Public Speaking

Introduction

Key terms: presenting skills, nerves, storytelling, audience interaction, silence, hands, presenting with or without slides, body placement, relevant for both experienced and novice presenters, relevant for students in any PhD phase.

ECTS: 2.5  
Number of sessions: 4 
Hours per session: 3.5 

Do you want to get better at presenting? Or is presenting something you rather avoid? This course will take you to your next level in presenting.

Presenting live, in front of a group or only one person, is the most effective way to get your message across, to connect to people, and to potentially harvest new knowledge or information. Yet, under pressure, we tend to become less focused (or nervous even) and this hinders the benefits of a live presentation. 
    
By teaching you how to present with the audience, rather than in front of it, this course will get you to your next level in presenting.

We will have class discussions about several elements of live presenting, you will exercise in pairs, present in front of small groups, and present in front of the whole group.

Before each session there is about 1-2 hours of homework in which you will work on a supportive storyline and slide deck, with the help of several videos made by the instructor of the course. The amount of time you spend on the homework depends on how skilled you are in forming a storyline and making slides. 

Entry level and relevance

No prior knowledge or experience is required. Yet the tools and exercises in this course are useful for both beginning and more advanced public speakers.

This course is useful for students in any phase of their PhD trajectory, in all research disciplines.

If you just started your PhD you could use your master’s thesis to practise making a storyline, creating a slide deck, and delivering a presentation.

Relations with other courses

In  this course, you will learn how to activate your audience through asking open-ended questions, and get information from your audience members that will help you adjust the presentation to their needs. You can learn more about asking open-ended questions in the EGSH course Qualitative interview techniques.

Sessions and preparations

Session 1: Nerves and focus
•    Key principles of presenting, including ethos, pathos and logos.
•    Getting control over your nerves and gaining focus. 
•    How to construct a pitch.
•    Using eye contact.
Preparations: (1-2 hours)
•    Formulating several persuasive arguments that help to construct a pitch or introduction.
•    Analysing your current presentation skills and needed skills to become a better presenter.

Session 2: Verbal and non-verbal interaction
•    What kind of open-ended questions will activate your audience?
•    Asking questions to the audience.
•    What is the function of silence?
•    Using silence. 
•    Using your hands to support your speech. 
•    Adjusting pace to audience. 
Preparations: (1-2 hours) 
•    Reading about the Pyramid Principle and watching an instructive video (optional). 
•    Fitting your information into a logic Pyramid (optional). 
•    Formulating your storyline in the headers of your slides.

Session 3: Using slides and other types of visualisation
•    The function of slides.
•    Visualising something using your hands or the imagination.
•    Using your body to shift focus between the audience, the slide and other types of visualisation.
Preparations: (1-2 hours) 
•    Designing your slide lay-out.  
•    Watching a video about slide design.
•    Adding supportive content to the slides.

Session 4: Audience management 
•    Using your audience to improve your content on the spot.
•    How to manage discussions.
•    How to use body placement.
•    Dealing with difficult questions from the audience.
Preparations: (1-2 hours) 
•    Improve the content of your slides.
•    (Re)design your slides paying attention to the function of the slide and how it will support you best.