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  • Presentation skills
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Contact Info

Learning Development Service
Student Guidance Centre

Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 3618

E-mail: lds@qub.ac.uk

Office Hours

Normal hours are Monday-Friday 9.00 am to 5.00 pm.

Evening and Skype appointments are available upon request.

2011 Teaching Award Recipient



Most courses at Queen's will require you to deliver presentations; they are used to disseminate information and to gauge your understanding of a topic. Watch our video above for more information. 

5 quick tips for effective presentations:

1. Prepare - think about the audience, what you want to achieve, and create a rough outline of what you need to include and what visual aids you will use. Presentations vary in formality so try to get a sense of what your tutor expects in advance. 
2. Organise - a presentation, like an essay, needs an introduction/overview, main body with clear sections and a conclusion to reinforce important points. A good presentation needs interesting content. Think about how much information you can adequately cover in the time that you have. 
3. Deliver - use notes, cues and prompts (rather than reading word-for-word from a page) and speak to the audience (not to your page!)  Look around the room, make eye-contact with the audience, if you can, and speak slowly and clearly. Think about your posture and voice. 
4. Visual aids and handouts - spend some time working on a complementary and informative way to present your information and highlight the main points. This often includes PowerPoint’s: use a large font size, avoid more than six points on a slide and use colour, pictures or graphs to keep your slides interesting. If you are using handouts, avoid large lumps of text; keep these brief and informative too. Be sure to refer to specific slides or sections of the handout in your presentation.
5. Deal with nerves - A presentation is a performance. To control your nerves, be well-prepared: keep practising and then practice some more! Make a one-to-one appointment to practice in front of a tutor or ask a friend to watch you practice. Make sure that the presentation runs to the right time. Use confident and friendly body language to convey that you are relaxed. Use a clear voice and speak loudly enough. Slow down - it is natural to speed up if you are feeling nervous but breathe and take pauses. 

For detailed and personalised help with this aspect of communication skills, make a one-to-one appointment with a Learning Development Tutor. 

Our web resources section has links to useful external websites on presentation skills.