Presentations

What makes a good presentation?

Plymouth University’s (2019) CDE model shows the elements of an effective presentation.

• Content: plan a logical structure that shows your knowledge/research.

• Delivery: communicate your ideas confidently and effectively.

• Engagement: make a connection with the audience.

1. Planning

Beginning:

• Introduce yourself: who are you?
• Outline the topic: what is your talk about?
• The hook: interesting facts, statistics or quotation to grab the audience’s attention.
• Justify: why is this a topic of interest?
• Coming next: what key points will you discuss?

Middle:

• Divide the topic into key points to discuss.
• Consider what details or examples you might mention.
• Plan how much time you’d like to spend on each point.
• Consider using a planning grid such as the one below.

Presentation planning grid PDF Presentation Planning Guide Word

End:

• Summarize: what main points were covered?
• Memorable ending: state your final point; have a call to action; end with a rhetorical question.
• You can also invite questions.
• Prepare by thinking about what your audience may ask.
• If you don’t know the answer, say ‘Can I come back to you?’ or open it up to the audience ‘What does everyone else think?’

2. Designing Visuals

• The visual appearance of your presentation is important.
• We learn 90% of information visually and only 7-11% through hearing (Bradbury, 1995, p. 64).

Text:

• Use clear headings to guide your reader.
• Bullet point information & avoid too much text on each slide.
• Aim for around 25 words per slide (Van Emden and Becker, 2016, p. 40).
• Use sans serif fonts that are easy to read such as Arial, Calibri and Veranda.
• Aim for around 24 point font for PowerPoint slides.
• Pick a font colour that contrasts with the background.

Graphics:

• Use graphics that highlight the key messages of your content.
• Avoid mixing styles or using too many.
• Be careful to only pick copyright cleared images.
• Look at this guide to finding and using copyright cleared images
• Design your own images and infographics with Canva: https://www.canva.com/

Colour:

• Choose a consistent colour palette to use throughout.
• Use the colour wheel (beside) to aid this.
• Complimentary: •Opposites in colour wheel e.g. blue and orange.
• Monochromatic •1 colour in different shades and tints.
• Analogous •3 colors next to each other on the color wheel.

3. Delivering

• Avoid speaking too quietly or quickly. Remember to pause between points.
• To improve delivery, aim to rehearse before the talk.
• Create prompts such as a script, PowerPoint notes or A5 index cards.
• Try the Orai app to test your delivery, or ask your friends to watch.
• What worked well? What areas do you need to improve?

Non-verbal communication:

• Keep your body language open rather than closed.
• Closed body language can include folded arms, crossed legs and hands in pockets.
• Instead, aim to engage your audience with eye contact.

Can you spot the mistakes?

• Watch the video below.
• What mistakes are made in terms of design and delivery?
• Watch until the end of the video to get the answers!

Sources consulted

• Bradbury, A. (1995) Successful presentation skills. London: Kogan Page Limited.
• Levin, P. and Topping, G. (2006) Perfect presentations. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
• Plymouth University (2019) Presentations. Available at: Presentations.pdf (plymouth.ac.uk) (Accessed: 15 December 2021).
• Van Emden, J. and Becker, L. (2016) Presentation skills for students. 3^rd Edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.