General Presentation Resources
Presentation Skills can be sorted loosely into two categories: design and production.
Design involves the presentation content and format, facts and figures, the style choices and layout of your visuals, and any realia you choose to incorporate. This great TED talk is called 'Death By Powerpoint'. Presentation expert David JP Phillips speaks about multimedia design. He illustrates some common poor design choices for presentations and gives you five powerful principles to use instead. And here is the full transcript of the talk. |
Production is the way in which you actually present your content - your body language, your voice qualities, your pacing, and how you deliver the material. A TED talk by the same presenter, 110 Techniques of Communication and Public Speaking, focuses on production. It offers some critique of typical mistakes, and suggests open and communicative techniques to help presenters become more clear and confident. And here is the full transcript of the talk. |
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Hints for Creating 'A Good Pitch'
- don't put too much text on your slides
- don't 'read' your slides - you need to give us the main information
- when you do use text on your slides, make sure it is readable (large font, good contrast)
- choose appropriate visuals, colours , and graphics
- keep the presentation moving - don't spend too long on any one slide
- smile and make eye contact with your audience
- use appropriate 'hooks'
- interact with the screen and the information on it
- don't 'read' your slides - you need to give us the main information
- when you do use text on your slides, make sure it is readable (large font, good contrast)
- choose appropriate visuals, colours , and graphics
- keep the presentation moving - don't spend too long on any one slide
- smile and make eye contact with your audience
- use appropriate 'hooks'
- interact with the screen and the information on it
Slides to Include in a Marketing, Business, or Design Presentation
Cover Slide - a 'hero image' (strong, attractive graphic) and your product name or title
Index - a list of what you are going to cover, or the areas of your presentation
Introduction - who are you and what do you represent?
Hook - something to grab your audience's attention and get them interested (read more about 'hooks' here)
Problem - what is the difficulty or problem your product addresses?
Solution - how your product fixes or solves the problem
Showcase - details about and examples of your product (make it look good!)
Market - who are your consumers, buyers, target market? (hint - rarely 'everyone'!)
Competition - the companies and products similar to yours and why yours is different / superior (counterargument/rebuttal)
The Ask - a call to action at the end - what do you want your audience to do after you are finished?
(don't forget this really important demand or request!)
NOTE: you can have MORE than the ideas above, especially in the Showcase, but you probably shouldn't have less
(though sometimes you can combine areas into one slide ( - Intro & Hook, or Problem & Hook
A customizable PDF rubric from Purdue University - click the image to access the link.
A customizable PDF rubric from UNC - click the image to access the large JPG
A sample rubric for a pitch presentation,
which draws a clear distinction
between design/PPT/product and presenting skills/production,
or between accuracy and fluency.
which draws a clear distinction
between design/PPT/product and presenting skills/production,
or between accuracy and fluency.
Another rubric for evaluating presentations, less detail, with a total of 15 points
5 Criteria: Organization, Content/Knowledge, Slide Quality, Voice Quality, Body Language.
Each criterion has 3 stages: 1 - below expectations 2 - acceptable 3 - exemplary
The exemplary criteria are as follows:
Organization - information is presented in a logical sequence
Content - thorough, strong analysis, confident with material
Slide Quality - readable, professional, attractive, engaging
Voice Quality - excellent delivery, conversational tone, modulated voice, enthusiasm, interest, confidence
Body Language - uses eye contact and movement to maintain audience interest, slides used effortlessly to enhance speech
5 Criteria: Organization, Content/Knowledge, Slide Quality, Voice Quality, Body Language.
Each criterion has 3 stages: 1 - below expectations 2 - acceptable 3 - exemplary
The exemplary criteria are as follows:
Organization - information is presented in a logical sequence
Content - thorough, strong analysis, confident with material
Slide Quality - readable, professional, attractive, engaging
Voice Quality - excellent delivery, conversational tone, modulated voice, enthusiasm, interest, confidence
Body Language - uses eye contact and movement to maintain audience interest, slides used effortlessly to enhance speech