Become a Good Presenter, Would you?

by Novi Anggreyani, 1506689931

Student of Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Indonesia

“Have you ever been assigned to do a presentation?” “Can I do that

presentation?” “How is the easiest way to make a presentation?” ”How can I
become a good presenter?”
Maybe these questions already exist in every student’s mind. To be a good
presenter, first you must have communication skills. Because, communication is an
important aspect in our daily lives. We need to have good communication skills to
demonstrate our idea, especially when making presentations. A presenter is a person
who give some information or a new knowledge to other people in the class, in the
middle of lecture, etc. A presenter must be know very well what will they are
speaking, so a presenter can give good and excellent information. There are some
advice to prepare the good and excellent presentation, which is divided into three
stages, that is: preparation stage, presentation stage, and post-presenting stage
(Khoo, 2004).
First, preparation stage. In this stage, the presenter must make a planning of
presentation. Research your topic well (as you would when writing an essay) so that
you can speak authoritatively and persuasively. After that, Organize your points in
the most effective order that is appropriate for the topic that you are presenting
(Khoo, 2004). This is similar to preparing for a written assignment. However, one
important difference is that your written preparation for your presentation should
not be in complete sentences. Last in preparation stage for a great presentation is
mental preparation. You must feel good about yourself and confident about what
you said (Howard, 2010). According to Oregon State University (2009), there are
seven things in planning a presentation, such as:

1. Choose a topic
Choosing one topic make us more easy to finished a presentation, the
audience also will be able to sense our enthusiasm when we give talk.
Choose a topic that fits your knowledge and skill level. If you are an

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experienced presenter, challenge yourself by explore a new area or try a

different type of presentation. Use this as an opportunity to grow and learn
(Oregon State University, 2009). After that, choose a title. The title is your
first opportunity to capture the interest of the audience. Criteria of title are:
short and to the point, descriptive, provocative, image-making, and fun
(Oregon State University, 2009).
2. Determine the purpose, you need to decide what type of presentation you
will give. Ask yourself what the purpose of your presentation is and what
response you want from the audience.
3. Gather the information, Information you gather needs to be current and
accurate. If you are using someone’s opinion, try to find a second source to
confirm it (Oregon State University, 2009).
4. The outline of presentation or write, List the important points you want
to make and arrange them in a logical order. Example:
 Introduction
o Opening/attention-getter
o Introduce yourself
o Preview of what you will demonstrate
 Body
o Step 1  explain how to do each step and why you do it that
way
o Step 2  Support and Support
o Step 3  Support and Support & Finished product
 Conclusion
o summary of steps
o catchy ending
o cite sources
For staters, we do not follow the standard slideshow procedure (Burmark, 2011):

a. The presenter creates a series of slides with bulleted text

b. The software automatically transforms the slides into handouts.
c. The presenter reads the slides to the audience
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Because what a waste of time for the audience. More than one audience asked: “why
didn;t you just email me the handout?” (Burkmark, 2011).

5. Select visual aids, If you are giving a demonstration or an illustrated talk,

you must have at least one visual aid. Remember, no visual aids are allowed
for speeches (Oregon State University, 2009).
6. Last, practice. The more you practice, the more comfortable and confident
you will be when giving your talk.
After all that has been done, you have to organize the point from infomation
that you have got from the research. the most important thing is mental
preparation to make sure that you can control your self of your fearness, feel
good about yourself (Khoo, 2004).

The second stage to prepare the good and excellent presentation is

presentation stage. In this stage, we must gets attention of the audience by dressing
well. We must feel confident, which is showed that you are happy and lucky to
stand up in front of the audience (Oregon State University, 2009). There are many
ways to attracting attention from the audience, such as connecting the topic that you
are speaking with the participant’s life, using facial expression and gestures, using
visual aids, questioning, responding to participant’s answer and calling on audience
(Khoo, 2004). That’s ways can surely make the audience’s attention focus on what
you are speaking. That ways can be working helping by your manners, attitude and
confident. Don’t forget to speak loudly and clearly so that the audience in the last
row can hear you. Relax and use humour in the middle of the presentation to make
ice breaking from the first speaking from you. Conclude by reiterating your
important points. Thank your audience for their attention (Richards, 2016).
After the presentation is finished just look forward to answer the questions,
because it means the audience found your presentation interesting. To be persuasive
you need to connect with your audience. People buy on emotion and justify with
fact (Richards, 2016). Talk as performance tends to be in the form of monolog rather
than dialog, often follows a recognizable format (e.g. a speech of wellcome) and is
closer to written language than conversational language. Example of talk as
performance is making a presentation. Consider the words that you will use. Words
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can cast an almost hypnotic spell upon you. You easily lose yourself in them,
become hypnotized into implicitly believing that when you have attached a word to
something (Burkmark, 2011). So use words that are effective and appropriate.
Last stage is post-presenting stage. After the presentation is completed, the
presenter also allow time for the audience to provide questions, as the presenter is
obliged to answer all the question. Make your self enjoy with the presentation, by
do not always get back to your seat. Remember to reflect on your presentation to
identify your strengths and weaknesses that have to be shown (Oregon State
University, 2009).

In conclusion, communication is an important aspect in our daily lives.

There are three stage in preparing the good and excellent presentation preparation
stage, presentation stage, and post presenting stage. Do more practice, because the
more you practice, the more confident when you doing presentations.

References:

Burkmark, L. (2011). They Snooze, You lose: The Educator’s Guide to Successful
Presentations. USA: Jossey-Bass.

Howard, D. (2010). Be a Good Presenter Pocket Guide to Success. Retrivied from:

http://www.davidhowardtraining.com/pdfs/Be_a_Good_Presenter.pdf on
February 19, 2017 at 7.37 P.M.

Oregon State University. (2009). Steps in Planning a Presentation. Retrivied from:

http://oregon.4h.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/projects/communication/
Steps_in_Planning_a_Presentation.pdf on February 29, 2017 at 8.30 P.M.

Khoo, Elaine. (2004). “How To Become A Good Presenter”. Retrieved From:

http://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/sites/default/files/Presenting.pdf/ on
February 29, 2017 at 6.30 P.M.

Richards, J. C. (2016). Teaching Listening and Speaking: From Theory to Practice.

Retrieved from: http://www.professorjackrichards.com/wp-
content/uploads/teaching-listening-and-speaking-from-theory-to-
practice.pdf on February 29, 2017 at 9.00 P.M.