Presenting to an Academic Audience

1. Presenting to an Academic Audience Image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/russelldavies/1948422

2. In surveys of what people fear most and causes stress, public speaking is mentioned more often than anything else (it’s up there with poisonous snakes, sharks, divorce or death). Image from https://pixabay.com/en/people-person-man-male-water-sea-1099803/

3. However, • the individual strategies and skills involved in presenting in public require no special talent, just careful planning and practise, which will abate fear.

4. Know your purpose • Educate (will the other students have prepared about your topic as much as you?) • Persuade? • Convince? • Challenge people’s thinking?

5. You can tame the presentation process by breaking it into three areas: • WHO (engagement with the audience) • WHAT (content, structure and organisation) • HOW (visuals, fonts, and presentation performance)

6. WHO? Communicating with any audience • Engage your audience • With Enthusiasm • And Energy

7. WHAT? Structure your presentation so it is easy for the audience to follow • The introduction introduces yourself, the topic, and captures the audience’s attention • How can you do this? • In your thoughts and tone, answer the question, • SO WHAT? What is important about your topic? What is the relevance of it?

8. WHAT? Structure your presentation so it is easy for the audience to follow • The bodydevelops the theme and provides supporting evidence • Organise these main points of evidence into clear sections • Give or demonstrate examples • Refer to your introductory main topic throughout to remind your audience of the purpose

9. WHAT? Structure your presentation so it is easy for the audience to follow • The conclusion reinforces the main points and contains no new evidence. • Again, reinforce the importance and relevance of your presentation topic • Don’t forget the transition signals to alert your audience that you are coming to the end • To sum up… • As I come to the conclusion…

10. Know your content • Be very well prepared • When using power point, just use slides as a prompt – don’t read every word. Images are usually more powerful • Don’t read your presentation – speak to your audience. You will know more than you think! • Have main headings on a sheet of paper. Use the headings as prompts • Use visual aids – this takes the pressure off you.

11. Visuals • Make visuals BIG,clear, concise and consistent • Don’t write down every word • Don’t clutter your slide – separate information over as many slides as you can • Reference your images as well as citations • Include a reference list slide at the end if you have used references Image Source: Mathematical Chemistry

12. HOW? Sound and animations • If they are useful, use them • If they are not, then don’t • know your audience Image from https://pixabay.com/en/unicorn-galaxy-unicorn-galaxy-star-2007257/

13. HOW? SIGNPOSTING Use transition markers • ‘…that covers the key aspects of the theory. Now let’s look at how the theory may be applied and how it operated in practice….’ verbal signals such as • “There are 3 methods I will explore and explain today” • “At the end of my presentation, there will be time for questions and comments”. • “I’ll now give you an example of each” • “Before I end this presentation, I would like to emphasise…”

14. HOW? ON THE DAY! • Be EXCITED about your presentation • Be INTERESTED in your presentation • Be PRESENT!

15. Moving on…THE DREADED QUESTION TIME • Know that there is interest in your presentation when ??? are posed • Strategies for handling ‘tricky’ questions • Firstly, assess whether the question is relevant – if it isn’t, politely explain that this aspect was not part of your topic • ‘Play tennis’ – hit the ball back to the audience • “That’s interesting. Do you have any thoughts on that? Does anyone else in the group have an opinion/idea/answer to this? • “That’s interesting. I’ll look into that and email anyone who’s interested to know more about it”. Image from https://pixabay.com/en/question-mark-question-response-1026526/

16. Assessment Evaluation Criteria Study marking guide thoroughly at start of preparing • Use it as a guide to prepare • Use it as an indicator of where to allocate most emphasis and time • Use it to cross check whether you have left anything out.

18. Why is presenting SO STRESSFUL? • All Performance is Stressful! • It’s NORMAL to feel anxious. Image from https://pixabay.com/en/face-emotion-iris-teardrop-gesture-1683129/

19. But there’s good news about STRESS • There’s a healthy stress! It’s called EUSTRESS • It’s the sensation that athletes experience before the big race and musicians experience before the big performance. Images from https://pixabay.com/en/violin-play-fun-girls-watercolor-1600166/ and https://pixabay.com/en/athlete-color-colour-man-person-1840437/

20. Immediately before the Performance • Do some physical exercise • Yawn, stretch, roll your head and shoulders, massage your earlobes! • Meditate, breathe • Exercise your vocal chords, sing! • Visualise yourself giving a brilliant presentation. Image from https://pixabay.com/en/the-sun-sweetheart-heat-the-rays-2005814/

21. During the Performance – body language • Claim your space – you are entitled to speak • Establish eye contact with sympathetic or interested members of the audience • Use relaxed ‘open’ gestures to connect with your audience • Smile (this not only encourages reciprocal smiles from your audience, but also reduces facial tension).

22. During the Performance • Remember that your audience does not want you to fail • Audiences are tolerant of ‘glitches’ in your presentation • If you make a mistake, apologise, forget it, and move on.

23. After the Performance Even though you may feel relieved that it’s over, it is very important to exercise Reflective Practice! • Write your own constructive criticism of the ‘Before’ and ‘During’ of your Presentation. • What would you do similarly and what would you do differently the following time? • Use your self reflection to highlight the successes of your presentation.

24. In a nutshell – Before, During & After • Find out about your audience, their interests, their level of knowledge, their needs • Know and believe in your topic • Rehearse, if possible in the venue where you’ll be presenting • Build in a time cushion • Check out equipment.

25. Conclusion – Time Factor and Reflection • Factor in the time allowance during your initial planning • Never go over the time allowance – (unless it’s your PhD examiners and they are so interested they are asking a lot of questions!) • It is easier to slow down delivery than to speed it up • Consider what would you do similarly and what would you do differently the following time? • Use your self reflection to highlight the successes of your presentation. Image from https://pixabay.com/en/alarm-clock-clock-time-wake-up-155187/

26. Resources for Presentations For more ideas on giving an oral presentation • Learn online University of Canberra http://learnonline.canberra.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=164490 • Oral Presentation Rubric http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson416/OralRubric.pdf • Learning Lab RMIT https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/content/oral-presentations • PechaKucha 20x20 http://www.pechakucha.org/

27. Any questions? Image from https://pixabay.com/en/question-mark-question-response-1019935/