Presenting and public speaking is undoubtedly one of your tasks as a PhD student. Most of us just try to survive it somehow. The book “As we speak” shows the reader how to make the most of your presentation. It also makes preparing your presentation much less daunting.
I recommend reading “As we speak” to everyone who has to present. This book is a great read and contains helpful tips and strategies to present well and get your point across. It helps not only PhD students but also presenters in all stages of life. I do recommend reading the entire book.
Yet, if you are like me, you are reading this blog post the day before your big presentation. With your talk just around the corner, you want to get some order in the chaos that is your talk. Read the following three strategies for delivering a kick-ass presentation.
Visualize the outcome
Visualize the outcome from your presentation before you start to prepare it. Chances are you are going through all your results, methods, and data right now. And you are preparing your talk by stuffing it all into your presentation. Stop. Hold on a second. Think about the goal you want to achieve with your talk. Why do you give this presentation? To what end?
Let’s be realistic. PhD students are not always entirely autonomous in their decisions. Oftentimes the answer will be: “I need to give this talk because my supervisor asked me to.”
Still, there is a goal you want to achieve with your presentation. This goal could be to give an overview of your work. It could be to show your supervisor that you making progress. Or it could be that your request for funding gets approved. Whatever it is, identify it first before you do anything else.
Consider the listener
Think about who your audience is. Tailor your talk accordingly. Why should they care what you have to say? Why is it relevant for them? If they know why it is relevant for them, they will listen to what you have to say. This means, that you do not present all the data you ever generated. Most of it is not relevant for them. Don’t be afraid to cut most of it out.
In the next step, think about what does the listener need to know in order for you to reach your desired outcome.
Keeping your audience in mind also means to make it easy for them. Try to limit yourself to three main aspects or findings. Summarize your findings or take-home message in the end of your talk.
Bring your point across
Bring your point across very clearly. When your talk is over, don’t leave the audience wondering “What is your point?“. Drive your point home. This means that you have to boil down the message of your presentation to only one sentence. Reducing an extensive body of work down to only one sentence is a little bit of work. But doing this pays off. First, you yourself need to be clear about the one thing your listener should remember from your talk. Consequently, you are much more likely to communicate it clearly.
If your desired outcome of your talk was something your audience should do, tell them. For example, tell them to approve a funding request. Tell them to buy a new laboratory equipment. Tell them to get in touch and discuss a scientific topic with you. Whatever it is you want them to do don’t let them figure it out by themselves.