Giving presentations - OpenLearn - The Open University

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4 Preparing your presentation

4.1 Gathering your thoughts

We assume that by now you have clarified the subject and purpose of your talk; you have identified the intended audience; and you have some idea of the situation at the venue. Now you need to focus on the material and the structure of your presentation.

This is the time to gather your thoughts and assemble material that may be useful. Keep in mind that you may be able to think about the talk even at odd moments ? when you are doing other jobs, for instance, or travelling to work. You may find it useful to carry a notebook to jot down ideas as they occur to you. Some of the best ideas occur when you are not actually working on the topic at hand. Sources for material could include books, journals, radio and TV programmes, the internet, discussions with colleagues and friends, and so on. You may want to consider exploring ideas and thoughts in this section as well by using various techniques.

This image shows an activity map with notes written down in three columns. The first column is headed ?your notes?. The second column is headed ?primary data?. The third column is headed ?your ideas?. The entry on the first row of information states that the primary data is ?some possible diagrams or pictures. The ideas associated with this are ?Here you have a wide range of ?things? that might work in a presentation?. The entry on the second row states that the primary data is ?Some possible candidates?. The ideas associated with this are ?Which of these will work well or be the most suitable for your presentation??. On the third row, there are entries in all three columns. The first ?your notes? states ?Important points or conclusion?. The primary data column states ?Some interesting ideas to start with?. The ideas associated with this are ?Some strong ideas which support your conclusion ? or illustrate your points ? could be diagrams, text, photos or other?. At the bottom of the activity map there is a statement, which reads ?Further refining in order to fit all the ideas together appropriately, logically and within your time slot?. Figure 4: A possible activity map for constructing your content and structure in a presentationLong description

The key to organising your material is to have a definite structure. In this section we'll cover a series of exercises which illustrate the importance of having a beginning, middle and end to your talk. We won't go into depth just yet about the delivery of your presentation; we will look at the preparation you need to do to gather and organise all the information you'll be using.

4.2 Structure of your presentation

The content of any presentation needs to have a clear structure. This will allow the audience to understand your main themes and leave the presentation feeling that it has been a worthwhile experience.

In Section 1, we suggested that most presentations work well by using ?a Rule of 3?. This is shown below in Figure 5.