Presenting the information clearly and effectively is a key skill to get the message or
opinion across and, today, presentation skills are required in almost every field.
Presentation skills and public speaking skills are very useful in many aspects of work
and life like business, selling, training, teaching and lecturing that develops confidence
and other social situations. The formats of presentations are oral, multimedia,
PowerPoint, short impromptu and long-planned. Good preparation—through certain
tips like natural talk to audience, standing rather than sitting, varying the tone, eye
contact, using visual aids, checking timings, structuring the presentation, staying
focused and alert throughout the presentation, answering honestly and concisely to the
questions raised—is the groundwork for making a presentation effective. It is important to state the purpose clearly at the beginning to talk about, report on, to examine, to
instruct, to explain, to outline, to fill, to give an overview, to highlight and to discuss
the subject of presentation. Presentation should have three main elements: the
introduction, middle and conclusion. Within the main body of the presentation, divide
the key message into three elements and then expand each of these points into three
sub-points. If one is using a visual aid such as PowerPoint, limit the number of bullet
points to three on each slide and expand on each of these points as one goes along.
Presentation programs can either supplement or replace the use of older visual aid
technology, such as pamphlets, handouts, chalkboards, flip charts, posters, slides and
overhead transparencies. Text, graphics, movies, and other objects are positioned on
individual pages or “slides” or “foils”. The “slide” analogy is a reference to the slide
projector, a device that has become somewhat obsolete due to the use of presentation
software. Slides can be printed, or (more usually) displayed on-screen and navigated
through at the command of the presenter. Transitions between slides can be animated
in a variety of ways, as can the emergence of elements on a slide itself. Typically, a
presentation has many constraints, the most important being the limited time to present
consistent information.
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