A guide to Academic Oral Presentations
The ability to undertake an oral presentation is a valuable skill for assessment tasks, interviews and your future career. This skill can be developed by everyone and is not reserved to those who are “naturally” confident at public speaking. This guide will provide you with some tips and techniques for ensuring your presentation is well planned, structured and delivered.
Plan
Analyse your audience
第一步，也是最重要的一步，了解听众，明确需求。
Some questions to consider include:
- Who is your audience?
- What do they know about the subject? What terminology will they know?
- What do they want to know?
- How can you engage this audience? What matters to them?
Determine the purpose
The goal of presentation slides remains unchanged: provide just the right amount of information in a precise and clean way so that the audience can learn as much as possible.
The purpose of a presentation may be to provide information, persuade the audience to accept a point of view, or encourage them to take action. Knowing your purpose will help you decide what to include and how to structure your presentation.
Select effective information
- What kind of information will best support the presentation?
- What kind of information will appeal to the audience?
- Are there some useful examples or case studies to illustrate an idea?
Prepare
Structure provides a framework for your presentation.
- Introduction - an overview of the issue and the main ideas to be considered. Explain the issue, the background and key terms.
- Body - the main ideas, reasoning, evidence and explanation provided. Avoid overloading your audience with too much information. Categorise your information into key ideas.
- Conclusion - a summary of what you have considered with repetition of key ideas.
Consider how long you can spend on each section, given the time available.
Select appropriate visual aids
Remember that the visuals are not the presentation. Their purpose is to enhance what you are saying by providing a visual link.
制作Slide的注意事项
Slides的评价标准：信息准确；易读。
参考资料：Han D. Creating meaningful slide presentations[J]. MRS Bulletin, 2020, 45(10): 870-870.
- 格式一致且准确
- 白底黑字红色强调是最简单无误的配色方案
- 字体建议使用sans-serif（如Calibri, Arial），字号不小于18pt
- slide标题阐述结果
- “Effect of atmospheric pressure on boiling point of liquid A” VS “Increasing atmospheric pressure leads to a higher boiling point of liquid A”
- 使用宽屏幕slide
- choose 16:9 rather 4:3
- 图表，讲几个放几个
- 慎用ppt动画和切换效果
- When presenting information sequentially, use two slides instead of using animation in one slide.
- 在Q&A环节，停留在结论slide
Practise and present
The key to a good delivery is to practise your speech and your body language. Here are some tips to assist you:
- Practise your presentation several times, aloud and standing up.
- Time the presentation. If it is too long, remove and/or simplify information, rather than speaking more quickly.
- Stand straight with your feet “planted” in the ground. This will eliminate swaying and nervous movements in the legs. You can move, but do so with purpose.
- Establish a “resting place” for your hands at the front of your body, such as cupped at waist level.
- Eye contact is a powerful means to engage your audience so look at your audience when you speak.
- Speak more slowly and clearly than you normally would. Provide emphasis through voice intonation, volume and pausing.