7+ Tips on Giving In-class Less-boring Presentations

We’ve all had to give presentations at one point or another, be it in school, college, or even at a job. But giving an engaging in-class presentation has been a challenge many people go through.

You try to give it your best, but something is just missing, and you see your audience zone out during the presentation. You start feeling that your presentation is boring and your audience just wants it to end as soon as possible.

The solution to this challenge is just a few tips and tricks thattricks, that can make your presentations less boring and help you engage the audience till the end of it.

In this article, we discuss some important points to help you give in-class less boring presentations, so you can get a better grade, and have your peers’ attention till the end of it.

Tips for Giving Engaging Presentations In-Class

1. Pick an Interesting Presentation Topic

Sometimes you get a topic assigned by your professor, and sometimes you have to pick a topic yourself to discuss in your presentation. When you have to select a topic for your presentation, make sure it is relevant to your audience. Something that you and they will enjoy learning more about.

You need to know your topic deeply to be able to present it in a way that resonates with the audience. Know what your audience wants to know, and what they already know. If you discuss something that they are already familiar with, it will not catch their attention.

Do your research, and know more than you put in your slides or decide to say in your presentation. Be ready to answer any questions that your peers may ask, and give credible answers for an effective presentation.

2. Have a Solid Outline and Presentation Structure

When designing your presentation, you need to establish one clear idea, and to do that you require a solid outline for effective delivery. Your presentation structure should be focused on the main idea, with supporting facts and figures.

An excess of information can lead the audience to zone out and not retain what information you present. Therefore, you need to analyze the core message and craft your PowerPoint presentation in a logical yet simple manner, so you can leave a lasting impression on the audience. How you start and how you end a presentation matters.

A common example of a solid presentation structure is as follows.

A. Introduction

You begin your presentation by greeting the audience, introducing yourself, and the topic you will be presenting. The introduction should be concise, yet have a clear picture of what lies ahead in your presentation.

Briefly explain your general topic and state the challenges or issues you will be addressing. Clarify the purpose of your presentation, and offer a statement to define the outcome. In this article, you can find real opening speech examples and learn what are some of the best ways to start a presentation.

You can also show a preview of the presentation outline, so the audience knows what lies ahead. This will enable you to connect with the audience and grab their attention till the last slide.

B. Main Body of the Presentation

The main body of the presentation should address the topic in detail. Support your arguments with evidence and examples to clarify the concept. If you use slides, the presentation slides should be interlinked and the main purpose should be reflected in each point you talk about.

When designing your presentation, ask yourself these questions for an effective presentation:

What do I have to tell the audience?
What should the audience learn from my presentation? What would be the key takeaways?
How can I effectively deliver my message?

Refine your answers, stick to the main topic, and delete any excess content that could be off-topic to produce clear messages for delivering in your presentation.

C. Conclusion

Last but not least is concluding your presentation in a way that wraps up your whole talk and reinforces its main message.

Summarize the purpose of your presentation by signaling its end. In the presentation summary, restate the main topic, conclude the main points, and analyze any implications and solutions to the problems you addressed.

You can engage your audience by inviting questions and clearing up their queries via a Q&A session. Lastly, thank the audience for their time and attention to end your presentation.

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3. Avoid Adding Too Much Content

Oftentimes, boring presentations have too much content on the slides which diverts the attention of the audience from the presenter and keeps their eyes glued to the screen. The audience skims their way through the slides to learn about the topic rather than hearing the presenter talk, leading to an ineffective presentation.

To avoid this, keep this in your mind when designing engaging PowerPoint slides that less is often more. What this means is that the fewer slides you use in your presentation, the more effective it can be. Keep the core messages in your talk, and have just a few points summarized in your slides to capture the audience’s attention.

You can use bullet points to help the audience know what you are going to talk about in each slide. This will help retain their attention, while also helping you focus on one point to talk about while you present.

4. Design Visual Slides to Engage

When designing your presentation, focus on adding less text and more visuals to your slides. You can add images, videos, visual effects, animated transitions, graphs, tables, and much more to keep your presentation engaging.

Use a light background with colors that complement each other. Add images that can elicit a response from the audience, embed videos that support your presentation’s core topic, and add graphs and charts to visualize relevant statistics. You can also get free PowerPoint templates to create your own presentation on any topic in a short amount of time.

Animations and transitions can also help retain the audience’s attention, but be careful to not overdo it. It is better to limit distractions from the main message and have enough visuals to draw the audience’s attention.

5. Provide Reasoning and Arguments

What you present should be supported with reasoning and arguments. Especially when you are concluding your presentation, give reasoning as to why the solution you proposed is the best, or offer arguments for the opposition.

You have to convince and persuade the audience that what you have put forward in your presentation is accurate, and for that, you need to let them know why through supportive reasoning and arguments.

6. Support with Relevant Anecdotes to Keep the Audience Hooked

To keep the audience hooked to your talk till the end of your presentation, you can add a relevant anecdote. An anecdote is a short story or example of a real incident that can help people understand your point of view more clearly.

7. Build Confidence through Practice

Last but not least, you have to practice as much as you can to ace your presentation. When you practice, you will be confident to go in front of the class and be able to give it your best shot.

Focus on the content, and its delivery by standing in front of a mirror. You can also gather a group of your close friends to help you out, before presenting it to the whole class.

Present the same way you would like to present in class. Keep your voice balanced, add a little humor, and practice your body language as well. Obtain feedback from your peers, take notes, and identify areas of improvement.

Other than that, remember to time your presentation, because if it is too long, the class will eventually get bored of your talk, and if it is too short, it will give the impression that you did not know much about the topic you presented. For effective delivery of your presentation, practice is crucial.

The Takeaway

Giving presentations in class is not that complicated, but giving an interesting in-class presentation can be. Students rarely take interest in their teacher’s lecture, let alone taking interest in their peers’ presentations.

Therefore, you need to make it as interesting as it can be by choosing the right topic, designing visual slides with relevant media, adding anecdotes, providing reasoning and arguments as well as supporting your talk with graphs and statistics.

We hope the tips stated above help you out in giving in-class less boring presentations. Following the tips can help you ace your PowerPoint presentations and build your confidence for the upcoming presentations as well.