4 Tips on How to Prepare for an Upcoming Presentation
Presentations are quite challenging in general – you need to write a speech, prepare your slides and plan your presentation from the beginning to the end. It takes much time, so you will be glad to know that there are a few tips that will help you save time creating your presentation and do it much more effectively to impress your professor and the audience. Let’s get started!
Tip #1. Have a Solid Plan
Whenever you have a task to do a presentation, you likely get the general guidelines that you need to follow, for example, on how many slides your presentation should include, how much time you will have on your presentation, and what aspects you should be focused on while giving the speech.
These are the basics that are very crucial in order to do your best and get high grades – you need to follow the instructions and understand what is expected from you.
The first thing that you should start with when you are working on a presentation is to plan it. Write down the requirements that you have received from your professor or which are mentioned in the syllabus to be sure you can check yourself during the work process. Write down the plan of your speech which should contain not only the main elements of it but the timings too – how much time you can spend on each point, how many slides you will need to cover all the key ideas, what additional sources you need to explore in order to complete your presentation.
Tip #2. Don’t Try to Memorize Everything
It’s a fact that reading your whole speech from a piece of paper is not good and can ruin your presentation. Many students try to memorize everything and end up losing the line when giving a speech or being too nervous which makes not a good impression.
There is a golden middle that you should aim for – memorize the key messages of your presentation and focus on the elements that will get the most attention from the audience. It means that the best option would be to focus on the opening and closing sentences, thesis statements of your presentation, and the most important evidence or key point if there are a few.
The opening and the closing lines are crucial to be said not read. They stand the most in the memory of and help you find the connection that you as a person who presents your project should have with the audience.
Tip #3. Organize the Text
The text of your presentation is as important as the slides while the way you navigate through the text and the convenience of it might make a drastic difference. There are a few ways how you can organize the text of your speech in order to perform better.
- The first option for you is to write a simple text that you will read while giving your presentation. Make sure you break long paragraphs into smaller parts for more convenient navigation and highlight the main words, concepts, formulas, or stats.
- The second option is to prepare a list of key points that you can elaborate in your speech. It’s not that hard to navigate through such a list but it takes more time to get prepared.
- The third option is to combine the two methods above – you can write your text in two columns with one column focused on the key points of each paragraph that is written in the other column. It’s a method that allows you to rehearse your speech more effectively as you can go through both the texts and key points at the same time. It will also make it easier for you to find the needed information in the text while rehearsing or giving your speech.
Depending on the method you choose, it will take you some time on preparing the text that will suit your needs. Make sure you take this step about two or three days before the presentation at least in order to give yourself time for probable edits and rehearsals.
Tip #4. Ask for Help
If you are the one who is extremely nervous about giving presentations or don’t have much time to write the text and design the slides, you might want to order a speech and accompanying slides from a writing service.
We are a team that can help you with creating a presentation that you will be absolutely satisfied with. Our experienced writers know how to make the text of your presentation seamless and professional while keeping the logical flow and avoiding any structure mistakes. If you would like to order a presentation instead of doing it yourself, you can also request our experts to come up with perfectly designed and structured slides to accompany your speech.
As every slide should be carefully completed to suit your needs, audience, and the occasion, it’s no surprise that you might be a little overwhelmed by the need to create it yourself. We can do it for you. And when you receive the completed presentation, all you need to do is to rehearse it at home before the event.
