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Oral Presentations

Your hands are all clammy, your throat is dry, and you can't decide what is worse, the immense sweat pouring from your body or the abnormal beating of your heart in your chest. Suddenly your name is called its your turn to speak. Panic sets in

These reactions to public speaking are quite common and one should expect a little nervousness when speaking in public. Public speaking is one of the more anxiety-provoking situations people face.  The anxiety is manageable and can be lessened, though not completely eliminated. However, you can be nervous and still do a good presentation.

Some of the physical reactions can be controlled with these simple tips;

v     Take a deep breath before you stand up to approach the podium.  Then take another deep breath before you begin speaking.

v     During the speech, breathe properly by taking deep breaths.  The audience appreciates little pauses during the speech, you catch your breath (literally) and they catch their breath (figuratively).

v     If your face tends to get red during public speaking, wear a coloured shirt to offset color of your face (a red shirt for example). If you think you look pale, wear a lighter colour.

v     If you think your neck turns red or blotchy when speaking, wear a high neck shirt.

v     If your hands get sweaty, put a little Kleenex in your pocket to wipe off hands, no one will ever know!

v    If you feel a rush of nervousness and speak too quickly, try to “feel your feet.” This means concentrate briefly on the sensation in your feet, toes, the weight of your shoes, etc., it’s a little trick that helps focus attention away from nervous physiological reactions. 

Remember the 3 V's

Visual – refers to what you see the speaker doing.  Make a good first impression by look at the people around the room, not only at the computer slide or paper.  In most audiences, people want to be supportive, so they will smile and nod if you look at them.  If you are interested in the topic, then help the audience to find their interest in it too.  Try to omit distracting gestures (like stray hand movements) but feel free to use enhancing gestures.  For example, if you say “on one hand…” hold out your hand, and when you say “on the other hand…” hold out your other hand. If you make a sweeping statement, a sweeping gesture with your hand will seem appropriate (e.g., “In all of psychology, no theory has been as influential as …”). 

Vocal – refers to the sound of your voice. Keep the volume up even at the ends of sentences. We all have a tendency to speak lower and faster when nervous, but try not to fall into this habit. Speaking slowly helps the listeners to follow your points.  If you practice your speech 100 times, it is still the first time that the audience is hearing it – give them a chance to process the information.  Plan to pause from time to time.  Be enthusiastic about your topic, avoid monotone -  remember this is your topic that you worked super hard to research so be proud and express yourself! Speak loudly, without shouting.  Speak at the volume you would use to talk to a friend sitting in the back row of the room. Breathing deeply helps with keeping good volume. Use a variety of speeds, slow down for emphasis.

Verbal - refers to the words you you and the organization of your talk.  Make sure your presetation has a clear introduction, body and conclusion.  Be sure to define your terms early on, and organize them well. Include attention getters such as an interesting picture, quotation, or statistics related to your topic, then state your purpose in one sentence.  Talk your audience through  the organization of your presentation.  “We will discuss three issues, first X, then Y, and end with a discussion of Z.” At the end of each section, tell the audience that you are now moving on to the next section.  If you use overheads or PowerPoint, use these as aides to what you say.  Use them to show organization, define your terms, show pictures, figures, and tables.  Don’t overload the audience’s eyes with information that will distract from what you are saying. The visual supports the verbal, not the other way around.  This means that your ideas, your words should be the focus of the audience so don't rely on the visual aids to carry the load.  If you find your speech overloaded with information, cut some of it out.  Try to build your speech from the ending, backward. The keys for the audience are the conclusions.  Find 2 or 3 things that you want them to remember.  "If you remember nothing else, remember these 3 things..."  Build your presentation to support those conclusions, provide the most important details of method and theory that are necessary to see your conclusions as credible. Oral presentations cannot be  as detailed as a journal article or thesis paper, though the organization can be similar. Be sure to have a clear conclusion, restate your purpose and main points.

If anything goes wrong with the computer equipment, overhead, etc. don't panic. It happens to everyone at one time or another.  The problem can probably very easily be fixed, and there will be several people ready to offer assistance.  Best of all, the audience will be completely sympathetic to you.  Remain calm and proceed as best you can. 

Remember that the audience is not expecting perfection, they’re not expecting the rapid pace of a play or TV show, and nobody expects a novice speaker to be flawless.  There are no marks at stake and nobody will take away your degree.  Take your time, tell the audience something they will find interesting, show enthusiasm for your topic, and the rest will fall into place.  Count on the audience being friendly and supportive.

Just remember it is natural to be nervous, at APICS, all the presenters are going to be nervous together. Just remember this is your research topic, your field of expertise and the faculty is there to help! This can be one of the most positive experience you have as an undergraduate.

Most students come away from their presentation at APICS with fond memories.  Conquering public speaking anxiety might just be one of them. 

thanks to Mary Tanya Brann-Barret, 
UCCB Communication Department,
 for contributing to this page.

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Poster Presentations

A poster presentation is usually composed of somewhere around 10 sheets of paper (usually 8 1/2 by 11'') with bare bones information on your research.  The sheets are usually mounted on cut pieces of Bristol Board, or some similar stiff surface.  When you arrive at the conference, the individual sheets are fixed to a standing board, either with pins or with Velcro, depending on the conference site and what how boards are made (some are made from cork, some from felt, and some are smooth). 

During the presentation, the author stands beside the poster and guides viewers through the presentation.  People circulate from poster to poster asking questions and talking to the author. Depending on the conference schedule, you might stand by your poster for up to two hours.

Posters are a great way to present information in a more informal setting than an oral presentation.  Given that posters are one-on-one presentations, they allow visitors to chat with the presenter, to ask specific questions, make suggestions, and follow your results.  

The first step in preparing your poster is to find out how much room you have to display your work.  Stick to the guidelines you are given. Next, make sure your poster presentation can stand alone, that is, can a person read it and understand it with no further explanation?  The print on the poster should be very large, so that one can read it from 5 feet away.  This means point-form is used instead of paragraphs.  Figures and Tables should be large and easy to read at a distance. The title should be really big and eye catching.

Given that you have a few sheets and must use big print, you should limit the information on the poster itself.  If you wish to include a lot of detail, you may supplement the poster with a brief handout (1 or 2 pages) that people can take away with them.  The handout should include the main points from your poster and give additional detail, especially on your results.  Bring 20-30 copies of the handout.  Make sure you have your contact information on the handout in case an interested person wants to contact you about the research, or offer you a new job based on your brilliant project. 

In laying out your poster you can mix portrait and landscape formats, different sizes of paper, colours, etc.  Let your creativity shine through, so long as the key points and major results are clearly presented.

Potential Poster Layouts:

LAYOUT #1, 9 Slides

LAYOUT OPTION #2, 13 Slides

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