1. Oral Presentations to Impress
VCE English
Christian College
Using Language to Persuade
Oral Presentation

2. The Presentation Process
Identify
the purpose
& objective
Consider
your
audience
Structure
your
presentation
Deliver
the
presentation
Practise
the
presentation
Prepare your
notes &
visual aids
Evaluate your
performance

3. What is the PURPOSE of your oral presentation?
What are you hoping to achieve with your presentation?
Are you using PERSUASIVE LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES effectively?
Being clear about its purpose helps you to decide what to INCLUDE or OMIT
Ask yourself, ‘Did I achieve my purpose?’

4. Who is your audience? Consider the following:
What is the benefit to the audience of listening to your presentation?
What do they already know about the topic?
What interests your audience?
How will what you are going to say affect them?

5. Failure to think of your audience…
They COULD feel:
Alienated - if you offend their values
Insulted - if you fail to recognise and acknowledge their existing knowledge
Confused - if you assume a level of knowledge that they (or YOU!) don’t have
Bored - if you fail to relate to them
Frustrated - if they are not given the opportunity to question your ideas at the end

6. Learn from Experience
Consider a presentation that you have seen that was very effective. What made it so? (think of career talks, classroom presentations, visiting professionals etc.)
Consider a presentation that you have seen that you thought was unsuccessful. What made it so?

7. Signpost. Structure. Summary.
Tell them what you are going to tell them.
Tell them.
Tell them what you told them.

8. Introduction
In an order that suits you, include the following in your introduction:
The issue
Your point of view or CONTENTION
Objectives
Background to the issue
Tell the audience what’s in it for them
Attention grabber - image, quote, statistic, tone, demonstration

9. The Body
Consider each of the following points when you design each key point (or paragraph) of your presentation:
Give accurate/researched details
Smooth and logical order of ideas
Use PERSUASIVE LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES to persuade and influence your audience
Tell them how this applies to them
Make sure the point backs up the claims you made at the start of your presentation

10. The Conclusion Summarise your key points
Remind them of the advantages of your point of view
Tell them how they should USE your ideas
Closing attention grabber - can be similar to the one in the introduction or linked in some way, or completely different
Invite questions - but don’t delay too long if no-one has any to ask
End on a high - avoid saying ‘That’s it!’

11. How do you remember what you want to present?
Memorising
Using notes
Using visual aides as notes
Reading from complete text???

12. Audio-Visual Impact

13. Using Visual Aides
How could YOU use the following aides in your presentation?
White board?
Charts/diagrams?
PowerPoint?
Video?

14. Impact of Body Language

15. Body Language to Avoid!
Continuous staring at one person or object - vary your eye contact
Constantly rubbing, itching, moving!
Constantly clearing your throat
Crossing your arms or legs
Shuffling your feet and swaying
Swinging or leaning on the lectern or leaning on the board/wall

16. Engaging Body Language
Stand up straight and face the audience front-on
Hold your head up high - gives a sense of pride and confidence
Use your hands to emphasise and reinforce
Vary your gestures

17. So, why should you rehearse?
To get the content order right
To adjust timing
To commit to memory (just a suggestion!)
To decide what to emphasise
To practice variations in voice tone and body language
To make sure visual aides are visible and will be used effectively

18. Nervous? Avoid negative thoughts Prepare and practice
Think about your audience
Think of yourself succeeding
Act confident and you’ll FEEL confident
Be proud of what you achieve!

19. In summary… PREPARE! Purpose - establish what it is
Research your topic
Experiment with visual aids
Plan your ideas
Audience - know what they want
Rehearse your presentation
Early - prepare early to avoid rushing

20. Evaluation Immediately after the presentation… BE PROUD!
An hour after the presentation…
PMI (Positive, Minus, Interesting)
A month after the presentation…
IMPROVEMENTS
Next time you do a presentation…
YOUR DECISION!

21. Good Luck!