tips to succeed in presentation

Its always a good idea to try out your presentation on your professor or TA before giving it in class. Office hours work well for this.

Good presentations are structured in sections. Many presentations need only two or three main points. Organizing your points into a few main parts and telling your audience what these parts are both before and as you go through your presentation can be the difference between a winning presentation and a loser.

Its always good to do a run through or even a couple of run throughs the night before the presentation. This can help with both your timing and your manner of presentation. Be sure to make mental notes if you went on too long or got nervous or stuck. Some people find it useful to have a friend pretend to be the audience: He or she can build up your confidence and maybe even ask a question or two.

No need to wear a suit, but its hard for people to take a presentation seriously when you look like someone who just rolled out of bed.

Nobody enjoys seeing a speaker burying his or her face in a script, reading stiffly from a piece of paper. Try to talk from notes, or, if you use a written out text, try to look down at it only occasionally. Its less important that you capture the text word for word than that you present the main ideas in a natural and relaxed way. Your practice sessions should help you here, since they enable you to better remember what you want to say.

The single biggest mistake inexperienced speakers make is going too fast. Remember that your audience is hearing the material for the first time and isnt nearly as familiar with the topic as you are.

If you find yourself running out of time, either drop or briefly summarize any leftover material. If your presentation includes a discussion period, gesture at the points you havent fully covered and suggest them as things that could be discussed later.

For certain sorts of presentations, visual aids such as PowerPoints, handouts, even things written on the board can help your audience locate and grasp the main points. Just be sure to explain these materials fully in your presentation: No one is happy to see an outline that cant be made heads or tails of.

Including massive numbers of quotations or unfathomable amounts of data can overwhelm even the most attentive audience.

As important as the content you present is your authenticity in presenting it, so dont try to be someone youre not. Youll never succeed.