Tips for Creating Stunning Oral and Poster Presentations!
Engineering Communications TOOLKIT
When delivering an oral presentation, the main goal is to inform, influence, and/or entertain the listeners. With practice and technique, anyone can do this well.
A meaningful and successful presentation, no matter the occasion, follows these general guidelines:
- Identify a primary message and stick with it.
- Maintain eye contact with your audience to help keep them engaged and interested.
- Ensure that proper body language is maintained throughout the presentation.
- Grab your audiences attention in a unique and appropriate way.
- Ideas should be presented in a simple and direct way, remember your audience.
- Never apologize.
- End your presentation strong. No "That's it..." or "Any questions?"
- Practice, practice, practice. It really helps!
For further reading on presentation delivery visit, http://www.rogerdarlington.me.uk/Speech.html.
- Scientific Poster Design (PDF) by Cornell Center for Materials Research
Here are some additional tips for putting together either a PowerPoint or poster presentations.
Tips specifically for PowerPoint presentations:
- Never EVER read directly off your slides (unless reading a quote). Use the slides to enhance, not script, the presentation.
- Pace your presentation so you go through one or two slides a minute.
- Title slide:
- Orient the reader to the presentation topic
- Introduce yourself
- Include the date
- Second slide:
- Grab the audience's attention!
- Why should they care?
- Third slide:
- Outline the body of the presentation
- Presentation body:
- Use simple backgrounds
- Readable fonts are a must
- Use bulleted lists but limit bullet points to one or two lines
- Make sure illustrations are simple and readable
For additional resources on PowerPoint presentation delivery:
- http://www.bates.edu/powerpoint-tips.xml
- http://www.iasted.org/conferences/formatting/Presentations-Tips.ppt
A humorous collection of what not to do during a PowerPoint presentation is located here.
Tips specifically for poster presentations:
- Find a way to draw you audience to your poster
- Identify key points that outline and describe your message in detail
- The more illustrations the better
- Keep graphics simple
- An attractive color scheme can make all the difference
For additional resources on poster presentations:
You may require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the PDFs on this page.