Now that you’ve prepared your speech and (maybe) created some slides or a poster to go with it, it’s time to deliver your presentation. Whether you’re presenting in person or online, through engaging with your audience, addressing questions and managing any fear you may have towards public speaking you can effectively deliver your presentation, and may even enjoy it!
In brief, when delivering your presentation:
There are a number of ways to engage with your audience, both directly and indirectly.
Use emotion Connect emotionally with your audience by expressing genuine feelings and passion about your topic. Use expressive language and vary your tone to convey enthusiasm, concern, or excitement. If it is not comfortable or usual for you to put emotion into your voice, then you can say it instead, for example: “I’m very surprised by..” or, “That statistic saddens me…” etc.
Use rhetorical devices Employ rhetorical techniques such as some repetition, rhetorical questions, and parallelism (grammatical similarity) to emphasise key points, improve flow and make your presentation or speech more persuasive. For example, a rhetorical question might be, “Why did we choose to investigate this issue?” (The implication is that you will tell them why, and it’s important!) or “Have you ever thought about why we reference an artist?” (The implication is that they should have thought about it, and you’ll tell them why.) An example of parallelism could be: “The early bird gets the worm, the committed student gets the grades, and the persistent artist achieves the recognition.” Each phrase follows the structure: ‘the adjective noun verb the object’.
Be authentic Speak from the heart and be yourself. Authenticity builds trust and makes your presentation more relatable.
Be clear Ensure your speech is clear and concise. Avoid jargon and complex language that might confuse your audience (however if you are speaking to an audience educated in your topic, then use whatever language is appropriate for your topic). Simplicity and directness can be effective for a persuasive speech and an engaging presentation.
Use pauses Strategic pauses can emphasise important points and give your audience time to absorb your message and understand when you are changing topic or moving to the next section of your presentation. They also help you maintain a calm and composed delivery.
Maintain a connection Ask questions, invite participation, or use appropriate humour to keep the audience engaged. Interaction can make your presentation more dynamic and interesting.
Your assessment criteria and marking rubric might not specifically require audience interaction, but it is generally considered good practice and helps the audience feel more engaged and interested in your presentation. However, you need to ensure you have time for audience interaction – it can take some time to encourage and get responses, and some audience members will like to talk, so you need to be confident at managing the interaction, cutting people off where necessary and encouraging chat when needed. If you will use all your time just answering the assessment question and adhering to the marking rubric, then you should spend very little time on audience interaction.
Some examples of audience interaction have been discussed previously, but you might like to consider:
Often a presentation assessment will require an audience question time at the end. This can be daunting, but if you are well prepared and planned, then you will manage it well and appear professional and well-researched. The following strategies may be helpful:
Prepare beforehand by considering what sort of questions you might be asked (based on your content, what the audience might not understand or might want to know more about, whether teaching staff may want to test your knowledge). Ask friends and family to help with this by coming up with questions for you after you have rehearsed your presentation with them. You can also use Gen AI to generate questions so you can practice - you can write a prompt to have Gen AI take the role of UC, bored student, critical student etc. and then practice answering the questions it brings up.
Listen carefully then repeat or paraphrase the question so you are sure you understand it and so everyone in the audience hears it. For example, “So I understand that what you are asking is…, is that correct?” You can also ask the questioner to repeat it louder so that everyone can hear. If the presentation is being recorded or streamed online and the questioner has no microphone, then you should repeat the question for the purpose of the recording and so the online audience can hear it.
If it is a long question, then break it into sections, and answer section by section. You can take notes during question time – put down keywords on a notepad so you remember what you are answering, especially if you get nervous.
Don’t be afraid to politely ask the audience member to repeat or rephrase the question if you don’t understand it or didn’t hear it.
Allow yourself time to think so that your answer is coherent and to the point. You don’t need to rush your answer, and taking your time will also help you to breath, focus and remain calm, thus looking professional and well-prepared. You can let your audience know that you are thinking, by saying something like, “That’s a great question, I just need a moment to consider that.” or “Ooh, good question, I’ll just have to think about that for a moment”.
If you don’t know the answer, say so. It’s okay to say “I don’t know”. Some ways to move forward include:
No matter the question, it’s important to acknowledge them all positively. If someone asks a question you have already answered in your presentation, go back to the slide and politely answer the question. Remember that you may not have been as clear as you thought in your presentation, and this gives you an opportunity to clarify content. Never let someone think they have asked a silly question. You can acknowledge that the question is worth asking by using a phrase such as: “That’s an interesting point” or, “That’s a great question, thank you”. Thank the audience at the end for their questions, their attention and interest in your topic.
Being nervous about public speaking is quite common; many people experience some level of anxiety when asked to present to others. This can range from 60% of people admitting that they are frequently nervous during a presentation (Bowden, 2022) to fear of public speaking (or FOPS) being the most common lifetime social fear at 21.2% (Takac, et al. 2019).
You will present more confidently if you are well organised, well-practiced and well prepared for your presentation. Here are some tips to help you get there:
This may seem obvious, but the better you know the content of your presentation, the more confident you will be. So prepare well in advance and read widely wherever possible. This will help you answer questions as well.
This is vital for ensuring you can pitch your presentation at the appropriate level for them and to make you feel like you are talking to the right people at the right level. Knowing this will make you feel more confident in how you present to them as well.
Practise you presentation as much as possible. Preferably to the point where you don’t need to read it or use palm cards (but they are also helpful as a backup). Film yourself on your phone to check your facial expressions, tone, body language and speed. Present your talk to a friend or family member and get feedback and tell them to ask you a couple of questions after your presentation so you can practice ‘question time’. Time yourself so it is the correct length. Sometimes it’s better to be slightly too short and allow time for questions rather than to be too long. Be mindful that when you are nervous, you might speak more quickly, so keep reminding yourself to breath and slow down.
Make palm cards to remind you of what you are going to say, even if you don’t refer to them during your presentation, this is a good process to help you memorise content and feel more confident. Check over your slides. Arrive early to the room where you will be presenting and make sure the equipment is working. Have a back-up plan in the event something fails (for example, have the presentation on a USB in case of internet/wifi issues).
For an online presentation, ensure you are familiar with the platform beforehand, and have uploaded any slides necessary in the correct format. Get online early so you can feel prepared and comfortable. Turn off your phone and any notifications that will distract you and your audience. For example, set Teams to ‘do not disturb’ and close Outlook to avoid emails and messages popping up.
Speak slowly, clearly and confidently. If you speak confidently, even if you are not confident, you will soon feel more confident, and your audience will think you are a seasoned, confident presenter! Be aware of articulation and pronunciation (especially when presenting online); practise new words, especially technical terms, beforehand. Vary the tone and pitch of your voice if you can, and if this feels natural for you. Use pauses to emphasise key points. And, as previously mentioned, remind yourself to breath and slow down.
To manage your nerves, do some light exercise before speaking such as using breathing relaxation techniques (breath in for a slow count of 4, hold for 2, breath out for 6 – do this 4 times). Visualise yourself giving a brilliant presentation! Stand or sit tall with your shoulders back and relax your shoulder and neck muscles. Feel yourself grounded to the floor and present in the room.
For some assessments, you may be required to present as part of a group. This not only challenges your presentation skills and content knowledge, but also tests your ability to work as a member of a team. Presenting as a team can feel fun and supportive, but it’s not without its challenges. There are, of course, ways to help overcome these challenges and hopefully make the experience smooth for everyone involved.
Divide the topic into subtopics and allocate them according to your group members’ strengths, knowledge, confidence, experience and interest. This will share the load evenly and ensure everyone takes part in a way that suits them (and hopefully gets good results!)
Your presentation may appear a little disjointed and unrehearsed if you don’t make the time to get together and rehears as a group. While it may be easier to just rehearse your separate parts on your own, getting together will not only enable you to have a smooth run through, but you will also be able to provide constructive feedback to each other and improve everyone’s presentation skills and, hopefully, your confidence.
Refer to our previous information about consistency across your slide deck, as this is very important in group presentations too. If the slides your group uses are not consistent in format, colour and font styles, it will be clear to the academic grading your assessment that you have not been working as a team.
For more information on how to work successfully as a group, read through our group work page and have a look at the group presentations information from Monash University.
You could be asked to deliver any of the above presentation styles online. When presenting online you may or may not be able to see your audience, and they may or may not be able to see you. Similarly, some of them will have their microphones on and be happy to speak, others will type into the chat function if they have questions, and others will be silent.
All the ideas and information above apply to preparing and delivering online presentations, however there are some additional things to consider.
Know how to use and troubleshoot in whatever system you are presenting in. Whether it is MS Teams, Blackboard, Zoom, or Webex, they all have their quirks and knowing how to use the systems in advance will reduce anxiety and project professionalism and confidence. Ensure you upload your presentation slides or poster/visual aids well in advance (and in the correct format) and ensure sound and camera and file/screen sharing is functioning. As with all presentations, try to have a rehearsal using the same or similar system, with friends or family members as your ‘rent-a-crowd’.
In general, online audiences are usually quieter and take longer to engage and interact than face-to-face audiences. Factor in the slightly longer wait times for responses to questions, as usually people have to think about their answer then type it in the chat. Similarly, if you ask ‘Are there any questions?’ at the end of your presentation, leave a long wait time to allow the audience to first think of a question, then type it into the chat. You may need to wait longer than 15 seconds at least. You could encourage the audience to use the ‘hand up’ button and their microphones to make question time go more smoothly, but don’t rush them.
Be prepared to engage with the online chat from your audience. This can be distracting and time-consuming, so, factor in when you will engage with the chat at different times during your presentation and give clear instructions and be encouraging to the audience if you would like their input. If you are expecting a big crowd and lots of discussion and/or questions, then ask a fellow student to manage the chat and read you the questions intermittently so you can focus on your presentation, but then have periods set aside for answering questions/responding to comments.
There are some common mistakes that people often make when presenting. If you’re aware of them before you present and prepare effectively, you can avoid them and deliver a more successful and engaging presentation. Below are some of these common mistakes and some tips on how to avoid them.
Practice your presentation a lot, and ensure you run on time. Do not try to talk faster to include more information, instead, be more selective and cut out what will be a rush to include. Learn from past presentations, do you tend to go over time because you go “off script”, or do you talk a lot faster when you are nervous? Adjust your timing accordingly.
Don’t apologise for the way your slides look or how you have presented the information on the slide. If you acknowledge that you’ve put too much text into a slide, or that a graph is hard to read, then you are also acknowledging that you didn’t make time to rectify it and that you are not concerned about accessibility.
Instead, take the time to make sure your slides are clear and easy to follow for the audience. Don’t use a slide with too much text, make it two slides or three slides, or just limit the text to three main points and talk about the rest of the information in your speech. And don’t use information or graphs that are too small to read from the back of the room. If necessary, break up that information across a number of slides, or display it differently so your audience CAN read it.
Only put the main points on your slides, not your talk word-for-word. Your slides should have your main points on them which you then talk about more broadly in your speech. If you’d like the audience to read a quote, then ask them to read it and give them time to read it, you don’t have to read it out loud for them. Your audience should understand the ‘gist’ of your presentation from your slides, and have access to some important data or context, but they should get something more out of listening to you talk about your topic.
When you practice your presentation, get into the habit of using the computer screen in front of you, and trusting that the big screen behind you is showing the same slide. If you talk to the screen behind you, your audience will not hear a lot of what you say and will feel disconnected. If there is no screen in front of you, then write palm cards/print your slides to help you remember what to say, so that you don’t have to keep turning your back to the audience in order to read your slides.
Similarly, if you talk to your poster instead of pointing to it briefly then turning back to the audience, you will not connect with your audience and they might not be able to hear you.
If you ask the audience to read something like a handout, or ask them to take a moment to think about a question, give them space to do so. As soon as you give an audience or a class a handout, they will read it, and they will not be listening to you speak. If you have to use a handout, plan a time in your presentation to hand it out to the audience, and give them time to read it prior to re-starting and talking them through it. If your handout is just a copy of your slides, consider handing it out at the end of your presentation.
Similarly, if you ask the audience to consider a question, then don’t keep speaking while they think - you need them to EITHER be listening to you, OR thinking about the question you want them to respond to, not both at the same time.
You should include time within your presntation to gauge the interest of your audiene or ask for feedback. Stop occasionally and ask a question or get the audience to talk to the person sitting next to them or in the online chat about their knowledge of the topic or their ideas about a question you have posed to them. Tell them you’ll ask them a question about the topic soon. Even if you don’t have time for questions, you can break up your speaking with pauses and rhetorical questions so the audience stays awake and actively listening. This applies in video presentations as well; make time to ask them a question with a moment of silence for them to think to themselves. This way, you can gauge if they are listening and absorbing your information.
Sometimes, when presenters are nervous, they will focus on only one or two audience members who look engaged, for example, the people who are nodding or smiling at them. This can become very uncomfortable for the audience member in focus, so it’s important to include everyone when you’re making eye contact with people in the audience. Ensure that you move your gaze around and make eye contact with (or look just above the head of) various members of the audience and everyone in general, thus being more engaging to more people. If you notice someone shifting uncomfortably or averting their gaze when you look at them, you can always shift your focus to others.
Whether it’s to make sure you know your topic, or trying to avoid mistakes, the best way to prepare for delivering your presentation is to practice. Rehearse as much as you can to become comfortable with the content and flow. The better you know your content, the more you’ll be able to add emotion, appropriate body language and appropriate pauses, and you will be less nervous so won’t rush your delivery. Focus on your pacing, intonation, and body language to ensure you come across as confident and natural. When preparing, ask friends and family to be your audience, ask you test questions and to give you feedback.