Presentations are a common part of higher education and learning process – in time, you will be expected to research an appointed topic and to prepare a presentation for your research. The purpose of this article is to explore different strategies and methods that can be applied to ace your presentation.
At the forefront of delivering a successful university presentation is to understand the core purpose of presentations – why are they used? Presentation, as an academic practice, is about demonstrating your capability to present your idea (i.e. research, proposition, suggestion, policy) to a range of different audiences.
This skill is inherently important to develop because when you transition into your professional life, you will likely be working in environments where you might have ideas to suggest or changes you would like to see made in your work processes. It is in such scenarios that presentation skills come in handy. Regardless of the presentation, university or professional, it is always a key and useful skill to have.
Proper Professional Appearance
When you are presenting your idea to your audience, it is important to keep in mind that you are the ‘product’ – your appearance matters. An unkempt person suggesting ideas for improvement in a multi-million-dollar infrastructure is not an ideal sight. Keep good personal hygiene and wear a neat, professional attire. Many tutors reserve substantial marks for your physical appearance – a general rule of thumb is thinking you are making a Yale university presentation.
Don’t Think You’re Giving An Interview
A common mistake with university presentation ideas followed by students is that they equate a presentation with an interview – instead of following creative presentation ideas, presentation topics, and presentation activities for university students, they follow generic presentation templates. They ask questions during presentations and feel like they are being assessed as they would in a job interview.
You should not think like this – in a presentation, your goal is to present your ideas so you want to take charge in leading the discussion and directing the audience into accepting the viewpoint of your presentation topic for university. Do not think you are at a university interview presentation.
Be Creative and Daring
You should have some creative presentation ideas for university presentations. Do not be afraid of seeking innovative ways to present your ideas and topic –get an art piece or distribute some notes beforehand. Try to create an art theme and direction for your main presentation file that will give theme and taste to your overall presentation. A generic presentation that involves the use of no-theme documents, no visual or creative pictures, no art pieces, and a large wall of text will generally grade poorly because if teachers only wanted to read, they would read a book, not your presentation.
Practice Your Oral Skills
Presentation is all about how well they are able to exercise your oratory skills – you have an audience, but its your job to attract and engross them. While the content and the creative topic idea of your presentation will contribute to attracting the audience, a boring and untalented speaker can ruin a potentially good presentation. Make sure that you are able to speak in a clear, loud, and followable voice. Speaking in a low volume, getting stressed, and speaking too quickly will all lead to a reduction in marks awarded from the tutor – remember you have to be confident.
Follow The Grading Rubric
As typical in most university coursework, such as with the Iowa State University presentation template, your tutor will have provided you with a grading rubric or schema. This document contains useful guidance on how marks will be distributed across the presentation. Be sure to read this rubric to identify parts of the presentation you are expected to pay the most attention to.
Although going for an all-round approach is a good way to secure more marks, some parts of the presentation will mandate more effort than the others. Remember that not all tutors are the same though – some pay considerable importance to personal appearance, while others value creative presentation topic ideas.
Get Creative Presentation Ideas and Presentation Topics
Stop trying to find the easy way about. If you are asked to prepare a presentation that describes the health benefits of Fruits, do not write a simple descriptive imitation of what you read in a generic health website. Try to find in-depth information about your subject so that you are able to reach creative presentation ideas.
Try to look deeper – think about different families and genes of fruit and see what useful information you are able to retrieve for your presentation that would otherwise not be available in a generic website. Sources such as journal articles and government databases contain a wealth of information that can help students excel in their university presentation topic ideas.
Follow Presentation Activities for University Students
In most universities and educational institutes, there are scheduled and organized presentation activities for university students. These activities take the form of student groups who work together and help each other in expanding on their university presentation topics, help with their university paper presentation, and other support activities. Partaking in these groups will increase your understanding about presentations and help you to earn more scores in your presentation.
Use PowerPoint to Curate Your Presentations
Microsoft PowerPoint is an incredibly useful and strong tool that virtually all universities and tutors ask their students to use – and for good reason. Make use of PowerPoint presentation ideas for university students that you can find built-in in the software – these presentation ideas can help structure and clean your presentation for a neat and good appearance. Furthermore, you can also take advantage of PowerPoint templates for university students that can help give a structured and neat theme to your presentation.
How to prepare for presentations: http://tutorials.istudy.psu.edu/oralpresentations/oralpresentations3.html
Fewer Written Words Are Better in Presentations
A good idea in presentations is that you are depending as much as possible on your speaking and oral skills to deliver your idea and research. If the audience wanted to read, they would have asked you to prepare an essay instead of an inconvenient slideshow. As such, make sure to include as few words in your presentation file as possible.
Use Visuals and Creatives for Presentations
Another welcome addition to good university presentation topics for students is the use of visuals and creatives. Try to include more pictures that express your idea and research without words, as to prove a specific point that you may be trying to make. Furthermore, PowerPoint also includes features of adding neat-looking logos, signs, and images that all contribute to the visual value of your presentation.