The MainPoints of Good Presentation - Essay Example

Managing and Handling Information What are the main points of Good Presentation? Managing and handling information is one of the most important tools in person-to-group interaction. Presentations can be used for different types of events including projects and reports, etc. Following Harper (2004) “Even veterans of public speaking need to be trained to ensure that their message, whatever it is, can be delivered with the right implications and points shining through” (p. 125). The most important elements of successful presentation are structure and clear vision of its aim. One of the most important parts of this form of presentation is defining the issue. If you are not precise in doing so, the whole presentation will lack a clear focus, and the audience will be at a loss as to what you are attempting to accomplish. Following Fairbairn and Winch (1996) the differences between the nuances of meaning may seem minimal but the wording of presentation depends on having decided in the early stages of the presentation what the question means. The goal of this kind of presentation is not to demonstrate a conventional, personal thesis, but to clarify a situation or problem so that members of an audience holding diverse viewpoints can better discuss their individual differences or move forward on a project. The audience is another area of concern for an experienced speaker (presenter). Because the speaker’s goal is to foster rational, mature communication in a complex situation, the audience itself must be examined carefully. The speaker must think systematically about the following audience characteristics in the early stages of the project. How closely you have to analyze any one of these characteristics depends, of course, on the given situation (Adair and Thomas, 2003). For example, in accounting risks assessment it would be important to think about the fears, maturity, social status, and expectations of the people to whom you were talking. Before the speaker can really establish the line of reasoning of a presentation, he/she need to think about these things The content of presentation should reflect: expertise, authority, tone and objectivity. The speaker should ask the following question when doing a research: How much expertise do you have about this subject? Is your expertise greater than, less than, or roughly equal to the group for whom you are addressing? (expertise); How much authority do you have in comparison to your target audience? Will you have to establish your authority in the course of the paper? (authority); Just how diplomatic do you want to be? How assertive can you be? (tone); To communicate an impression of fairness and objectivity, how will you handle the documentation of your essay? How many sources will you need? Will your presentation require extensive, scholarly documentation or will a more casual, popular approach work just as well? (objectivity). Also, it is important to include critical review of existing relevant research based literature and relevant theoretical underpinnings (Adair and Thomas, 2003). For successful presentation, a critiquing framework could be used. It goes without saying that presentations should be well organized and well written. Great ideas amount to little unless others can be convinced of their merit—this takes tight logic, the presentation of convincing evidence, and persuasively written arguments. Verbal and non-verbal communication is a part of presentation. It is possible to say that every presenter should have good communication skills including language mastery gestures rules. For successful presentation everything is important: appearance, haptics, oculesics, orientations, paralinguistics, posture, proxemics. Appearance, including physical attire and grooming, ‘places’ the speaker in the environment and before the audience. haptics include the use of touch while conversing; kinesics means the movement of part of the body to communicate; orientations: the angles at which people position themselves in relation to each other; posture: the many bodily positions of standing, sitting, lying, and so on; proxemics: the use of space in communication, and paralinguistics: the nonverbal aspects of speech (such as accents. Because of the differences in traditions, customs, religions, and related cultural features of a society, extreme care should be taken in selecting gestures that can convey the intended message and that do not offend the sensibilities of other people. Oculesics, or the use or avoidance of eye contact is one of the most crucial elements of successful presentations. The speaker should look at everyone and maintain eye contact with everyone in the room. In some cases, the smile is important because it helps to create friendly and warm atmosphere at once. To make the presentation more emotional and vivid the speaker can mark the most important ideas with gestures. In general, gesticulation helps to keep listeners attention and avoid routine representation. The main thing, which spoils successful impressions, is that speakers raise their voice and yell out too much. In such cases, it is difficult to catch the idea if the speaker stresses a lot of unnecessary words, makes exclamation on phrases which does not need emotional outbursts, and as the most important mispronounced some of terms (Adair, Thomas, 2003). For this reason, language -whether written, spoken, or silent - becomes the embodiment of successful presentation and a means whereby a presenter communicate to other people. Visual aids attract listeners’ attention at once and make the presentation more vivid and informative (Miller, et al 2004). A formal presentation is conducted to help win over those vital to ensuring its success. This step can be anticipated to be difficult. The speaker should present information, while at the same time accomplishing a smooth transition by visual aids. Hadfield-Law (2001) underlines that “Speakers should not expect to walk into the lecture theatre, hand over their slides or disc and then start. Always make sure you can start without them” (p. 1211). My Current Strengths in Presentations During presentation I always try to use face-to-face and face-to-group communication rules taking into account that each person may differ in the way that it experiences and uses such things as gestures and language. In a general sense, my primary system of communication is well developed, and that is why I easily interact with other people during presentations. My effective presentation skills are proved by the fact that I carefully chose vocabulary and meaning of words in the process of interaction. The lectures on Managing and Presenting Information help me to express my ideas more clearly and objectively, structure my presentations according to goals and complexity of the topic. Presentation Skills I Mastered Theoretical background and practical application of these rules help me develop written skills. Before presentation, I write a plan and examine available information from articles, books and Internet, which help me to clarify the ideas I am doing to present. When I start to look for materials on the topic I need to know more about the general subject area and specific parts of it. Also, I start to use examples which help me to demonstrate the different angles of the subject. An illustration can help to support the idea, but it is not insecurity occurred in real life. In research paper I used all these techniques to provide clear understanding of the topic discussed. Areas of Improvements In spite of skills and knowledge I have mastered during this course, I will continue to improve my presentation skills in order to become an expert in this field. Practical application of presentation skills and training are the main criteria for successful development of personality and communication skills. I consider these steps as the most useful because they help to express personal vision and analysis of the problem based on reliable statistical data. All the steps and techniques discussed above can be effectively applied to business writing helping to organize and business research process. Also, literature review is one of the main methods which help me to improve my knowledge and skills in this area. References Adair, J.E., Thomas, N. 2003. The Concise Adair on Communication and Presentation Skills. London: Thorogood. Hadfield-Law, L. 2001. Presentation skills for nurses: how to prepare more effectively. British Journal of Nursing, 10 (18), pp. 1211-1212. Harper, J. 2004. Presentation skills. Industrial and Commercial Training 36 (3), pp. 125-127 Fairbairn G.J, and Winch, C. 1996. Reading, Writing and Reasoning, 2d Ed.Milton Keynes, Open University Press. Miller, M.C., Mott, J., Pittenger, K.S. 2004. Using Real-World Standards to Enhance Students Presentation Skills. Business Communication Quarterly, 67 (3), p. 327. Read More