how to make a presentation

how to make a presentation

How to Make a Persuasive Presentation

1. Introduction

This essay is a step-by-step guide for creating a persuasive presentation. The steps are arranged with the planning and preparation done at the beginning and the delivering of the presentation at the end. As communication is a learned skill, this essay will also give you an outline of the theory of persuasive communication. For this type of communication, the aim is to get the audience to agree with you and adopt your idea and your way of thinking. A good persuasive presentation will appeal to both logic and emotion, to help the listener understand the benefits of an idea, and to help the listener realize how an idea can benefit them. Thus, if you can communicate your message of an idea in the presentation, it will be easier for you to achieve the action you want from the listener. The first four steps of this essay represent the planning and preparation involved in creating a persuasive presentation. With the theory of persuasive communication in mind, all the stages are critical as they form the foundation of your presentation. The delivery of the presentation is the final step and involves many different aspects compared to the preparation; these should also be taken into consideration. At the end of the essay, there is also an example persuasive presentation on climate change, to give you an idea of the positives and negatives of each aspect discussed.

2. Preparing the Content

If the audience wants what you are offering or has the problem you are addressing, then you need to provide them with a way to understand or remember your message. Think about what they know and what they need to know to get what they want. This provides you with what the audience needs to learn from your talk. If the audience is already motivated and knows enough about your message, then you can skip ahead to addressing the implementation of your idea. Finally, if the audience has a genuine desire to change, then they need to know the benefits and drawbacks of your idea as compared to others. This will provide the audience with a reason to show interest in your idea and possibly take action towards it.

Understanding your audience is a basic necessity of persuasive presentations. It is very difficult to persuade someone if you have no idea why they are in the audience. This is the first step towards making a persuasive presentation: understand what they need or want. What problems bring them to your talk? What do they hope to get out of it? If you can answer these questions for certain audience members, then you are well on your way to persuading them.

3. Designing Visuals

There are four things you have to know if you are planning to make a presentation. Well, there probably are many more than that, but these four steps should be the first on your list: Plan, Structure, Visibility, and Rehearse. None of these steps is particularly difficult, but if you ignore them, your presentation is far more likely to be a dud. Ok, that was step I, plan. The whole idea of planning implies that there are things you will do before you start putting the presentation together, and if your presentation is due tomorrow morning when you read this, you will probably simply be asking “what presentation?”, but you can file this info away in your head to be consulted for the next PowerPoint presentation you do. So what do I mean by plotting? First, you need to figure out the message you are trying to convey, which may require some major life pondering in some cases, that is assuming you even have a message to convey. But if you don’t, and you’re still required to do a presentation, spin doctoring is definitely in order. Next, think about your audience. What are their expectations? What are the technical specs of the display device, and will you have Internet access at the presentation? When are you hauling your laptop to a distant location for the presentation? What monitors, projectors, and such are available? Step II, Structure, is essentially about being organized, a skill many of us lack these days. And there is not much thinking involved at all, provided you have a message. Just get it typed up into PowerPoint slides, in point form. Another thing to remember is that you should always add extra points into the notes section for each slide which will not be displayed. This provides a safety net if you are struck with a sudden amnesia moments before the presentation and will help you to regurgitate the speech from memory. Step III, Visibility, is analyzing and changing everything you did from the planning and structuring steps. So if you didn’t do those, DO OVER. And if you’re too lazy to scroll up, you can just refer to step III as PLAN AGAIN. Now, visibility is not all about getting yourself a great big HDTV to use as a monitor so you can see your mistakes in super high detail. It’s also about allowing the audience to understand and retain your message. The main idea here is to make your PowerPoint easy to understand and remember. Finally, Step IV, rehearse. Rehearse. Rehearse. You might think this is silly, but practice really does make perfect, or at least better in most cases. And how will you know if you made any mistakes in the presentation by simply practicing it in your head? You’d do well to ask someone to listen to your speech and provide some harsh criticism. If not, make a recording and listen to yourself. This is an effective way to practice yet also providing an alternative to talking to yourself, a behavior which induces strange looks from passersby. So follow these four steps, and you’re on your way to making a half-decent PowerPoint presentation. And if you think a half is good enough, don’t even bother.

4. Delivering the Presentation

Prepare backup materials. If your presentation relies on electronic equipment, have a backup plan if the equipment becomes unusable. A scenario is drawn from a personal experience at a presentation. A group of students preparing a presentation in a film class planned to show clips from various different films to illustrate their points. The group tried to play the video clips from a computer in the classroom, without testing it out beforehand. The sound did not play through the stereo, and the video quality was poor. Attempting to fix this problem used up too much time and the presentation had to be cut short. This group should have brought their own equipment, run a test showing before the actual presentation, and had a backup plan figured out in case the video did not work.

Practicing: Rehearsal is very important. Reading over your notes is not enough. You should try to simulate the actual presentation as closely as possible. Stand up, talk out loud, and use visual aids. This is the only way to get a feel for timing without actually going over. It also helps to acquaint yourself with speaking the words.

Confer with your allies. Discuss talking points and make sure everyone is in agreement about what the presentation is designed to accomplish. Complimentary objectives can spoil the presentation. Each speaker must be aware of what others are going to say and when they are going to say it. Make a plan for coordination between speakers. What’s the best way to shift from one speaker to the next? How will the final speaker signify that the presentation is over?

Check the time, date, and place of your presentation. Find out how many people you might expect and what the audience’s composition is likely to be. You’ll need to know beforehand whether using any electronic equipment is feasible.

5. Conclusion

If you utilize all the presentation skills that you have learned so far, you will reap many benefits. Not only will you be able to influence positive feelings about you and your team or cause, you will effect long-lasting changes. At one time or another, you will be getting a group of people to support a course of action. You may be trying to persuade your comrades in arms to try a new strategy to defeat the opposition or an employer to give the work team resources that they need to get the job done. Mastering the skills of effective persuasion will make the difference between victory and defeat in these situations. Finally, improving your abilities in persuasion will also increase your own self-confidence. You will become a person who has the power to shape the minds and hearts of others and you will realize that you can make a difference in the world around you.