Presentation Skills Lazar Draeta, PhD Anglistics Study Programme - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Anglistics Study Programme

Anglistics Study Programme

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Lazar Dražeta, PhD

Presentation Skills

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Most common Fears

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Fear of public speaking – Stage Fright

Concept Any unfamiliar activity creates some stress and people simply find stressful being the center of attention. Stage fright act as a perfomance anxiety (fight-or-flight syndrome). Symptoms The symptoms of stage fright are actually a stress reaction, showing signs of anxiety

• Trembling, shaking, sweating: blood vessels constrict, contracted muscles

tremble, body begin sweating and blood pressure is elevated

• “Stomach butterflies” and dry mouth: as the digestive system gets shuted down
• Inability to continue talking: breaths become rapid and shallow, vocal cords are

stretched and voice tightens

• Saying foolish or sensless things: mind is going blank, headache can set in

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Forms of Stage Fright

Being anxious about public speaking is very natural and to be expected (it is the single biggest source of fear amongst humans). All potential public speakers experience at least one of the following fears, and some people suffer from all four:

• 1. Fear of the unknown: speaking in public is often an unknown experience for

most people that also looks pretty scary (like having the invisible monsters under our beds when we were kids)

• 2. Fear of being the center of attention: being the center of attention means

people are focused on you – your body, face, movements, clothes, voice (like walking down the crowded street where everyone is staring at you)

• 3. Fear of failure: it can take many forms, from forgetting what you wanted to

say to saying or doing something you don’t want in the front of countless staring eyes (that magnified significance of our “failures”)

• 4. Fear of rejection: fear that any “failure” to get our points across to the

audience may lead audience to decide our speech is not worth listening (like asking a room full of people out on a first date – who will be nervous about possible rejection?)

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How to overcome Stage Fright

Long-term strategies

• Expectacion: your speech will not be perfect (no one ever gives the “perfect”

speech). You want say every word or phrase exactly right with proper emphasis – goal is not on Perfection but on Effectiveness.

• Preparation: help build your confidence and lessen your fear of failing to get

your ideas across to your audience Success is 90% Prespiration (preparation) and 10% Inspiration (speech)

• Practice: only a small % of people is able to give effective speeches without a

great deal of practice (regardless of what many people will tell you). Practicing (i.e. through internal dialogue) will help you deal with the fear of unknown.

• Feedback: practicing alone will help you know your speech but effective

speakers often practice speeches in front of family members and friends who will give them a feedback (what works well and what could be improved).

• Experience: The more experience you have with public speaking, the better

you will be at dealing with stage fright. It takes time (often longer than one semester/year). Don’t avoid public speaking situations – embrace them!

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How to overcome Stage Fright

Personal tips

• Preparation is the single greatest antidote to fear. The most important moment

is beginning, thus you must plan exactly what to say in the first 60 seconds.

• Recognize the stress as excitement: to make adrenaline rush work for you (stage

fright has the same physiological symptoms as with roller coaster, rafting, etc.)

• Exercise – use your large muscles to relax: walk brieskly around the building,

stretch your arms, vigorously change your facial expressions (physical exercise will alleviate large muscle contractions and thus help reduce stress)

• Take deep breaths from diaphragm: regulate the breath cycle (O2:CO2 balance

gets restored and stress level begin to decline)

• Watch what you eat: time your food intake (it takes hours to digest food) and

choose the type of food (e.g. milk creates phlegm, high sugar drops blood sugar levels, etc.)

• Trick yourself: imagine funny-looking audience, make yourself laugh, associate

your public speaking with fun (think of something humorous to add in your presentation)

• Exaggerate your symptoms: try to make your symptoms more intense (the body

will not automatically produce a symptom that you are doing consciously)

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• 1. Planning

Why / To whom?

• 2. Preparing

What / How?

• 3. Delivering

Where / When?

Steps There are three steps in each presentation:

Steps in presentation

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Question: Why?

• The reason for the presentation
• Impact on audience
• Result (action)

Question: To whom?

• Age
• Knowledge of the audience
• Culture
• Size
• Language
• Available time

“Designing a presentation without an audience in mind is like writing a love letter and addressing it: To Whom It May Concern.” Ken Haemer, AT&T

• I. Planning presentation

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Starting preparation First determine conclusions and basic ideas → then create a framework of presentations and fill it with text and ilustrations Question: What? We need to know / Should we know / Would be better to know Reasearch: Books, articles, internet, statistics, examples, etc Question: How? The success depends on the balance between feelings and arguments

• f presenter
• Make notes to connect the key elements of speech, without
• improvisation. Weakness: presentation as read text!
• Pick only key elements (as the foundation), while improvise the rest.

Weakness: requires experience! The sense of time To predict length of presentation is characteristic of good presenters

• For all three parts: Introduction, Main body and Conclusion
• II. Preparing presentation

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Psychic space Represents the mental space of presentation:

• Presentations are usually carried out in the public zone (> 3.6 m)
• A good presenter knows how to use all listeners’ personal space to

enhance the impression of his/her presentation (from the intimate to the public zone) Physical space Represents the physical space of presentation. Before the start of presentation one has to check:

• Working order of technical equipment (projector, PC, flip-chart, etc)
• Lighting and sound insulation
• Capacity of the room (in regard to the number of participants) and seating

plan (if applicable)

• Air temperature and ventilation
• Phone or other device in the room that can interfere with the presentation

Preparation: Space

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A picture is worth a thousand words! Proverb Purpose

• Attract the attention of listeners (engage the senses)
• Illustrate points that are difficult to understand
• Emphasize important ideas
• Save time and energy to carry out presentation

Types

• Graphs, diagrams
• Pictures (photos, drawings)
• Video / film

Media

• Power Point presentation
• Slides, video projector
• Working materials (handouts)

Preparation: Visual aids

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Rules

• Each slide must be of the same design
• Determine the format for all slides (titles, subtitles, ideas, fonts, etc)
• KISS principle of expression: “Keep It Short and Simple”
• Usually 1-2 minutes per slide (sense of time)
• Present in bullet points – key words that you further elaborate in your speech

(no need to write on slides everything you would like to say)

• Use capital letters only when necessary (they are difficult for reading)
• Do not use complicated fonts
• Use a light background colour and font that is clearly visible
• Use different colour of letters only to emphasize key point(s) / logic of speech:

Using colour for decoration, may distract and is unpleasant to read Try to be creative, is not alwys a good way of presenting

Preparation: Power Point presentation

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Spelling and grammar After the completion of presentation check slides for:

• Spelling errors
• Grammatical errors
• Repeated words / buzzwords

Conclusion Must be strong and effective – the audience will be remember your final words. In your final slide:

• Summarize the main points of of the presentation
• Suggest future course of action
• Invite the audience to ask questions / discuss topic(s)
• Thank the audience for their attention

Preparation: Power Point presentation (cont.)

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• III. Giving a Presentation

Concept Presentation is the practice of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience. Presentations come in nearly as many forms as there are life situations: business meeting concept, education, charity, arts, safety, etc. Elements – prerequisites

• Care for listeners
• Voice
• Eye-contact
• Body language (posture, gestures)
• Personality

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Care for listeners

• Allow the audience to feel important (VIP) – always keep in mind that your

presentation is meant for them!

• Gain your audience through understanding, balanced humor and good mood
• Act as a leader – your are hosting presentation!
• Engage your audience in discussion – involvement maintains concentration!
• Model your voice to gain full interets for the subject
• Be careful when using the dialect / jargon (attention: courtesy, culture)
• Summarize concepts / models and conclusions to ease the understanding

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Voice

Concept Voice is the primary tool of public speaker – conveys the content of your speech through your words. Elements of voice

• Volume: voice must be strong and clearly audible to audience members who

are farthest away from you (voice must be “heard everywhere in the room”).

• Projection: voice need to be “pushed-out” towards the audience. You may

have a glance at your notes once in a while and spend most of your speech looking at (projecting your voice to) your audience. Do not project voice towards your speaking notes but out to your audience

• Pace: not to fast – not to slow (like TV newcasters). Fast talkers give out

information so quickly that the audience have trouble keeping up (getting tired more quickly and loosing the attention). Slow talkers tire out an audience by boring them (“putting them to sleep”).

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Voice (cont.)

Levels of voice in a speech

• Clear, strong, very well paced: commands complete attention (voice can

be “heard everywhere in the room”)

• Solid, steady, well paced: commands attention
• Clear, hard to hear, not well paced: does not always command attention
• Weak, strain to hear, poorly paced: occasionally command attention
• Very weak, much not heard, not paced: does nothing to command

attention

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Thoughts-to-Voice coordination

Behavior Visible and rational Motivation Invisible and emotional Every idea imagined can be translated in words: Clearer idea with deeper emotion → More effective transfer of thoughts

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Lack of Thoughts-to-Voice Coordination

Consequences

• Dull (monotonous) voice: “slide-readers” (lack of experience,

incompetentce)

• Indecisive voice: speakers seem uncertain (not concentrated, forgeting

facts and sentences, skip over the text)

• Mechanical voice: “automatic speech” (sentences without meaning)

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Eye-contact

Concept Your eye contact needs to touch every member of the audience, so you can connect and communicate with them. If you don’t look at the audience during your speech, they will unconsciosly assume you don’t respect them/care about their opinion. The best way is to scan your view slowly from person to person, one side of the room to the other, front and back (to cover all the audence members). Levels of eye-contact in a speech

• Excellent eye-contact: sees and connects with everyone in the room

throughout the speech

• Solid eye-contact: does not quite see or connect with whole audience

throughout the speech

• Moderate eye-contact: needs to see more of the audience more often to

connect with listerners during the speech

• Weak eye-contact: does not see much of audience to make any connections

through eye-contact during large portions of the speech

• Poor eye-contact: does not see audience at all and makes no eye-contact with

listerners during the speech

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Body Language: Posture

Interpretation Open posture: honesty / good will towards recipient Closed posture: concealment / distrust towards recipient Open

• Open arms / legs
• Palms out to the recipient
• Facing recipient
• Head nod
• Upright body
• Showing interest
• Engaged in discussion

Closed

• Crossed arms / legs
• Palms in / clenched fist(s)
• Turned from recipient
• Head shaking
• Bended body
• Reserved
• Disengaged from

discussion

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Body Language: Gestures

Consequences Gestures: can complete performance (positive) or drag the attention (negative)

• Conscious: practice to automaticity (routine in performing the skill)
• Unconscious: observe (through feedback) and control

Walking back and forth Tapping a pencil, marker, etc. Repeating the same words Watching the same audience

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Levels of body Language in a speech

• Looks relaxed and moves very naturally and expressively
• Mostly relaxed, natural and expressive
• Somewhat stiff and unnatural, should be more experssive
• Mostly stiff and unnatural, needs to be more expressive
• Completely stiff, unnatural and inexpressive

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Personality

Concept A public speaker should not be anonymous or distant from the audience. You need to communicate who you are just as much as what you have to say. The best way is to invest your performance with appropriate energy, enthusiasm and authority to reveal yourself to the audience. Elements of personality

• Energy and enthusiasm: if you don’t generate energy and enthusiasm in

your speech the audience will be more prone to boredom. Remember, energy is very contagious and it always starts from the presenter.

• Smiling and laughing: smiling will enhance pleasant feelings in the

audience, while laughing will connect further (humour can be used as a spice in your speech)

• Displaying authority: authority will come both from the content of your

speech and from the attitude you display at the podium (voice, eye-contact, body language)

• Clothing: your dress code have to accomodate towards your audience and

the situation (“dress for success”). However, do not wear sunglasses or hat unless you have a medical condition.