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I think most of you have had or will have a presentation. I am sure you have listened to interesting, enjoyable lectures and you have sat or slept during boring and dull ones as well. I believe when you give a presentation you want to do your best. But how can you do your best? How should you prepare for a good presentation? What methods can help you? What you should concern about when you are preparing for your talk. In this essay I try to give you some ideas about the preparing part of an effective presentation.

I divided my essay into three major aspects: the material, the audience and you, the speaker. Firstly you should prepare more from the material then you will actually need. If you are well prepared you will be more confident and less excited. If your knowledge is more then it is needed you are able to select the most important parts and you can focus on the key points. The structure of your talk will be easily followed if you choose some key points and organise your talk around them. The second aspect is the audience. Your audience will be sitting there to listen to you. When you read the material you should ask yourself, how can be your talk beneficial for them? You should think about the purpose of your speech. You have to see that you are there because of them. Try to approach the material from the audience point of view. Watch the audience for feedback. You will see and feel that you can read the signs of the audience. You only have to look at them and you will see if they can follow your thoughts or they are lost and want you to help them to get back. Don't ignore, neglect your audience because they are your audience and you are there because of them and not the other way.

Last but not least don't forget about the speaker because you should prepare yourself for your presentation. At first you may think that if you are prepared from the material and from the audience you can't prepare more. You are a very important part of your presentation. You can and you have to get yourself prepared. It is not a choice, because if you ignore one of the most important part of your talk you may not be able to speak effectively. It is always useful to practise with friends as many times as possible. The more you practise the better will be your presentation. If you practise beforehand you can find out what is good and what can be done better. You can see the weak points of your talk and you still have the chance to correct them. It is not important that your "audience" consist of only some people you should use your imagination. Try to imagine that practise is the real presentation. Imagine the situation, the room, the audience, the day, if you can the weather. The more detailed you can imagine the circumstances the better you will present your own talk later.

You have to decide at the beginning of your preparing part that how you want to give your presentation. What method you want to follow. You can read out the whole material if you are not an experienced speaker. The written material provides you confidence. But you have to see the disadvantages of this method as well. You can't be in contact with the audience if you read out your whole presentation. The audience will be bored and won't pay attention to you. You will not to be able to recognise that you are alone in the room if you do not look up from your notes. It will suggest them that slices of paper are most important for you then the audience. You have to carefully choose the language you will use. It shouldn't sound like a written composition because then there is no use presenting the presentation.

You can learn your presentation by heart. It is a method if you have a very good memory. You can see the audience for feedback. You can sound very effective if you do not forget the next word! You shouldn't take this risk. There is a solution which can help you.

If you make notes and built around your lecture some key points you will not forget what you want to speak about and you can watch for feedbacks from the audience, you can have eye and eye contact and they will feel that you are speaking to them and not to your papers.

As you could see the preparing part plays an important part of your presentation. There are a lot of things you can do before your real presentation starts. I would be glad if you can add something to your own presentation after reading this essay. Don't forget the success of your presentation depends only you.