4.5  Summary

Oral presentations, like any other form of professional communication, are about getting messages across. To make sure you focus on the so what, create your oral presentation in top-down fashion. First, identify your need (why something needed to be done), your task (what you did to address the need), and your main message (the one sentence you want your audience to remember, if they remember only one). Then construct your body as a hierarchy of main points and subpoints that support your main message. Be selective: Do not try to say everything you would write (or have written) in a paper. Develop your main message more fully in your conclusion. Encapsulate your presentation with an attention getter and a close. Finally, reveal the structure of the body to your audience with a preview at the end of the opening (after the main message), transitions between points and between subpoints, and a review at the beginning of the closing (before the conclusion).

If you decide to support your presentation with slides, do them right: Slides are optional, so there is no excuse for poor slides. With each slide, get a message across. State that message verbally in the title area as a short sentence (10–15 words on a maximum of two lines). Illustrate the message visually in the rest of the slide. Be concise, both verbally and visually: Question the relevance of anything you plan to include on your slide, especially decoration (backgrounds, colors, lines, etc.).

When practicing and eventually delivering your presentation to your audience, strive for a high signal-to-noise ratio. Increase the signal: Modulate your voice for meaning, complexity, and importance; make large, deliberate gestures; and look at your audience. In parallel, reduce the noise: Avoid filler words (um, er, you know, etc.), and do not pace or fidget. Address the audience — do not merely explain your slides.

When taking questions, do not rush: Take time to understand and to make sure the audience understands each question, and think before you answer. When fielding difficult questions — in particular, questions you do not know the answer to — focus on your purpose. Strive to help people, not to impress them falsely.

Finally, accept unavoidable stage fright as a reassuring symptom and a useful source of energy, but learn to channel this energy where it is useful, lest it dissipate into entropy.