December 4, 1998
  
G100 TIPS FOR PRESENTATIONS. 

1.   Remember that the audience can't remember or even comprehend many numbers 
or items on a list. Try focussing   on just a few, explaining them  in a 
sentence or two at least.  Remind   people what a current ratio is,  for 
example, and compare it year to year  for your company, rather than giving the 
current ratio, the debt-equity ratio,   the depreciation, etc.  in a long list. 

 2.   Try not to say ``Um''.   It's okay to have silences instead.   The  
silences seem much longer to the speaker than to the audience.  It can be useful 
to write ``Don't say Um!!'' on a note card and look at that just before you 
start talking.

3.  For a 5 minute talk, notes or outlines  often do more harm than good.  They 
stop the speaker from staying in touch with his audience, because he is tempted 
to look at the notes instead.   If you do have notes, consider using just (1) a 
few headings, so you can remember  what comes next,  and (2) quotations or 
numbers that are hard to memorize.  Remember, too, that if you have a team, your 
teammates can prompt you (and can even hold up signs at the back of the room, 
behind the audience!)  Give a friend an outline of what you are going to say, 
and that friend can help you out if you get stuck. You can say,``My next point 
is... Well, Jim, what was my next point going to be?'' and get a prompt.  

 4.   Use  your handout to communicate to your audience.  What would they 
benefit from seeing? Probably not an outline of your talk, but maybe some facts, 
or a picture,  or a graph, or your main point.   You definitely want to have 
your names and a date, just as on your assignment folders. 

 5.  For some people,  it helps to think of giving a speech as being like 
telling a story.  In telling a story, you don't need to memorize, and you don't 
need notes--- you just have to know the story pretty well yourself,  practice 
telling it to a couple of people, and then it's easy. 

 6.  Try to look at the audience, not at your feet, your notes, or the ceiling.  
This will keep the audience interested in you, and when eventually you learn to 
give a talk without being too nervous, it will allow you to respond to audience  
mood. 

 7.  For some people (but not eveybody), it is a good idea to keep your feet 
firmly planted, as if you have nailed your shoes to the  floor (chewing gum 
might help, here).   That will keep you from slouching, swaying, or crossing 
your legs.  Other people do better with a more mobile style of speaking, though, 
and you have to decide this for yourself. 

8. I've just been giving   comments on oral reports to my seniors in G401 too. 
They had some common problems that you do not yet,  but will have to worry about 
in the future.    Their problem is that they have learned how to do Powerpoint 
presentations using a computer projector. Powerpoint is very useful, but  use of 
it leads to two standard problems.
       A.   Don 't  just print up copies of all your overhead slides in 
miniature and make that your handout.  Pick only  selected facts. 
        B.   Look at your audience and not at the screen.  Your audience will 
often be looking at the screen, which will draw your eyes to it, but resist the 
temptation. 


        The main purposes of the presentations in G100  are   to give you a 
little practice in speaking  and to make you think about how to give a 
presentation. That's why I give you these tips after the talks rather than 
before.   For this class, I didn't  want you  to just  check  items off   my  
list.    You should reflect on the  list now, though, and be ready for your next 
presentation in a different class. 

      For each of you, I've added to this  a grade and       one or two things 
you could work on for your own presentations.   These tips are     very 
important to you for future reference-- much more important than the grade. 
Before you next give any kind of public presentation,  take out this email and 
remember what I said.   Everybody (definitely including myself) can improve in  
both written and oral presentation, and what is most important is to keep 
improving over the years.  (You may also  deduce  how bad I  must have been at 
public speaking when I was 18.)