Presentation Skills Report: Considerations and Performance Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of presentation skills, essential for effectively communicating information to a diverse audience. It begins by outlining the aims and purposes of presentations, including being heard, understood, respected, and remembered, as well as providing information, persuasion, motivation, and instruction. The report then delves into the crucial aspects of planning a presentation, emphasizing structure, subject knowledge, audience awareness, and visual aids. It also discusses key considerations during a presentation, such as selecting an appropriate style, maintaining a clear tone, using body language, and engaging the audience through questions. The report concludes with an evaluation of both the author's performance and the performance of others, highlighting strengths and areas for improvement in presentation delivery. The report emphasizes the importance of clear communication, audience engagement, and the ability to respond to inquiries.

Skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1.1 Aims or purpose of presentation...........................................................................................1
1.2 Planning for the presentation................................................................................................2
2.1 Considerations for a presentation..........................................................................................2
3.1 Evaluation of own performance............................................................................................3
3.2 Performance of others...........................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Skill can be referred to as the ability to conduct any kind of task with predetermined set
of outcomes and given the time, efforts and energy to execute the same. Skills can be of two
types, namely, general and specific (Coughter, 2016). The following report is conducted upon
presentation skills which are needed by an individual while delivering actively engaging as well
as effective presentations in front of a wide range of audience. Such audience can be from Board
of Directors or other key stakeholders of a business organisation, university, government etc. It
includes aims, planning as well as considerations while giving a presentation. Further, it consists
evaluation of performance of oneself and others.
1.1 Aims or purpose of presentation
Presentation skills are the abilities or attributes that are necessary to be present within an
individual for optimally delivering the required information to a vast set of people. For giving a
presentation, an individual or a group may have diverse set of aims and purposes. Such probable
aims and purposes are given below:-
AIMS
Be heard: The aim of a presentation is to ensure that one is heard properly by others and
the message being conveyed is clear to the audience.
Be comprehended: Yet another crucial aim of an individual giving presentation is to be
understood properly and not just being heard by them.
Be respected: It is essential that a person is not just understood but also their views are
accepted by the audience. This implies that being respected is another aim of a presentation.
Be remembered: The last aim of an individual delivering a presentation is to be
remembered for a long time for the detailed description and critical thinking illustrated by them.
PURPOSES
Provide information: The main purpose of delivering a presentation is to provide
necessary information in front of a wide audience (Harris, 2013).
Persuasion: Yet another purpose can be to persuade individuals to undertake a particular
course of work/action or to introduce a new plan and gain approval from team mates and/or
colleagues.
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Give motivation: A presentation can also be given in order to appraise the performance
of a particular individual or group with a view to motivate them for executing the activities in a
desired manner.
Provide instruction: Further, the purpose of a presentation can also be to render
instructions to a set of individual so that they can effectively execute a course of action within
the stipulated time.
1.2 Planning for the presentation
Delivering an effective and strong presentation in front of personnel is not an easy task. A
number of things have to be duly planned before presenting the information in front of the target
audience. Such kind of planning is explained with the help of below mentioned points:-
 The presentation should be given in a manner such that it has a well established and
clearly stipulated structure. It should have clear sections such as introduction, main body
and conclusion (De Grez and Valcke, 2013).
 The presentation should be planned in a way that it demonstrates an exceptional
knowledge and depth of the subject.
 It is delivered keeping in mind the necessary information about audience such as the
languages easily perceivable by them and the environment in which presentation has to
be given.
 A presentation can be made visually attractive to an audience by including graphs, charts,
videos, pictures, posters etc.
2.1 Considerations for a presentation
While giving a presentation in front of business persons or colleagues, there are certain
considerations that have to be taken into account. These can include a number of aspects such as
structure and design of presentation, body language as well as tone of speaker etc. These are
briefly given below:-
 A suitable and relevant style of presentation that is appropriate for the audience, subject
matter and situation has to be duly selected.
 An audible and clear tone should be used by the person giving presentation so that they
can be adequately heard (Van Emden and Becker, 2016).
 An eye contact should be maintained with the audience and visual aids such as graphs,
pictures and charts should be effectively used by narrator.
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 Frequent questions should be asked from audience in order to ensure that they are
actively engaged and are following the main points adequately.
 Further, the presentor should have the capability to answer to the queries of audience.
 Lastly, it should be ensured that there is least reference to notes as this implies a loss of
connect with the audience (Jolles, 2017).
3.1 Evaluation of own performance
The evaluation of my performance has been done on the basis of feedback obtained from
others. On the basis of their comments, it can be said that I was able to display a clear structure
and an in-depth knowledge of the subject matter which inflated the level of my performance and
assisted me in keeping the audience engaged. Further, the audience pointed out that my body
language as well as eye contact was properly maintained throughout the presentation time.
3.2 Performance of others
On the basis of evaluation of performance of other individuals within the group, it can be
said that all of them were quite confident and good in their sound delivery. However, it was seen
that 2 of the team members were under confident and not able to maintain eye contact with the
audience which somehow hampered the team performance to some extent. But the overall
presentation delivered by the team was effective enough to transmit the essential information in
front of the audience.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been comprehended that presentation skills are the
prerequisite for effectively delivering the necessary information in front of a wide audience.
Also, it has been ascertained that the presentor should have a clear and effective tone of voice as
well as the capability to quickly respond to the enquiries made by the audience. Besides this, it
has been concluded that it is essential to evaluate the performance of presentor so as to identify
the areas due to which the delivery was relatively weaker or stronger.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Coughter, P., 2016. The Art of the Pitch: Persuasion and presentation skills that win business.
Springer.
De Grez, L. and Valcke, M., 2013. Student response system and how to make engineering
students learn oral presentation skills. International Journal of Engineering Education,
29(4), pp.940-947.
Harris, J., 2013. Presentation skills for teachers. Routledge.
Jolles, R. L., 2017. How to Run Seminars and Workshops: Presentation Skills for Consultants,
Trainers, Teachers, and Salespeople. John Wiley & Sons.
Van Emden, J. and Becker, L., 2016. Presentation skills for students. Macmillan International
Higher Education.
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