Presentations

Make sure you pin down what you're being asked to do:

• What are you being asked to present?
• When are you being asked to present?
• Where will you make your presentation (is it in-person or online)?
• Who will you be presenting to?
• How long is your presentation expected to be?
• How will it be assessed? What assessment criteria will you need to demonstrate?

Ask your tutor for clarification if you need it.

Reflect on presentations you have made before. Consider factors that might affect you personally.

Some expectations might not be stated on the brief but you may need to encompass skills from other types of assignments such as essay writing and reflective writing. Trust your existing skills in getting the academic content right - e.g. research, reading or note-taking, academic writing, referencing. The mode of delivery will be an additional part of the process.

You may have to consider how you feel about delivering a presentation to a live audience, if that's what you're required to do. There are strategies to deal with nerves and make you feel confident on the day. Giving yourself enough time to plan and practice your presentation will help with this, too.

Speak to your tutor if this is something of concern to you.

Whereas in a written assignment you are given a word count to meet, for presentations you are given a certain duration. This tends to take more planning as disparate elements (such as research, visuals, and your narration) need to come together at the right points in your delivery. For a live presentation this needs to happen in real time, rather than just on the page.

Create the number of slides you think you need, then get rid of a couple! The time just rushes past in short presentations, so when it comes to your PowerPoiint (or whatever else you're using) you almost always need less than you think. Five slides for a 15 minute presentation may often be enough.

Simplicity is never more important. Simple slides are better anwyay (image-rich, a little text as possible, no bullets) but are especially vital when you only have a very short window in which to convey your information. The messages need to stick, so make them easy to understand and support them with relevant images.

Structure is still important. Audiences find structured presentations easier to remember and understand, even for very short talks. So try to have a beginning, a middle, and an end clearly signalled (both in what you're saying and in your slides).