General structure
To give a good presentation, it is important to follow a structure so that your audience will find it easier to get the message or objective of your presentation. It will also help you have more confidence and stay on the topic of the presentation.
To help structure your presentation, ask yourself these three main questions before preparing your presentation.
- What is your presentation’s objective?
- Who are the audience?
- What are the main points you want your audience to remember afterwards?
Answers to questions like how much time you have or whether you can use any visuals in the room will also help to structure your presentation and guide you when preparing the content of your presentation.
A basic presentation structure contains an introduction, the body and the conclusion/end, like a good story or movie.
Introduction
The introduction lets people know who you are and what you’re going to present. This is also the moment that sets the tone of the whole presentation. If you have a boring start, people might be less interested to listen to what you have to say next. If you do not explain the structure of the presentation, people might start to feel frustrated that they don’t know what you’ll be presenting.
The body
This is the part where you explain in more detail what you promised to do in your introduction. Be structured in this main part of your presentation too, and remember the answers to the 3 questions above to guide you with your content.
Conclusion or End
This is where you should give a short summary of your presentation and remind them of your objective, so that your audience will remember the key points you want them to leave with. Then thank them and invite them to ask questions.
Now test your knowledge on what you just read by a short quiz.
Click complete and then on “General structure quiz”.