The need to communicate right cannot be over emphasized in businesses and in the corporate world.
We all learn to put our thoughts together, speak in ways that people can understand us and write in a manner that our intended meaning is the same as the shared meaning.
Presenting is a way of getting our thoughts and ideas across to others either as lectures or pitches.
Understanding that time management is key is also as important as learning to catch the attention of your audience and in the least possible time, engage the audience and make a point.
We seem to want to beat time and forget to make the point understandable.
Through the different class exercise, I have learnt that we are not supposed to only try to just pay too much attention to one area and neglect the other.
Most of the presentations were impromptu, but some lessons I took out from the feedback given by the lecturer and some classmates were tips I intend to follow to improve and do better subsequently.
- No matter how little the time you have is, Prepare and get your thoughts together. It helps your delivery.
- Think about the purpose of the presentation, the points you are trying to make and the audience you are speaking to when trying to pick a topic.
- Try to get a mental representation of what it is you want to talk about. Practice your presentation.
- Be confident, everyone is your classmate. Do not be scared to make mistakes. What is the worse that could happen anyways….
- Speak carefully and clearly, pace yourself to make the most of time and to carry the audience along.
- Try not to fidget, the confidence you exhibit is what would help carry your audience along and in turn make the presentation effective.
- Keep it simple and very clear. Avoid technical terms, ambiguous words and the people been spoken to need to understand easily.
- If you need to make slides, avoid busy slides. Keep it simple with minimal text just serving as a guide to your thoughts.
- Always be prepared. Use clear correct grammar.
- Involve your audience to keep their attention and make the effect of your presentation memorable.
- Be flexible- ready for change at any time.
- Stay focused and avoid distractions.
Some of these things are things we know, but never remember to practice them. To do well In our presentations, we need to keep practicing, we need to decide to do better.
