ORAL PRESENTATION
Successful Oral Presentation
In your personal life and in the world of business, you orally communicate with your customers, colleagues, associates, superiors, employees, employers and others. But this communication does not need any special preparation as this is simply a face to face conversation in which you can convey your message very easily and without any hesitation. However, at certain occasion you have to talk to a big audience such as employees to convince to do hard work and customer to trust you.
Definition
This action of communication in which one speaker is doing most of the sending and a number of listeners are doing most of the receiving is known as oral presentation
Successful Oral Presentation
An oral presentation creates mutual understanding between audience and speaker so you will have to give yourself some time to improve your oral presentation skills. For oral presentations, you need the different steps to be effective in your oral presentation.
• Stages for preparing oral presentations.
• Types of oral presentations.
• Art of delivering the oral message.
• Delivering the speech.
• Nonverbal delivery.
The Three Step Oral Presentation Process
Regardless of your job or the purpose of your presentation, you will be more effective if you adopt an oral presentation process that follows these threes steps:
1. Planning your presentation
2. Writing your presentation
3. Completing your presentation
The content and style of speeches and presentations vary, depending on your purpose.
Planning Oral Presentation
Planning oral presentations is much like planning any other business message: it requires analyzing your purpose and your audience, investigating necessary information, and adapting your message to the occasion and your audience so that you can establish a good relationship.
The four basic purposes for giving a presentation are to inform, to persuade, to motivate, and to entertain. Here are sample statements of purpose for business preventative:
To Inform
Here your objective is to clarify, explain a process. As teacher, delivers a lecture to inform. In brief, at the conclusion of your message you hope your listeners have a better comprehension of an issue, an idea, a process, a procedure that you have talked about.
Planning Oral Presentation•
To inform the accounting department of the new remote data-access policy.
• To explain to the executive committee the financial ramifications of Omni Group’s takeover offer
To Persuade
Gaining willing acceptance of an idea is objective to persuasion. Note that the key word here is willing. Your goal is that after you have finished your presentation, listeners will accept your proposal. You hope they will do as you ask them to do. To persuade potential customers that our bank offers the best commercial banking services for their needs
To Motivate
To motivate the sales force to increase product sales by 10 percent.
To Entertain
In this type of presentation your purpose is to entertain an audience. Gear the content, organization, and style of your message to your audience’s size, background, attitudes, and interests.
Audience Analysis
A. Determine audience size and composition
1. Estimate how many people will attend.
2. Consider whether they have some political, religious, professional, or other affiliation in common.
3. Analyze the mix of men and women, age ranges, socioeconomic and ethnic groups, occupations, and geographic regions represented.
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B. Predict the audience’s probable reaction1.
Analyze why audience members are attending the presentations
2. Determine the audience’s general attitude toward the topic: interested, moderately interested, unconcerned, open-minded, or hostile.
4. Analyze the mood that people will be in when you speak to them.
3. Find out what kind of backup information will most impress the audience: technical data, historical information, financial data, demonstrations, samples, and so on.
4. Consider whether the audience has any biases that might work against you.
5. Anticipate possible objections or questions.
C. Gauge the audience’s level of understanding.1.
Analyze whether everybody has the same background and experience.
2. Determine what the audience already knows about the subject
3. Decide what background information the audience will need to better understand the subject.
4. Consider whether the audience is familiar with your vocabulary.
5. Analyze what the audience expects from you.
6. Think about the mix of general concepts and specific details you will need to present.
Defining main idea
Writing Oral Presentation
Main Ideas or Content
Brainstorm your ideas first. Then decide which ideas are more relevant and appropriate to your audience and to your objective. Carryout any research that is necessary. Be selective, your first list of ideas may be disorganized. Later you can select those ideas that are workable. Don’t think this initial structure will be your final version.
The main ideal is to point out how the audience can benefit from your message. Convince audience that reorganizing the data-processing department will improve customer service and reduce employee turnover.
• Convince audience that we should build a new plant in Lahore to eliminate manufacturing bottlenecks and improve production quality.
• Address audience’s concerns regarding a new employee health-care plan by showing how the plan will reduce costs and improve the quality of care.
Limit your scope
Effective presentation focuses on audience's need but also tailor messages to the time allowed.
• In one minute, the average speaker can delivery about one paragraph or 125 to 150 words.(7500 to 9000 wph)
• Fit your oral presentation to the time allotted.
• Introduction
• Conclusion
• Time to each point
• 10 minutes presentation / one hour
Choose Your Approach
With a well defined idea you begin to arrange your message
• Structure a short oral presentation like a letter or a memo
• Organize language speeches and presentations like formal reports.
• For bad news or persuasive plan to arouse interest or give a preview
Long presentation
Organize longer speeches and presentations like formal reports. If purpose is to entertain motivate or to inform, use direct order and a structure imposed naturally by the subject. Importance, sequence, chronology, spatial orientation, geography or category. If you purpose is to analyze, persuade or collaborate organize your material around conclusions and recommendation or around a logical arguments. Use direct order if the audience is receptive use indirect if you expect resistance. Regardless of the length of your presentation, bear in mind that simplicity of organization is valuable in oral presentation. (outline)
Prepare Your Outline
A Carefully prepared outline can be more than just the starting point for composing a speech or presentation – it will help your stay on task. You can use your outline to make sure your message accomplishes its purpose to help your keep your presentation both audience-centered and within the allotted time. If you plan to deliver your presentation from notes rather than from a written text, your outline can also become your final “script”. Outline will serve you speaking notes. The heading should be complete sentences or lengthy phrase not one two word. Include visual aid. Use transmittal sentences Outlines can help you compose your presentation and stay on task.
Decide on style
Chose your style to fit the occasion your audience size subject purpose.
Decide on an Appropriate Style:
Use a casual style for small groups; use a formal style for large groups and important events.
In both formal and informal presentations, keep things simple. Remember to choose your words carefully. Don't try to impress you audience with obscure and unfamiliar words.
Developing Your Oral Presentation
Developing a major presentation is much like writing a formal report, with one important difference. You need to adjust your technique to an oral communication channel. Her you have the opportunity of interacting with your audience. So, formal presentations differ from formal reports because they have more interaction with the audience. The speaker uses nonverbal cues to express his meaning, has less control of contents and requires greater need to help the audience stay on track. How formal presentations differ form formal reports:
• More interaction with the audience
• Use of nonverbal cues to express meaning
• Less control of contents
• Greater need to help the audience stay on track
Introduction
The introduction must capture attention, inspire confidence, and preview the contents.
Arousing Audience Interest• To capture attention, connect your topic to your listeners’ needs and interests.
• Match the introduction to the tone of your presentation
Body
Limit the body to three or four main points. Help your audience follow your presentation by using clear transitions between sentences and paragraphs, as well as between major sections. Emphasize your transition by repeating key ideas, using gestures, changing your tone of voice, or introducing a visual aid.
Holding Your Audience’s Attention
• Relate your subject to your audience’s needs.
• Anticipate your audience’s questions
• Use clear, vivid language
• Explain the relationship between your subject and familiar ideas.
Close
To close should leave a strong and lasting impression .
Restating your main Points
Summarize the main idea, and restart the main points
• Increase the overall level of compensation
• Install a cash bonus program
• Offer a variety of stock-based incentives
• Improve our health insurance and pension benefits
Describing the Next Steps•
Be certain that everyone agrees on the outcome and understands what should happen next.
• Make your final words memorable
• Completing oral presentation
• Evaluate the content of your message
Edit for clarity, besides mastering the art of delivery, prepare to speak, overcome anxiety and
handle questions with responsibility.
Types of Oral Presentations
The effectiveness of your presentation largely depends on how it is delivered. Following are four main delivery methods, you can choose according to need and situation.
1. Extemporaneous
This method of delivery is very carefully planned and practiced. In it, the speaker, makes a presentation with the help of an outline, note cards, or visual aid. It is very popular and effective method of delivering a speech. In this way the speaker can glance at his notes, keep eye contact and speak in a natural, conversational tone.
2. Reading
In this method the whole presentation is read aloud. It helps a speaker when the presentation has technical or complex topic. If you choose to read your speech, practice enough so that you can still have eye contact with your audience, otherwise, your speech may become boring.
For reading, some speakers use a page style similar to a TV script, leaving a left margin of about one-third of the page. In that wide margin are pronunciation aids or suggestions as to where to look in an audience.
3. Memorization
Few speakers today memorize complete speeches. However, it can be useful for short speeches. In case of a long speech, often the first few words of a statement can be memorized. This technique may sound like a robot. Besides, forgetting a single line may cause disaster.
4. Impromptu
It means a speech made without any preparation or made on the spur of the moment. In so many situations you are asked to make a speech or offer your comments, when you’re asked to speak “off the cuff”, take a moment or two to think through what you’re going to say. Avoid the temptation to beat about the bush.
You may feel a bit of stage fright at the time of delivering the speech. In addition to the stages mentioned above, you should focus on the following aspects to decrease stage fright.
ORAL PRESENTATION
Completing oral presentationEvaluate the content of your presentation, for clarity and conciseness, develop visual aid and coordinate them with your delivery. Besides four areas mastering the art of delivery preparing to speak, overcoming anxiety and handling question responsively.
Extemporaneous
This method of delivery is very carefully planned and practiced. In it, the speaker, makes a presentation with the help of an outline, note cards, or visual aid. It is very popular and effective method of delivering a speech. In this way the speaker can glance at his notes, keep eye contact and speak in a natural, conversational tone. Reading
In this method the whole presentation is read aloud. It helps a speaker when the presentation has technical or complex topic. If you choose to read your speech, practice enough so that you can still have eye contact with your audience, otherwise, your speech may become boring.
For reading, some speakers use a page style similar to a TV script, leaving a left margin of about one-third of the page. In that wide margin are pronunciation aids or suggestions as to where to look in an audience.
Memorization
Few speakers today memorize complete speeches. However, it can be useful for short speeches. In case of a long speech, often the first few words of a statement can be memorized. This technique may sound like a robot. Besides, forgetting a single line may cause disaster.
Impromptu
It means a speech made without any preparation or made on the spur of the moment. In so many situations you are asked to make a speech or offer your comments, when you’re asked to speak “off the cuff”, take a moment or two to think through what you’re going to say. Avoid the temptation to beat about the bush.
Preparing to speak
Knowing your material and practicing your delivery can build your confidence
Make sure you know the location and have everything you need(projector, microphone chalkboard etc)
If addressing audience that doesn’t speak your language consider using an interpreter
Important to take into account any cultural differences in appearance mannerism or other custom
Overcoming anxiety
If you are nervous about facing audience and experience stage fright, prepare more material, rehearse and
think positively.
Show Confidence
You will be nervous at the beginning of your presentation. Don’t worry – most people are nervous. Try not to speak too fast during the first couple of minutes. This is the time you establish your rapport with the audience. Remember your first impressions are very important. You may find it helpful to memorize your introduction. Move during the speech. Some movements hold audience attention. If you’re seated, shift position in your chair or gesture a bit more with your arms.
Body Language: Stand rather than sit when you are delivering your presentation and try to be aware of any repetitive hand gestures or awkward mannerisms that might irritate your audience.
Voice Quality: You must be clearly audible at all times – don’t let your voice drop at the end of sentences. If you vary your intonation, your voice will be more interesting to listen to and you will be able to make your points more effectively.
Visual aids: You your visual aids confidently, making sure you allow your audience time to absorb information from flipcharts and transparencies.
Delivery
Audience reaction: Be ready to deal with any hostile questions. Polite, diplomatic answers are a good disarming tactic, but if you should find yourself ‘under fire’, suggest that the audience keeps any further questions until the end of the presentation and continue with your next point.
Language
Simplicity: use short words and sentences that you are comfortable with. There is no benefit in using difficult language.
Clarity: Active verbs and concrete words are much clearer and easier to understand than passive verbs and abstract concepts. Avoid jargon unless you are sure all your audience will understand it.
Signaling: Indicate when you’ve complete one point or section in your presentation and are moving on the text. Give your audience clear signals as to the direction your presentation is taking.
Handling question responsively
Question and answer period is very important
Give chance to obtain impotent information
To emphasize your main idea and supporting points
Treat hostile question as legitimate request for information
Maintain professionalism to improve your credibility
Focus on the questioner using body language to emphasize the fact that you are listening to him
keep your answer short and to the point
Maintain control by stating some ground rules in the beginning of the question and answer session
Respond unemotionally
Motivate question.
Conclude your presentation finish on time
Presentation on cell phone
1 Welcome everyone
2 Mention handouts /graphics
3 Introduce the subject of the presentation
4 Outline the purpose and structure of the presentation
5 Present some statistics
6 Tell a personal anecdote
7 Sum up the statistics and their significance
8 Comment on market trends
9. Outline the major benefits of the new cell phone models
10. Invite questions
11 Sum up the main benefits of the new cell phone machines
12 Thank and conclude
