Structuring Your Presentation

This is one of the most important aspects of the presentation. The structure should be clear to both you and your audience. Develop your visual aids: For example, will you use a flipchart, whiteboard power point, overhead projector or data projector etc. to clarify important points and aid understanding?

NB: Do not use too many slides/points.

Prepare your delivery notes, according to the structured outline.

Different authors advocate different formats for structuring a presentation, each of which has their merits (Hartley and Bruckman, 2002; Hargie et al, 2004; Adler and Elmhorst, 1999).

The structure of a presentation should have an introduction, body and conclusion.

i)          Introduction:

Through the introduction you should grab your audience’s attention and set the scene.

Ways of getting your audience’s attention include;

•   asking a rhetorical or intriguing question,

•   providing a relevant and interesting fact,

•    giving an anecdote,

•   outlining the valuable information you hope the audience will gain from the presentation,

•   telling them why they need to know the information,

•    giving a quote or making a dramatic prediction.

Your theme should be made clear from the start. Start the audience thinking about the subject matter of your presentation by, for example, a statement of your main

objective. It can also be helpful to present the structure to your talk, by explaining briefly how you plan to proceed with it.

ii) The Main Body:

Select the main points that support your argument but only include as much detail as your audience needs. Also, be aware that people will not remember too many points. Once you have decided on the key points, organize them into a sequence that makes sense to you. This sequence may take various forms, including being chronologically based, problem-solution based, simple-complex based etc. (Hargie et al, 2004; Adler and Elmhorst, 1999).

Explain and build your points using supporting information and evidence.

iii) Conclusion:

There are various ways of concluding a presentation including

•   changing the pace,

•   using a new visual aid,

•   summarizing your main points,

•   drawing the conclusion and its importance,

•    making recommendations,

•   asking for questions,

•   getting feedback,

•   asking for or recommending particular actions,

•   getting some sort of commitment from the group to the advocated course of action,

•    Finally end by thanking the group for their time and attention.

Do not end suddenly. Give your audience some idea that you are coming to a close; eg. ‘And now, before I finish’ or ‘In conclusion’ etc.

Try to end on a strong note through the use of tactics detailed above. Research has long since shown that we tend to remember the opening and closing parts of a presentation over the detail in the middle.