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Not all of our assessment tasks are submitted in written form. Presentations are an opportunity for us to present our ideas through verbal and nonverbal communication.
Not all of our assessment tasks are submitted in written form. Presentations are an opportunity for us to present our ideas through verbal and nonverbal communication.
Presentation (oral presentation) - a prepared speech (often with supporting visuals) that is delivered to an audience through verbal and nonverbal communication.
Speaker - the person delivering a presentation to an audience.
Audience - the people experiencing a presentation.
Introduction
Introduction
Of all the assessment types we are faced with in English classes, presentations can be the most daunting.
This is understandable—while only the teacher will read our essay, everyone in the class will see us when we stand up to deliver a presentation. If we are underprepared we may appear foolish, and nobody wants that.
So, how can we avoid appearing foolish in front of the class?
The answer is simple: be prepared.
This guide is designed to help us prepare and deliver an effective presentation. We learn how to structure our argument, use convincing rhetoric, rehearse our speech and prepare effective supporting materials.
However, before we go on it is worth remembering the Golden Rule when it comes to using The English Inventory to help us with our assessment tasks:
The Golden Rule: The information presented here may differ from that which is taught in your school. When in doubt, always complete assessment tasks in line with your teacher's expectations.
All clear? Then let's get started.
Types of Presentations
Types of Presentations
There are many types of oral presentations we may be asked to complete in English classes.
We may, for example, have to stand in front of our classmates and present an interpretation of a text we have studied. Alternatively, we may be required to perform a dramatic monologue as a character from a particular text. Increasingly, we may also be given the option to record a presentation at home and submit our work in audio or video format.
Rather than try to cover all possible formats, this guide is designed to help us prepare for a typical oral assessment task: a live presentation in which we present an argument on a specific topic.
Consider the following example of such an assessment task:
Sample Oral Presentation Assessment Task
You have been invited to speak at the inaugural Shakespeare in Australian Schools conference. This week-long event will take place at the National Library of Australia where a wide range of presenters from different backgrounds have been invited to speak about the relevance of Shakespeare in contemporary education.
You have been asked to prepare a 10-minute presentation in response to the following prompt:
To what extent is Shakespeare still relevant to secondary school students in the 21st century?
In your presentation you should refer to a play that you have studied in class and at least one of Shakespeare's poems. You should also refer to relevant research to support your argument.
You should adopt a suitable persona for your presentation; for example an actor, director, parent, playwright, politician, student or teacher.
Your presentation should be accompanied by a slideshow containing up to 6 slides. These slides, your script, and your reference list should be submitted to your teacher by the due date.
So, for such an assessment we would need to prepare a presentation to be delivered at the Shakespeare in Australian Schools conference about the relevance of Shakespeare in the contemporary classroom.
Once we have taken the time to clarify all of the requirements of such a task, the first thing we would need to do is brainstorm ways to structure our argument.
Structure
Structure
In many ways the structure of our presentation will resemble that of an essay. However, there are some notable differences.
Consider the suggested structure for a presentation below.
OPENING
Hook (one or two sentences) - Present your audience with a hypothetical, anecdote, quote or statistic which relates to the subject of your presentation.
Greeting (two or three sentences) - Greet your audience and introduce yourself. Help your audience feel comfortable in your presence.
Context (one or two sentences) - Introduce the subject of your presentation and explain its importance.
INTRODUCTION
Position statement (one sentence) - Offer a clear statement that informs your audience of the position you are adopting in your presentation. This statement should be a direct response to the prompt, and everything that follows it should help to convince your audience that this position is valid.
Signposting of supporting points (one sentence for each point) - Present the three points that you will make to convince your audience that your position is valid. Use transitional phrases such as In addition or Furthermore to guide your audience through these points.
Position statement (one sentence) - Remind your audience of your position by offering a paraphrased version of your position statement.
BODY - SUPPORTING POINT (x 3)
Position and Point (one sentence) - State the specific point you are making to support your position. The relationship between these two concepts should be immediately clear to the audience thanks to language such as because or due to.
Evidence (multiple sentences) - Identify a specific textual example or secondary source that supports the point you are making. Give some brief context when introducing this example so the audience can understand its relevance.
Explanation (multiple sentences) - Explain how your evidence supports the point you are making. Focus specifically on how a creator uses elements or techniques to engage their audience. Analyse the use of these elements or techniques, and evaluate how effectively they achieve their intended effect.
Introduce additional pieces of evidence as needed to convince your audience that your point is valid, while staying within the time limit.
Rebuttal (if necessary) - Acknowledge and refute any potential weaknesses related to the point you are making. These rebuttals should be based on logical reasoning and specific evidence.
This step is not always required, but it does show that you have taken the time to evaluate your argument before presenting it.
Summary (one sentence) - Remind the audience of the point you are making. Remember to link this point specifically to your overall position.
If you are feeling confident, you can also link your current point to your next point to show that you have a cohesive argument.
CONCLUSION
Position statement (one sentence) - Remind your audience of the position you are arguing in favour of in your presentation.
Supporting points (one sentence for each point) - Remind your audience of the three points you have made to support your position. Again, you can use transitional phrases such as Additionally or However to guide your audience through these points.
Position statement (one sentence) - Offer a final reminder of the position you have adopted in response to the assessment task prompt.
Thank you (one or two sentences) - Thank your audience for their time and make a context-specific remark to end your presentation.
Rhetoric
Rhetoric
While the structure of our presentation is very similar to that of an essay, we have much more flexibility when it comes to using language to persuade our audience that our argument is valid.
This art of persuasion is known as rhetoric.
Rhetoric - the art of persuading someone of something.
To understand how we can use rhetoric to persuade our audience that our position is valid, let's examine the three modes of persuasion outlined by the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
Modes of persuasion - the three ways a speaker can appeal to their audience when presenting an argument (ethos, logos and pathos).
Ethos
Ethos
Ethos is the art of convincing our audience that our views should be taken seriously. To do this, we can refer to things like our qualifications, experience and familiarity with the subject of our presentation.
Ethos - a mode of persuasion which appeals to a speaker's credibility.
Think about the context of our sample presentation (the Shakespeare in Australian Schools conference). How can presenters at this event appeal to ethos to persuade their audience that their positions are valid?
Consider the following examples.
Christina Jonson
Good morning everyone, I'm glad you made it through the rain to get here. My name is Christina Jonson and I'm a Professor of Literature at the Australian National University. I've spent the last ten years researching Shakespeare's tragedies and I am delighted to speak to you all today.
Ben Marlowe
Hi all. I'm Ben Marlowe and I'm a student over at Ngunnawal High. I've had to suffer through Shakespeare for the last three years of my schooling, so I reckon I've got a pretty good idea about whether or not there's any point studying Shakespeare these days.
How do these speakers appeal to ethos in their greetings?
Both presenters establish their credibility to speak about the subject matter of the conference, although each presenter goes about this in a different way. Jonson draws upon her academic knowledge, while Marlow shares his firsthand experience. Importantly, each presenter can be expected to make an important contribution to the conference and their views should be well received by their audience.
When it comes to crafting a persona for our own presentation we should consider how such a character can appeal to ethos. Remember to consider things like qualifications, experience and familiarity with the subject matter. And, importantly, we should commit to this character when both writing our script and delivering our speech.
Top tip! Commit fully to the persona you adopt for a presentation.
Logos
Logos
Logos is an appeal to the audience's sense of logic. It requires us to present an argument that is rational with each point supported by specific and relevant evidence.
Logos - a mode of persuasion which appeals to objective truths.
Think once more of the Shakespeare in Australian Schools conference. How can each presenter appeal to logos to persuade their audience that their position is valid?
Consider the following examples.
Christina Jonson(professor)
Shakespeare remains relevant to contemporary students because he explores universal themes in his works. Examples of flawed leaders triggering a downward spiral of violence can be found in today's headlines as often as in Shakespeare's plays. As Macbeth says, “Blood will have blood.”
Ben Marlowe (high school student)
Students today shouldn't have to sit through lessons on Shakespeare because they can't understand a word he's saying. Just last week, students in my class were complaining that they had no idea what Macbeth means by a "multitudinous sea" let alone an "incarnadine" one.
How do these speakers appeal to logos in their arguments?
Each presenter uses logic and evidence to engage their audience, although again, each presenter goes about this in a different way. Jonson suggests modern political leaders are akin to tragic Shakespearean heroes, while Marlowe shares an anecdote about a recent class. Importantly, both presenters refer to textual examples to support them, although each of these examples would need to be further analysed to be truly convincing.
When it comes to appealing to logos in our own presentations, we must make sure that our arguments are logical and cohesive, and that we use specific textual references (and, if required, external research) to support our points. Using objective language also assures our audience that we are presenting unbiased information in our argument.
Pathos
Pathos
Pathos is an appeal to the audience's emotions. This helps to generate sympathy for our position by evoking "gut" reactions in our listeners.
Pathos - a mode of persuasion that appeals to an audience's emotions.
With regards to the Shakespeare in Australian Schools conference, how can each presenter appeal to pathos to persuade their audience that their position is valid?
Consider the following examples.
Christina Jonson (professor)
Without Shakespeare, we lose touch with one of the most creative writers in human history. The Bard's masterful ability to shape the English language allowed him to create such memorable moments as Macbeth's lament about the futility of human life: "It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing."
Ben Marlowe (high school student)
Studying Shakespeare every year means students don't get the chance to hear from marginalised voices. Having to listen to a corrupt king complaining "O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!" because he has murdered everyone around him means we miss out on texts created by people facing very real issues today.
How do these speakers appeal to pathos in their arguments?
Each presenter makes an emotional plea for something they care deeply about. Jonson argues that without Shakespeare, modern students lose the opportunity to experience the words of a truly memorable composer. Marlowe maintains that because they are forced to study Shakespeare, students lose the chance to experience texts by modern marginalised communities.
When it comes to appealing to pathos in our own presentations we should make audiences feel that there is something at stake in the issue being discussed, and that we need to help those affected by the situation. By suggesting that our advice will lead to a positive outcome, and that ignoring it will lead to calamity, we encourage our audience to embrace our ideas. We should employ subjective language to achieve this, although we need to be careful of an over-reliance on emotive phrasing in case too much emotion discredits the logos of our argument.
Top Tip! Consider the audience you are presenting to when balancing logos and pathos in your argument.
Delivery
Delivery
While it is one thing to structure and write an effective argument, it is another thing to present this argument to a live audience.
This art of presenting is known as delivery.
Delivery - the transmission of information to a live audience.
We can deliver our presentation through two types of communication: verbal communication and nonverbal communication.
Verbal communication
Verbal communication
Verbal communication relates to the ways we can help our audience to better understand the words that we speak out loud.
Verbal communication - the transmission of meaning through oral speech.
There are a number of ways we can more effectively communicate verbally with our audience:
Speak more clearly. This seems obvious, but if we mumble or stumble over our speech our audience cannot catch what we are saying. The best way to address this issue is to record ourselves and observe the results. It's painful, but it shows us what we're doing wrong so we can do a better job next time.
Speak more loudly. Just because we are saying something out loud doesn't mean that our audience can hear it. We can help to raise the volume of our voice by standing up straight, looking directly ahead, and speaking to the back of the room.
Speak more slowly. We speak quickly when we're nervous, and thus our audience might miss what we're saying. We can lower our rate of speech through repeated rehearsals. Each time we read our script out loud we become more familiar—and comfortable—with the words we have to say.
Vary speech patterns. Robotic speech is dull, whereas natural speech flows in unique and interesting ways. We should take the time to pause after we make an important point, raise and lower the volume of our voice throughout our speech, and speak warmly or coldly about a topic depending on how we want our audience to feel about it.
Speak in character. Whatever persona we have chosen for our presentation, we should think about how this individual would address their audience. Would they have an accent? use humour? try to scare or frighten? By speaking in character we encourage our audience to relate to the fictional persona we have created.
Nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication relates to the ways we can help our audience to understand us without speaking out loud.
Nonverbal communication - the transmission of meaning without oral speech.
There are a number of ways we can use nonverbal communication when delivering our presentation:
Maintain eye contact. We trust people who look us in the eye, and so we want to face our audience as much as possible during our speech. To practice this, we can record ourselves speaking directly to a camera, and then watch the footage to see how much time we spend looking up or down.
Use facial expressions. We trust people who smile while they are talking to us, and so we should smile at our audience as much as possible when presenting. In addition, if we want our audience to feel a certain way at a given moment in our speech we should wear this emotion plainly on our face.
Use gestures. If we watch two people speaking to one another, it is rare for them to stand or sit still for long. Rather, they wave their hands around, nod or shake their heads, and laugh at something that was just said. We should also do this while presenting. And, when it comes to our supporting visuals, we should interact with these in the same way that a weather presenter interacts with their map on television.
Move around. While we may have a podium or similar prop before us in a presentation, we should not feel chained to it. Rather, we should feel free to move around the stage, or even the room, to energise our presentation.
Perform in character. Remember to act with your whole body when playing your chosen character. Does this character exaggerate their facial expressions or gestures? Do they have a unique stance that the audience can associate with them? Performing as a believable character will endear this character in the minds of the audience.
Supporting Text
Supporting Text
Should we deliver our presentation using a script? palm cards? memory alone?
It depends.
Script
Script
If you have absolutely no confidence in your ability to present, well, first of all don't worry because you're going to do fine. And second of all, it may be best to simply read from a script.
If you do this, I recommend you print your script so you don't have to worry about running out of charge or not being able to find your PowerPoint file. I also recommend pausing at the end of each sentence to look around the room, using facial expressions and gestures to emphasise your points accordingly.
Top tip! When reading from a script, look up at your audience at the end of each sentence.
Palm cards
Palm cards
If you would like to focus on presenting to your audience, rather than simply reading to them, try using palm cards.
If you do this, I recommend using cards made from nice thick cardboard rather than thin paper, and make sure you number your cards in case you drop them (heaven forbid). I also recommend handwriting your cards with a nice sharpie, and highlighting anything you want to emphasise.
When it comes to putting information on your palm cards, I recommend using one card for each section of your presentation:
Card 1 - Opening
Card 2 - Introduction
Card 3 - First point
Card 4 - Second point
Card 5 - Third point
Card 6 - Conclusion
Use dot points to separate information on each card and keywords rather than full sentences to remind you what to say.
By doing this, you speak more openly and spontaneously, giving the impression that you are speaking to your audience, rather than at them.
Top Tip! Use palm cards if you would like to engage your audience more openly.
Memorising
Memorising
If you would like to appear as professional as possible in your presentation you can memorise your speech in full.
If you do this, you will need to rehearse.
A lot.
Memorising a full speech is by no means impossible, but you will need to spend a lot of time getting ready.
Fortunately, the results are very impressive: being freed of a script or palm cards means you can move around the room at leisure, gesturing and pointing to information on your supporting visuals as needed.
There is also a wonderful sense of satisfaction that comes from delivering a speech unaided, and your audience will appreciate being addressed by someone who is clearly prepared and confident in their material.
Top Tip! Memorise your speech in full if you would like to appear confident and professional in your presentation.
Supporting Visuals
Supporting Visuals
For many oral presentation tasks, we have the opportunity to support our speech with visual information.
Be careful here.
Very careful.
It is tempting to support the words of our speech by creating a slideshow that contains these exact same words. Surely this will reinforce what we are trying to say?
No—no it will not.
Putting the language of our speech on a slide means our audience will be busy trying to read this slide, rather than listening to what we are saying. All of our nonverbal communication now becomes wasted, and our audience becomes desynchronised because some people read more quickly than others.
As a result, we should put as few words as possible on our slides.
Top Tip! Avoid putting too many words on your slides.
So, if we are not going to use our supporting visuals to simply mirror our speech, what are we going to use them for?
The answer is in the name: supporting visuals.
Our slideshow should support our speech, not replace it. After all, we are going to stand in front of a screen, not behind it.
With this in mind, we can think of our slideshow as a visual representation of our argument: something that guides our reader through the various points we are making to support our position.
Thus, we can structure our slideshow in the same way as our argument:
Slide 1 - Opening
Slide 2 - Introduction
Slide 3 - First point
Slide 4 - Second point
Slide 5 - Third point
Slide 6 - Conclusion
(If we are using palm cards, this also mirrors the number of cards nicely.)
When it comes to putting information on each slide, again, try to put as little text as possible. That said, there are two exceptions to this rule.
The first is that we should write our position and supporting points in full. These sentences are important and we should read them aloud when they appear on screen.
The second exception is quotations. The language of textual examples or quoted secondary material is also important, and these sentences should likewise be read aloud in full.
Lastly, we absolutely should put images on our supporting visuals. Pictures communicate ideas and emotions in ways that are simply not possible through speech, and we should use these pictures to engage our audience wherever appropriate.
Top Tip! A picture equals a thousand words so do not be afraid to use images in your slideshow.
Slide Design
Slide Design
Also be careful here.
There is a temptation to use flashy graphics and video effects to impress our audience when delivering a presentation (I'm looking at you, Prezi).
In reality, however, these effects can distract the people listening to our speech, rather than impressing them.
That is not to say that themes, animations and transitions should be avoided altogether. Only that these tool should support our presentation, not supplant it.
With this in mind, a simple, well-chosen theme can create a sense of visual cohesion for our slideshow. In addition, elegant fade transitions can effectively guide our audience through each section of our argument, while fade-in animations can be used to drip feed ideas, avoiding information overload.
Sample slideshow
Sample slideshow
Consider the following example of a minimalist slideshow that supports a speech, rather than replacing it.
Once we are comfortable making simple, effective slideshows we can, of course, begin to experiment. This can lead to engaging slideshows with striking visual designs and bespoke animations, and such visuals can complement a speech in interesting and evocative ways.
Just don't get carried away.
References
References
When using a quotation or paraphrasing to support a point, it is acceptable to put this information on a slide and read it directly to the audience. Make sure to include who the source is and when the information was published. If using a quotation, be sure to include the page and/or line details.
If you are required to include a reference list, make sure to format this in line with your teachers expectations. APA style formatting is covered in detail in the Referencing Sources guide.
On Presentations
On Presentations
Presentations seem scary, but they don't have to be.
The more time we spend planning, writing and rehearsing a presentation, the more confident we become with our material. And, the more confident we become, the more professionally we can deliver our final speech to our audience.
Each of us has important things to say about the world and we should not feel afraid to share these.
Downloadable Resources
Downloadable Resources
Presentation Breakdown
A two-page document which summarises the information presented in this guide.
Presentation Breakdown.pdfGoogle Sites
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