Presentation on
presentations
Penny Ur
ETAI, 2010
This session
• Characteristics of good/bad presentations
and some general conclusions
• Using PowerPoint
• A selection of practical tips
A. ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’
presentations
A. What makes for 'good' or
'bad' presentations?
Think of two presentations at an ETAI
conference that you have attended: one
really good one, and one awful one.
Share your experiences with the group:
be as specific as you can.
1. Good presentations
• Interacting with the audience
• Smooth transition
• ‘Advance organiser’
• not too long
• not too many words
• has humour
Bad presentations
• She read out everything
• she didn’t have enough material to fill the
time
• unprepared
• slides too crowded, masses of writing
•
•
Conclusions: what have we
learnt?
B. Practical tips
1. Preparing
• Write detailed notes (although you
probably won't be able to refer to them in
the session).
• Rehearse and time yourself
• Prepare a handout for participants as well
as powerpoint.
2. On the day, before the session
• Check you know exactly when and where
• Check out the room and equipment
3. At the beginning of the session
• Get set up in time (but you'll probably
have to wait)
• Have the title up on the screen
• Have handouts ready
4. The session itself: genre
• If mainly lecture – include 'workshoppy'
bits
• If mainly workshop – include 'lectury' bits
The session itself: organization
• At the beginning tell people what you're
going to be discussion, and how it's going
to be organized
• Then do what you said you'd do!
• Then summarize (or get participants to do
so)
The session itself: timing
• Keep an eye on your watch, finish on time.
• Think in advance about what you'll cut if
you run out of time (or vice versa…)
The session itself: communicating
• Keep eye contact with the audience
• Tell the audience in advance if you want to
be interrupted or if they should keep
questions to the end
• If the latter – then make sure you leave
time.
• Respect the questioner, even if the
question is silly!
5. Ending
• On time (or before)!
• Rehearse a 'punchline' or final sentence
• Thank the audience and provide your
email address
P.S. speaking personally
• ETAI audiences are incredibly warm and
supportive!
• It's very difficult to tell how well it went, you need
feedback (so…!)
• Resist the temptation to tell them everything you
know…
• Remember to smile occasionally
• Resist the temptation to pace up and down
Summarizing:
• Which tip(s) will you particularly
remember?
Thank you for listening and
participating!
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