Boost your presentations with these 18 tips. These guidelines will help you structure your speech while offering practical techniques to ease nerves during your next presentation.
Contents
- 1. Follow the “10-20-30” Rule When Using Slides
- 2. Memorize Your First and Last Sentence
- 3. Structure Your Speech Effectively
- 4. Practice a Lot
- 5. Use Pauses
- 6. Arrive Early and Know Your Surrounding
- 7. Use Positive Visualization to Get Over the Nerves
- 8. Breathe Deeply
- 9. Don’t Be Hard on Yourself
- 10. Keep It as Simple as Possible
- 11. Try to Entertain but Use Humor Wisely
- 12. Try to Engage With the Audience
- 13. Positive Body Language
- 14. Most Audiences Want You to Succeed
- 15. Get Feedback Afterwards (Or Record Your Presentation)
- 16. Match Your Message to the Audience
- 17. Manage Your Pacing and Tone
- 18. Prepare a Backup Plan for Tech Failures
1. Follow the “10-20-30” Rule When Using Slides
After writing your speech, putting together some slides can structure and add visuals to your presentation. Use the 10-20-30 rule for effective slides. This rule isn’t set in stone, but it’s a good guide to make a presentation engaging.
10 Rule
Use ten slides as a starting point for a concise PowerPoint pitch. Guy Kawasaki developed the 10-20-30 rule for business presentations; your assignment or event may need a different format.
An effective presentation should be concise. Give each slide a clear job, such as explaining a problem or showing evidence for your recommendation. If ten slides would force you to crowd the text or omit important information, adjust the slide count.
20 Rule
For a pitch, aim to deliver the main presentation within 20 minutes so there is time for discussion. Follow the actual time limit you have been given; a five-minute class presentation and an hour-long workshop need different plans.
You can lose attention if the presentation is very long. Even with an hour, it’s a good idea to add engaging elements like audience interaction and Q&A sessions.
30 Rule
A good presentation should be clear to your audience. Don’t make your audience squint at the screen.
Use a 30-point font as a starting point for slide text. Check it from the back of the room: screen size, contrast, and viewing distance affect readability too. Enlarge labels or split a crowded slide if necessary.
2. Memorize Your First and Last Sentence
Avoid constantly looking at your slides during a presentation. Memorize the first and last lines to show that you’re prepared. This also gives you the chance to engage with your audience, rather than just reading to them.
If you memorize everything word for word, it won’t sound natural. The first and last sentences should flow naturally to avoid always reading straight to your audience.
3. Structure Your Speech Effectively
When writing a speech, structure it clearly to ensure effective delivery. A well-organized speech simplifies presentation.
Speeches have three main parts, the introduction, the body, and the conclusion.
Introduction
The introduction starts the speech. To give a good presentation, you need a well-written opening.
An introduction sets the tone for your speech and can either grab or lose your audience’s attention. A concise opening keeps them engaged and interested. This opening section really matters.
The introduction sets the stage for your presentation. Clearly state the purpose of your speech to keep your audience informed. A poorly crafted introduction can make your audience lose interest quickly.
A good introduction should be brief, well-crafted, and convince your audience why they should listen to you.
Body
After drafting a strong introduction, move on to the body. This section holds the main ideas of the speech.
Proper preparation and research are essential for writing your speech’s body. To deliver an effective presentation, the body should be well-organized and clearly presented.
After you determine the main purpose of your speech, the body lets you expand on it. This part offers evidence that supports your main message and ideas.
Lead with your strong points. Stick to relevant topics to keep your audience’s interest. Avoid digressing from your main point.
Make your points evidence-based to be taken seriously. Refer to facts, data, and personal stories. Ensure your audience trusts what you say.
Think about your audience as you write your speech. Consider their age, status, and interests to make your speech relevant. Your speech might aim to inform, educate, entertain, or debate, each requiring a different approach.
For example, if your speech aims to argue a point, choose relevant facts and figures that support it and explain what they mean. An entertaining speech can rely more on anecdotes, but check any factual claims, quotations, or stories about real people. Make invented scenarios clearly fictional.
Conclusion
This is the final part of your speech and presentation. Make it memorable. A good conclusion should captivate and leave a lasting impression on your audience.
You shouldn’t bring up new ideas in your conclusion. Think of your conclusion as the finishing touch that makes your presentation shine.
Don’t repeat your main points exactly in your conclusion. Summarize them in new words instead.
4. Practice a Lot
Practice makes perfect. Constant rehearsal before a presentation matters a lot. Keep practicing until you’re very familiar with your material.
Rehearse aloud with your slides and a timer. Note where each main section ends, then check whether you have left room for questions. If you run long, cut a repeated example and try again at a comfortable pace. Rushing through the same script hides the timing problem.
5. Use Pauses
Pauses can be powerful in public speaking, emphasizing important points effectively.
It’s bad to rush while presenting. Your audience might miss what you’re saying.
Mark a pause in your notes after an important figure or question. Say the line, stop, and look up before continuing. During rehearsal, ask a listener whether they had time to absorb the point; a pause that feels long to you may give them useful thinking time.
6. Arrive Early and Know Your Surrounding
Arrive early before your presentation to get a feel for the venue. It’s a great chance to check the staging and ensure everything is set up. Also, test the projector, set up your slides, and check the microphone. Be ready to handle any technical difficulties.
7. Use Positive Visualization to Get Over the Nerves
“Imagine the audience in their underwear!”
Positive visualization helps control nerves by using mental imagery to relax. Shift your mind from the pressure of presenting to visualizing success. Do this before and during your presentation to stay calm.
8. Breathe Deeply
Gentle, regular breathing can help you manage stress before stepping on stage. Breathe comfortably without forcing a large breath. Practice this before presentation day so it feels familiar; you do not need to hold your breath or strain.
9. Don’t Be Hard on Yourself
Before the presentation, don’t be too hard on yourself. Just prepare well and relax your nerves before taking the stage.
Don’t be hard on yourself! Learn from mistakes and prepare for the future. Public speaking skills aren’t mastered overnight. If you fail, pick yourself up, prepare, and try again.
10. Keep It as Simple as Possible
Good presentations are concise, simple, and direct. It’s easy to overload with boring details, but harder to focus on essential points. Do this as much as possible; it’s essential for effective presentations.
11. Try to Entertain but Use Humor Wisely
Humor can be a great tool in presentations but use it wisely. Keep your jokes clean unless you know the audience well and are sure of your delivery!
12. Try to Engage With the Audience
Audience engagement keeps people interested in your presentation. It’s especially true for vocal or extroverted groups. Let them ask questions, share stories, or discuss personal experiences to keep things lively and interesting.
13. Positive Body Language
Use confident, open, and positive body language while speaking to your audience. Gestures and facial expressions can support your message, but there is no universal percentage showing that most presentation communication comes through body language. Your words, evidence, and explanations still matter.
Negative body language like folded arms, shifting, and looking down can distract the audience and make it hard for them to focus on the presentation content.
14. Most Audiences Want You to Succeed
Audiences typically support you during a presentation, especially when you’re speaking to co-workers, friends, or classmates. Use this knowledge to boost your confidence.
Even if there’s some negativity in the room while presenting, don’t exaggerate it too much in your mind beforehand.
15. Get Feedback Afterwards (Or Record Your Presentation)
To improve your presenting skills, get feedback from the audience about what you did well and what needs improvement.
You can also use video and audio recordings to review and improve your presentation for future events.
Also, practice your presentations beforehand with family and friends. They can give you valuable feedback in advance.
Ask a practice listener two specific questions: ‘What was my main message?’ and ‘Where did you need another example?’ If their summary differs from yours, revise the explanation before polishing gestures. On a recording, review one section at a time and choose one change to test in your next run.
16. Match Your Message to the Audience
Before you write a single slide, think about who will be sitting in the room. A talk for senior executives looks nothing like a talk for new hires, even if the topic is the same. Adjust your examples, your vocabulary, and the level of detail so the room can follow you without strain.
If you can, ask the organiser a few questions ahead of time. What does the audience already know? What problem are they hoping you will help them solve? Even a short conversation will sharpen your focus and stop you wasting slides on context the room does not need.
17. Manage Your Pacing and Tone
How you say things is often as memorable as what you say. Slow down when you reach a key point, and pick up the pace for the lighter sections so the talk does not feel flat. Vary your volume the same way; a quieter line right before a punchline can do more work than a louder one.
Record yourself during practice and listen back at normal speed. You will spot filler words, rushed transitions, and flat sections that you would never notice while speaking live.
18. Prepare a Backup Plan for Tech Failures
Projectors fail. Wi-Fi drops out. Laptops refuse to wake up. Save a copy of your slides on a USB stick and email a PDF to yourself so you can pull it up on the venue’s machine if your own gear lets you down.
Make sure you could still deliver the talk if the screen went blank tomorrow. Print your speaker notes, know your key examples by heart, and decide in advance what you will say if the room goes quiet while the laptop reboots. A calm fix is much more impressive than perfect slides.
