Presentations

Whilst at university you may be expected to give an oral or poster presentation. It can sometimes seem like a daunting or nerve wracking task, but by following a few guidelines, it can be a very rewarding experience. Through developing your presentation skills you also develop your levels of confidence, preparation and communication skills which are all valuable life long skills.

Oral presentations
Poster presentations

Oral Presentations

Consider the audience

Always consider what your audience is wanting to know and how you can make it interesting to them. You might like to consider the following questions taken from the LearnHigher website:

Who are the members of the audience and what do they do? (e.g. assessors, peers, employers)

What is the benefit to the audience of listening to your presentation?
What do they already know about the subject?
What is the relationship between yourself and the audience?
What interests your audience?
How will what you are going to say affect them? Will you shock or upset them?

Preparation

Find out what the goal of giving the presentation is; what technology will be available; who and how large is the audience, and how long you have to speak for

Prepare prompt cards for you to use as reminders and help you talk more naturally instead of reading from a script

Practice giving the presentation to friends under timed conditions and be open to their feedback!

Visual aids - consider whether you will be using visual aids and if so, when you are going to give them out to your audience. For more information and resources from LearnHigher about designing and using visual aids click here.

Familiarise yourself with the room you will be presenting in and arrive early to get the technology set up

Structure and timing

Title - make sure it's clear and relevant

Introduction - Introduce yourself; state the topic, aims or purpose of the presentation and provide an outline of the discussion

Main body - Make your case as you would with an essay; support your views with reasons and evidence; keep it clear, concise and direct

Conclusion - Restate the main points, develop some concusions and review the implications, then bring it to a clear end

Questions - Leave enough time at the end of your session for the audience to ask you questions

Delivery

Reflect

How did your presentation go? It's important to evaluate your presentation in order to build your confidence and continually improve each time. Consider some these points that are mentioned on the LearnHigher website:

What went well?
Did your audience seem interested?
Were there any aspects you feel that you didn't communicate very well?
Did you feel nervous at any particular points and if so, why?
What did your assessor or peers say in their feedback?
What three improvements could you make to your next presentation?

Poster presentations

Posters are one of the most effective ways to visually present results and information, and are widely used in many disciplines to display work at seminars and conferences as well as to the general public.

Tutors ask you to put together poster displays to demonstrate your skills of visual communication and to assess your ability to get ideas across clearly and concisely.

Presenting a poster

When presenting a poster, particularly bear in mind the following:

Make sure the key points are large enough for the audience to be able to read or see them
Use your poster to talk around the text, don't simply read the poster panels
Summarise key arguments/results for the audience
Point to graphs and diagrams when talking about them to assist the audience
If working in a group, plan before hand who is saying what
Think through your message before preparing it. Read the above section on giving oral presentations