Presentation tips???

mae

I have to do a presentation when I get back to college for an hour on anxiety and panic attacks. I can cope with researching the facts because its just gathering the facts and putting them in some order but I don't know how to present it. I've never done a presentation before and would like some tips on making it interesting and how to involve the other students without putting them to sleep. Also does anyone know if I should memorise it all or if I could read out what I have written down??
Anyone know??

aurora_borealis_2

An hour!!! :eek:

Is it a seminar? In which case you would probably just do 20 mins and then go interactive.

Don't memorise and don't read.
Use notes/powerpoint slides and try to talk naturally.

After your talky thing take questions and then ask questions. You can put them in pairs to do a handout worksheet etc. Then make them present their answers.

Savvy_Sue

Don't attempt to memorise! But reducing it to prompt cards is a good idea. Main point in large letters, sub points underneath.

Practise, practise, practise. No substitute. You'll have no idea how long it's going to take otherwise. You'll feel an idiot, but better an idiot in front of the dog, the cat, the mirror, the family, than an idiot in front of your tutor and fellow students!

Practise talking clearly and audibly - head up - remember the deaf old lady at the back!

And to make it memorable, do you fancy pretending to have a panic attack at the start? Or maybe towards the end?

studentphil

Reading it will send them to sleep. Prompt cards are best to be honest.

Blacksheep1979

and don't rush it. Breath and take your time

mae

Thanks for all your suggestions.. I might accidentally demosnstrate panic and anxiety as I'm so nervous..ha ha
Yeah going to practise practise I think the more the better and do some exercises like worksheets or something like aurora siggested to involve the audience and pass on some time...

tanith

I had to do presentations and found that involving the audiences in role play took up loads of time.... could you get them to act out a panic attack and how to deal with it... ask for volunteers maybe.... its seems to get people interested and talking about the subject more... sometimes we laughed so much , even the tutors watching became involved... well we had fun as well as learning....

Good Luck

SamMoffatt28

...also I found when I had to do a presentation (on skin cancer) an ohp can be your best friend!! You can have some / all of your info on it, whilst picking out the main points and the focus is on it not you! Also handouts are great as they also take the attention off of you!

Good luck, you'll be fine!

ps make sure you wear something comfortable and comfortable shoes too!, as I found out for myself if you are uncomfortable you get distracted and it makes the whole thing seem alot more hard work than it actually is.

Just out of interest what course are you doing? Mine was health & social care.

faithless

I debated a lot at uni, and found that having a structure that you and your audience can follow a) keeps them following, as they can see where you're going, and b) gives you a plan to stick to so you're not just rambling for 20mins.
It also gives the impression that you're in control and that you know what you're talking about.

Remember, you will have researched and written this presentation, so you know exactly what you're talking about, so all you need is reminders to keep you to your plan. You can't just write a speech, that is incredibly dull to listen to, and you don't need to as long as you have a good plan of what you're going to say where.

Ideally you want a beginning, middle and end. In the beginning you tell them what you're going to tell them (outline), in the middle you tell them it, and at the end you tell them what you've told them (quickly summarise your main points).

Once you've done your research try to break down all the info into a few areas;
e.g your talk is about the effects of X, so you say: 'My talk today is on the effects of X. I am going to be dealing with the 3 major types of effect: social, political and economic effects.' You might then give a brief background to what X is, and then say, 'Firstly, we shall consider the SOCIAL effects of X...' then move on to POLITICAL, then onto ECONOMIC effects.
Then at the end you can say, 'So, as I have illustrated, the major effects of X are the social effects of ABC, the political effect of D, and the economic effects of E and F.' (You don't go into detail here, cos you've already one that, so you just say e.g 'major effects are a higher teen pregnancy rate, and less resources for the NHS.'

Prompt cards are great. The one thing to remember is that you're going to be reading them from a distance, so make your writing very large and clear (writing in capitals helps). You will only really glance at them to make sure you're on track, so make sure you don't put too much info on the cards, otherwise you won't be able to pick out the bit you want in the half-second you glance down. Starting each card with a subheading is good, with 3/4 bullet points under each one.

E.g

CARD 1

THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF X

- SOCIAL

- POLITICAL

- ECONOMIC


CARD 2

SOCIAL

- RISING TEEN PREGNANCY RATE
(0.5% in 1925, 80% 2005)

- RISE IN VIOLENT CRIME

-C

...etc

Yours would probably be more like one thing as subheading on the card, and each bullet point being research for/against it, or a comment on it?


I'm not sure about the audience participation part, but it might be a good idea to do it after you've finished your speech, so you don't get thrown by the interruptions and forget what you were planning to say.

If you illustrate some of the facts with graphs/pictures/anything relevant on Powerpoint that gives the audience something else to look at to make it more interesting.

Feel free to ask any qs, as I'm not sure I've explained that very clearly!

DrFluffy

We get marked down for the use of prompt cards...

The best general advice I could give is KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Too many people needlessly overcomplicate presentations, and end up getting it all wrong as a result.

My generic presentation outline, that has seen me right from everything from undergrad seminars to post-doc presentations at international conferences is:
1) tell them what you're going to tell them
2) tell them
3) tell them what you've told them.

Tsugua))

powerpoint!!!