Chapter 7: Top Five Tips To Delivering the Best Presentation

The one word that brings significant fear to a college student is "presentation." As a college student, you will be delivering many presentations for your classes. If you have stage fright like me, delivering presentations can be overwhelming.

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I have done many presentations during my three years (and counting) in college. However, every time I present, I still experience significant nervousness and fear. Despite experiencing this constant fear, I have learned some techniques that not only help me to get through presentations but also to deliver an effective message.

The following tips will enable you to deliver the best presentation, even in the midst of fear:

1. Develop an Outline of the Topics That Will Be Covered.
2. Use Notecards.
3. Keep the PowerPoint Or Multimedia Presentation Simple.
4. Practice, Practice, Practice.
5. Maintain Your Calm.

Develop an Outline of the Topics That Will Be Covered

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Developing an outline is an effective way to gather your thoughts and ideas. An outline will set the foundation of your presentation and give you a clear direction. Once you establish the foundation of your presentation, the hard work will already be accomplished, leaving you with the remaining task of simply placing the outline content into a PowerPoint.

Use Notecards

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Notecards can be very helpful during a presentation as long as you don't use them as your crutch. In other words, try not to read off your notecards during the entire presentation because it makes you appear less prepared and less engaged with the audience. I recommend jotting down three key points that will trigger your memory of what to say during the presentation and occasionally looking up from your notecards to make eye contact with the audience.

Keep the PowerPoint Or Multimedia Presentation Simple

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Less is more. Overloading each PowerPoint slide with an excessive amount of information can be overwhelming for the audience to read, resulting in their disengagement with the presentation. So, try to keep your multimedia presentation simple by including three concise bullets of information or even just one image on each slide.

Practice, Practice, Practice

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The most important tip to delivering the best presentation is practicing. If you repeatedly practice presenting your content, you will improve your memory and feel more comfortable presenting. I also recommend rehearsing in the actual setting of your presentation because, if you become familiar with your environment, presenting will be less scary.

Maintain Your Calm

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Prior to delivering your presentation, take a deep breath, inhaling confidence and exhaling your fears. One technique that always helps me to feel less nervous is to look at the back wall of the classroom during my presentation. Making eye contact with the audience can be intimidating and distracting for me, so I try to look in the direction of the audience by looking at the back wall of the classroom.

I hope these tips enable you to deliver the best presentation. Remember, your classmates are people, just like you. They have the same fears and are in the same position as you are, so try not to give them the power to instill fear in you.

If you have any thoughts or opinions, please leave them in the comments section. Feel free to share any tips that have helped you deliver the best presentation.