Who's speaking? You, or your slide?

Giving presentations in class can be a very intimidating experience. Probably the greatest fear a student has is forgetting what he or she wanted to say.

Most people defend against that by over-preparing. The whole talk is typed out, or paraphrased on note cards, or written on Power Point slides.

It's natural to be nervous before a presentation - arguably, you should be nervous. The problem is that we're nervous about the wrong thing. What we should be afraid of is not forgetting what we had intended to say - we should be nervous about losing the audience. Your job as a presenter isn't finished when you speak the words - you are also responsible for your audience understanding your words.

Well then, doesn't it make sense to write everything on your slides?

It turns out: no. Presentations "go well" when the audience is paying attention to the speaker - when your eyes are on the audience and the audience's eyes are on you. The last thing you want is your audience's attention diverted. Put words on a screen, and people will read them. That takes their attention away from you and your attention away from them.

Too many presentations become a room full of people reading, rather than listening and conversing. Think about your own experience as an audience member: when there is a lot of information on a slide, you feel rushed - you have to read quickly, because who knows when the slide is going to go away. If you can't keep up, you lose the "thread", become hopelessly lost, and give up trying to follow it. Presenters are likely to feel exactly the opposite: because it is all on the slide, because the presenter worked hard to craft the sentences "just so", because the presenter knows what came before and what's coming next, it is all too easy to assume your audience must understand what they are reading - and so you forge ahead quickly through the slides.

Here's a suggestion: when you are first working on a presentation, go ahead and write it all out on the slide. Then, as you rehearse, take words away. Replace words with figures or pictures.

When you present, keep your eyes on the audience. Resist the urge to do more than glance at your slides. When a slide is critical - when it shows an important results figure or diagram, walk over to the screen and point to parts of the slide as you talk. Direct your viewers - don't let their eyes rove on their own. Don't make them do the work. Lead them. Teach them.