CSC106 Intermediate PC Applications and Programming
Oral Presentation Guidelines

"Studies show that fear of public speaking ranks higher than the fear of dying. I guess this means that most people at a funeral would rather be in the coffin than delivering the eulogy..." Jerry Seinfeld

Many people get very nervous at the prospect of giving a talk. However, this is an important skill that is required in many occupations. You will get better at giving talks with practice, just as with any other skill. Even though you will be getting a grade, try to think of this talk as practice for your future. It's important to have a well researched, well organized talk, and it's also important to present it well.

Creating Your Talk

The first step is to research your topic. Once you have gathered your information, look at the information and formulate your thesis statement. The thesis statement is one or two sentences that describe what you plan to say in your paper. Then prepare an outline of the information you want to present. Your outline should break your information into several major topics, and then list what you will cover in each topic. Don't forget the introduction and conclusion. Both the intro and the conclusion should summarize the talk. While this may seem redundant to you, it will help your audience absorb the information you present. Your outline should also show the order in which you will cover the topics in your presentation. Use this outline to prepare your PowerPoint presentation. Your slides should highlight the important points in your presentation. Each slide should be an outline of the information you will present, not be a copy of what you will say during your presentation. The text on your slides should be phrases, not full sentences. If there is a lot of text it will be too small for your audience to read, and they won't have time to read it during your presentation.

Use your outline to prepare notes to use during your presentation. The notes should list the information you want to cover. Remember that you are giving a presentation, not a speech, so your notes should not be a word for word speech that you will read. Your notes do need to include all of the information that you want to cover. Use the notes feature of PowerPoint to record your notes.

Preparing Your Slides

Your slides should highlight the important points in your presentation. Each slide should be an outline of the information you will present, not be a copy of what you will say during your presentation. The text on your slides should be phrases, not full sentences. If there is a lot of text it will be too small for your audience to read, and they won't have time to read it during your presentation.

Some important guidelines to remember:

• Your slides should be simple. Each slide should contain info on a single topic.
• Think of your slides as an outline of the information you will be presenting. Your slides should not contain complete sentences, they should contain phrases that highlight your main points. Use the PowerPoint notes feature to make notes for yourself on what you want to say.
• Use bullets for lists without priority or sequence. Use numbered lists only if the information is ordered.
• Remember the "6 x 6 rule": a slide should contain at most six lines of text, and each line should contain at most six words.
• Use a large font so your audience can read it. Size 36 or 40 is good for titles; size 24 is good for text.
• San serif fonts (such as Arial or Tahoma) are more readable than serif fonts (such as Times New Roman).
• Be sure the text contrasts with the background. A darker background (like a medium green or blue) with light text is easy on the eyes.
• It's a good idea to use one of PowerPoint's predefined slide designs.
• Use bold face or a different size or color to emphasize important information. Italics are hard to read on the screen.
• Some people have problems distinguishing certain colors, so avoid using the following color combinations: red/green, brown/green, blue/black, and blue/purple.
• Colors help set a tone. Generally blue, green and gray say professional. Red and orange are high energy, but can be difficult to look at for long periods. Use them sparingly.
• Be consistent with color, font, and size. Differences draw attention and imply importance, so you should only use them for that purpose.
• Too many graphics can be distracting. A general rule is to have no more than two graphics per slide
• Sounds are fun but are almost always distracting and should be used only when they relate to the presentation.
• Too many animations can be distracting. It's best to pick one slide transition and use it for every slide. Like sounds, animating individual text or graphic elements is fun but usually distracting.

Practice

Once you have your PowerPoint presentation, and your notes, the next step is to practice your presentation. The more you practice, the less nervous you will be during your presentation in class. A low-stress way to practice is to give the presentation to yourself. Give the presentation out loud, using your PowerPoint slides, even though it might make you feel stupid. Time your presentation while you are practicing. The practice will help you determine whether your presentation is the right length, and it will help you get your wording right. As you give the presentation you may find that you sometimes stumble over your words, since you don't have a prepared speech. That's fine -- that's the point of practicing! Practice the presentation again until you can go through it smoothly. It is also helpful to give the presentation for someone else so that you can get feedback.

Avoid reading your slides and looking back at the screen. Your audience can read the slides themselves, and if you're looking at the screen, you are looking away from them.

Tips

• Maintain eye contact with your audience. If you are nervous, try looking at people's foreheads. It can also help to look at one of your friends for encouragement.
• Remember to speak up. Sometimes people talk quietly because they are nervous. If you feel like you are yelling, then you are talking loud enough so that even the people in the back can hear you.
• Remember not to talk too quickly.
• Take a deep breath after each sentence. This will help calm you down and will keep you from talking too quickly.
• If you know that you tend to speak quickly, or too quietly, write a big note for yourself ("Speak Slowly") and keep it on your desk during your presentation.
• Remember that everyone else is as nervous as you are.

Email Me | Office Hours | My Home Page | Department Home | MCC Home Page

© Copyright Emmi Schatz 2007