Effective Oral Presentations

Dr. George MarquisComposition and Rhetoric

AUC

1

The Golden Rule of Success..

2

The Week Before...Practice, Practice.

3

How Your Audience Judges You..

• Knowledge• Preparation• Appearance

4

Dress to Impress

• Clothes must not distract from your message. No words or logos on clothes.

• Keep clothing neutral: black, white, gray, navy, beige, brown (no pink, purple, orange, etc.)

• If you wear make up, wear only matte.• Don’t wear jewelry that moves or makes

noise.

5

Dress for Success : (professional appearance)Photo: George Marquis, 2007

6

Dress for Success (professional appearance)Photo: George Marquis, 2007

7

Dress for Success (“Get down to work” look)Photo: George Marquis, 2007

8

Preparing for Any Eventuality

9

Be proactive not reactive

• Arrive at least 10 minutes ahead of your presentation.

• Try to find the person who is setting up the equipment.

• You can usually find the numbers for media service on the console.

• ‘Amm Khalid is in charge of Falaki. • If you can’t find Khalid, call the main number –

5072.

10

Be proactive not reactive• Determine whether your equipment works by

touch or by mouse.• If you’re bringing your own laptop , locate power

source. • Connect laptop with the guest cable and press

ctrl+ F4. • For sound, find the audio cable , plug it in and

test it. There is a volume adjuster on the control panel.

11

Be proactive not reactive

• If you design a presentation that has online links requiring a live internet connection, never assume that there will be one. Always find out well ahead of time. If there isn’t one, download what you need in advance.

12

Time to begin?

13

Room Skills

14

Working With A Screen

• Stand to left of screen and at a 45 degree angle to screen and audience.

• When you want to emphasize a point, turn to face the audience.

• Avoid path of light from data show projector.• Plan how to change slides. (Two options)

15

Referring to Screen

16

Pointers

• If your slides are simple you will not need one.• For complex slides, use a laser or conventional

pointer. A laser pointer is preferable because it is smaller and therefore doesn’t disturb the audience if you wave it accidentally.

• Be very careful not to point the laser beam at audience.

17

Example of simple slide (no pointer needed)

Objectives, Goals & Results

• Community awareness developed

• Job opportunities created in this field

Objectives Goals Results

Complex (Use pointer)

Introduction Proposed solutionProposed solution Previous attempts Why ours?

Hand Gestures

• Keep them simple and natural.• Searching for words can cause you to use your

hands more. Practice what you want to say to avoid this.

• Don’t “reach” to the screen with your hands. Use a pointer.

20

Audience AwarenessSource: http://static.kdenews.org/dannya/akademy_edu_audience.jpg

21

Organizational Skills

• Have an agenda

– It adds a psychological advantage

• Use signposts– First, I’d like to discuss..– Now, my colleague, Ahmed, will introduce..

22

Agenda

• Problem Solution Statement

• Objectives, Goals & Results

• Methodology

• Timeline

• Budget

• Roles & Responsibilities

Organizational Skills (cont.)

• Start on time• Plan for at least 1 minute per slide• Know what and what not to emphasize

24

Delivery

• Pace yourself and your team

–100 words a minute is the most effective rate of delivery

25

Delivery (cont.)

• Eye Contact

– Look at your audience when you are speaking. Pick two or three points in the room and direct your speech at them.– Look directly above the eye level of your

audience if you are uncomfortable looking directly at people.

26

Language

27

Be prepared

• No hesitation – have the words you need on hand

• No fillers

28

Slang

29

Avoid slang and colloquialisms

• This is an academic setting, not comedy central.

• The audience might be amused, but not impressed or persuaded.

30

Jargon

31

Source: www.cybergeo.eu

Jargon

• Expected if your audience is from the same field and specialized

• If not, you need to adapt your language to their level of comprehension

• No one is impressed by your ability to talk over their heads

32

Team Skills

• Maintain good rapport• Refer to your team members as colleagues• Hand off to them when you’re finished• Refer back to what they said when you’re

talking.

33

• Follow the 6 x 6 rule:• No more than three fonts• Make titles a contrasting color• Minimum font size is 24 point• Source your information

34

Fonts

• Use sans serif (Calibri, Arial, Helvetica)

35

Calibri Font

• In a survey conducted by researchers at Wichita State University, Calibri was the most popular font for e-mail, instant messaging and PowerPoint presentations.

• Source: http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/91/POF.html

36

The Step-back Rule

• “When you are finished [designing] your presentation, step back about 5-6 feet from your slides on a 17” monitor. If you can read the lines clearly your presentation text is large enough for the audience to read.”

Source: http://www.ispn-psych.org/docs/06tips4ppt.pdf

37

Animation

• Animation in your engineering diagrams is fine.

• But to move text, use animation only sparingly.

• Do not use sound to move signal the beginning or end of a slide. It will make your presentation seem less than serious.

38

Figures (Charts, etc.)

• Minimize text when using figures• Use text only for labeling

39

A very busy chart

40

Choose the type of visual carefully

• The next slide illustrates the greater clarity of the bar charts.

41

Pie Charts vs. Bar Charts

Citing Sources

• There are two types of citation in oral presentations:

• Oral Citations– See: www.lib.jmu.edu/gold/citingspeech.doc

• Slide Citations– cite sources for any direct quotations or images

appearing on a PowerPoint slide. Write the information in a small font in a textbox at the bottom of the slide or under the image.

43

To Cite Photos, Graphs, etc.

• In PowerPoint, go to “home.” • Then click on “layout” in the “slides” section.• There are two options for slides with captions:– Content with caption– Picture with caption******Caution: using these formats sometimes cuts off the

top of the picture

44

Picture correctly cited (see below picture in slide)Source:http://www.lib.jmu.edu/gold/mod7ethics.htm

45

Photo correctly cited. Source: www.abcnews.com/sections/us/global106/index.html

46

Citing Sources (cont.)

• Cite graphics or photos from the Internet, unless they are in the public domain.

• You can add a bibliography or works cited slide at the end of your presentation, but you still need to cite orally and textually in the presentation.

• Source: http://www.lib.jmu.edu/gold/mod7ethics.htm

47

Thank You

48

Credits

• Clip Art. Slides 2,3,9,13,16,48. MS Office PowerPoint 2007.• Slides 4,5,6. Marquis. G., RHET 321. American University in

Cairo, Fall 2007.• Slides 18,19. Baghdadi, K., Fahmy, B., Mostafa, N., RHET 321,

American University in Cairo, Fall 2007• Slide 21.

http://static.kdenews.org/dannya/akademy_edu_audience.jpg. Retrieved March 2008.

• Slide 29. www.cybergeo.eu. Retrieved Feb 2008.

49

Credits

• Slide 36. http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews /91/POF.html. Retrieved Feb 2008.• Slide 37. http://www.ispn-psych.org/docs/06tips4ppt.pdf .

Retrieved Jan 2008.• Slide 41. www.enterprise-dashboard.com. Retrieved Mar

2007.• Slides 45, 47. http://www.lib.jmu.edu/gold/mod7ethics.htm.

Retrieved Feb 2008.• Slide 46.www.abcnews.com/sections/us/global106/

index.html. Retrieved Feb. 2008.

50