Presentation Tips for Speakers and Writers

Few skills are as important in business or education today than the ability to speak and write well. But when you can combing those two interpersonal skills into the ability to do a presentation well, you’re just about guaranteed success.

Aided by technology, with the use of PowerPoint, Keynote, video, audio and live Internet hookups, today’s presentations are multimedia events. And if you are tasked with doing a presentation before an audience, quality is essential if you are going to engage and hold the attention of people who have grown up in a multimedia world.

The writing needs to be crisp, clean and powerful. But writing for the ear is a lot different than writing for the eye. Experts tell us that the focused attention for most people is about 8 seconds. That’s the most people can intensely focus on what’s being presented. Thus, the skillful presenter must practice a technique called tension and release, giving the audience a time to disengage slightly before bringing them back to focus. But this can’t be done more than several times in a typical presentation.

Sustained attention is what effective presenters strive to create. That is the level of attention that produces the consistent results on a task over time. The task we what is listening and watching. And here, the experts in developing listening skills tell us that most healthy teenagers and adults are able to sustain attention on one thing for about 20 minutes at a time. But the studies show they can choose repeatedly to re-focus on the same thing. That’s what skilled presenters aim at, refocusing attention… focused attention for very short periods of time on the two or three most essential points, and sustained attention during the entire presentation.

That means we need to write and speak well and put together visually compelling materials if we are to do a presentation with excellence.

Here at How to Speak and Write, our goal is to help you achieve those purposes as you prepare to do a presentation, whether for an office and business setting, a classroom, church or civic group.

Please check out our blog, arranged by categories, to help you learn and then carefully hone the skills needed to be a skilled presenter. Our numerous articles are updated each week with the latest information and tips. Don’t hesitate to contact us at any time if you have specific comments or questions.

Here’s to YOU speaking and writing well…