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Presentation Skills

Learn how to plan, structure and deliver effective presentations with this online guide from the Skills Centre.

Planning your presentation

There is a saying that states "proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance" and this is very much the case with presentations!

Understand the purpose of your presentation

It is crucial to understand your assessment brief and whether the aim of your presentation is to inform or persuade. A good way to look at this is by asking the question "so what?" After listening to your presentation, your audience need to feel like they have a greater understanding your subject or have been persuaded by your argument and are not left thinking "so what?" to what you have said.

Knowing who your audience is and their level of prior knowledge

Knowing who your audience is helps set the level of formality and the language you should be using. Understanding the audience’s prior knowledge of a topic helps to determine how much you need to explain terminology or concepts, and what key contextual information they will already be aware of.

The content of your presentation

The first step is to fully understand the brief, the task you have been set and the assessment criteria. Generating questions from your criteria that you will answer in your presentation can help give direction to your reading and research. As with any other assignment, it is crucial note down your sources so these can be properly referenced.

Creating a mindmap of what you already know and what areas you need to research can help focus your thinking:

Title: Mindmap - Description: The image shows what is known as a mindmap. The assessment question is written in a bubble in the centre of the image. Arrows then direct out from this to other bubbles with key points or themes written in them. From these bubbles there is a further set of arrows and bubbles where sub-points and themes are written.

Once you have created your mindmap you will be able to see which points you have more knowledge/arguments to support and which you need to research in more detail. Sometimes you will have been given a list of topics, processes or sections that you must cover but if you are responsible for choosing what to cover and how to structure your argument, you may choose to focus on the points or themes you already have a greater understanding of, or that you feel more passionate about.