The moment of giving a presentation on your PhD project is extremely scary. Your supervisors and research committee will also analyse how well you present your thoughts to convey your message. A good speech is one that covers the entire subject and creates interest among listeners. Presenting your research to a wider audience is quite challenging, but you can overcome it if you learn ways to improve it. Here are some tips to improve presentation skills.
Prepare Well
The first step of your presentation is to find the purpose of your presentation. Your presentation must tell the topic to audience, address important issues, raise awareness, acknowledge someone’s work, and above all your way to deliver a speech. Speaking in dull and flat sound will never create an interest in audience. They will feel it boring and won’t try to wait until its end. Bring modulation and rhythm in your voice. Pitch your tone high when you are giving important information that people should know. The selection of words should also be wise and interesting. Use professional and polite words. You should not sound superior. For instance, you should say “I am allowed to/going to present a talk” instead of “I have to present a talk”.
Rehearse Your Presentation
Rehearsals will help you prepare your presentation in better ways. Rehearsal of your presentation after you have prepared slides will help you find where you get stuck, where you lose confidence, and where you speak in flow. Don’t forget that a brain works differently when you speak and write. At the time of speaking you might not have logical and organised thoughts. You should pen down your thoughts in an organised way at once. Just jot down everything that comes to your mind. Edit your ideas and frame them into logical sentences.
Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience is crucial as it defines parameters for the structure of your presentation. If your audience comes from a broad range of backgrounds, you have to tell them what it is about and the importance of your research in that specified field. You need to explain it in basic terms so that they can fathom it explicitly. However, if your audience comes from a technical background or from the same field, you should emphasise on originality instead of basic introduction. In that case you can use technical terms.
You should also prepare your presentation in an engaging way to grab the attention of your audience. Don’t waste time unnecessarily on introduction. Jump at problems and their solutions. Evaluate your presentation from the audience perspective. Think what kind of questions your audience may raise. Otherwise your audience won’t be able to relate them to your presentation, and your message won’t be heard by them.
Learn from Others
You should learn the ways of giving presentation through several platforms such as YouTube and TED talks. Watch several presentations and observe them. Notice how introductions are given, how issues are discussed, and how conclusions are drawn.
Prepare Slides
Unless you have prepared your slides well, you won’t be able to present it effectively. There is a particular format to prepare slides. You should think about the main purpose of your talk. Write it in a brief in an introduction slide. However, the introduction of your research depends upon your targeted audience. Create an acknowledgement slide. Give reference to existing research. Show what you have come up with your research. Create a conclusion slide that will be revolving around how it’s going to improve and add knowledge to existing research. Decide results and methods that you want to show to your audience.
Don’t add too much information in your slides. What you will speak if you add all information in your slides. Your slides should be simple and consist of facts only. Use bullet points so that information can be read quickly. Avoid repetitions and don’t go into deep details. Make simple graphs and charts to explain complex part of your research. Make sure that written text on your slides relate to what you say. Don’t use acronyms though you have used full forms in the beginning as your audience might have forgotten by the time you introduce that term again. Don’t forget to summarise your presentation at the end. You should keep summary as general as you can keep. It should have a message for your audience.
Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Body Language
Body language is also a source of communication. It is a non-verbal communication that determines how people think and feel about each other. While giving presentation your body language is also considered apart from your presentation skills. You should be pretty confident about your presentation. Don’t be nervous and open up your posture. The more confident you feel, the better presentation you will give.
Your hand gestures should not be overly dramatic and not be absolutely inert. If you are anxious for your presentation, you should take a deep breath and relax. Don’t talk incessantly. Your tone should have a modulation. You should talk in a friendly but professional way. Don’t give tough expressions and try to make eye-contact with your audience.
So bear these tips in mind at the time of preparing your presentation.
