Developing Your Presentation:

Tips for Success

Elizabeth Ness, RN, BSN, MS

Nurse Consultant (Education)
Center for Cancer Research, NCI
 Objectives
• Discuss components of being an effective
presenter.
• Discuss ways to improve your PowerPoint
presentation.
 Key Steps to a Quality Presentation
• Research your audience
• Structure your presentation
– What will you speak about
– Content
– Summary
• Practice, practice, practice
• Calm your nerves
• Stop working on it!!
 Consider the Listener
• What does the listener really want to hear?
• Relevant content
• Clear and well organized
• Keep the listener awake
– Style and delivery
– Verbal and non-verbal
– Walk the audience
• Expertise – credible, inspiring, trusting, and
confident
 A Good Presenter….
• Knows their topic
• Uses appropriate audio-visual (AV) materials
• Doesn’t memorize, use notecards, or read
the slides
• Practices, practices, practices
• Keeps the audience focused and interested
– Speaks loudly and clearly
– Uses personal experiences
– Does not use jargon, abbreviations, acronyms
 …A Good Presenter
• Engages the audience
– Keeps eye contact with the audience
– Asks questions of the audience
– Uses physical movement
– Avoids negative body language
• Allows time for Q&A
• Does not exceed time allotted for talk
• Is prepared to shorten presentation if
needed
 Teaching Method Knowledge Attitude Behavior Skill

Lecture X

Small Group
X X
Discussion
Brainstorming X X
Case Study X X X

Demonstration X X

Role Play X X X
Creative Work X X

Trainer’s Guide pages 22-23

 Lecture…
• Introduces audience to a new subject
• Provides an overview or synthesis
• Conveys facts or statistics
• Addresses large groups
 ….Lecture
Advantages Disadvantages
• Covers lots of material • Emphasizes 1-way
in short time communication
• Works with large • Assumes everyone
groups learns the same way,
• Provides context for at the same rate
additional techniques • Passive learning
• Gives presenter more • Presenter needs
control effective skills
 Making a Lecture More Active…
• Remember that individuals retain:
• 20% of what they hear
• 30% of what they see
• 50% of what they see and hear
• 70% of what they see, hear, and say
• 90% of what they see, hear, say, and do
…Making a Lecture More Active
• Slides
• Case study
• Videos
• Ask questions of the audience
– Rhetorical
– A few comments
– Audience response systems (ARS)
 PowerPoint
• Allows content to be presented in different
ways
• Hold the interest of both auditory and visual
learners by:
• Focusing their attention
• Guiding discussions/overviews
• Telling a story
• Supporting the message you want to deliver
 How to Start
• Plan the content
• Select audio-visual materials
 Structuring Your Presentation:
Opening
• Make an emotional connection with the
audience
• Avoid lengthy instruction of yourself or lots of
thank you’s
• Examples:
– Tell a story
– Ask a provocative question
– Razzle-dazzle them with a shocking statistic
 Structuring Your Presentation:
Body
• Majority of your presentation
• Stick to the most important points
• More important to engage the audience than
to tell them everything you know
• Keep your outcome in mind
• Logical sequence of ideas
 Structuring Your Presentation:
Closing
• Last opportunity to give audience something
that will stick in their minds
• End on a positive note
 Structuring the Presentation:
Timeframes
30 minute presentation 20 minute presentation
• Opening: ≈ 2 minutes • Opening: ≈ 2 minutes
• Body: ≈ 20 minutes • Body: ≈ 12 minutes
• Closing: ≈ 3 minutes • Closing: ≈ 3 minutes
• Questions: ≈ 5 minutes • Questions: ≈ 3 minutes
 PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
• Preparation is key to a good presentation
• Where to practice?
• PowerPoint:
– Rule of thumb….1 minute per slide
– Rehearse the presentation
 Dealing with Nerves
• Be prepared
• Deep breathes
• Pace yourself
• Engage with your audience
• Have a Plan B
• Prepare for questions
 Navigating Q & A
• Anticipate possible questions
• Repeat question
• Answers should take 1-2 minutes
• Do not bluff
• Do not get confused
• You are not supposed to know everything
• Anticipate and keep answers ready
 Quality Presenter
• Good presentation
– Clear & logical presentation
– Structure: Intro - Middle – Summary
– Work to a timed plan
• Good presenter
– Knows how to engage the audience
– Remembers what not to do
– Can calm their nerves
– PRACTICES, PRACTICES, PRACTICES
Visual Aids
 Types of A-V Materials
• Power Point Slides
• Handouts
• Flipcharts
• Overhead transparences
• Videotapes
 Audiovisual (A-V) Materials
• Simple
• Accurate
• Manageable
• Colorful
• Necessary
 What’s the message?

• A simple thought

• A very complex thought that seems to

run on a bit but has something to say
 Clarity
• Understand point of slide in 10 seconds
• Key point/line
– 5 X 5, 6 X 6, 7 X 7 rule
• Simple words
• Build ideas
• Cues, not full thoughts

• You do not want to put all of your information into

one slide and then read the slide which will be
boring to the audience.
 Phrases not Sentences
NO:
• OHRP interprets an “investigator” to be any individual who is involved in
conducting human subjects research studies.

YES:
• Any individual involved in human subjects research

NO:
• Integrated Research Information System (iRIS) is a web-based application
to help create, manage and process research protocols.

YES:
• Web-based application
• Used by IRBs
• Manage research protocols
 Bullets and Indentation
• Primary thought
– Secondary thoughts
• Tertiary thoughts
– Quaternary thoughts

• Use bullets to show a list without ….

– Priority
– Sequence
– Hierarchy
 Font
• Arial
• Times New Roman
• Brush Script MT
• Comic Sans MS
• Antique Olive Compact
 Font size
• 16 point – can you read it?
• 20 point – can you read it?
• 24 point – can you read it?
• 28 point – can you read it?
• 32 point – can you read it?
• 40 point – can you read it?
• 48 point – can you read it?
 Line spacing
• How much space is enough between lines
or paragraphs?
• How much space is enough between
lines or paragraphs?

• How much space is enough between

lines or paragraphs?
 Color. . .
• Sets the mood

• High contrast
– Receding background
– Foreground stands out

• Use no more than 2 colors for text

 Color Evokes Emotions
• Red
– Heightens emotions: warning, danger, financial
loss
• Blue
– Calms: conservative approach
• Green
– Stimulates interaction: shows growth
• Pink + powder blue
– Nursery
• Orange with black
– Halloween
 Too Much Text
• Research nurses say they came to the field looking to be challenged—and they
found that challenge, along with significant rewards. Cincinnati Children’s
research nurses come from both clinical and research backgrounds. Research
nurses contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge, the development
of therapies, the establishment of medication safety, dosage and effectiveness,
as well as the improvement of future medical care. They see their work
impacting entire populations of patients, touching the lives of many. Research
nurses work as part of a team to help to plan and run clinical research studies.
They work with investigators, study coordinators, regulatory specialists, and
other colleagues to conduct more than 1000 active clinical research studies at
Cincinnati Children’s, including Pilot and Phase I – IV in both pediatrics and adult
areas. Research nurses may be involved in many aspects of clinical research
studies. Some research nurses have frequent direct contact with participants
enrolling in studies and their families, while others work primarily with
investigators and other study staff.
Examples of What Not To Do
 Graphics
• Use as memory cues
• Don’t overuse
• Don’t distract from your message
• Use to enhance your point
 Animation
• Keep animation to a minimum
• Keep it fun

Don’t use animation effects that are

too distracting……
Effective PowerPoint Presentation
• Keep slides to a minimum
• Simplicity versus detail
• One idea per slide
• No more than 7 lines/slide
• No more than 7 words/line
• Avoid fancy fonts – consistency, size
• Make slides easy to follow
• Consider using visual aids instead of bullets
 Boring, Generic Title
• I am writing down everything I could possibly say about this
slide
• Resulting in me reading all the text out loud
– But hey, that means I do not have to make any eye contact whatsoever with
my audience
• Yippee
– Why is that person yawning over there?
– I just love the script font, don’t you?
– I just love this background color, don’t you?
• Could this possibly get more lame?
– I should cut and paste some text here but I don’t know what to copy from the
internet
• If I bore everyone long enough, there will be no time for questions – yipee!
• I hope no one notices that I wish I were dead
– Oh well, only 50 more minutes of this!
 References…
• Hafler, JP. Effective presentations: tips for success. Nature
Immunology, 2011; 12 (11): 1021-1023.
• Happell, B. Presenting with precision: preparing and delivering a
polished conference presentation. Nurse Researcher, 2009; 16 (3):
45-56.
• Harolds, J.A. (2012). Tips for giving a Memorable Presentation,
Part I – The speaker as an Educator. Clinical Nuclear Medicine,
37(7), 669-670.
• Harolds, J.A. (2012). Tips for giving a Memorable Presentation,
Part II – The speaker as a Leader. Clinical Nuclear Medicine, 37(8),
763-765.
• Harolds, J.A. (2012). Tips for giving a Memorable Presentation,
Part III – Composing an Important Formal presentation. Clinical
Nuclear Medicine, 37(9), 872-873.
• Harolds, J.A. (2012). Tips for giving a Memorable Presentation,
Part IV – Using and Composing PowerPoint Slides. Clinical Nuclear
Medicine, 37(10), 977-980.
 …References
• Harolds, J.A. (2012). Tips for giving a Memorable Presentation,
Part V – Stage Fright and Rehearsing a Presentation. Clinical
Nuclear Medicine, 37(11), 1094-1096.
• Harolds, J.A. (2012). Tips for giving a Memorable Presentation,
Part VI – The Effective Use of Questions By a Speaker, and
Answering Questions From Listeners. Clinical Nuclear Medicine,
37(12), 1173-1175.
• Hoke, L.M. & Papa, A. (October 04, 2011). Moving your project
from practice to presentation: Successful abstract submission
[Podium Presentation]. ANCC 2011 Magnet Conference,
Bethesda, MD.
• National Cancer Institute (2005). Trainer’s Guide for Cancer
Education. NIH Publication No. 05-5052). Bethesda, MD: National
Cancer Institute.
• Vollman, K.M. (2005). Enhancing presentation skills for the
advanced practice nurse: Strategies for success. AACN Clinical
Issues, 16(1):67-77.
 Acknowledgment & Thank You

Originally developed for IACRN webinar by Elizabeth

Ness RN, BSN, MS and Dana Raab, RN, BSN, MS