public speaking training

Successful Presentations Require Careful Research
The amount of time you spend preparing your presentation will be influenced by its importance, the size and composition of the audience, and how much time you have available. This section on public speaking training outlines the sort of research that would be undertaken in an ideal world - you will need to fine tune this approach to the requirements of each presentation you make. With your aim statement clearly defined you should proceed by assembling any material that might be helpful. A useful approach is to brainstorm all of the areas that you might include in the presentation. These can either be recorded as a list - or if you feel that this might impose an artificial hierarchy start by noting the areas down randomly on a spider-gram. When you have a comprehensive list of the areas that you want to cover, your next task is to ensure that you have adequate and up to date information. Successful presentations are based on careful research - this requires both initiative and hard work and is necessarily a time consuming process.

Public speaking training recommends that a good start point for research is to review one or more of the leading books on the subject of your presentation, and then to look at its bibliography. This should point you to a large amount of appropriate reference material. This process can be repeated but be aware that unless you are an experienced researcher the resultant cascade effect may overload you with information. Therefore, when researching, it is important to know when you have sufficient information in a given area. Another useful source can be newspaper and magazine articles; media agencies can supply you with regular packages of articles on almost any subject. This service will incur some fees but it may free up your time so that you can explore the many other possible sources of information - such as: Management reports, government papers, professional journals, information through friends and business contacts, articles appearing on the TV or radio, video or CD-ROM based information and an invaluable electronic reference - the Internet.

Internet Research
A great deal of information is now available via new technology - including electronic reference aids, CD-ROMs and the Internet. However conducting internet research is potentially even less efficient than other forms of research. It provides a means of accessing vast amounts of information and data. However, the organization of this is anarchic and perversely much of it is out of date - as information, once posted on the internet is rarely deleted. It requires some experience to conduct internet research effectively. When you need to access information but don’t know where to look - select the most appropriate search engine and use well chosen key words to trigger your searches. The more specific these key words are the greater your chances of finding the information that you seek within a reasonable timeframe. Accessing information from sites that you are familiar with can save a lot of time, as can exploiting the links from such sites.

When you come across useful information select, copy and save it to an appropriate research directory on your computer. Devise a suitable naming regime for each of the files you store as this will speed up your off-line reading and editing. Try to be disciplined in not saving countless copies of very similar information from a multitude of different sources. When you have got what you think you require move to the next topic - you can always revisit if necessary. Finally, be aware that whilst the information is free it carries no guarantee - if you incorporate facts and figures downloaded from unknown internet sites without verifying them you may find yourself recycling inaccurate information.

Presentation Structure
There is a simple structure into which nearly all presentations should fit; as highlighted by effective public speaking training. This comprises three clearly identifiable parts - an introduction, followed by a main body and finally a conclusion.

This is often expressed as:
Tell them what you're going to tell them,
Tell them,
Tell them what you've told them.

A good guide for the breakdown of a presentation is the 10/80/10 rule - whereby the introduction and conclusion are each allotted 10% of the presentation time, with the main body comprising 80%. For example, a 30 minute presentation would have a 3 minute introduction and conclusion and main body lasting 24 minutes. This formula can generally be applied to any length of presentation - as it reflects a good breakdown from the audience’s perspective.

In researching and collating the material that you need and devising your key points you will have been concentrating on the main content of your presentation.
This is fine, as the most effective and efficient way to prepare your presentation is to construct it in the following order;

1. Main Body
2. Introduction
3. Conclusion

The logic behind this should become apparent as you progress through this section. It is usually best to plan your presentation to have a question and answer session at the end. This will enable you to deliver your message and then end strongly with a clear and concise conclusion, before entering the relatively unpredictable area of tackling questions from the floor.

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