation skills.
Tips for dealing with presentation anxiety
Capturing an audience’s attention takes practice.
Over time, great presenters learn how to organize their speeches and captivate an audience from start to finish. They spark curiosity, know how to read a room , and understand what their audience needs to walk away feeling like they learned something valuable.
Regardless of your profession, you most likely use presentation skills on a monthly or even weekly basis. Maybe you lead brainstorming sessions or host client calls.
Developing effective presentation skills makes it easier to contribute ideas with confidence and show others you’re someone to trust. Although speaking in front of a crowd sometimes brings nerves and anxiety , it also sparks new opportunities.
Presentation skills are the qualities and abilities you need to communicate ideas effectively and deliver a compelling speech. They influence how you structure a presentation and how an audience receives it. Understanding body language , creating impactful visual aids, and projecting your voice all fall under this umbrella.
A great presentation depends on more than what you say. It’s about how you say it. Storytelling , stage presence, and voice projection all shape how well you express your ideas and connect with the audience. These skills do take practice, but they’re worth developing — especially if public speaking makes you nervous.
Engaging a crowd isn’t easy. You may feel anxious to step in front of an audience and have all eyes and ears on you.
But feeling that anxiety doesn’t mean your ideas aren’t worth sharing. Whether you’re giving an inspiring speech or delivering a monthly recap at work, your audience is there to listen to you. Harness that nervous energy and turn it into progress.
Strong presentation skills make it easier to convey your thoughts to audiences of all sizes. They can help you tell a compelling story, convince people of a pitch , or teach a group something entirely new to them. And when it comes to the workplace, the strength of your presentation skills could play a part in getting a promotion or contributing to a new initiative.
To fully understand the impact these skills have on creating a successful presentation, it’s helpful to look at each one individually. Here are six valuable skills you can develop:
Active listening is an excellent communication skill for any professional to hone. When you have strong active listening skills, you can listen to others effectively and observe their nonverbal cues . This helps you assess whether or not your audience members are engaged in and understand what you’re sharing.
Great public speakers use active listening to assess the audience’s reactions and adjust their speech if they find it lacks impact. Signs like slouching, negative facial expressions, and roaming eye contact are all signs to watch out for when giving a presentation.
If you’re researching presentation skills, chances are you’ve already watched a few notable speeches like TED Talks or industry seminars. And one thing you probably noticed is that speakers can capture attention with their body language.
A mixture of eye contact, hand gestures , and purposeful pacing makes a presentation more interesting and engaging. If you stand in one spot and don’t move your body, the audience might zone out.
A great stage presence looks different for everyone. A comedian might aim for more movement and excitement, and a conference speaker might focus their energy on the content of their speech. Although neither is better than the other, both understand their strengths and their audience’s needs.
Developing a stage presence involves finding your own unique communication style . Lean into your strengths, whether that’s adding an injection of humor or asking questions to make it interactive . To give a great presentation, you might even incorporate relevant props or presentation slides.
According to Forbes, audiences typically pay attention for about 10 minutes before tuning out . But you can lengthen their attention span by offering a presentation that interests them for longer. Include a narrative they’ll want to listen to, and tell a story as you go along.
Shaping your content to follow a clear narrative can spark your audience’s curiosity and entice them to pay careful attention. You can use anecdotes from your personal or professional life that take your audience along through relevant moments. If you’re pitching a product, you can start with a problem and lead your audience through the stages of how your product provides a solution.
Although this skill may be obvious, you need your audience to hear what you’re saying. This can be challenging if you’re naturally soft-spoken and struggle to project your voice.
Remember to straighten your posture and take deep breaths before speaking, which will help you speak louder and fill the room. If you’re talking into a microphone or participating in a virtual meeting, you can use your regular conversational voice, but you still want to sound confident and self-assured with a strong tone.
If you’re unsure whether everyone can hear you, you can always ask the audience at the beginning of your speech and wait for confirmation. That way, they won’t have to potentially interrupt you later.
Ensuring everyone can hear you also includes your speed and annunciation. It’s easy to speak quickly when nervous, but try to slow down and pronounce every word. Mumbling can make your presentation difficult to understand and pay attention to.
Although verbal communication involves your projection and tone, it also covers the language and pacing you use to get your point across. This includes where you choose to place pauses in your speech or the tone you use to emphasize important ideas.
If you’re giving a presentation on collaboration in the workplace , you might start your speech by saying, “There’s something every workplace needs to succeed: teamwork.” By placing emphasis on the word “ teamwork ,” you give your audience a hint on what ideas will follow.
To further connect with your audience through diction, pay careful attention to who you’re speaking to. The way you talk to your colleagues might be different from how you speak to a group of superiors, even if you’re discussing the same subject. You might use more humor and a conversational tone for the former and more serious, formal diction for the latter.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses when it comes to presenting. Maybe you’re confident in your use of body language, but your voice projection needs work. Maybe you’re a great storyteller in small group settings, but need to work on your stage presence in front of larger crowds.
The first step to improving presentation skills is pinpointing your gaps and determining which qualities to build upon first. Here are four tips for enhancing your presentation skills:
Confident people know how to speak with authority and share their ideas. Although feeling good about your presentation skills is easier said than done, building confidence is key to helping your audience believe in what you’re saying. Try practicing positive self-talk and continuously researching your topic's ins and outs.
If you don’t feel confident on the inside, fake it until you make it. Stand up straight, project your voice, and try your best to appear engaged and excited. Chances are, the audience doesn’t know you’re unsure of your skills — and they don’t need to.
Another tip is to lean into your slideshow, if you’re using one. Create something colorful and interesting so the audience’s eyes fall there instead of on you. And when you feel proud of your slideshow, you’ll be more eager to share it with others, bringing more energy to your presentation.
Developing the soft skills necessary for a good presentation can be challenging without seeing them in action. Watch as many as possible to become more familiar with public speaking skills and what makes a great presentation. You could attend events with keynote speakers or view past speeches on similar topics online.
Take a close look at how those presenters use verbal communication and body language to engage their audiences. Grab a notebook and jot down what you enjoyed and your main takeaways. Try to recall the techniques they used to emphasize their main points, whether they used pauses effectively, had interesting visual aids, or told a fascinating story.
You don’t need a large auditorium to practice public speaking. There are dozens of other ways to feel confident and develop good presentation skills.
If you’re a natural comedian, consider joining a small stand-up comedy club. If you’re an avid writer, participate in a public poetry reading. Even music and acting can help you feel more comfortable in front of a crowd.
If you’d rather keep it professional, you can still work on your presentation skills in the office. Challenge yourself to participate at least once in every team meeting, or plan and present a project to become more comfortable vocalizing your ideas. You could also speak to your manager about opportunities that flex your public speaking abilities.
Many people experience feelings of fear before presenting in front of an audience, whether those feelings appear as a few butterflies or more severe anxiety. Try grounding yourself to shift your focus to the present moment. If you’re stuck dwelling on previous experiences that didn’t go well, use those mistakes as learning experiences and focus on what you can improve to do better in the future.
It’s normal to feel nervous when sharing your ideas. In fact, according to a report from the Journal of Graduate Medical Education, public speaking anxiety is prevalent in 15–30% of the general population .
Even though having a fear of public speaking is common, it doesn’t make it easier. You might feel overwhelmed, become stiff, and forget what you were going to say. But although the moment might scare you, there are ways to overcome the fear and put mind over matter.
Use these tactics to reduce your stress when you have to make a presentation:
If you experience anxiety often, you’re probably familiar with breathing techniques for stress relief . Incorporating these exercises into your daily routine can help you stop worrying and regulate anxious feelings.
Before a big presentation, take a moment alone to practice breathing techniques, ground yourself, and reduce tension. It’s also a good idea to take breaths throughout the presentation to speak slower and calm yourself down .
The more organized you are, the more prepared you’ll feel. Carefully outline all of the critical information you want to use in your presentation, including your main talking points and visual aids, so you don’t forget anything. Use bullet points and visuals on each slide to remind you of what you want to talk about, and create handheld notes to help you stay on track.
It’s okay to lose your train of thought. It happens to even the most experienced public speakers once in a while. If your mind goes blank, don’t panic. Take a moment to breathe, gather your thoughts, and refer to your notes to see where you left off. You can drink some water or make a quick joke to ease the silence or regain your footing. And it’s okay to say, “Give me a moment while I find my notes.” Chances are, people understand the position you’re in.
Before presenting, rehearse in front of friends and family members you trust. This gives you the chance to work out any weak spots in your speech and become comfortable communicating out loud. If you want to go the extra mile, ask your makeshift audience to ask a surprise question. This tests your on-the-spot thinking and will prove that you can keep cool when things come up.
Whether you’re new to public speaking or are a seasoned presenter, you’re bound to make a few slip-ups. It happens to everyone. The most important thing is that you try your best, brush things off, and work on improving your skills to do better in your next presentation.
Although your job may require a different level of public speaking than your favorite TED Talk , developing presentation skills is handy in any profession. You can use presentation skills in a wide range of tasks in the workplace, whether you’re sharing your ideas with colleagues, expressing concerns to higher-ups, or pitching strategies to potential clients.
Remember to use active listening to read the room and engage your audience with an interesting narrative. Don’t forget to step outside your comfort zone once in a while and put your skills to practice in front of a crowd. After facing your fears, you’ll feel confident enough to put presentation skills on your resume.
If you’re trying to build your skills and become a better employee overall, try a communications coach with BetterUp.
Unlock the power of clear and persuasive communication. Our coaches can guide you to build strong relationships and succeed in both personal and professional life.
Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.
The 11 tips that will improve your public speaking skills, the importance of good speech: 5 tips to be more articulate, learn types of gestures and their meanings to improve your communication, why it's good to have a bff at work and how to find one, what’s my earning potential determining the right salary, what i didn't know before working with a coach: the power of reflection, what is a career path definition, examples, and steps for paving yours, member story: developing communication skills and owning the spotlight, why is there a labor shortage 5 ways it could impact you, 15 teacher interview questions and how to answer them, goal-setting theory: why it’s important, and how to use it at work, i stopped having dead people's goals, make the connection: 10 effective ways to connect with people, 6 career changes for teachers that truly pay off, discover how to get noticed by upper management at work, why we need to reframe potential into readiness, show gratitude with “thank you for your leadership and vision” message examples, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..
3100 E 5th Street, Suite 350 Austin, TX 78702
Intended for healthcare professionals
In the third of her series on getting the dream job, Laura Brammar looks at giving an interview presentation
Many doctors have extensive experience of delivering presentations at conferences, during research projects, or to medical students during their training. Nevertheless, for many medical professionals having to deliver a presentation is still something they dread rather than relish. Equally, candidate presentations are becoming an established feature of selection and assessment for many roles within medicine.
Applicants may be asked to prepare and deliver a presentation as part of the interview process for anything from a salaried general practitioner post to a senior consultant post. For that reason alone, it’s vital to grasp the nettle and strengthen those presentation skills, which you can draw on throughout your medical career.
To prepare most effectively for your presentation, you might find considering four main areas particularly useful: planning, preparation, phrasing, and projection.
Planning —A good presentation begins with the early stage of planning. Common complaints about ineffectual and dull presentations revolve around the apparent lack of structure shown by the presenter.
You will generally be given the topic of your presentation in advance. Topics vary, but they usually relate to your specialty—for example, “What do you see as the main current issues/future direction of this specialty?”—or link to contextual factors related to the role—“How, in your opinion, could the current system of X work more effectively?”
Think of the title as your research question or hypothesis and structure your presentation so that you answer that question directly. A simple but effective framework for any presentation is: tell them what you’re going to say, say it, and tell them what you’ve just said. Whether your presentation relates to the latest National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines for your specialty or a business plan in response to a proposed polyclinic, this structure will help keep your audience engaged and your presentation within the time limit.
Indeed, timing is crucial when giving a presentation. Most candidates are overambitious about what can be squeezed into just five to ten minutes. Be realistic about what you can achieve in the time limit and plan your presentation accordingly. As a rule of thumb, less is almost always more and remember to build in time for questions at the end.
Preparation —Having a clear structure can give you a useful framework that underpins your presentation. In a similar way, using particular resources to support your point can be a good method to employ during a presentation.
While the use of PowerPoint is becoming increasingly popular, in these circumstances you need to check before slaving over your slides. Remember that you are the focus of the presentation, not the screen; avoid distracting animations and excessive detail. Even if PowerPoint is an option you still need to plan for technological meltdowns; bring hard copies and overhead slides as a back-up.
You may consider it worth while to produce a brief summarising handout of the main points. Aim to distribute this before you begin so that you can create a clear and confident start, rather than compete with the rustle of paper as you try to introduce yourself.
Phrasing —Many candidates get anxious about the fact that they may “um” and “er” during a presentation. The vast majority of people feel nervous when they are presenting. Accept that and remember that, to an extent, it is what your audience will expect; from the selectors’ perspective, a completely laidback candidate might appear unmotivated and flippant. So while you want to aim for a fluid and articulate delivery, it’s not the end of the world if you occasionally need to pause between sentences. Indeed pauses can be an excellent way of emphasising your points and retaining your audience’s attention.
Essentially, use your structure to help you—for example, “First, I’d like to talk about . . .; next, let’s look at . . . ; and, finally, in summary . . ..”Also, be aware of your pace and volume.
Projection —Many people associate the term “presentation skills” with aspects of non-verbal communication, such as gestures and facial expression. Even when you feel nervous there are ways successfully to convey confidence to your audience. The following suggestions will help you to show a positive and calm attitude, which in turn will help you to maintain control over your presentation.
Breathe—If you are particularly nervous before you start, take a few moments to slow down your breathing; it may help to think about balancing the length of your inhalation and exhalation and breathe deeply and evenly.
Share your eye contact—If feasible, make eye contact with all your audience throughout your presentation; if you are presenting to a large group, make sure you address both sides of the room during your session.
Take time to pause—Use pauses to illustrate the structure of your session. Brief pauses can also help you to slow down your delivery and maintain the focus of your audience.
Project your voice—Check that those at the back can hear you before you start. Maintain your volume throughout and aim at projecting your voice to the back of the room.
Own the space—If possible, try not to stay stuck to one spot for the duration of the presentation. Clearly, now isn’t the time to try out gestures that feel unnatural or forced. However, convey your confidence through the way you stand and emphasise your message through your body language.
Smile—Despite feeling anxious, displaying a smile can make you feel more relaxed. Even better, it also gives your audience confidence in you and in your message.
While you may have organised thoroughly your planning, preparation, phrasing, and projection, the one area you cannot control or necessarily predict is your audience’s reactions. Many people find the thought of their audience’s responses, especially during the question and answer session, far more terrifying than the presentation itself.
Here are a few suggestions for how to deal with some common difficult situations.
Random interruptions —If someone asks a question in the middle of your presentation, make a decision whether it would be appropriate to deal with it now or later. Don’t be forced to change your structure unless you believe it is really necessary. Acknowledge the question and reassure the person that there will be opportunities to discuss that later. Equally, if it is an unrelated or irrelevant question remember to acknowledge it but make it clear that such a topic isn’t going to be dealt with explicitly on this occasion. You can always offer to research that question for them at a later opportunity.
Audience looks bored —Many people feel they are poor presenters because their audiences can look distracted or even bored. The key thing here is to ask yourself if they are actually bored or whether they are just presenting you with a professional and impartial expression. In your clinical work you need to be able to focus on a task and not be distracted by personal emotional considerations or anxieties; this is no different. Treat the presentation as a professional exercise and move on.
Someone isn’t listening and is talking to someone nearby —Depending on your audience (senior consultants or medical students, for example) you may want to vary your specific response to this. However, a good technique with any audience is to pause in your delivery, look at the culprits while smiling, and wait for their attention before you start again. This is an effective (and non-aggressive) way of acknowledging that they are distracting both you and the rest of the group. That is usually all it takes to get their full attention. However, if they are persistent offenders maintain your professionalism and carry on regardless.
Questions you can’t answer —Sometimes the dread of the questions at the end of a presentation can overshadow the whole experience. Avoid this by framing your question and answer session with a reassurance that you’ll do your best to deal with any questions now and will guarantee to follow up any additional questions after the session. If you are asked a reasonable question which you genuinely can’t answer you may want to try the following:
Acknowledge that it’s a valid question
Invite any suggestions from the audience first
Admit that you can’t give a full answer at this moment; don’t bluff an answer
Offer to follow up a response and email the person later.
Remember that part of good medical practice is to know your limits and work within the parameters of your knowledge; it sounds far more confident and impressive to admit you can’t answer a question fully at this moment, rather than try to cobble together a poor answer and pretend you know.
The BMA Careers Service works with many individual medics who wish to improve their presentation skills through a tailormade practice presentation service. A bespoke practice presentation session, based on your actual material, can be excellent preparation for the real thing. During the session you can rehearse your presentation fully, practise answering focused questions, and gain immediate and constructive one to one feedback on your overall performance ( www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/Hubcareersadvicefordoctors ).
Competing interests : None declared.
Techniques to develop your skills and confidence as a presenter.
Standing up in front of other people and sharing your ideas can be a stressful experience, but also extremely rewarding intellectually.
In formal presentations, you make both the strength of your knowledge and any gaps in it immediately and publicly visible.
This is risky and rewarding because it means you are both teaching others and learning from them. That is, you are doing what education is all about.
In addition, the way you communicate and how you present yourself will influence the response of the audience, and that can make you feel self-conscious.
But, by learning more about the best strategies and techniques for formal presentations in academic settings, you can make the most of this valuable learning environment.
301 Recommends:
Our workshop on Planning and Delivering Presentations examines what makes a presentation effective, and what things to consider when preparing for delivery. You will learn a planning technique which will lead to clear and concise delivery, so you can go into your presentations feeling confident and well-prepared. The workshop will also provide you with tips on getting your message across.
This short Study Skills Hacks video offers tips and suggestions on preparing for a presentation and getting it right on the day.
Three main focus points.
The more you plan your presentation, the more confidence you will have in the information you are delivering. You need to consider three things throughout this process: topic, time limit, and audience.
Your topic is what your presentation should be about.
This seems obvious, but unless you keep a clear idea of the message you are trying to convey, it's easy to go off on a tangent. You will then lose the clarity of your presentation.
Again, this seems obvious, but you will be kept to time and you need to prepare for this.
If you're asked to deliver a short presentation, keep this in mind as you do your background research, to avoid doing unnecessary amounts of reading. You only have a certain amount of time you can spend on your preparation, so make sure you use your time wisely.
Your audience is key to how you deliver your presentation.
You need to consider what they already know, what they need to know, and the type of language that is appropriate for your delivery.
Unlike a written piece of work, an audience only gets one chance to engage with the content of a presentation.
With this in mind, your presentation should follow a very simple structure of reinforcement:
This may sound repetitive, but that's exactly what you want: to repeat the key points so that they are clear to your audience and provide a take-home message.
Having a clear structure not only helps your audience to follow your presentation but helps you to keep track of what it is you are trying to explain.
Use the Horizontal Planning Template (google doc) to organise your presentation. Start from the middle with roughly three main points, before moving out to complete a plan for your introduction and conclusion.
Starting in the middle is essential as it will allow you to pin down the main areas of your message, before moving on to identify how to introduce these main points to your audience and summarise them again at the end.
Spoken reports detailing your work can take place in a range of settings: the small group classroom, in a one-to-one tutorial, in the workplace or at an academic conference.
Presentations take different forms, from a read-out mini-lecture to an improvised explanation or elaboration of a series of key points, a question-and-answer session, an audience-activity workshop, or a blend of all of these.
An individual presentation can feel intense as you take centre stage. However, the advantage of this is that you have complete control over your preparation (see below), content and timing.
If you are finding the prospect of a solo presentation in front of an audience stressful, there are a number of strategies you can use to build confidence and overcome the nerves:
Group presentations share many of the demands of the individual format, but collaboration brings its own benefits and challenges. Strength in numbers can provide a sense of comradeship and relieve individual pressure. But working together means you need to find ways to share the burden of work equally and incorporate the efforts and skills of each group member.
The additional pressures of a group presentation can be particularly significant when a presentation forms part of university coursework.
Like any form of group work, group presentations rely on sharing responsibility and developing strategies to manage group disagreements or imbalances. Remember to take time to understand one another's strengths and areas of confidence so that tasks and responsibilities can be divided up in a way that makes the most of individual skills and abilities.
And just like an individual presentation, making sure you find the time to practice and rehearse the presentation together as a group can be decisive to its success on the day. Consider the following points and build them into your rehearsal time:
Read more about group work and collaboration here .
Whilst the fundamentals of good in-person presenting remain true when presenting online, there are some important considerations that are unique to presenting remotely. Read tips on online presentations here.
Most importantly, for all kinds of presentations, allow time to practice! Make sure you think about how you are going to deliver your presentation and make it engaging.
This is especially important if you are presenting in a group, as transitions can be costly time-wise if unrehearsed. Make sure you have time to revise and edit your presentation, with enough time to rehearse the final edit too.
Make sure you have your ending prepared! Do not simply stop, think about how you will signal to your audience that you are done and ready for questions (if appropriate).
Finally, make sure that you are as comfortable as possible on the day. Plan out what you are going to wear the night before, arrive early to check equipment, and have a bottle of water with you.
The majority of your confidence will come from having a well-researched, structured and practised presentation, so don't worry, take a deep breath, and you will now be ready to go!
Once you have delivered your presentation, seek feedback from your peers or tutors, to help you develop your skills further. Think reflectively about the whole presentation process, as you continue to build this skill.
Learn more about how to use feedback here.
Library- Group work vs collusion
Student Services Information Desk (SSiD)- Public Speaking and Communicating with Impact
Counselling Service- Communicating with Impact Workshop
Counselling Service- Public Speaking Workshops
Creative Media Team- Production Resources
English Language Teaching Centre (ELTC)- Language Resources
Digital Learning- Guidance for creating accessible content .
Digital Learning- Creating accessible PowerPoint presentations
University of Manchester- Working in Groups
University of Reading- Effective Group Work
Learn Higher- Group work
BBC BiteSize- Speaking Skills
Poster presentations
Online group work
Are you getting ready to start a new academic year? Or preparing for summer resits?
We have a whole host of support ready for you to access whenever you need it. Our online resources allow you to develop your academic skills at your own pace, building on your existing skills ready for whatever you are facing next.
Take advantage of our curated Level Up Your Skills packages and start working through resources for your upcoming level of study, or use study skills online to find specific topics you want to work on.
Sheffield is a research university with a global reputation for excellence. We're a member of the Russell Group: one of the 24 leading UK universities for research and teaching.
An official website of the United States government
The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.
The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.
Email citation, add to collections.
Your saved search, create a file for external citation management software, your rss feed.
Most PhD's will have a presentation component during the interview process, as well as presenting their work at conferences. This article will provide guidance on how to develop relevant content and effectively deliver it to your audience.
Keywords: effective; presentation; skills.
© FEMS 2017. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].
PubMed Disclaimer
Full text sources.
NCBI Literature Resources
MeSH PMC Bookshelf Disclaimer
The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unauthorized use of these marks is strictly prohibited.
Home Blog Education Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success
Getting the perfect presentation design is just a step toward a successful presentation. For the experienced user, building presentation skills is the answer to elevating the power of your message and showing expertise on any subject. Still, one can ask: is it the same set of skills, or are they dependable on the type of presentation?
In this article, we will introduce the different types of presentations accompanied by the skillset required to master them. The purpose, as always, is to retain the audience’s interest for a long-lasting and convincing message.
Table of Contents
Persuasive presentations, instructional presentations, informative presentations, inspirational presentations, basic presentation skills, what are the main difficulties when giving a presentation, recommendations to improve your presentation skills, closing statement.
Effective communication is the answer to reaching business and academic goals. The scenarios in which we can be required to deliver a presentation are as diverse as one can imagine. Still, some core concepts apply to all presentations.
We define presentation skills as a compendium of soft skills that directly affect your presentation performance and contribute to creating a great presentation. These are not qualities acquired by birth but skills you ought to train and master to delve into professional environments.
You may ask: is it really that evident when a presenter is not prepared? Here are some common signs people can experience during presentations:
The list can go on about common presenter mistakes , and most certainly, it will affect the performance of any presented data if the lack of interest by the presenter is blatantly obvious. Another element to consider is anxiety, and according to research by the National Institute of Mental Health, 73% of the population in the USA is affected by glossophobia , which is the fear of public speaking, judgment, or negative evaluation by other people.
Therefore, presentation skills training is essential for any business professional who wants to achieve effective communication . It will remove the anxiety from presentation performance and help users effectively deliver their message and connect with the audience.
Persuasive presentations aim to convince the audience – often in short periods – to acquire a product or service, adhere to a cause, or invest in a company. For business entrepreneurs or politicians, persuasive presentations are their tool for the trade.
Unless you aim to be perceived as an imposter, a proper persuasive presentation has the elements of facts, empathy, and logic, balanced under a well-crafted narrative. The central pillar of these presentations is to identify the single factor that gathered your audience: it could be a market need, a social cause, or a revolutionary concept for today’s society. It has to be something with enough power to gather critiques – both good and bad.
That single factor has to be backed up by facts. Research that builds your hypothesis on how to solve that problem. A deep understanding of the target audience’s needs , concerns, and social position regarding the solution your means can offer. When those elements are in place, building a pitch becomes an easy task.
Graphics can help you introduce information in a compelling format, lowering the need for lengthy presentations. Good presentation skills for persuasive presentations go by the hand of filtering relevant data and creating the visual cues that resonate with what your audience demands.
One powerful example of a persuasive presentation is the technique known as the elevator pitch . You must introduce your idea or product convincingly to the audience in a timeframe between 30 seconds and less than 2 minutes. You have to expose:
For that very purpose, using engaging graphics with contrasting colors elevates the potential power of your message. It speaks professionalism, care for details, and out-of-the-box thinking. Knowing how to end a presentation is also critical, as your CTAs should be placed with care.
Therefore, let’s resume the requirements of persuasive presentations in terms of good presentation skills:
You can learn more about persuasive presentation techniques by clicking here .
In the case of instructional presentations, we ought to differentiate two distinctive types:
Lecture presentations appeal to the gradual introduction of complex concepts, following a structure set in the course’s syllabus. These presentations often have a similar aesthetic as a group of professors or researchers created to share their knowledge about a topic. Personal experience does tell that course presentations often rely on factual data, adequately documented, and on the theoretical side.
An example of a presentation that lies under this concept is a Syllabus Presentation, used by the teaching team to introduce the subject to new students, evaluation methods, concepts to be learned, and expectations to pass the course.
On the other hand, training presentations are slide decks designed to meet an organization’s specific needs in the formal education of their personnel. Commonly known as “continuous education,” plenty of companies invest resources in coaching their employees to achieve higher performance results. These presentations have the trademark of being concise since their idea is to introduce the concepts that shall be applied in practice sessions.
Ideally, the training presentations are introduced with little text and easy-to-recognize visual cues. Since the idea is to summarize as much as possible, these are visually appealing for the audience. They must be dynamic enough to allow the presenter to convey the message.
Those key takeaways remind employees when they revisit their learning resources and allow them to ruminate on questions that fellow workers raise.
To sum up this point, building presentation skills for instructional presentations requires:
The informative presentations take place in business situations, such as when to present project reports from different departments to the management. Another potential usage of these presentations is in SCRUM or other Agile methodologies, when a sprint is completed, to discuss the advance of the project with the Product Owner.
As they are presentations heavily dependent on data insights, it’s common to see the usage of infographics and charts to express usually dense data in simpler terms and easy to remember.
Informative presentations don’t just fall into the business category. Ph.D. Dissertation and Thesis presentations are topics that belong to the informative presentations category as they condense countless research hours into manageable reports for the academic jury.
Since these informational presentations can be perceived as lengthy and data-filled, it is important to learn the following professional presentation skills:
The leading inspirational platform, TEDx, comes to mind when talking about inspirational presentations. This presentation format has the peculiarity of maximizing the engagement with the audience to divulge a message, and due to that, it has specific requirements any presenter must meet.
This presentation format usually involves a speaker on a stage, either sitting or better standing, in which the presenter engages with the audience with a storytelling format about a life experience, a job done that provided a remarkable improvement for society, etc.
Empathizing with the audience is the key ingredient for these inspirational presentations. Still, creativity is what shapes the outcome of your performance as people are constantly looking for different experiences – not the same recipe rephrased with personal touches. The human factor is what matters here, way above data and research. What has your experience to offer to others? How can it motivate another human being to pursue a similar path or discover their true calling?
To achieve success in terms of communication skills presentation, these inspirational presentations have the following requirements:
After discussing the different kinds of presentations we can come across at any stage of our lives, a group of presentation skills is standard in any type of presentation. See below what makes a good presentation and which skills you must count on to succeed as a presenter.
Punctuality is a crucial aspect of giving an effective presentation. Nothing says more about respect for your audience and the organization you represent than delivering the presentation on time . Arriving last minute puts pressure on the tech team behind audiovisuals, as they don’t have enough preparation to test microphones, stage lights, and projector settings, which can lead to a less powerful presentation Even when discussing presentations hosted in small rooms for a reduced audience, testing the equipment becomes essential for an effective presentation.
A solution for this is to arrive at least 30 minutes early. Ideally, one hour is a sweet spot since the AV crew has time to check the gear and requirements for your presentation. Another benefit of this, for example, in inspirational presentations, is measuring the previous presenter’s impact on the audience. This gives insights about how to resonate with the public, and their interest, and how to accommodate your presentation for maximum impact.
Our bodies can make emotions transparent for others, even when we are unaware of such a fact. Proper training for body language skills reduces performance anxiety, giving the audience a sense of expertise about the presented topic.
Give your presentation and the audience the respect they deserve by watching over these potential mistakes:
Voice Tone plays a crucial role in delivering effective presentations and knowing how to give a good presentation. Your voice is a powerful tool for exposing your ideas and feelings . Your voice can articulate the message you are telling, briefing the audience if you feel excited about what you are sharing or, in contrast, if you feel the presentation is a burden you ought to complete.
Remember, passion is a primary ingredient in convincing people. Therefore, transmitting such passion with a vibrant voice may help gather potential business partners’ interest.
But what if you feel sick prior to the presentation? If, by chance, your throat is sore minutes before setting foot on the stage, try this: when introducing yourself, mention that you are feeling a bit under the weather. This resonates with the audience to pay more attention to your efforts. In case you don’t feel comfortable about that, ask the organizers for a cup of tea, as it will settle your throat and relax your nerves.
Believe it or not, people still feel challenged by technology these days. Maybe that’s the reason why presentation giants like Tony Robbins opt not to use PowerPoint presentations . The reality is that there are plenty of elements involved in a presentation that can go wrong from the tech side:
We can come up with a pretty long list of potential tech pitfalls, and yet more than half of them fall in presenters not being knowledgeable about technology.
If computers aren’t your thing, let the organization know about this beforehand. There is always a crew member available to help presenters switch between slides or configure the presentation for streaming. This takes the pressure off your shoulders, allowing you to concentrate on the content to present. Remember, even Bill Gates can get a BSOD during a presentation .
Presentations, while valuable for conveying information and ideas, can be daunting for many individuals. Here are some common difficulties people encounter when giving presentations:
Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, affects a significant portion of the population. This anxiety can lead to nervousness, trembling, and forgetfulness during a presentation.
Many presenters struggle with self-doubt, fearing that they may not be knowledgeable or skilled enough to engage their audience effectively.
Organizing information in a coherent and engaging manner can be challenging. Presenters often grapple with how to structure their content to make it easily digestible for the audience. Artificial Intelligence can help us significantly reduce the content arrangement time when you work with tools like our AI Presentation Maker (made for presenters by experts in presentation design).
Keeping the audience’s attention and interest throughout the presentation can be difficult. Distractions, disengaged attendees, or lack of interaction can pose challenges.
Technology glitches, such as malfunctioning equipment, incompatible file formats, or poor internet connectivity, can disrupt presentations and increase stress.
Striking the right balance between providing enough information and staying within time limits is a common challenge. Going over or under the allotted time can affect the effectiveness of the presentation.
Responding to unexpected questions, criticism, or challenges from the audience can be difficult, especially when presenters are unprepared or lack confidence in their subject matter.
Creating and effectively using visual aids like slides or multimedia can be a struggle for some presenters. Technical competence is essential in this aspect.
Poor language skills or unclear articulation can hinder effective communication. Presenters may worry about stumbling over words or failing to convey their message clearly.
Maintaining appropriate and confident body language can be challenging. Avoiding nervous habits, maintaining eye contact, and using gestures effectively requires practice.
In virtual presentations, maintaining a personal connection with the audience can be difficult. The absence of face-to-face interaction can make it challenging to engage and read the audience.
Presenting to diverse audiences requires sensitivity to cultural differences and varying levels of familiarity with the topic.
In this section, we gathered some tips on how to improve presentation skills that can certainly make an impact if applied to your presentation skills. We believe these skills can be cultivated to transform into habits for your work routine.
One memorable way to guarantee presentation success is by writing a story of all the points you desire to cover. This statement is based on the logic behind storytelling and its power to connect with people .
Don’t waste time memorizing slides or reading your presentation to the audience. It feels unnatural, and any question that diverts from the topic in discussion certainly puts you in jeopardy or, worse, exposes you as a fraud in the eyes of the audience. And before you ask, it is really evident when a presenter has a memorized speech.
Build and rehearse the presentation as if telling a story to a group of interested people. Lower the language barrier by avoiding complex terms that maybe even you aren’t fully aware of their meaning. Consider the ramifications of that story, what it could lead to, and which are the opportunities to explore. Then, visualize yourself giving the presentation in a natural way.
Applying this technique makes the presentation feel like second nature to you. It broadens the spectrum in which you can show expertise over a topic or even build the basis for new interesting points of view about the project.
It is a common practice of presenters to bombard the audience with facts and information whilst retaining the same slide on the screen. Why can this happen? It could be because the presenter condensed the talk into very few slides and preferred to talk. The reality is that your spectators won’t retain the information you are giving unless you give visual cues to help that process.
Opt to prepare more slides and pace your speech to match the topics shown on each slide. Don’t spend more than 3 minutes per slide unless you have to introduce a complex piece of data. Use visual cues to direct the spectators about what you talk about, and summarize the principal concepts discussed at the end of each section.
Anxiety is the number one enemy of professional presenters. It slowly builds without you being aware of your doubts and can hinder your performance in multiple ways: making you feel paralyzed, fidgeting, making you forget language skills or concepts, affecting your health, etc.
Meditation is an ancient practice taken from Buddhist teachings that train your mind to be here in the present. We often see the concepts of meditation and mindfulness as synonyms, whereas you should be aware that meditation is a practice that sets the blocks to reach a state of mindfulness. For presenters, being in the here and now is essential to retain focus, but meditation techniques also teach us to control our breathing and be in touch with our body signals when stress builds up.
The customary practice of meditation has an impact on imagination and creativity but also helps to build patience – a skill much needed for connecting with your audience in instructional presentations.
Having the proper set of presentation skills can be quite subjective. It goes beyond presentation tips and deepens into how flexible we can be in our ability to communicate ideas.
Different presentations and different audiences shape the outcome of our efforts. Therefore, having a basic understanding of how to connect, raise awareness, and empathize with people can be key ingredients for your career as a presenter. A word of advice: success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes dedication and patience to build communication skills . Don’t condition your work to believe you will be ready “someday”; it’s best to practice and experience failure as part of the learning process.
Like this article? Please share
Business Presentations, Presentation Approaches, Presentation Skills Filed under Education
Filed under Business • July 24th, 2024
Discover the secrets behind successful demo presentations and what they should contain with this article. Recommended PPT templates included.
Filed under Presentation Ideas • July 17th, 2024
One of the biggest challenges for presenters is to summarize content from lengthy reports, academic papers, or any other kind of written media in an informative and concise way. Rather than losing countless hours going over and over the same text, we can speed up the process thanks to the virtues of artificial intelligence. In […]
Filed under Education • July 10th, 2024
Become a proficient presenter by mastering the art of how to memorize a presentation. Nine different techniques + PPT templates here.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Once you become the scientist whose name others circle in the conference program, your academic career develops much easier: citations to your journal papers accumulate, collaboration opportunities mount, and research funding starts to flow. This book will show you:
✓ A step-by-step system for acquiring academic presentation skills which I call the “Five-S presenting pyramid”
✓ An approach for designing scientific posters that attract attention and facilitate fruitful conversations
✓ Techniques for communicating your research in a way that is understood and remembered , regardless of the listener’s experience
----------------
To deliver a powerful presentation at a meeting or a conference, in a lecture, or during an interview, you don’t need talent. You need to learn certain skills. Through both good and bad examples, this book shows how to master the presenting skills every scientist should possess.
-----------------
What’s included:
1) Online tools that will make your presentations stand out
2) Visually captivating templates for designing conference posters and creating academic presentation slides using PowerPoint, Canva, and other apps
3) Two printable cheat sheets to remind you of the tips from this book
My name is Martins Zaumanis and, when starting in academia, I would rather go to a dentist than get on the presentation stage. Soon, though, I grasped the incredible impact that powerful scientific presentations can have in driving an academic career. My journey to becoming a scientist at one of the most prestigious research institutions in the world (ETH group) has relied heavily on my presenting skills. In this book, I will share with you the techniques that made this journey possible.
and you believe that all the good scientific presenters have a certain "Talent" that you don't possess. | but all you are still preparing it using the traditional wall-of-text style template. | but your solution is to blast more facts at the listeners. |
You don't need some special talent for giving powerful academic presentations. It's just a set of skills that anyone can master. In the first part of the book, you will learn how to acquire five presenting skills through a scientifically-proven learning approach.
Poster sessions hold enormous potential for sparking great ideas and finding new collaboration partners. In the second part, I will show you three helpful steps for creating and presenting a scientific poster that can efficiently achieve this.
Download and use each of the four research conference poster slide templates. | Access a PowerPoint slide template tailored for scientific presentations. Its preformatted layouts follow the best practices for academic conference slide design. | A complementary website reviews and compares apps for live and virtual presentations, offers tools for interacting with the audience, and rates AV hardware for webinars. | Download two cheat sheets that summarize advice from the book so that you can take a quick look at them whenever you are getting ready for a presentation. |
This is my heart rate during a presentation early in my academic career. Despite not having a talent for it, I learned to give powerful presentations. This helped me to build partnerships, attract citations and ensure research funding.
In this book, I will show how you can achieve this too.
I am a researcher at ETH University domain in Switzerland. Working in academia is my dream come true but given my origins, the odds were stacked against me. You see, I grew up in a working-class family in a country that barely anyone has heard of, and I studied at a second-rate university that did not even provide access to research papers.
My background did not stop me from earning a Ph.D. in the USA and getting a position at one of the world's best research institutions. This journey was possible only because I developed strong academic communication skills that I will share with you in the Peer Recognized book series.
Where did I acquire the skills?
To learn telling about my research, I attended courses on public speaking, analyzed great presenters in action, and before my TEDx talk, I even had one-on-one lessons from a theater director. These are skills that no one teaches in graduate school. And even if they did, it most likely the advice would be bad because academics are, for the most part, awful presenters (just recall the number of presentations that start with an "outline").
To master writing impactful research papers, I discussed scientific writing with editors of major academic journals, took advice from people who have published in Nature, and read many books about human psychology. To learn writing winning research proposals, I attended a business incubator and even presented my research to angel investors.
After years of refining my skills, I can see the work has paid off. Even though literature was far from my favorite subject in school, writing research papers has become one of my favorite tasks. I feel butterflies in my stomach every time I see a new citation of my papers. Knowing that my work is making an impact pushes me to come up with new research ideas, and five years after Ph.D. graduation, I have authored projects amounting to a total of 6.7 million USD. Finally, knowing how to present my work in conferences and on the internet allows me to connect with many scientists and join exciting collaborative research projects.
Every day I enjoy being able to do a job I am passionate about. Getting here was only possible because of the academic communication skills that I developed. In the five Peer Recognized series books, I will show you how to acquire these skills without annoying theater directors and journal editors.
Go to https://peerrecognized.com to learn more.
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..
New survey: 70% say presentation skills are critical for career success.
Seventy percent of employed Americans who give presentations agree that presentation skills are critical to their success at work, according to a new Prezi survey. My first reaction? The other 30% don’t know it yet.
Prezi, the cloud-based presentation platform company, collaborated with Harris to survey employed professionals about their attitudes on presentations. Prezi also asked me to review the survey results. The findings reflect just how important presentations skills are to one’s career, and also reveal the extreme measures people take to get out of giving a presentation. For example, 20% of respondents said they would do almost anything to avoid giving a presentation including pretending to be sick or asking a colleague to give the presentation , even if it means “losing respect” in the workplace.
The fear of presenting is very real among professionals in corporate America today, so much so that that many people are desperate to avoid it. It’s a problem because the survey also reveals that telling a clear and persuasive story through presentations is a fundamental job requirement and a necessary component of career success. In the information age you are only as valuable as the ideas you have to share. Poor presentation skills mean that leaders fail to inspire their teams, products fail to sell, entrepreneurs fail to attract funding, and careers fail to soar. That seems like a big price to pay for neglecting such a basic skill that anyone can improve upon.
There is hope for anyone who wants to improve at this critical career skill and, according to the Prezi survey, plenty of people want help. Seventy-five percent of those who give presentations say they would like to be better at presenting and to ‘captivate the audience.’ One way to improve presentation skills is simply to watch great presentations. Thanks to sites like TED.com , anyone with an Internet connection and a computer or mobile device can watch the world’s most awe-inspiring presentations delivered in 18-minutes.
Recently I spoke to author and investigative reporter David Epstein who delivered this TED talk in March that has been viewed more than 1.7 million times. On the 18-minute time limit that all TED talks are required to follow he said, “It forced me to be really sharp with my transitions, and to pick examples that I could explain really succinctly, even if they were not the simplest ideas in the world. With that amount of time, you know you can only make so many points, so you're forced to make them count.” Epstein’s TED experience also taught him the importance of delivering a visually engaging presentation that adds to the narrative, and doesn’t simply mirror the speaker’s words. “The slides should supplement the talk, not give it. The speaker is the performer, and the slides are supporting actors.”
Epstein’s presentation is visually engaging and beautifully designed, a common element in many of the best TED presentations. If you want to improve your presentation skills, here are several other TED talks I would recommend that you watch.
“Why Schools Kill Creativity,” by Sir Ken Robinson (Skillful use of humor and storytelling).
“My Stroke of Insight” by Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor (Dr. Jill rehearsed this presentation 200 times before delivering it).
“We Need to Talk About an Injustice” by Bryan Stevenson (Stevenson tells three stories to support his theme, accounting for 65% of his content).
The fact is that traditional presentations are often boring. In the Prezi survey, 46% of respondents admit that they’ve been distracted during a co-worker’s presentation. Instead of watching the presentation they often do the following tasks: send text messages, answer email, surf the Internet, check social media, or fall asleep. Creating and delivering a presentation that engages hearts and minds does take work and creativity, but with easy access to some of the best presentations on the planet there are plenty of examples to model.
Carmine Gallo is a communication coach, keynote speaker, and author of several bestselling books including The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and his latest Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets Of The World’s Top Minds .
An official website of the United States government
The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.
The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.
Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .
Sami algouzi.
1 Associate Professor of Linguistics, Department of English, College of Languages and Translation, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia
2 Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of English, College of Languages and Translation, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia
3 Associate Professor, English Department, College of Languages and Translation, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia
The dataset of the paper has been deposited, here is the link 10.6084/m9.figshare.23821977 .
Studies and reports indicate that some graduates struggle to find jobs, in part because they lack the key presentation skills and competencies the labor market needs. Thus, this research investigated the effectiveness of a Blackboard-mediated intervention program in strengthening English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ presentation skills. The research followed a quasi-experimental (time series) design, delivering workshops on presentation skills and collecting data from the students (N = 30) using a set of instruments: a pre-and post-assessment checklist and semi-structured interviews. The results showed that the students’ presentation skills improved significantly post intervention. Also, the participants reported positive attitudes concerning the intervention. Drawing on these findings, recommendations and suggestions are presented.
Presentation skills refer to the communicative abilities a person must possess to deliver engaging, informative, educational, enlightening, and attractive content, such as enthusiasm, a focus on the audience, keeping things simple, and excellent body language. Tursunoy describes oral presentations as a significant component of the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom today in various parts of the world [ 1 ]. As Evans and Morrison point out, presentations are now frequently used as assessment tools or as class exercises in all academic fields, especially in English as a second language (ESL) and EFL settings [ 2 ]. Moreover, Yang notes that the EFL context has emerged as essential for fostering oral competence in environments that are less favorable in terms of oral socialization [ 3 ].
In studies of communication, presentation skills have attracted the attention of researchers. For example, Kim [ 4 ] and Evans [ 5 ] argue that presentation skills are considered successful communicative goals. Presentation skills are widely required in today’s professional world and are essential for graduates, who need to acquire these skills to present on diverse occasions and at various events. Graduates understand the importance of presentation skills such as those highlighted by Dung, who states that the presenter needs a professional appearance, proper pronunciation, and fluency to engage the audience, and they also understand that practice can boost the oral and communicative aspects of the presentation [ 6 ]. However, they find acquiring and using these skills challenging for various reasons. In this regard, drawing on the views of learners, Osterman suggests that the development of oral skills should begin with practicing communication [ 7 ].
In this research, we argue that presentation skills are a necessary consideration with reference to the Saudi Vision 2030 and labor market needs, and competence in oral presentation should be a subject of prominence. Competence in oral presentation comprises the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to speak in public, where the goals may include informing or persuading the audience, or self-expression [ 8 ]. Oral presentation skills are considered key for employability [ 9 ], and communication, especially in the oral mode, has been identified as one of the essential skills for the 21st century. Presentation skills bring students benefits, such as lifelong learning skills. Moreover, the learning experience can help them develop appropriate skills if they are trained professionally. Presentation skills give learners an effective means of bridging the gap between language study and language use. Making presentations requires students to use all four skills in a natural, integrative way [ 10 ]. These days, university students and graduates are typically required to have the ability to make presentations in English to a public audience [ 11 ]. Oral presentation is not only part of 21st-century skills but is also required when students enter the workplace [ 12 ]. Therefore, higher education courses commonly integrate oral presentations as part of the course activities and/or learning objectives [ 13 ].
Presentation-related studies have been widely researched. Previous research has focused on the impact of oral presentation on language proficiency, speaking ability, oral communication abilities, self-confidence, attitudes, challenges, and factors of influence in learning presentation skills [ 8 , 14 – 18 ]. However, to the best of our knowledge, no research thus far has been conducted on the use of online instructional interventions to train students in how to present themselves in English. This study, undertaken at Najran University, addressed many aspects of oral presentations, such as organization, content, language, style, and delivery, as well as students’ lack of enthusiasm.
It was expected that this study would lead to a significant improvement in undergraduates’ presentation abilities, which are vital in today’s professional world and to meet labor market expectations. The rising need for graduates with effective presentation skills requires more effective, innovative, and result-oriented instruction. Better teaching and learning methodologies are needed to enhance students’ presentation skills and teachers must pay special attention to this aspect of learning. The intervention in this study highlighted crucial areas in presentation abilities that many researchers may not have consider. Therefore, this study aimed to promote undergraduates’ presentation skills, consistent with the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 and labor market needs, via a Blackboard-mediated intervention program. The findings provide crucial suggestions about making presentations and advance proposals concerning the essential elements for an effective presentation.
Bandura’s social cognitive theory contends that human actions are influenced by personal, behavioral, and environmental factors [ 19 ]. According to this theory, seeing others in social interactions, one’s experiences, and outside media influences might contribute to an individual’s knowledge acquisition and behavior [ 20 ], as people acquire behaviors and cognitive techniques through watching how others behave [ 21 ]. When individuals observe activity being modelled and the consequences of that conduct, they remember the sequence of events and use this knowledge to influence future behavior [ 22 ]. In this process, the environment, behavior, and cognition all play important roles in shaping growth in reciprocal triadic interactions [ 19 , 20 ].
Thus, the foundation of social cognitive theory is a process of information acquisition or learning directly related to model observation. According to Zhou and Brown [ 20 ], three factors contribute to model observation: model characteristics, such as high status, competence, and power; observer attributes, such as talent and courage, confidence, self-esteem, and independence; and model action consequences, such as self-efficacy and self-regulation. Effective modeling provides broad norms and techniques for coping with various circumstances. This can be provided through interpersonal imitation or media sources [ 19 ].
The available literature suggests an increasing focus among researchers on the importance of presentation skills and studying the challenges learners face in presenting. Some of the main challenges learners face in making presentations are background knowledge, anxiety, motivation, language, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation [ 23 – 29 ]. This is perhaps not surprising as many studies have found that presenting is a multi-layered and challenging task. Morreale points out that presenting requires considerable preparation, for example organizing content, incorporating relevant information and ideas, and selecting the appropriate attire [ 30 ]. It is necessary for students to combat these challenges since mastering slide shows, demonstrations, lectures, or speeches can assist presenters communicate with audiences by utilizing words and images [ 31 ].
Examining the presentations of a group of TESOL graduates, Zareva showed that the students acted in a variety of identity roles: guiding the audience through the information, recounting their research and decision-making processes, drawing attention to how the information was organized, and clarifying the purpose of their presentation and the structure of their argument [ 32 ]. Finding that students had difficulties providing presentation content for audiences, Melvina and Dona Alicia argued that teachers should spend more time introducing them to the broad skills they need when giving presentations [ 33 ].
Numerous factors influence presentation skills, including the ability to speak in English, which is something students are often afraid of doing [ 34 ]. Rumiyati and Seftika observe that speaking in front of a crowd is one of the most difficult tasks for EFL students [ 35 ]. Tsang identified a significant correlation between students’ perceived competence regarding the delivery of oral presentations and their level of anxiety concerning public speaking [ 36 ]. Similarly, Waluyo and Rofiah found that students’ performance in presentations is predicted by situational and potential confidence and communication confidence [ 16 ].
Background knowledge, psychology, language and style, preparation, and the instructor are some of the key factors that influence learners’ delivery of presentations [ 37 – 41 ]. Indriani found that qualities such as eye contact, body posture, and voice were further characteristics that aided pre-service teachers’ English-speaking abilities [ 42 ]. Among these, Worawong et al. identified hand gestures were the strategy most used by students in their oral presentations [ 43 ]. Okada et al. [ 44 ] and Yano [ 45 ] showed that self-monitoring, peer evaluation, and model observation have positive effects on improving learners’ oral presentation skills.
Technology can significantly enhance the general standard of one’s presentation in various ways. However, students’ readiness to embrace such technology and focus during presentations is critical. As a basis, Donohoe observed that presenters commonly utilize PowerPoint in the modern era to transmit information or media via slides as the medium offers adaptable presentation styles [ 46 ]. However, it is important to note that the development of information technologies has paved the way for new means of making presentations. Many technologies are available, such as Prezi, Keynote, and PowerPoint, as well as a range of venues, such as blogs, Facebook, and YouTube [ 47 – 49 ]. Thus, students should be encouraged to deliver their presentations by exploring different technologies, which can lead to better oral communication skills compared to traditional presentation tools [ 50 ].
Alshobramy found that applying social learning theory increased the speaking ability of secondary school EFL students naturally by providing innovative and adaptable learning experiences [ 51 ]. Fauzi showed that a multimedia-based presentation approach assisted students in developing their speaking and presentation skills, as well as their confidence [ 52 ]. Mahdi also reported that multimedia devices had a positive impact on the development of presentation and speaking skills among students [ 8 ]. Salem reported that TED lectures enhanced business students’ oral presentation abilities and vocabulary uptake/retention levels [ 53 ]. Also, the students were more enthusiastic, motivated, and eager to produce outstanding presentations as they grew more self-assured and relaxed. Sirisrimangkorn revealed that project-based learning using presentations had significant effects on students’ speaking skills [ 54 ]. Burhanuddin claimed that the individual presentation method was effective in enhancing students’ confidence and providing them with the experience of speaking in front of a crowd [ 14 ]. The results also indicated that the task gave them more awareness and self-evaluation on how to perform good public speaking. Hida examined the effectiveness of collaborative learning in co-constructing knowledge and skills in giving oral presentations in English classrooms in Japan and found that the learners primarily acquired five benefits: noticing the gap, knowledge co-construction, overcoming weakness, behavior modeling, and psychological improvement [ 55 ]. Pham et al. conducted a study aiming at measuring English-majored students’ views of their speaking skills, especially presentation skills. The results showed that most students were not confident about their presentation skills because of fears of making mistakes in vocabulary usage and grammar, lack of fluency, and so on [ 17 ].
There are very few studies on employing ICT-mediated programs to improve the presentation skills of EFL learners. However, some studies have suggested that learners experience difficulties in terms of anxiety, learning issues, and media access and use. For example, Solmaz employed Pecha Kucha to develop EFL learners’ speaking and oral presentation skills. Thematic analysis not only highlighted the advantages of the program, such as developing speaking and presentation skills, enhancing self-confidence, and improving time management, but also drawbacks, such as increased anxiety, a steep learning curve, and format constraints [ 56 ]. Among other studies examining the integration of technology in oral presentations [ 57 – 60 ], some found that this can pose difficulties in terms of the students’ language competence. Some students believed that the time given to them was insufficient, while others considered that their poor speaking abilities were to blame for their difficulties in presenting. Students also experienced fear of speaking since they understood that virtual audiences would view recordings of their oral presentations later.
To summarize, previous studies, both with and without the integration of technology, have investigated presentations with a focus on numerous different aspects. A review of the literature suggests that existing research on strengthening EFL learners’ presentation skills is very fragmented, lacks theoretical grounding and has received little empirical attention with particular reference to implementing an intervention. This research was premised on the belief that implementing an intervention program could enhance EFL learners’ presentation skills, making them better qualified for the labor market. The study investigated how a multilayered intervention program delivered through a series of workshops on Blackboard might help EFL students become successful presenters.
The study entailed designing and implementing a Blackboard-mediated interventional program aimed at improving undergraduates’ presentation skills in terms of organization, content, communication, delivery, and enthusiasm. The study utilized Blackboard as a platform to present the intervention as many presentations, and indeed job interviews, take place online, particularly since COVID-19. Other reasons for choosing Blackboard as a platform concerned convenience for the students in terms of time, place, effort, reference, and cost. The study sought to address the following research questions:
Research design and context.
The research adopted a quasi-experimental design to achieve the study objectives. This study aimed to investigate how effectively a Blackboard-mediated intervention program would be in strengthening EFL students’ presentation skills. An assessment checklist and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data from undergraduates at the College of Languages and Translation at Najran University in the Kingdom of the Saudi Arabia in the second semester of the academic year 2023.
The study population comprised undergraduates majoring in the English language and translation programs at Najran University in 2023. The study sample was based on purposive sampling and students’ voluntary participation. Those students who agreed to participate in the study completed two copies of the written informed consent form; they kept one copy and returned the other to the researchers. The Ethical Approval Committee at the Deanship of Scientific Research, Najran University granted approval to conduct the study [009773-021280-DS]. It should be noted that the researchers had no access to personal information that could identify individual participants at any time during or after data collection.
The study sample comprised two groups, 30 students in total, recruited to the study in the second semester of 2023. All the participants were Saudi, aged 22–23 years, and enrolled in the 9th and 10th levels of two courses: Contrastive Linguistics and Drama. They had been exposed to English language instruction for 11 years at school and university and all spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. They were studying EFL in a formal context and their English level should be considered upper-intermediate. Thus, they should have been able to initiate presentations, raise inquiries, and express their opinions about what they were studying in relation to the instructional material.
The study applied two instruments for data collection: a pre-and post-assessment checklist and semi-structured interview. The researchers designed the assessment checklist with reference to presentation assessment rubrics available online, such as one developed by Owen Williamson at the University of Texas ( https://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/engl1311/Presrubric.doc ) and another developed by the Justice Institute of British Columbia ( https://www.jibc.ca/sites/default/files/library/files/Group_Presentation_Marking_Rubric.doc ). The assessment checklist included presentation skills (25 items) distributed across five main domains: organization, content, communication, delivery, and enthusiasm. Each dimension contained five items.
Organization included aspects such as defining the background and importance of the topic, stating objectives that can identify relevant questions, presenting information in a logical sequence, summarizing the major points of the presentation, and providing attendees with a “take-home” message. Content included gaining the attention of the audience, defining technical terms, including relevant material, preparedness of the content, and presenting an obvious conclusion. Communication included good language skills and pronunciation, demonstrating good grammar and choice of words, using rhythm, intonation, accent, and tone variation, effective pace of delivery, being fluent and articulate, and using no fillers (umm, like), or long pauses. Delivery included items about maintaining good eye contact with the audience, using gestures in addition to a clear and audible voice, using well-prepared informative handouts, notes, and visual aids, presenting within the assigned time limits, and answering questions professionally. Finally, enthusiasm contained items about demonstrating strong enthusiasm throughout the presentation, increasing audience understanding and knowledge of the topic, convincing the audience to recognize the validity and importance of the subject drawing on evidence, being relaxed and confident with no/minimal hesitation throughout the talk, and being in professional attire.
Before the treatment program, the participants were asked to present topics related to two subjects they were studying (Contrastive Linguistics and Drama), and their performance was assessed using the checklist. Then, they were trained in presentation skills by one of the teachers with experience in this area. After that, they were again asked to present the topics related to their subjects and assessed using the same checklist.
Semi-structured interviews were employed in which the participants were asked about their experience of learning presentation skills, their attitudes, and suggestions for further improvements. The participants were interviewed immediately after the post-assessment by another teacher who had not conducted the intervention. The interviews were estimated to last 8–10 minutes. They were conducted in an office in the Department of English and audio-recorded. The semi-structured interview questions were as follows:
A jury of five experts checked both instruments, the assessment checklist and the interview questions, to establish content validity. The experts were specialized in English language teaching and technology-based learning and teaching and had more than 10 years of experience in teaching and assessment. The experts had the study tools and objectives to verify that the tools could produce valid data to answer the research questions. They also checked the applicability of the items in the Saudi context. Finally, they suggested working on language issues.
To establish the internal consistency of the assessment checklist, the researchers applied Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) to check the relationship between items and the checklist as a whole. The checklist was applied to assess the performance of a sample of 20 students who did not participate in the study. Table 1 shows the results of the correlation.
Item | r | Item | r | Item | r | Item | r | Item | r |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | .604 | 6 | .652 | 11 | .598 | 16 | .769 | 21 | .654 |
2 | .616 | 7 | .505* | 12 | .590 | 17 | .579 | 22 | .611 |
3 | .745 | 8 | .789 | 13 | .647 | 18 | .524 | 23 | .630 |
4 | .524 | 9 | .673 | 14 | .579 | 19 | .616 | 24 | .634 |
5 | .654 | 10 | .597 | 15 | .504 | 20 | .504 | 25 | .543 |
** Significant at p = 0.01
* Significant at p = 0.05.
As shown in Table 1 , the values of the Pearson correlation coefficients for the relation between each item and the whole scale ranged between 0.505 and 0.769 and were all significant at p = 0.01 or p = 0.05, demonstrating the validity of the checklist.
To verify the reliability of the assessment checklist, two assessors evaluated the performance of the exploratory sample (N = 20). The two assessors were faculty members in the Department of English, specializing in English language teaching and assessment. They had been teaching English for more than 15 years. The authors oriented them on the study topic, objectives, and evaluation checklist (dimensions and items). Any points they did not understand were clarified. The assessors were instructed to use a separate checklist for each student and to conduct the evaluation while the student was presenting. The reliability of the assessment checklist was calculated based on the level of agreement between the assessors (inter-rater reliability): Level of agreement/(no. of agreements + no. of disagreements) [ 13 ]. Table 2 presents the results.
Item | Agreement | Disagreement | Reliability coefficient % |
---|---|---|---|
88 | 12 | 88 | |
Defines background and importance of topic | 18 | 2 | 90 |
States objective and can identify relevant questions | 17 | 3 | 85 |
Presents information in a logical sequence | 19 | 1 | 95 |
Summarizes major points of talk | 16 | 4 | 80 |
Provides attendees with a “take-home” message | 18 | 2 | 90 |
87 | 13 | 87 | |
Introduction is attention-grabbing | 17 | 3 | 85 |
Defines technical terms in a language comprehensible for the target audience | 16 | 4 | 80 |
Includes relevant material that contains useful information | 19 | 1 | 95 |
Content is well-prepared and points reflect their relative importance | 16 | 4 | 80 |
Presents a clear conclusion that summarizes the presentation | 19 | 1 | 95 |
86 | 14 | 86 | |
Uses good language skills and pronunciation | 17 | 3 | 85 |
Demonstrates good grammar and choice of words | 16 | 4 | 80 |
Uses rhythm, intonation, accent, and variation of tone with an effective pace of delivery | 18 | 2 | 90 |
Is fluent and articulate | 16 | 4 | 80 |
Uses no fillers (umm, like), long pauses, etc. | 19 | 1 | 95 |
90 | 10 | 90 | |
Maintains good eye contact with the audience | 19 | 1 | 95 |
Uses body language appropriately in addition to a clear and audible voice | 18 | 2 | 90 |
Uses well prepared informative/not distracting handouts/notes/visual aids | 19 | 1 | 95 |
Presentation is within the assigned time limits | 16 | 4 | 80 |
Answers questions professionally | 18 | 2 | 90 |
87 | 13 | 87 | |
Demonstrates strong enthusiasm about topic during entire presentation | 19 | 1 | 95 |
Significantly increases audience understanding and knowledge of topic | 17 | 3 | 85 |
Convinces audience to recognize the validity and importance of the subject | 18 | 2 | 90 |
Is relaxed and confident with no/minimal hesitation throughout talk | 16 | 4 | 80 |
Attire is professional (business casual or formal) | 17 | 3 | 85 |
Table 2 shows that the assessment checklist was reliable (87.6%). The reliability coefficient values of domains ranged between 86% and 90%.
The study drew on social cognitive theory as a theoretical foundation to create and implement a Blackboard-mediated intervention aimed at improving undergraduates’ oral presentation skills. A variety of factors influenced the selection of this theoretical framework. First and foremost, the researchers aimed to draw as much as possible from the existing literature on the procedures used in the current study to improve EFL students’ oral presentation skills. This research is aligned with Solmaz [ 56 ] in considering “the long-term character of the development process of oral presentation skills, described as central professional skills” (p.16). Moreover, the purpose of the study corresponds to Bandura’s view that social cognitive theory is particularly well adapted to explaining the evolution of complex behavior, such as oral presentation skills [ 19 ]. Based on this theory, the researchers considered three main factors that contribute to changing behavior—personal, behavioral, and environmental—in that people learn new knowledge by watching others and use it in the future to change their behaviors. In addition, the study utilized previous research, such as the work of Zareva [ 32 ], who referred to the roles TESOL graduates played when examining presentations, such as guiding the audience through the information, recounting their research and decision-making processes, drawing attention to how the information was organized, and clarifying the purpose of their presentation and the structure of their argument.
The study provided a training program on presentation skills through workshops in which the participants watched how others presented, learned from the process, and applied it in the future to change their behavior. Interventions in the educational sphere provide students with the required or desired assistance they need in the form of capabilities, competencies, skills, etc., which could not be obtained or developed during an educational program and the lack of which may adversely impact graduates’ future or career opportunities. De Grez observed that “to design an instructional intervention, we have to be clear about its objectives. We have to determine the outcomes of the intervention focusing on the acquisition and development of oral presentation skills” [ 61 , p.57]. This study aimed to design and carry out a Blackboard-mediated intervention program, conducting workshops to strengthen EFL undergraduates’ presentation skills in line with the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 and labor market needs.
The program focused on enhancing the 30 participants’ knowledge of how to make their presentations effective and improving their performance. The content was divided into five workshops, which introduced the principles of presentation to EFL students and trained them how to present themselves well. The participants were told that presentations are synonymous with demonstrations, lectures, or speeches. They were also made aware that presentations are tailored to persuade, inspire, motivate, or present a new idea/concept to people termed “the audience” who are at the core of any presentation. After the orientation session on the concept, the researchers introduced themselves and the study.
The participants delivered a presentation before the intervention. Both the participants and the researchers were able to identify weaknesses in the organization, content, language, style, and delivery, as well as a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the presenters. Following the initial presentation, the participants were asked to participate in the Blackboard-mediated workshops. Each session lasted one hour, with the last 10 minutes devoted to questions and answers. The researchers also wanted the participants to learn through observation, so they shared relevant videos about the five specific areas crucial in presentations with a focus on the “do’s and don’ts.”
The research procedure consisted of three phases. In the first phase, the participants were required to give presentations and their performance was evaluated using the assessment checklist elaborated by the researchers. This identified issues with organization, content, language, communication style, delivery, and enthusiasm. The second phase comprised the series of five workshops, conducted on Blackboard by an experienced trainer, to instruct the students in how to present effectively and professionally.
The first workshop concerned the organization of presentations, highlighting the need for a clear beginning, middle, and end. The trainer pointed out that the presenter needs to organize ideas logically throughout the presentation and follow the order in a very organized fashion, striving for clear transitions between individual points, slides, and topics. Moreover, the presentation needs to be structured based on the audience and purpose. In addition, the trainer highlighted other key points, such as defining the background and importance of the topic, stating objectives that can identify relevant questions, presenting information in a logical sequence, summarizing the main points of the presentation, and providing attendees with a “take-home” message. The trainer shared videos ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bwDr7WVBwo ) on presentation organization. After watching the video clips, the participants were invited to have a discussion, followed by a question-and-answer session.
The second workshop concerned the substance of presentations in terms of the content. The trainer emphasized the need for unique and important ideas and information. The presenter must use reputable and pertinent sources and cite those sources when necessary. Information must be concise and pertinent to the audience. Again, the trainer addressed several crucial aspects related to content, including gaining the attention of the audience, defining technical terms, incorporating relevant material, preparing the content well, and presenting an obvious conclusion. The trainer shared videos related to content ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl_FJAOcFgQ ) and instructed the participants to pay close attention to considerations of significance and originality.
The third workshop sought to underscore that word choice can make aspects of the presentation clear and memorable if selected well. The trainer highlighted that language, style, and communication are significantly impacted by word choice. The session addressed denotative and connotative concepts, referring to presenting the message clearly, expressing ideas effectively, and choosing respectful and unbiased language. The trainer highlighted several key points, such as the language of presentations typically being somewhat less formal than academic writing, the need to present the main points one by one and pause at the end of each main point to give the audience time to absorb the information and take notes and using phrases to indicate moving on to a new point. In addition, one should consider several aspects under the theme of language, style, and communication, for example, using good language skills and pronunciation, demonstrating good grammar and choice of words, using rhythm, intonation, accent, tone variation, and an effective pace of delivery, being fluent and articulate, and using no fillers (umm, like), or long pauses, etc. The trainer then shared clips on communication, style, and language ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewVCnfMGnFY ), demonstrating that word choice and language use are crucial for communication.
The fourth workshop concerned delivery and addressed a range of factors, from body language and word choice to vocal variety. The trainer highlighted that a good presenter has a passion for the subject and can convey—and perhaps elicit—that emotion in the audience. The workshop stressed the need to make a connection with the audience through eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, and/or vocal tone, as well as to avoid fillers (e.g., umm) and hesitations. These all contribute to communicating the presenter’s professionalism and confidence, inviting audience engagement. In addition, the session covered providing well-prepared, informative handouts, notes, and visual aids, presenting within the assigned time limits, and answering questions professionally. The trainer then shared videos on delivery ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5c1susCPAE&t=8s ).
The last workshop concerned the need for the presenter to show enthusiasm and covered aspects such as using a wide range of gestures (especially when presenting to a large audience on stage), making eye contact with attendees, and speaking with a smile and energy. Thus, the session emphasized the role of body language and facial expressions, as well as highlighting that the presenter’s clothing should not draw attention. Linking back to previous sessions, the workshop noted the relevance of enthusiasm in conveying knowledge of the topic and convincing the audience of the validity and importance of the subject by being relaxed and confident. Again, the trainer shared videos on this aspect of presenting ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5naThX63pF0 ).
In the third phase, students were required to give a presentation and their performance was again assessed using the same checklist as previously. After the presentation, a researcher interviewed the students, asking questions related to their experience of engaging in the presentation skills workshops, their attitudes and feelings about the intervention, and their suggestions for improvement.
The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) v. 25 was used to analyze the data collected from the pre-and post-assessment checklist. To establish the effectiveness of the training program in enhancing the participants’ presentation skills, the study employed paired sample t-tests. The researchers conducted content analysis of the qualitative data from the semi-structured interviews, based on repeated occurrences and grouped under main themes.
Table 3 presents the results of the impact of the intervention program on students’ presentation skills, drawing on the pre- and post-assessment for the individual domains and whole scale.
Domain | N | M | S.D. | t | df | Sig. (2-tailed) | Effect size d | Level of effect | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pre | 30 | 1.77 | .521 | 16.337 | 29 | .000 | 2.97 | Large | |
Post | 30 | 4.60 | .578 | ||||||
Pre | 30 | 2.07 | .785 | 14.653 | 29 | .000 | 2.66 | Large | |
Post | 30 | 4.65 | .559 | ||||||
Pre | 30 | 2.38 | .751 | 12.526 | 29 | .000 | 2.28 | Large | |
Post | 30 | 4.50 | .455 | ||||||
Pre | 30 | 2.10 | .649 | 13.964 | 29 | .000 | 2.54 | Large | |
Post | 30 | 4.50 | .670 | ||||||
Pre | 30 | 2.10 | .960 | 15.577 | 29 | .000 | 2.83 | Large | |
Post | 30 | 4.97 | .183 | ||||||
Pre | 30 | 2.75 | 19.863 | 29 | .000 | 3.61 | Large | ||
Post | 30 | 1.72 |
Table 3 shows significant differences at the level of 0.05 before and after the training program in favor of the post-performance (t(29) = 19.863, p > .05). This result indicates that the training program was highly effective in improving the students’ presentation skills.
Several key themes emerged from the semi-structured interviews with the students concerning their experience of the presentation skills workshops. For most of the interviewees, it was their first time presenting. They reported that the training program was a helpful, interesting, and exciting experience, and they benefited a great deal from it. It helped rid them of anxiety and fear, and they started to feel more confident. In addition, they learned that they should be well-prepared and not appear confused. Furthermore, the training program assisted them in improving their presentation skills in terms of facing the audience and delivering the topic as required. The students also reported that they benefited from the feedback from peers. The following are some of the interviewees’ responses to the first question in the interview concerning their experience of the presentation skills workshops:
The interviewees’ responses concerning the presentation skills they acquired through the workshops revealed that they learned to speak in front of the public with confidence, to interact with the listeners and ask questions, to raise their voices to attract attention, to pay attention to their body language and tone of voice, to talk without reference to the book, and to give and take examples from other students. Also, they learned how to explain and present without becoming stressed, to present without inappropriate interruption, and to be fluent and accurate. They broke the barrier of fear and stress and improved their self-confidence. The following are some excerpts from the interviewees’ answers:
The students also described their feelings after taking the presentation skills workshops. They were excited and felt positive about the experience. They were very happy to be trained in presentation skills and to achieve something significant. They broke the barrier and the tension and were proud of what they had achieved. They gained a high level of confidence and morale. These aspects are evidenced in the following excerpts:
Students reflected on the things they liked or disliked about the presentation skills workshops. They liked the interaction with their peers, strengthening and refining their speaking skills, the seriousness of the sessions, meeting with others, skills development, reviewing errors, the organization of the workshop, enthusiasm, fun, facing the public, and peer support. They also liked the idea of using technology, such as laptops and data presentations. On the negative side, two students were rather tense and confused, which they reported led to some errors during their presentations. The following excerpts provide evidential support for the emergent themes:
The students were asked for suggestions to make the presentation skills workshops more fruitful. They recommended repeating the workshops because of the benefits they provided. Also, some students suggested including presentations as part of their assessment in various subjects. These points are illustrated in the following excerpts:
This research investigated the impact of a training program mediated by the Blackboard platform on improving EFL students’ presentation skills. Based on the results, the students who engaged in the intervention attained significant improvements in their scores for their presentation skills post-treatment compared to pre-treatment in all five domains: organization, content, communication, delivery, and enthusiasm. This indicates the effectiveness of the intervention.
Several factors may have contributed to this result, such as the integration of the Blackboard platform, enhanced motivation, reduced anxiety, stress, and tension, and the students’ recognition of the need to improve their speaking and presentation skills. The integration of Blackboard contributed to the effectiveness of the program as it is user-friendly, free, and accessible to users, regardless of place and time. Moreover, the training sessions were recorded and the students could refer to them at any time. In addition, the students were motivated to participate and engage due to their need to improve their presentation skills, as evidenced in the interviews. The analysis of the interviewees’ responses revealed that they found the intervention program a very good means of refining their presentation skills. They enjoyed the experience and reported it assisted them in facing their fear of speaking in front of the public and improving their body language, speaking skills, and self-confidence. In addition, they learned to interact with the audience and attract attention.
The results of this research are consistent with previous studies. Similar to this intervention, research has found that presentation qualities like eye contact, body posture, and voice aid English-speaking abilities [ 42 ], and project-based learning using presentation can significantly affect students’ speaking skills [ 55 ], with students’ oral presentation skills improving significantly after instruction due to enhanced confidence and the experience of speaking in front of a crowd [ 14 ]. As in this study, previous research has reported participants favoring a multimedia design [ 15 ], which improves students’ confidence [ 52 ], and also collaborative learning, as it enables the co-construction of knowledge and skills [ 56 ]. Such courses can enhance students’ oral presentation abilities and vocabulary uptake/retention levels [ 54 ], as well as making them more enthusiastic, motivated, and eager to produce outstanding presentations as they grow more self-assured and relaxed. In addition, these results are consistent with Brooks [ 61 ], who showed that oral presentation allows learners to use their second language to communicate with others naturally. De Grez [ 62 ] also suggested that students are highly motivated to learn how to present. In terms of the use of technology, this study employed Blackboard to facilitate deliver of the intervention program, which may have helped improve students’ performance [ 15 ]. This result accords with previous studies that used technology to improve students’ speaking and presentation skills, employing a multimedia approach [ 51 – 57 ].
The results of this study also support the claim of social cognitive theory that learners require exposure and practice to enhance their acquisition of skills that will help them in their future careers. In this research, the participants observed how others (trainer and peers) behaved, stored this knowledge, and used it to change their behavior when presenting post-intervention. Thus, learners can refine their behavior based on observation and experience. The training program allowed the participants room for exposure and practice in presenting themselves properly. They learned how to organize their presentations, engage the audience, and deliver content effectively, as well as to present with enthusiasm.
According to Bandura [ 63 ], “man’s capacity to learn by observation enables him to acquire large, integrated units of behavior by example without having to build up the pattern gradually by tedious trial and error” (p. 2). Alshobramy argues that the application of social learning theory can naturally increase speaking ability by providing innovative and adaptable learning experiences [ 52 ]. Hence, consistent with theory, this study supports the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030 and the labor market needs of skilled graduates in enabling them to design and deliver effective presentations.
This research focused on enhancing undergraduates’ (life-long) presentation skills through a Blackboard-mediated intervention program. In contrast to prior research that employed ICT-mediated programs to develop presentation skills and found EFL learners experienced difficulties in terms of anxiety, learning issues, language competence, and media access [ 55 , 57 – 60 ], the results of this study showed that the learners’ levels of fear, learning problems, and access issues decreased during the intervention. Also, the program proved highly effective in improving the EFL participants’ presentation skills, and their attitudes and feedback were positive. Therefore, the study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by presenting evidence of the value of utilizing technology, specifically Blackboard, in a planned program to improve students’ presentation skills, which are in great demand in the labor market.
Students who master English will have an added advantage if they possess presentation skills and their job opportunities will be greater. Accordingly, this study argues the need to include presentation skills as part of students’ course assessment. In addition, technology can play a role in enhancing students’ presentation skills; they can utilize technology to record themselves and to review their mistakes, and thus improve their performance.
This research has certain limitations, most notably the participants’ gender; all the participants were male due to the gender-based segregation in Saudi higher education. Moreover, the relatively small number of participants means the findings are not generalizable. In this regard, similar studies could be undertaken in different contexts employing the same interventional program and tools—or similar—and enable the comparison of results. In Saudi Arabia, given the effectiveness of the intervention in this study, it is recommended that stakeholders conduct more workshops on presentation skills, as they support the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030 and address the needs of the labor market. Further research and pedagogical practice could consider a range of methods, such as peer and self-assessment, to measure students’ acquisition of presentation skills. Finally, more research is needed to focus on comparing students’ competence and performance in presentation skills.
Yes, this work was financed by the Deputy for Research and Innovation- Ministry of Education, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through a grant (NU/IFC/02/002). The funder had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.
Publications
End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
Reduce inequality within and among countries.
Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.
Sdgs icons. downloads and guidelines, the 17 goals.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
The SDGs build on decades of work by countries and the UN, including the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Today, the Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) provides substantive support and capacity-building for the SDGs and their related thematic issues, including water , energy , climate , oceans , urbanization , transport , science and technology , the Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) , partnerships and Small Island Developing States . DSDG plays a key role in the evaluation of UN systemwide implementation of the 2030 Agenda and on advocacy and outreach activities relating to the SDGs. In order to make the 2030 Agenda a reality, broad ownership of the SDGs must translate into a strong commitment by all stakeholders to implement the global goals. DSDG aims to help facilitate this engagement.
Follow DSDG on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sustdev and on Twitter at @SustDev .
{"preview_thumbnail":"/sites/default/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/0XTBYMfZyrM.jpg?itok=k6s65L3V","video_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XTBYMfZyrM&feature=youtu.be","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":0},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive)."]}
Every year, the UN Secretary General presents an annual SDG Progress report, which is developed in cooperation with the UN System, and based on the global indicator framework and data produced by national statistical systems and information collected at the regional level.
Please, check below information about the SDG Progress Report:
Please, check here for information about SDG indicators and reports: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs#
Additionally, the Global Sustainable Development Report is produced once every four years to inform the quadrennial SDG review deliberations at the General Assembly. It is written by an Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the Secretary-General.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Presentations with strong narrative arcs are clear, captivating, and compelling. Orient the audience and draw them in by demonstrating the relevance and importance of your research story with strong global motive. Provide them with the necessary vocabulary and background knowledge to understand the plot of your story.
It is this very gap that motivated the research described in this article, which aimed at raising awareness of oral presentation (delivery) skills in the context of self-regulated learning. This article also reports on and discusses a compilation of an inventory of presentation skills and how learners' awareness was raised through classroom ...
presentation type used so that full advantage can be taken of the opportunity to communicate research efforts. Across paper, symposia, and panel sessions, one popular tool for oral presentations is the use of presentation software, such as PowerPoint, Corel Presentations, Apple Keynote, Open Office Impress, or Lotus Freelance.
Presentation Slides. Creating slides to accompany your presentation can be a great way to provide complimentary visual representation of your topic. Slides are used to fill in the gaps while you tell the story. Start your presentation with a brief introduction- who you are and what you are going to talk about.
Presentation skills are crucial to almost every aspect of academic/business life, from meetings, interviews and conferences to trade shows and job fairs. Often times, leadership and presentation skills go hand in hand. NACE Survey 2016 - Ability to communicate verbally (internally and externally) ranked 4.63/5.0 and was the #1 skill employers want.
This is not surprising. Effective communications skills are a powerful career activator, and most of us are called upon to communicate in some type of formal presentation mode at some point along the way. For instance, you might be asked to brief management on market research results, walk your team through a new process, lay out the new budget ...
Read more on Business communication or related topics Power and influence, Presentation skills and Public speaking Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of ...
To fully understand the impact these skills have on creating a successful presentation, it's helpful to look at each one individually. Here are six valuable skills you can develop: 1. Active listening. Active listening is an excellent communication skill for any professional to hone.
To prepare most effectively for your presentation, you might find considering four main areas particularly useful: planning, preparation, phrasing, and projection. Planning —A good presentation begins with the early stage of planning. Common complaints about ineffectual and dull presentations revolve around the apparent lack of structure ...
Three main focus points. The more you plan your presentation, the more confidence you will have in the information you are delivering. You need to consider three things throughout this process: topic, time limit, and audience. 1. Your topic. Your topic is what your presentation should be about.
assessment, and formative tests can be used effectively for. evaluating online presentations using video, live online meetings, online platforms, social media, and game-based applications. The ...
Professional Competence. Research Personnel*. Speech*. Most PhD's will have a presentation component during the interview process, as well as presenting their work at conferences. This article will provide guidance on how to develop relevant content and effectively deliver it to your audience.
Tip #1: Build a narrative. One memorable way to guarantee presentation success is by writing a story of all the points you desire to cover. This statement is based on the logic behind storytelling and its power to connect with people. Don't waste time memorizing slides or reading your presentation to the audience.
METHODS FOR PERFECTING PRESE NTATION SKILLS. Daniela N. Ilieva - Koleva. VUZF University. Abstract. Presentation skills are crucial for the nowadays managers and business people. This article ...
This item: Scientific Presentation Skills: How to Design Effective Research Posters and Deliver Powerful Academic Presentations (Peer Recognized) $12.99 $ 12 . 99 Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 16
Presentation skills therefore, are vital to achieving success in all aspects of daily life. Without realising, there is a lot more to do with conducting effective presentations than is initially ...
Seventy percent of employed Americans who give presentations agree that presentation skills are critical to their success at work, according to a new Prezi survey. My first reaction? The other 30% ...
Consider focusing on these domains to develop essential skills for presentation: Research Research is a systematic process of investigation that involves collecting data, documenting critical information, analysing the information and interpreting it using methods that a relevant academic discipline recognises. It employs inductive and ...
Thus, this research investigated the effectiveness of a Blackboard-mediated intervention program in strengthening English as a foreign language (EFL) students' presentation skills. The research followed a quasi-experimental (time series) design, delivering workshops on presentation skills and collecting data from the students (N = 30) using a ...
History. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership.
The research followed a quasi-experimental (time series) design, delivering workshops on presentation skills and collecting data from the students (N = 30) using a set of instruments: a pre-and ...
The global computer outage affecting airports, banks and other businesses on Friday appears to stem at least partly from a software update issued by major US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike ...