Experienced speakers use techniques to make them more interesting to listen to and to help them hold the attention of their audience. Try some of the following the next time you give a presentation. Show
1. Practice, practice, practiceRehearsal is essential to speaking well. It will help you keep to a time limit and will allow you to try out various techniques in a low-pressure environment. It will also help you to know your material well, which makes it easier to remember and stay on point. Practice standing and speaking so that you get used to delivering a talk before you have to give it to your audience. 2. Speak, don’t readDon’t simply read your talk, word-for-word, from a paper. This gets pretty boring for listeners. Spoken language is less formal and wordy than written language, so reading makes you sound stiff and will dampen any sense of energy or spontaneity in your performance. Reading from a paper forces you to look down, instead of speaking to the audience. Instead, if you have a ‘script’, turn it into notes that you can talk from, and glance at only occasionally. It’s less important that you capture the text word for word than that you present the main ideas in a natural and relaxed way (this is where rehearsing helps - it not only improves your performance skills, it enables you to better remember what you want to say). 3. Be yourselfEven in a formal speech, allow your personality to come through. When you’re nervous, it’s easy to tense up and become a little awkward or wooden, but make an effort to stay natural. Smile and make eye contact. You will establish better rapport and credibility if you are being yourself, and your audience will listen more if they can see you as genuine, even if it means being a little less technically perfect. 4. Aim for a positive state of mind and a confident attitudeTry to project confidence, even if you don’t feel it. Remind yourself that you can do it, and that the audience want you to succeed. Visualise a positive outcome. Harness your nervous energy and tell yourself that you are excited - that you have interesting, engaging materials to share with the audience. As you walk to the front of the room, carry yourself in a confident manner. Stand straight, look at the group, take a breath, and smile. Concentrate on what you will tell the audience, rather than your degree of nervousness. This will help you forget your nerves and focus on your topic and your listeners, so you’ll be better able to get them engaged in your speech. 5. Use verbal signpostingGiving an indication of what will be coming later in your talk is an effective way of maintaining audience interest. Use transitions to draw your audience a ‘road map’ of your presentation. For example: “In a moment I’ll provide some interesting examples, but first ...” “There are four ways of preventing this. Firstly - secondly - thirdly - finally” You can also link ideas or sections of your presentation to help your audience follow the overall structure: “ As I mentioned earlier, the first method was unsuccessful ...” 6. Use examples, illustrations and humourUse examples or verbal illustrations to create interest. Choose them to suit your audience. An example that comes within their experience of the audience can create interest, a humorous remark can ‘break the ice’ and establish rapport, especially early on. 7. Ask questions and invite participationAsking questions of your audience throughout your talk helps hold their attention and interest. It also develops a connection between you and the group. Asking questions means you are inviting them to participate and drawing them in to a mutual thinking process. For example: “Who can estimate the number of individuals left permanently injured by road accidents?” “Can anyone suggest some alternative uses for plastic bubble wrap?” “Someone’s home is broken into every seven minutes. Can you believe it?” You can also speak directly to individual audience members, if appropriate. For example: “I take it from your reaction that you’ve read something similar, Sarah . . .” 8. Be aware of eye contact and body languageMake eye contact with the audience to help establish a connection. Glance at the faces of group members and don’t be afraid to meet people’s eyes, but don’t stare - use the 3-second method. Look straight into the eyes of an audience member for 3 seconds at a time. Aim for direct eye contact with a number of people, and every now and then glance at the whole group while speaking. Eye contact not only establishes a bond, it can help you register your progress. Faces can indicate interest, confusion and boredom, so you can gauge reactions to what is being said. Body language is also important. Standing, walking or moving about with appropriate hand gesture or facial expression is far preferable to sitting down or standing still with head down and reading from a paper. Use audio-visual aids or props for enhancement if appropriate and necessary. 9. Learn from the ProsA great way to learn what good speakers do is to watch them give speeches, note what works and what doesn’t, and adopt these examples into your own style. Note which lecturers are particularly interesting - attend class and watch what they do. Watch some TED Talks online. They tend to be high-quality presentations and provide some great examples. 10. Be aware of techniquePace Speaking to an audience requires a pace slower than normal conversation. Nervous speakers tend to speed up, so avoid this. Try varying your pace to create different effects. Try: slow measured speech for a point which is serious or needs emphasising speeding up a little to lend excitement or urgency Pitch Aim for a comfortable, medium pitch. High-pitched voices can sound harsh, and a high pitch is often due to shallow breathing and nervousness. Deep, steady breathing and a deliberate attempt to lower the pitch will help reduce nerves. Variations in pitch can be effective. For example, pitch could be raised to add emphasis to a question. However, use with care; too frequent use of high pitch can irritate an audience. Tone Tone is the vocal quality which expresses feeling. It can lend warmth and sincerity to your voice or reveal how strongly you feel about a topic. This can evoke a similar response from the audience. In academic presentations, a harshly critical or judgemental tone should be avoided. Volume Your voice should be loud enough for the listeners in the back rows to hear comfortably. You can also vary volume to make your talk more lively, but avoid shouting. Pausing Inexperienced speakers are often afraid to pause; they see pausing as a failure in fluency, but experienced speakers use pauses to good effect. Pausing can focus attention on what has been said or what is about to be said, can also allow the audience to digest information, or can be used to prepare them for a change in ideas. * Adapted from: Pitman, 1988, Business Communication.
Public speaking is the part of presentations that most people dread. Although it might not be possible to get over your nerves completely, good preparation and practice will give you confidence. Most confident speakers do lots of preparation and use notes well. After you've written your script, practice and learn is—not so that you learn to say it by rote, but so that it will become easier to remember the important points to say, the links between the points (to maintain the flow of your 'story'), and the words and phrases that express your points clearly. One way that we at ThinkSCIENCE can help you with this is through our audio recording service, in which a native speaker records your script at your chosen speed (native speed, slightly slower, or considerably slower). You can then use the recording to practice pronunciation, intonation, and pacing. Again, if possible, try to avoid reading directly from your slides or script. Once you know your script, you can make a simple set of notes to jog your memory. If you are speaking instead of just reading, you can better engage with your audience and capture their attention. Leave yourself adequate time to practice your presentation with your notes and slides. Check your timing, remembering that you might speak a little faster if you are nervous, and that you will need to account for changing slides and pointing at visual material. As you rehearse, you will probably notice some words that are awkward to say, particularly if English is not your first language. Check pronunciation with a reliable source, such as www.howjsay.com, an online dictionary, or a native speaker, and then practice to avoid stumbling and putting yourself off during the presentation. Practice can help you feel more comfortable with your material and more confident to present it to others.
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You can view your PowerPoint file in a variety of ways, depending on the task at hand. Some views are helpful when you're creating your presentation, and some are most helpful for delivering your presentation. You can find the different PowerPoint view options on the View tab, as shown below.
You can also find the most frequently used views on the task bar at the bottom right of the slide window, as shown below.
You can get to Normal view from the task bar Normal view is the editing mode where you’ll work most frequently to create your slides. Below, Normal view displays slide thumbnails on the left, a large window showing the current slide, and a section below the current slide where you can type your speaker notes for that slide.
You can get to Slide Sorter view from the task bar at the bottom of the slide window, or from the View tab on the ribbon.Slide Sorter view (below) displays all the slides in your presentation in horizontally sequenced, thumbnails. Slide show view is helpful if you need to reorganize your slides—you can just click and drag your slides to a new location, or add sections to organize your slides into meaningful groups.
For more information about sections, see Organize your PowerPoint slides into sections. You can show or hide your speakers notes with the Notes button at the bottom of the slide window, or you can get to Notes Page view from the View tab on the ribbon.The Notes pane is located beneath the slide window. You can print your notes or include the notes in a presentation that you send to the audience, or just use them as cues for yourself while you're presenting.
For more information about notes, see Add speaker notes to your slides. You can get to Outline view from the View tab on the ribbon. (In PowerPoint 2013 and later, you can no longer get to Outline view from Normal view. You have to get to it from the View tab.) Use Outline view to create an outline or story board for your presentation. It displays only the text on your slides, not pictures or other graphical items.
To get to a master view, on the View tab, in the Master Views group, choose the master view that you want. Master views include, Slide, Handout, and Notes. The key benefit to working in a master view is that you can make universal style changes to every slide, notes page, or handout associated with your presentation. For more information about working with masters, see: You can get to SlideShow view from the task bar at the bottom of the slide window.Use Slide Show view to deliver your presentation to your audience. Slide Show view occupies the full computer screen, exactly the way your presentation will look on a big screen when your audience sees it. To get to Presenter view, in Slide Show view, in the lower left corner of the screen, click , and then click Show Presenter View (as shown below).Use Presenter view to view your notes while delivering your presentation. In Presenter view, your audience cannot see your notes. For more information about using Presenter view, see View your speaker notes as you deliver your slide show. You can get to Reading view from the task bar at the bottom of the slide window.Most people reviewing a PowerPoint presentation without a presenter will want to use Reading view. It displays the presentation in a full screen like Slide Show view, and it includes a few simple controls to make it easy to flip through the slides. There are several views in PowerPoint that can help you create a professional presentation. Normal view is the main editing view, where you write and design your presentations. Normal view has four working areas: 1: Outline tab This is a great place to start writing your content — to capture your ideas, plan how you want to present them, and move slides and text around. The Outline tab shows your slide text in outline form.
Note: To print a hard copy of an outline of your presentation, with only the text (as it appears in Outline view) and none of the graphics or animation, first Click the File tab. Then, click Print, click Full Page Slides under Other Settings, click Outline, and then click Print at the top. 2: Slides tab View the slides in your presentation as thumbnail-sized images while you edit. The thumbnails make it easy for you to navigate through your presentation and to see the effects of any design changes. You can also easily rearrange, add, or delete slides here. 3: Slide pane In the upper-right section of the PowerPoint window, the Slide pane displays a large view of the current slide. With the current slide shown in this view, you can add text and insert pictures, tables, SmartArt graphics, charts, drawing objects, text boxes, movies, sounds, hyperlinks, and animations. 4: Notes pane In the Notes pane, below the Slide pane, you can type notes that apply to the current slide. Later, you can print your notes and refer to them when you give your presentation. You can also print notes to give to your audience or include the notes in a presentation that you send to the audience or post on a Web page. You can switch between the Slides and Outline tabs. To enlarge or hide the pane that contains the Outline and Slides tabs, see Show or hide the Outline or Slides tab.
Note: To view the ruler or gridlines in Normal view, on the View tab, in the Show group, select either the Ruler or Gridlines check box. Slide Sorter view gives you a view of your slides in thumbnail form. This view makes it easy for you to sort and organize the sequence of your slides as you create your presentation, and then also as you prepare your presentation for printing. You can add sections in Slide Sorter view as well, and sort slides into different categories or sections. You can get to Slide Sorter view from the task bar at the bottom of the slide window, or from the View tab on the ribbon.
The Notes pane is located under the Slide pane. You can type notes that apply to the current slide. Later, you can print your notes and refer to them when you give your presentation. You can also print notes to give to your audience or include the notes in a presentation that you send to the audience or post on a Web page. When you want to view and work with your notes in full page format, on the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click Notes Page. The master views include, Slide, Handout, and Notes view. They are the main slides that store information about the presentation, including background, color, fonts, effects, placeholder sizes and positions. The key benefit to working in a master view is that on the slide master, notes master, or handout master, you can make universal style changes to every slide, notes page, or handout associated with your presentation. For more information about working with masters, see What is a slide master? and Create and customize a slide master. Use Slide Show view to deliver your presentation to your audience. Slide Show view occupies the full computer screen, exactly the way your presentation will look on a big screen when your audience sees it. You can see how your graphics, timings, movies, animated effects, and transition effects will look during the actual presentation. To exit Slide Show view, press ESC. Presenter view is a key slide show-based view that you can use while delivering your presentation. By using two monitors, you can run other programs and view speaker notes that your audience cannot see. To use Presenter view, make sure that your computer has multiple monitor capabilities, turn on multiple monitor support, and turn on Presenter view. For more information about using Presenter view, see View your speaker notes privately while delivering a presentation on multiple monitors. Use reading view to deliver your presentation not to an audience (via a large screen, for example), but instead to someone viewing your presentation on their own computer. Or, use Reading view on your own computer when you want to view a presentation not in full-screen Slide Show view, but in a window with simple controls that make the presentation easy to review. You can always switch from Reading view to one of the other views if you want to change the presentation. To help you save paper and ink, you'll want to prepare your print job before you print. PowerPoint provides views and settings to help you specify what you want to print (slides, handouts, or notes pages) and how you want those jobs to print (in color, grayscale, black and white, with frames, and more). For more detailed information about printing and print preview, see Print your PowerPoint slides or handouts. Slide Sorter view gives you a view of your slides in thumbnail form. This view makes it easy for you to sort and organize the sequence of your slides as you prepare to print your slides. You can get to Slide Sorter view from the task bar at the bottom of the slide window, or from the View tab on the ribbon.
Print Preview lets you specify settings for what you want to print — handouts, notes pages, and outline, or slides. Click File > Print, and then choose options under Settings.
The views in PowerPoint that you can use to edit, print, and deliver your presentation are as follows:
You can switch between PowerPoint views in two places:
Use the View menu to switch between any of the views
Access the three main views (Normal, Slide Sorter, or Slide Show) on the bottom bar of the PowerPoint window
Several views in PowerPoint can help you create a professional presentation.
To help you save paper and ink, you'll want to prepare your print job before you print. PowerPoint provides views and settings to help you specify what you want to print (slides, handouts, or notes pages) and how you want those jobs to print (in color, grayscale, black and white, with frames, and more).
Organize your slides into sections Print your slides and handouts Start the presentation and see your notes in Presenter view In PowerPoint for the web, when your file is stored on OneDrive, the default view is Reading view. When your file is stored on OneDrive for work or school or SharePoint in Microsoft 365, the default view is Editing view. You can get to Editing View from the View tab or from the task bar at the bottom of the slide window. Editing View is the editing mode where you’ll work most frequently to create your slides. Below, Editing View displays slide thumbnails on the left, a large window showing the current slide, and a Notes pane below the current slide where you can type speaker notes for that slide. The slide sorter lets you see your slides on the screen in a grid that makes it easy to reorganize them, or organize them into sections, just by dragging and dropping them where you want them. To add a section right click the first slide of your new section and select Add Section. See Organize your PowerPoint slides into sections for more information. To access Slide Sorter view click the Slide Sorter button on the status bar at the bottom of the window.You can get to Slide Show view from the task bar at the bottom of the slide window.Use Slide Show view to deliver your presentation to your audience. Slide Show view occupies the full computer screen, exactly the way your presentation looks on a big screen when your audience sees it.
Note: Reading View isn't available for PowerPoint for the web files stored in OneDrive for work or school/SharePoint in Microsoft 365. You can get to Reading View from the View tab or from the task bar at the bottom of the slide window.Most people reviewing a PowerPoint presentation without a presenter will want to use Reading view. It displays the presentation in a full screen like Slide Show view, and it includes a few simple controls to make it easy to flip through the slides. You can also view speaker notes in Reading View. |