What should you do when practicing the delivery of your presentation?
Chapter 6: Developing Presentations Show
There is no foolproof recipe for good delivery. You are a unique person, and you embody different experiences and interests from others. This means you have an approach, or a style, that is effective for you. It also means that your concern about what others think of you can cause anxiety, even during the most carefully researched and interesting presentation. But there are some techniques you can use to minimize that anxious feeling and put yourself in the best possible position to succeed on presentation day. You need to prepare for your presentation in as realistic a simulation as possible. What follows are some general tips you should keep in mind, but they all essentially derive from one very straight-forward premise: Practice your presentation beforehand, at home or elsewhere, the way you will give it in person. Practice Your Presentation Out LoudPractice allows you to learn what to say, when and how to say it, but it also lets you know where potential problems lie. Since you will be speaking with a normal volume for your presentation, you need to practice that way, even at home. This help you learn the presentation, but it will help identify any places where you tend to mispronounce words. Also, sentences on paper do not always translate well to the spoken medium. Practicing out loud allows you to actually hear where you have trouble and fix it before getting up in front of the audience. Practice Your Presentation Standing UpSince you will be standing for your presentation (in all likelihood), you need to practice that way. As we mention in more detail below, the default position for delivering a presentation is with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent. Practising this way will help develop muscle memory and will make it feel more natural when you are doing it for real. Practice Your Presentation with an AudienceThe best way to prepare for the feeling of having someone watch you while giving a presentation is to have someone watch you while you practice. Ask your colleagues, friends, family, or significant other to listen to you while running through what you will say. Not only will you get practice in front of an audience, but they may be able to tell you about any parts that were unclear or problems you might encounter when delivering it on the day. During practice, it may help to pick out some strategically placed objects around the room to occasionally glance at just to get into the habit of looking around more often and making eye contact with multiple people in your audience. Practice Your Presentation for TimeYou’ll likely have a time limit for presentation. As a rule of thumb, plan to have a 60-second “buffer” at the end of your presentation, in case something goes wrong. For example, if your presentation is set for 10 minutes, plan for nine minutes. Should you rush through or end early, make sure you can add more detail to the end of your presentation if needed. With all of this in mind, practising at least three times at home will ensure your presentation is properly timed. Practice Your Presentation by Filming YourselfThere is nothing that gets you to change what you’re doing or correct a problem quicker than seeing yourself doing something you don’t like on video. By watching yourself, you will notice all the small things you do that might prove to be distracting during the actual presentation. It is important enough that it deserves reiterating: Practice your speech beforehand, at home or elsewhere, the way you will give it on the scheduled day. Have you heard this claim? This may be acceptable for scenarios where you don’t care about the result, but in all other cases, it’s hogwash. The eighth in the Speech Preparation Series, this article provides practical ideas for maximizing the benefit from your practice time. Why Practice? Does Practice Make Perfect?Practicing your speech is essential, but I’d be foolish to suggest that practice alone will result in a “that was the best speech I’ve ever heard” response from your audience. For this, you need to master essential public speaking skills and build up experience doing so. So, while practice you won’t necessarily make you perfect, you will reap significant benefits by practicing your speech at least a couple times:
How to Rehearse Your Speech“Rehearsing even one time will improve your confidence in your material.” You might practice for 60 hours. You might practice for 60 minutes. Either way, here are a few tips that will help you achieve maximum benefit from time spent rehearsing:
Soliciting Feedback“After the rehearsal, actively solicit feedback. Make it clear that you want honest opinions about what could be improved.” Practicing your speech is good. Practicing with an audience gives you valuable feedback:
After the rehearsal, actively solicit feedback. Make it clear that you want honest opinions about what could be improved. A dozen “Good speech!” comments may boost your ego, but it won’t boost the quality of your speech. To reap feedback that will improve your speech, ask open-ended questions like these:
This is far better than asking yes/no questions such as “Did you like it?” If the presentation is important to you, and you don’t have a test audience that provides you with valuable feedback, hire a coach! Hire me or one of thousands of speech coaches. Audio RecordingsAudio recordings help you gauge many delivery qualities, including speaking pace, pitch, and pauses.
I recently acquired the inexpensive Olympus WS-311M digital voice recorder for speech rehearsals. It is small (easy to carry) and has all the features I need for recording and playing back speeches. I encourage you to check it out along with competing products.
Video RecordingsA video recording of yourself speaking is an incredibly powerful tool. All of your habits — both good and bad — are captured. In addition to the audio assessments mentioned in the previous section, you can also learn:
I own an older model Sony DCR-TRV33 which records digitally on MiniDV tapes, but I’m sure any modern video camera is sufficient. The one luxury upgrade I wish I had is a lavalier microphone to capture better sound quality than the camera’s built-in microphone. Practical Example — Face the WindI practiced my 2007 contest speech Face the Wind more than any other speech I’ve ever delivered. Here are the most valuable lessons I learned:
Next in the Speech Preparation SeriesYou are ready to deliver your speech. Good luck! You will be awesome. Immediately after the speech, the time is ripe for preparing for the next one. Productive self-critiquing is the focus of the next article in the Speech Preparation Series. is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada. How do you practice presentation delivery?Here are five ways in which you can practice your presentation skills.. Rehearse in front of a crowd. Standing in front of a group of people, giving your speech and seeing their reactions is a great way to boost your confidence in your material and delivery. ... . Take notes. ... . Experiment. ... . Time yourself. ... . Record yourself.. What steps do you follow in practicing your presentation?How to prepare for a presentation. Outline your presentation. ... . Practice your presentation ahead of time. ... . Read and revise your presentation. ... . Write with your audience in mind. ... . Take cues from professional speakers. ... . Arrive early. ... . Practice your hand gestures. ... . Take some deep breaths.. What should you do before delivering a presentation?How to Prepare for a Presentation, with Examples. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse (always aloud) ... . Memorise your opening line. ... . Practise your speech from written notes. ... . Practise presentation flow. ... . The power of silence. ... . Have a backup. ... . Arrive early. ... . Use physical props for a demo.. What are the 3 most important steps when delivering a presentation?The strategies and steps below are provided to help you break down what you might view as a large job into smaller, more manageable tasks.. Step 1: Analyze your audience. ... . Step 2: Select a topic. ... . Step 3: Define the objective of the presentation.. |