The Art of Presenting: Getting It Right in the Post-Modern World (How to Succeed (Radcliffe))

This informal, fun guide is ideal for anyone involved in public speaking; addressing a group of people in a wide range of situations including lecturing as part of your day job, presenting research findings to your academic peers, and presenting to potential future colleagues as part of an interview process. These situations are all different, and as with many things, context is everything. Whether you’re working with large or small audiences, there are basic rules for speaking that should never be overshadowed by bewildering presentation technology. Cover 1 Title Page 2 Copyright Page 3 Contents 4 Preface 7 What this book is about 7 Who this book is for 7 Why I wrote this book 8 About this book 9 1 Introduction: the three eras of presentation 12 Era 1: The pre-modern era of presentation 12 Era 2: The modern era of presentation 13 Era 3: The post-modern era of presentation 17 2 Ten questions to answer by planning your talk, and your answers 20 Question 1: How do I plan to be spontaneous? 20 Question 2: What is the talk about? 22 Question 3: Who is the talk aimed at? 23 Question 4: What knowledge may be assumed? 26 Question 5: How long should it be? 28 Question 6: How big can a chunk be? 31 Question 7: What are the key messages? 33 Question 8: How will you help people remember them? 34 Question 9: What is the take-home message? 36 Question 10: What's in the party bag, and what shall I do with it? 36 And so in summary: what should my plan look like? 38 3 Ten questions to answer about giving your talk 40 Question 1: What style should I adopt? 40 Question 2: What should I wear? 41 Question 3: Do I talk with my hands? 46 Question 4: Should I use humour? 48 Question 5: Should I use anecdotes? 51 Question 6: How fast should I go? 52 Question 7: How loudly should I talk? 54 Question 8: How do I reinforce my key messages without boring my listeners? 56 Question 9: How do I handle questions? 59 Question 10: How much detail do I need to include in the talk? 61 4 Ten things to do with presentation graphics that aren’t bulleted lists that whizz in and do a quick orbit before settling down in a font that can’t be read from the front row 64 Things to do 1: Go minimal 64 Things to do 2: Use the graphics before and after but not during 67 Things to do 3: Fluffy clouds 68 Things to do 4: Build transition: explaining a process 71 Things to do 5: Images for reinforcement 73 Things to do 6: Take a tiered approach to detail 79 Things to do 7: Use presentation slides as milestones or signposts 81 Things to do 8: Repetition for reinforcement 84 Things to do 9: Send on the warm-up act 95 Things to do 10: Clues for non-native speakers 98 5 The take-home message 100 6 The afterword 102 The Appendix: the handouts 104 Index 120 Suitable for those involved in public speaking, this guide addresses a group of people in a range of situations including: lecturing as part of your day job; presenting research findings to your academic peers; and presenting to potential future colleagues as part of an interview process.