Top tips for giving a presentation in English

First of all, I’m writing this post for all the people who want or need to make a presentation but they don’t know how to. If you’re one of them, then check out this post.

Planning your presentation.

It’s very important to plan because if you don’t, maybe, when you are giving the presentation you won’t remember what you want to say. What’s more, you don’t want your presentation to be confusing and hard to understand. 

• Think about what you are going to talk about
• Decide on the key points you want to make
• Choose some nice expressions to use during your talk.

 Prepare

Good preparation is essential! If you are not well prepared, things could go very wrong. If you know what you are doing and are well organised, you can deal with any unexpected problems that may come up!

• Brainstorm everything you already know about the topic.
• Do some research – Watch you tube videos, use relevant webpages for example National Geographic is a great place to get information about animals and nature. If you are doing a presentation on space, visit the NASA site.
• Be careful to make sure that you are using official sites because there is a lot of fake news and incorrect information available on the internet!
• Make notes – Write down all the important and interesting things you learn so that you don’t forget to use them in your presentation. 

The structure of your presentation.

Not every presentation is the same but here is a structure that I usually use. 

The introduction.

Making an introduction is very simple, you only have to have practice a little bit to make it even easier. Remember to make it fun and interesting from the start so that your audience is paying attention.

• Introduce yourself.
• Say what you are going to talk about.
• You might want to share a fun fact.
• Ask the audience a question 

Main points

• Start with the most important points. 
• Keep the paragraphs / talking time balanced. Don’t spend too long on one point and only say one sentence about another. 
• Use connectors such as; first, then later, finally, also, however, therefore, 
• Try not to repeat vocabulary. Think of synonyms

Finishing off

• Summarise the key points you want to make.
• Express your own point of view and opinion on the topic. Say how you feel about it. 
• Thank the audience for listening and ask if they have any questions. 

Designing your slides

I personally like to use Canva because it’s very adaptable and you can design things however you want. However, if you use genially or google presentations it’s also fine.

• Title – Your title needs to be eye catching. Make it big and bright. Use a cool font. I like to use a background image which is a little transparent.
• Animate the transition between your slides.
• Use images.
• Make a sub heading slide for each of your key points. 
• Keep the text as short as possible.
• Using videos – When you finish talking about a key point you could add a short video to support your ideas, help explain any difficult concepts and provide a visual example. You can add a quiz question connected with the video content.  Keep the video clips short – 30 seconds to 1 minute long, depending on how much time you have. Youtube shorts are also useful. 
• Make the last slide fun with animation and a joke.

My Top Tips

Make the presentation interactive because nobody likes listening to someone talking for too long. Some ways to do could be to ask questions, show short videos, do a quick quiz or play a game.

Keep it natural. If you are like a stick and standing there feeling scared it’s not that much fun for the audience.

Practice 

You can study for presentations by using your phone, you film yourself, or perhaps you would like to do it in front of a mirror. Another great way to practice is to give the presentation to your parents, friends, etc.

Useful expressions to use…