Professor Lesser's TIPS FOR PRESENTATIONS

VISUAL AIDS

• Be prepared if presentation technology fails.  Have "backup plans" in case PowerPoint crashes, an overhead transparency projector light bulb burns out, etc.
• Have extra markers and blank slides handy.
• Have presentation slides ready in advance (although it can be effective to have a small portion of them completed or highlighted during the presentation as part of an interactive style) and test them out to be sure they will work with the equipment, screen, and room configuration available. If you need to arrange for additional equipment to be set up, make sure you allow plenty of time for this.
• For text-heavy transparencies, have generous margins, do not exceed about 10 lines and leave plenty of space between them. Make sure words are large enough and dark enough (if using a computer to prepare an overhead transparency, this means using the bold font with type size at least 18 point, or even larger for bigger rooms). A xeroxed page from a textbook or article almost never meets these conditions! Stand in the furthest corner or side of the room and make sure you can read your own slides from that distance. Consider if a picture or diagram could take the place of most of the words – it will be friendlier to your audience! Make sure there is appropriate color contrast – it’s hard to read dark-colored words against a dark background or light-colored words against a light background.
• Consider whether certain visual aids need to remain in view the entire time during your talk, even as you show additional charts. If so, figure out a way to do this (e.g., a second overhead projector, putting a poster on an easel or against a wall).  Consider whether passing out a "handout" (at the beginning, middle or end of the presentation) may be helpful or just distracting. If you do give a handout, be sure to bring a sufficient quantity for the room capacity.
• Consider how you will advance to the next slide. Will you be running over to a computer table each time, or use a hand-held clicker from where you are, or have a friend hit a button?
• Data displays should be appropriately and meaningfully titled, sized, scaled and labelled. They should be readily interpreted. It is usually easier to recognize patterns from a graph than from a tabulated list of numbers.   Pictures drawn by hand need show exact proportions, but the proportions must be believable.
• Usually, less is more. The fewer details you go into, the better chance the audience has of remembering your details.
• Have ready a few extra slides that you are prepared either to show or not show depending on audience interest and remaining time.
• Don’t use technology just because you can. Make sure the specific form you choose is best suited to the topic, venue, and audience. Keep to a minimum the flashier animated “bells and whistles” of PowerPoint unless they directly connect to rather than distract from the content.
• Consider displaying or giving the audience a written handout that has an outline of the talk. Or you might want to give them a copy of your slides (maybe 6 to a page) that could help them take notes efficiently.
• The first and last slide should include your professional affiliation and/or contact information.
• Prepare some additional slides for “if time remains”, knowing that you probably won’t get to them, but they are ready in case they can be used to answer questions during the subsequent discussion time allotted.

SPEAKING

• Practice the talk (with any visuals) in advance for a friend and for your mirror. It's not enough to just write the talk; you need to practice saying it as well. Be sure you are making good eye contact, not "reading" (from your notes or your slides) to the audience, avoiding monotone delivery, maintaining a reasonable speed, and staying within the time limit. (After the trial runs, you may need to do some editing or revising for clarity or time purposes.) The more you practice, the less you are likely to be "nervous" when you do speak. It’s amazing how this works, but you will come up with lots of ideas for improving your talk merely by going through the practice of saying it out loud and visualizing the audience, and noticing which parts of the talk you’re practicing feel like parts you want to “rush through” or “spend more time unpacking.” To keep an eye on the time, use a timer (here’s an online stopwatch: http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/Stopwatch/?version=1.4.2_09&browser=MSIE&vendor=Sun_Microsystems_Inc.) or have someone designated to hold up cards or fingers to tell you when there’s 5 minutes left, and then 1 minute left.
• It is usually more effective to talk from an outline than a word-for-word speech from a full-length paper.
• Don’t chew gum and be aware of body posture – don’t lean too much against a board, table or podium.
• Be aware what key terms or background the audience may not have that they will need to follow your talk, and give them this at the beginning.
• If you’re sharing an excerpt of something (e.g., a single activity from a week-long lesson plan unit), be sure to “set the stage” by telling us who the target audience is and what activities preceded and will follow the excerpt you are sharing.
• Make sure you can pronounce terms and names used (e.g., http://nsm1.nsm.iup.edu/gsstoudt/pronounce.html or http://www.waukesha.uwc.edu/mat/kkromare/main.html)
• If using equipment (e.g., overhead projector), make sure it is working properly, that you are used to using it, and that your use of it does not distract from your presentation (e.g., don't keep turning away from the audience to look at the screen; if your shoulder is lighted by the projector, then it's blocking the screen!  when writing on a transparency, hold the marker far enough away from the tip that your hand does not block what you are writing)
• Consider how you will “point” to things on your slides, when necessary. Will you physically point with your hand (or a stick), use a laser pointer, lasso it with a computer mouse, etc.
• Allow yourself time at the end to "summarize" and answer an audience question or two (and try to anticipate what those might be and prepare for them).  Elaborate sufficiently and clearly when asked to "explain."
• Just in case, have handy a cough drop and a cup/bottle of water.
• In general, a talk has 3 parts: “tell them what you’re going to tell them,” “telling them”, and then “telling them what you told them.” It can be helpful to refer to an advance organizer a couple of times during a longer talk to remind the audience of how the talk is progressing.
• Try not to chew gum, fidget or lean on furniture. Maintain a relaxed posture with feet and hands. Don't overly apologize!  It's normal to be a little nervous (some speakers find it helpful to briefly acknowledge this in a matter-of-fact or even humorous way, and then move on), just rechannel that as enthusiasm and remember that the audience is human, knows what it's like to "be up there" and wants to learn from you and see you do well.
• At the beginning, you may want to mention what kinds of questions, if any, you want to allow or encourage during the prepared part of the presentation. (Some people prefer to take only brief, clarifying questions in midstream, while others are open to any questions at any time.) In any case, be sure to allow enough time at the end for questions.
• To engage the listener actively, consider optimum places to insert interactive moments that are not in straight lecture mode. This could include think-pair-share questions where audience members turn to their immediate neighbors to discuss a question you pose. Or you could facilitate discussion or brainstorming as one huge group on a particular topic or focused question. You could record and synthesize results on an easel board or PowerPoint slide or use a “poll” from some type of Classroom Response System(CRS).
• Humor can be effective in the right style and dose, but can also be overused or even abused. Avoid anything that could be perceived as sexist, racist, etc.

OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES: http://www.maa.org/students/presentation.pdf

http://techspeaking.denison.edu/Technically_Speaking/Home.html