How to Plan and Prepare an Effective Presentation

The Communication Process

The oral presentation is part of the overall communication process. The communication process involves a speaker who takes his/her thoughts and puts them into both verbal and nonverbal messages that are presented to a listener who tries to understand what the speaker said. The communication process is a two-way process. The speaker receives both verbal and nonverbal messages from the listener before, during, and after the presentation.

The communication process is affected by a number of different influences such as the speaker's and listeners' cultures, the relationship between the speaker and the listeners, the location of the presentation, and the environment of the presentation. In addition, the speaker's nonverbal messages may hinder the acceptance of the verbal message by the listeners. These influences can become barriers causing the communication process to break down. The result is listeners that do not understand or accept what the speaker intended. Ref #15 The speaker has the primary responsibility to overcome these barriers if the message is to be understood and accepted by the listeners.

An effective speaker starts with a good understanding of the communication and the listening process. An effective speaker will use all of the tools and methods to overcome communication barriers to get the audience to accept his/her ideas. In addition, an effective speaker must also accomplish the following:

Learn about the audience to allow adapting the message to satisfy the needs of the audience
Prepare a well-structured presentation that meets the audience needs
Use the appropriate visual aids to increase communication and audience recall
Understand the importance of nonverbal messages and use these messages to support the presentation
Learn how to be an effective listener to allow reading of the audience and modification of the presentation in response to the listeners' communication

The communication process starts before the oral presentation and continues after the presentation. An effective presentation would present a consistent message in all phases of the communication process. Different speaking situations will have different steps or opportunities for communication before and after the oral presentation. The communication opportunities for the process of selecting a consultant for a project will be different from those present in technical conferences. For example, the major steps in the communication process at most technical conferences are listed below in the order in which they occur:

The audience will read the title of the presentation and paper in the conference program or on the preconference material.
A portion of the audience will read the abstract of the presentation and paper.
A much smaller portion of the audience will attend the oral presentation.
Following the presentation, a portion of the audience will ask questions, which the speaker will answer.
A few members of the audience will engage the speaker in continuing discussions during the remainder of the conference or following the conference.

A portion of the audience will review written material such as copies of the presentation's visual aids and paper that is published in the conference proceedings. Some of the audience reviewing the paper will not have attended the oral presentation if the paper is published in the conference proceedings.
Others will review other supporting material such as papers, books, and increasingly Internet material after the conference.

The size of the audience generally decreases as you move down the list. Clearly the largest audience will read the title of the presentation and paper. This ...

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A portion of the audience will review written material such as copies of the presentation's visual aids and paper that is published in the conference proceedings. Some of the audience reviewing the paper will not have attended the oral presentation if the paper is published in the conference proceedings.
Others will review other supporting material such as papers, books, and increasingly Internet material after the conference.

The size of the audience generally decreases as you move down the list. Clearly the largest audience will read the title of the presentation and paper. This audience uses the title to make a decision to attend the presentation or to read the abstract. Several of the referenced authors have entire sections devoted to the importance of the title and provide suggestions on how to select an effective title. The abstract is probably the next most important part of this communication process. Many of the abstract readers will use the abstract to select the presentations that they will attend. The oral presentation is the third step in this communication process and will usually have a significantly smaller audience than the previous steps. Note—the actual published paper is the sixth step in this communication process and probably will have one of the smallest audiences. The amount of effort spent preparing for each step in this communication process is usually largest for the steps at the bottom of the list and decreases as one moves up the list.

Oral presentations are often prepared at the last minute and the amount of time the speakers devote to planning, preparing, and practicing the presentations is often limited. More than a few speakers have prepared their presentation on the airplane traveling to the conference or in the hotel room the day before the oral presentation. Last-minute preparation of the oral presentation is often a waste of time for the speaker and, most importantly, the audience who sits through a poor presentation. A poor oral presentation is an opportunity lost, and many good ideas are forever lost in a poor presentation.

The last point in the communication process outlined above is attracting a large and growing audience. The use of the Internet is changing the way that information is disseminated. Increasingly, audiences want access to the presentation material over the Internet, and the Internet is becoming the dominant communication vehicle. However, the oral presentation will continue to have a very important role in the communication process.

Developing an Effective Oral Presentation

The development of an effective oral presentation requires careful planning, preparation, and delivery. The development of an effective oral presentation can be a demanding and time-consuming process. The steps for developing an effective presentation have been well defined in several books on public speaking and a number of Internet sites. The reader is referred to these resources for detailed information for developing and presenting effective oral presentations. A summary of the different presentation development steps, compiled from several of these references, is presented below:

Planning the Presentation

Determining the purpose of the presentation—One of the first things a speaker must do is determine the purpose of the presentation. The purpose or goal of the presentation will guide the speaker in the development of the presentation. The traditionally accepted types of speeches are to inform, to entertain, and to persuade. Many authors now agree that an effective presentation must do all three. Malcolm Kushner in his book Successful Presentations for Dummies stress that the primary goal of every presentation is to persuade. For example, the speaker in a presentation to inform the audience of some technical material must persuade the audience to accept his/her ideas and data.

Selecting the topic—The most effective presentations are those that address the specific interest and need of the audience. Guidelines are presented to help a speaker select topics for presentations and to analyze speaking opportunities. Several authors suggest that a speaker must make sure that he/she has enough time for developing the presentations before making the commitment to deliver the presentation. The speaker must also make sure the presentation will further his/her career and speaking goals.

Analyzing the audience—An effective presentation is a presentation that meets the needs of the audience. The determination of the audience's needs requires a careful and deliberate analysis of the audience. The careful analysis of the audience will provide valuable input into the selection of the key topics to be presented and an understanding of the audience's expectations. The audience analysis is one of the most important steps that will assist in the development of the presentation message and the structure of the presentation.

Researching the topic—Suggestions are presented for resources that will aid in the research of a topic. Several suggestions are presented in the reference material that will supplement the typical type of research completed by most engineers and scientists, which can add interesting quotes and humor to presentations.

Developing the Presentation

Defining the residual message and major issues—One of the most important steps in developing a presentation is to focus the presentation to a limited message. Most audiences will remember only a small portion of the presentation, and effective speakers will try to control what the audience remembers. Sam Walch of the Department of Speech Communications for Pennsylvania State University in his excellent workbook for SpCom 100A discusses how to formulate a residual message, which is a "specific statement of what you want your audience to remember long after you finish speaking." Other authors use a similar concept with different terminology and structure that are particularly important in presentations to persuade, such as sales presentations.

Most authors agree that the number of main points should be limited to three to five. The preferred number of main points is three. An effective speaker will select a limited number of main points that support the residual message and address the audience's needs. The supporting main points may be selected as part of a brainstorming process. A list of the main points should be prioritized with criteria developed in the audience analysis. The development of the final residual message and the supporting main points is often a reiterative process that is combined with several other steps for developing an effective presentation.

Structuring the presentation—An effective presentation will follow a specific structure that the audience understands. The audience's recall is enhanced if they know what structure the speaker is using. There are a number of different presentation organizational structures that are presented in the references. Each of the different structures has different uses and characteristics.

Defining and developing the supporting points—The supporting points for each of the main points must be developed. The supporting points should prove or illustrate the main points. The number of supporting points should be limited to a number between two to seven. It is also recommended that the supporting graphics be defined at this time.

Outlining the presentation—Completing an outline of the presentation is recommended in order to completely define the scope and logic of a presentation. The use of formal outlining procedures is a way to check the presentation logic and development organization. The outline should include the final language of the residual message, main points, and supporting points.

Developing the introduction, transitions, and conclusion—Several authors indicate that the introduction and conclusion are the two most important parts of an oral presentation. The introduction and conclusion must be carefully crafted to present the residual message. The transitions are the phrases that allow the speaker to move from one part of the presentation to another. Some authors suggest that the only part of the presentation that should be memorized is the transitions.

Developing and using visual aids—Visual aids are an important part of today's presentations and will increase the audience's understanding of the topic and the audience's recall. Increasingly, audiences expect to see visual aids and most expect to see computer-controlled or animated visual aids. The preparation of visual aids is a very important part of the oral presentation preparation. The preparation and use of visual aids are discussed by many of the referenced authors. Also included with this presentation is an outline for developing and using visual aids that was compiled from the referenced material. In addition, other material is presented with this paper on how to structure PowerPoint for supporting oral presentations and allowing dynamic, "on-the-fly" adjustment of visual aids during the presentation.

Developing and using handout material—The use of handout material is an important part of the communication process and can significantly increase the effectiveness of the presentation. Jim Ptaszynski noted that his students had a tendency to try to write everything down. Ref #27d Some other educators also noted that students had a hard time keeping up with their notes in lectures that used PowerPoint visual aids. The development of handout materials requires special attention since the current reproduction technology restricts the printing of large numbers of handout material to black-and-white copies.

Delivering the Presentation

The delivery of the presentation in front of a live audience is the goal of all of the planning and preparation. An effective presentation is the result of the extensive planning, preparation, and most importantly, practicing. However, there are several tasks and suggestions that can make the delivery easier.

An outline of Guidelines for Effective Presentations is presented in the attached material. This material was complied from the references and from the experience of the author. Contained in this outline are several suggestions that will make the presentation easier.

Summary

The presentation of an effective oral presentation is one if the most important things a speaker can do to get his/her ideas accepted by the audience. An effective presentation will also open other opportunities for the speaker, which is one of the major reasons for making the presentation. However, effective presentations do not happen by accident; they require planning, preparation, practice, and a controlled delivery. Using PowerPoint slides as supporting visual aids can greatly increase the effectiveness of the presentation. However, pretty PowerPoint slides do not make the presentation effective by themselves. An effective presentation must be well structured, supported with integrated PowerPoint slides, and well delivered by a speaker who is a good listener and can modify his/her presentation to meet the needs of the audience.

The best advice for making an effective presentation is