1. Preparing better
presentations
Adapted from:
Sinfield, S & Burns, T
Essential Study Skills: the complete guide to
success @university
Sage, London 2003

2. Why do we set
presentations?
 An active learning process
 As you plan, prepare, practice and perform
and later reflect, you are really getting to
grips with learning the material
 As you think about how to communicate a
topic effectively to an audience, you are
synthesizing & using information
 You are becoming familiar with the
academic practices of your subject

3. It is an opportunity!
 It’s a different
form of assessment
 And a job skill –
often a
presentation is
part of the
interview process
 It enhances your
self esteem

4. Success in presentations
The 4 “P”s
Plan P
Prepare P
Practice
Present P P

5. Plan
Your time limit, your topic, your audience
Then:
 Active & interactive reading to gather
information
 Make your Audio-Visual Aids
 Review your notes
 Plan the body of your presentation
 Convince yourself – if you don’t believe it,
why should your audience?

6. Prepare
 Prepare a script – but destroy this
later – if you read from it will sound
boring and dull!
 Prepare a set of prompts such as:
 Cue cards
 A key word pattern note
 Key word list of points

7. Practice
1. Refine and polish Learn
2. Review, revise, edit
3. Make sure any gaps
are filled, boring bits
tidied up, overlong
sentences shortened The
4. Practice in front of a
critical friend who
will tell you what is
working and what in
unclear
Presentation!

8. And finally – Present!
 Before – work on being positive
 Get to the room in good time
 Organise the seating – do you want
the audience in rows, a semi- circle,
sitting on the floor?
 Check the equipment is working – and
have some back up material in case
there is a problem

9. And then – reflect and learn
 It is useful to learn
how to evaluate your
presentation
 Write down what went
well
 And what didn’t go well
 And ideas from other
presentations you saw
that might work for
you next time……………..

10. Useful web sites
http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters
http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/college-of-lon