In the module Motivating Success, we provide general guidance for Presentation Strategies. You have prepared a presentation with your partner following the guidelines in the text. Now it is time for you to present your slides to the class.

Presentations are a strong form of communication that you will need to perform in your college career, as well as your professional career. Like other forms of communication, your skills will become stronger with practice. And like other forms of communication, putting the audience first is the key to a successful presentation.

Directions

Step 1: Practice presenting your slides several times to yourself prior to the class presentation so that you are familiar with the content and don’t need to see the slide to know what is being presented.

Step 2: Dividing the presentation between you and your partner, display the slides you have created and take turns presenting the content to the class. You can divide the presentation in half, alternate every other slide, or present in any order you prefer.

Step 3: You should start your presentation by introducing your team.

Step 4: You should end your presentation by asking if there are questions or comments.

Step 5: The class will then take five minutes to comment on the presentation:

• Was the main point clearly communicated?
• Was it easy to follow the presentation between the speaker and the slides?
• Was the presentation informative?
• Was the presentation interesting?
• Any constructive suggestions for improvement?

Presentation Tips:

1. When presenting, it is important that the speaker is more important than the slides. Take command of the presentation.
2. Do not read the content of the slide- your audience will do that automatically. Instead, your comments should provide context, background, and/or additional detail not found in the slides.
3. Depending on the venue, make frequent eye contact with the audience to gauge their level of interest. Ask questions of the audience during the presentation to engage them as much as possible. For example, if you are presenting a slide involving a fender-bender, ask the audience if this has ever happened to them.

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