1. Introduction to Engineering Oral Presentation Details
Agenda
Review good practices for preparing and giving an oral presentation
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2. Key Topics Purpose and preparation Making the presentation Q&A
Practicing your talk and tips to remember
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3. Goals Help the audience understand what you have done
Make them want to read the written report
On every important thing to remind the students is that this is a technical presentation and not a sales pitch. Although, appearance is very important it should stick to facts and details.
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4. Preparation “Know” your audience and target your talk accordingly.
Do not try to cover everything!
Know how much time is allotted for your talk and allow 1-2 minutes per slide.
Plan for each team member to present a portion of the report.
Your audience will consist of the following make-up: two-thirds of the audience will be engineers, interested in design characteristics. Therefore students will attempt to convince the engineers of the merit of their design. The other one-third will be a mixture of marketing types. For example, accountants and executives.
Make sure you tell the audience what you want them to know in the time that you have.
Always have a back up for the presentation that you have made.
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5. Making the Presentation
Your presentation should follow an outline similar to your written report.
Begin by giving your team name and introducing team members.
Tell the audience your plan, and when you’re switching topics.
Remember to give a statement of the problem, and outline the presentation for the audience. Include preliminary ideas, analysis and preliminary tests, description of the final design, and a summary. Conclude with thanking the audience for their time, and asking if anyone has any questions.
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6. Making the Presentation
Use your slides to guide your presentation.
Slides should contain only the basic information – in your presentation, elaborate on the key points
Do NOT read your slides verbatim.
Be sure to explain graphs and charts in sufficient detail.
Use your slides as a supplement to your presentation, but the audience should be listening to you, rather than just reading the slides. However, give the audience enough time in the presentation to do both.
Make sure information is precise and clear and not filled with jargon and cliché phrases.
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7. Q&A (Questions and Answers)
Be sure to finish with time remaining for questions from the audience.
Listen carefully to each question.
Before answering, repeat the question for the entire class.
Keep your answer to the point and as short as possible.
“I don’t know” may sometimes be the best answer you’re able to come up with - never try to bluff!
A presentation is not a one-way street. If it were, it would make more sense to simply write your report and distribute it. The Q&A session is an opportunity for getting feedback, generating ideas, identifying possible problems or solutions, etc.
Do not begin answering until the questioner finishes his or her question and, if needed, take a few seconds to think before you begin your response. In a large room, it’s a good idea to repeat the question so that everyone in the audience knows what it is.
Keep your answer on topic - resist the urge to expand. Speakers often end up giving a windy response to a simple question, talking about things totally unrelated to the initial query.
You may be asked a question for which you are not expected to know the answer (e.g., “What’s the meaning of life?”). The questioner wants to hear you speculate and demonstrate how well you think on your feet. A response of “I don’t know”, although true, is not the desirable answer here!
In other cases, you may be asked something for which you should know the answer but do not. In this case, “I don’t know” may not be a good answer, but it is always better than trying to save face by bluffing your way out of a tough spot. Many a speaker has dug their own grave by making up less-than-truthful answers instead simply saying they didn’t know.
Long Term Assignment - 2

8. Practice! Silent rehearsal doesn’t count!
Time yourself during practice.
Memorize what you’re going to say for the first few slides – this makes it easier to ad-lib later.
Don’t practice too much!
If you don’t practice then both you and your audience will be hearing the talk for the first time, and this can be embarrassing the the event of mistakes.
Practice helps you get used to the sound of your own voice and helps you find the correct rhythm and pace. Silent practice can be misleading – you can imagine yourself speaking very eloquently but when you try actually opening your mouth and doing it you often find it much more difficult.
If you practice too much, you’ll get bored with the topic and your boredom will show in your presentation – the audience will quickly follow suit.
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9. Tips
Dress is business casual, but remember to look and act professional.
Respect your audience – they could be elsewhere!
Don’t waste their time
Speak clearly so everyone can hear
Maintain eye contact – do not talk to the screen
Don’t apologize – do your best, be proud of what you have to say.
Business casual includes shirt and tie, button-down, or polo shirt with slacks for men, dressy shirt and slacks or skirt for women.
Give the audience something worthwhile to hear. Maintain professionalism, but keep the audience interested.
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10. Overview Oral Presentation
You must also submit a hard copy of your final set of presentation slides.(6 slides to a page)
“Hand-out style” slides refers to doing slides “6-up” (see the lecture on Fundamentals of PowerPoint)
Refer students to assignment handouts for more detail.
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11. Assignment Read Chapters 3 & 6 in “Project Management & Teamwork”
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