presentation on presentations penny ur etai, 2010
TRANSCRIPT
Presentation on presentations
Penny Ur
ETAI, 2010
This session
• Characteristics of good/bad presentations and some general conclusions
• Using PowerPoint
• A selection of practical tips
A. ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ presentations
A. What makes for 'good' or 'bad' presentations?
Think of two presentations at an ETAI conference that you have attended: one really good one, and one awful one.
Share your experiences with the group: be as specific as you can.
1. Good presentations
• Interacting with the audience
• Smooth transition
• ‘Advance organiser’
• not too long
• not too many words
• has humour
Bad presentations
• She read out everything
• she didn’t have enough material to fill the time
• unprepared
• slides too crowded, masses of writing
•
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Conclusions: what have we learnt?
B. Practical tips
1. Preparing
• Write detailed notes (although you probably won't be able to refer to them in the session).
• Rehearse and time yourself
• Prepare a handout for participants as well as powerpoint.
2. On the day, before the session
• Check you know exactly when and where
• Check out the room and equipment
3. At the beginning of the session
• Get set up in time (but you'll probably have to wait)
• Have the title up on the screen
• Have handouts ready
4. The session itself: genre
• If mainly lecture – include 'workshoppy' bits
• If mainly workshop – include 'lectury' bits
The session itself: organization
• At the beginning tell people what you're going to be discussion, and how it's going to be organized
• Then do what you said you'd do!
• Then summarize (or get participants to do so)
The session itself: timing
• Keep an eye on your watch, finish on time.
• Think in advance about what you'll cut if you run out of time (or vice versa…)
The session itself: communicating
• Keep eye contact with the audience
• Tell the audience in advance if you want to be interrupted or if they should keep questions to the end
• If the latter – then make sure you leave time.
• Respect the questioner, even if the question is silly!
5. Ending
• On time (or before)!
• Rehearse a 'punchline' or final sentence
• Thank the audience and provide your email address
P.S. speaking personally
• ETAI audiences are incredibly warm and supportive!
• It's very difficult to tell how well it went, you need feedback (so…!)
• Resist the temptation to tell them everything you know…
• Remember to smile occasionally
• Resist the temptation to pace up and down
Summarizing:
• Which tip(s) will you particularly remember?
