Social Service Worker

Whether it’s in class or at work, there are times when we must stand in front of a group of people and present information.

It’s one of the major ways we share ideas and doing it well can be a very important skill. But where do we start? What goes into a great presentation?

Let’s assume you’ll use presentation software like PowerPoint or Keynote and your goal is to educate a group about space travel.

To start, think about all the ideas you’ll want to cover and document them .One way to do this is on sticky notes. Take some time to write down all the points you think are relevant, one point for each note, and stick them on a wall. Then, take a step back and think about groups of ideas. Are some of the notes related to others?

Move the sticky notes into 3-5 major groups and take out what’s not relevant. Now that your ideas are organized, it’s time to think about what you’ll say about each idea.

For this, you can create an outline. Give each group a name and add the ideas in that group as sub points in the outline. These points should all relate back to the group subject. Feel free to write out specific things you’d like to say on each point.

Now you’ve accomplished something very important - the ideas in your talk are organized in a logical way. This makes your presentation easy to follow.

Next, let’s consider the actual presentation. Open the presentation software and create a bunch of blank slides. Here, each slide will represent a major point in your talk.

Referring to your outline, add your notes slide-by-slide until all your points are present. Now you have an organized presentation with major points for each slide.

But you still need visuals that your audience will see. Resist the urge to include everything you say or create bullet points for each idea. The best, most effective presentations don’t use a lot of words on the slides.

Instead, consider how photos, drawings, diagrams or shapes can support the points you’ll make. It’s this combination of speech and on-screen visuals that works best because visuals make your points easy to remember.

With the visuals in place, you can use the notes for each slide to document what you’d like to say in the presentation.

Before you know it, your presentation will be ready for lift-off.