Topic - 3 - Body Language of an Effective Presentation

Body Language of  an Effective Presentation

For any presentation, presenter‘s body language plays a vital role. Our non-verbal (body language) communication at presentation helps us in explaining the point. Here it should be noted that more than 65% of meaning is carried through our body language. This is why as a presenter, we should be very careful about non- verbal (body language) aspects. Followings are the various aspects of body language at presentation.

Ø Personal appearance:

Personal appearance plays a key role in non-verbal communication at presentation. We can express many things through our appearance or outlook. Appearance includes clothes, hair style, jewelry, cosmetics, and so on. For example; a presenter wearing an earring, heavy chains and torn jeans will create bad impression among people. This is because his appearance communicates to the audience and tells everything about the person.

Ø Posture:

Posture generally refers to the way we hold ourselves when we stand, sit and walk. A presenter should be very careful about his or her posture because his or her posture indicates to which extent he or she is interested in presentation. For example: slumped posture indicates low spirit while erect or straight posture indicates high spirit, energy and confidence.

Ø Gesture:

Gesture includes the movements of hands, arms, shoulder, head, torso and fingers. Our gesture clarifies our ideas. During presentation, a presenter must have natural and spontaneous gesture. We should avoid irritating gesture like playing with a ring, twisting keychain, clasping hands tightly and cracking knuckles, etc. at the time of presentation.

Ø Facial expression:

Human face is considered as the best communicator. It is the most expressive part of human body. Facial expression includes raised eyebrows, forehead lines, smiles, movements of eye lid etc. for example smile stands for friendliness while a frown for discontent, lines on forehead for question, doubt etc.

Chapeter - 2 (Topic - 2) - Organizing Content of the Presentation

Organizing Content of the Presentation

To make an effective presentation, we require organized contents. Here, we arrange information in systematic way so that presentation becomes interesting and simple to understand. Mainly presentation is made up of three parts:

·         Introduction

·         Main body

·         Conclusion

·     Introduction:

The introduction of the presentation comprises opening statements, aim and the layout of the presentation. Here are several techniques which are used in introduction to begin the presentation:

·         Asking basic questions about the topic

·         Narrating the problems.

·         Narrating a specific incident.

·         Simply begin with the topic, etc.

A good introduction is a vehicle to lead the audience into the main body of the speech.

·     Main Body:

Main body of the presentation is the central part where the topic is discussed in detail. Here the main aim is to make the topic simple and easy as much as possible for the audience. Here, presenter uses illustrations like graphs, charts, animation, movie, clips, drawing etc. These illustrations help the presenter in presenting information in an effective way. A presenter can use following methods for the discussion of the topic.

·        Chronological

·        Categorical

·        Cause and effect

·        Problem-solution

FChronological:

The most familiar form of presentation is probably the time-bound-chronological-approach. In this method, whole presentation is arranged chronologically. This method is useful for the topics like; 'The profile of your college’, ‘history of sports’.

F Categorical:

This is one of the easiest and most commonly used methods for the presentation. The entire presentation is divided into various topics or sub-topics. This method is used for the topics like; ‘The role of television’, ‗Importance of communication in business’, etc.

F Cause and effect:

This method is used for illustrating and explaining the cause of the situation and focusing on the effects. It is useful for the topics like; ‘Impact of cinema on society’, 'Internet-boon or bane’, etc.  

F Problem-solution:

In this method, the presentation is divided into parts; the first part describes the cause and effect of the problem and after describing the problem, the main objective is to suggest a solution to the problem. For topics like; ‗Population explosion’, this method can be used.

·  Conclusion:

Though conclusion part of the presentation is not large, its effect is considerable. Conclusion presents the summary of the presentation. In this part audience is asked to question if they have any doubt or confusion. Here every person should be given fair chance. A presenter should not conclude in haste. He or she can conclude with a quotation or recalling the earlier story, joke, incident with which the presenter has started the presentation. In this way the conclusion should be suggestive and effective.

Preparing an Outline of the Presentation

Each presentation follows same structure or outline. Before presenting any presentation we should prepare a proper outline of the presentation. This outline will help us in presenting the idea one by one. The outline of the presentation helps in managing the time. It serves as a guide to show us the right way for our presentation. Suppose as a project leader of the team, we are asked to prepare presentation on developing a new product for the company. This may be a 10 minutes presentation which can be prepared in the following outline:

√       Introduction

√       Product appearance

√       Various parts

√       Functioning

√       Facilities

√       Conclusions 

Chapter - 02 - (Topic - 1) What is Presentation?

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Chapter – 2 - What is Presentation?

•  Now-a-days, presentation is one of the most important qualities for a successful career.
•  Presentation is an effort of presenting (providing) information in a systematic way which   takes place between the presenter and the audience.
•   In presentation, audience demands clear information about a specific topic. On the other     hand, presenter‘s job is to provide clear information according to audience‘s demands.
•  In speech, information is presented orally while in presentation information is presented with the help of various illustrations and techniques which make the presentation very simple to understand and effective.
•     For example: in the presentation on the geographical structure of the earth, we tries to provide information with the help of maps, charts, animations, movies, clips etc. such kind of illustrations helps us in understanding the topic in a better way. 

Defining the Purpose of the Presentation

Presentation is very effective technique in spreading information among large number of people. To become a good presenter, we should be very clear about various purposes of the presentation. We generally prepare presentation:

§  To present the information in a systematic way.

§  To explain the difficult point through illustrations.

§  To provide information and analyse the situation.

§  To persuade the audience to take a particular action.

§  To spread the message to large number of people with the help of technology.

§  To provide facts and figures that increase audience's understanding of the subject.

§  To solve the confusion, doubts and problems of the audience. 

How to Make an Effective Presentation?

§Planning a Presentation:

It is well said that prior proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance. Planning and Preparation are the first two steps to deliver an effective presentation.

Effective planning requires two things:

      (1)  Analysing audience and locale

      (2)  Organizing content and preparing an outline

(1) Analyzing audience and locale:

(a) Analyzing audience:

For any kind of presentation, audience is very important because it is the receiving part of the communication. Audience completes the cycle of communication at the presentation. The audience may be your friends, clients, colleagues or sometimes unknown audience. The nature of the audience has a direct impact upon the presentation. As a presenter, a person should learn the nature of the audience to make his presentation effective. This is why it becomes very important to have some prior knowledge of the audience‘s characteristics and background.

A person presenting his or her presentation in a foreign country (unfamiliar environment) should keep following things in mind before the presentation:

§  Audience's linguistic background

§  Audience's cultural background

§  Audience's pronunciation

§  Audience's ideology and philosophy

§  Audience's interest

§  Audience‘s likes and dislikes

§  Audience‘s attitude 

A person presenting in a familiar or local region or environment should learn following things in advance:

§  Prepare presentation according to the nature of the audience.

§  Know audience's likes and dislikes.

§  Know whether there is hostility towards the topic or presenter.

§  Find out their degree of knowledge of the topic.

§  Age range of the audience

§  Whether the audience is already familiar with the topic. 

All these above mentioned points are essential because the style and content will be dependent on audience‘s background, needs, interests and attitudes.

(a) Analyzing locale

Locale is a place and environment (situation) where the presentation is presented. Every location has its unique physical situation. Normally, presentation is given in seminar hall, auditorium, conference room etc. Environment of such places largely affects the presentation. While presenting a presentation, a person should keep several following things in his or her mind:

§  Size of the auditorium or conference room.

§  Seating arrangement for audience.

§  Physical setting like podium, table, room temperature, lighting etc.

§  Time span of the presentation.

§  Electric devices like: microphones, speaker, computers etc.

If a presenter found such problems regarding the location in advance, s/he can either ask for alternative arrangements or modify his/her materials, visual aids and style to suit the environment. Thus, the presenter should have proper understanding of the audience‘s nature and locale makes our presentation effective and successful.