How to Master The Art of Presentations

Written By Colēgia

Whether you're in school or working, presentations are one of the cornerstones of public speaking. More often than not, students are faced with doing a presentation for one of their classes. Sometimes it can cause nerves. Today we want to take some time to discuss how to master the art of presentations.

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Body Language Matters

When it comes to presentations the most easily noticeable thing is your body language. Body language is powerful in that it can convey a wide variety of emotions despite not requiring anything to be said. A good example of this can involve your arms and hands during a discussion. If your arms are folded it can subtly convey that you may feel uncomfortable about a topic at hand. Another form of body language is whether your hands are opened or closed during a presentation. If your hands are tight and closed, this could be conveying that there may be something hiding from the conversation at hand. The opposite to that would involve having your hands assisting you for expressing your thoughts. Subtle hand gestures such as keeping your palms open can establish trust between yourself and the audience.

“Body language is powerful in that it can convey a wide variety of emotions despite not requiring anything to be said.”

Your Voice And How it Helps

The difference between an average presentation versus an amazing presentation can boil down to how expressive you are with your voice. It can easy to fall into a habit of reciting information as if you were reading off of a script, but this can feel formulaic to the audience in this case. Elements of your voice such as tone can make a big difference for a presentation. When our tone is dynamic we can use it to reflect how we feel about different elements of a subject. There are many instances where showing genuine interest in the presentation itself is conveyed toward the audience by sounding more enthusiastic toward a topic. This also applies in a different way for more serious topics. Perhaps you may need to convey a different feeling through your voice when talking about a story that may be more personal. You can do this by slowing down your words and giving the audience time to digest them at certain points by taking a pause during a presentation.

“When our tone is dynamic we can use it to reflect how we feel about different elements of a subject.”

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Confidence is Everything

While the other two elements are more tangible in terms of how you can change your presentations, confidence on the other hand is a bit more complicated. Confidence is something that can be learned through the means of gradually adjusting to something outside of your comfort zone. The same is true for presentations as well. The more you do the the more comfortable you will feel because you will slowly learn new ways of building that sort of confidence. If you feel nervous during a presentation you can practice taking a deep breath during moments where you have downtime. One great method of building confidence is by using humor to lighten the atmosphere of the room. Not only will this help you by laughing and easing any tension, but it can help instill a sense of confidence within you.

Presentations are incredibly helpful as they are a great means of sharing your thoughts to a large audience while also helping self-esteem. While there may be a bit of a learning curve, with enough practice anyone can master the art of presentations.

Colēgia

Colēgia

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