While at university, you may be asked to deliver a presentation of your work. This could be as part of a group project or an individual assessment.
Like a written essay or report, presentation assignments require planning and research to demonstrate your knowledge on a topic. Unlike your written assignments, the final output is communicated visually and/or verbally.
Here we take you through the process of preparing, creating and presenting your work in different formats, covering slide presentations, posters, podcasts and narrated PowerPoints, with a few tips for working in groups to create joint presentations.
Preparation
A presentation, no matter the format, is not a lecture; it is a present, a gift. You give a presentation, and the gift is an idea. In her Ted Talk on the secret structure to great talks, Nancy Duarte (2010) states that as a presenter your role is to facilitate and guide the audience towards the gift of your idea, like a mentor. It is up to your audience to then take that idea out into practice with them. Learn more about this notion by watching this brief video by Simon Sinek, author and coach on public speaking, about giving a presentation.
Where do you start?
First, it is important to carefully read the assignment brief to ensure you fully understand what it is you are being asked to do:
- What is the format of the presentation?
- slide presentation
- poster
- podcast
- narrated PowerPoint
- What is the topic of your presentation?
- Is there a time limit?
- Is there any specific information you will need to cover?
- What are your expected learning outcomes?
- Is it an individual or group assignment?
- How will you be marked/assessed?
The answers to these questions will help you to structure your presentation and meet the criteria of your brief. The answers will also save you from deviating off topic.
Who will you be presenting to?
Once you have understood your assignment, give some time to thinking about your audience:
- Who are they?
- What do they want from your presentation?
- Do they have any pre-existing knowledge on your topic?
- What do they need to know about your topic?
Knowing your audience and their interest in your presentation will guide your planning, making sure you deliver the right type of presentation to the right audience. For more guidance on assignment preparation, have a look at our pages on planning.
Activity
Imagine you have to present a 5-minute slide presentation about student culture at CCCU.
Who do you think your audience would be and what do you think they would want to know about in your presentation? Is there anything else you would have to consider for this audience?
How do you begin creating a presentation?
Perhaps you have been given a topic to cover as part of your assignment. Or maybe you have been asked to find your own topic for delivery. Either way, you will need to conduct research and gather information to learn about your topic the same way you would for any assignment. To learn more about conducting research for your project, take a look at our page on finding information.
Take note of references for all your research. You will need to reference your research later when you build your slides. Our page on referencing provides guidance on citing and referencing sources of information in your work.
Presentational work requires one significant difference to planning written assignments; thinking about your presentation style from the start. Whether a PowerPoint-assisted presentation, a poster or a podcast, the presentation style will dictate the type of information you wish to communicate, the space you have to deliver your content and how you convey your narrative. Spend time thinking about the format of your delivery to ensure you are planning appropriately for the presentational type.
| presentation type | things to consider |
|---|---|
| Slide presentations & narrated PowerPoints | Do you have a set number of slides you can create as part of your assignment brief? How much time can you allocate to each slide? |
| Academic poster | Is there a word count as part of your assignment brief? How will you communicate your project visually? |
| Podcast | How much time have you been allocated? What type of podcast are you producing; solo delivery or will there be other people involved e.g. an interview? |
Once you have done your research on your topic and established the format and requirements of your presentation, you will need to narrow your information (to fit it in your time allowance) and find the key message of your presentation.
Group presentations
Working in a group to create and deliver a presentation can help to develop important teamworking skills in communication and collaboration. Getting to know each other is an important first step to establish a positive working relationship with your teammates. Socialise before you start work on your group project, whether it is for food, a coffee, or a team day out – any environment where you can relax and bond. Start by introducing yourselves and your lifestyles so you can try to understand each other as people first and working partners second. This will help minimise any team working problems when you begin collaborating.
For more guidance on working with others, have a look at our page on being in class.
To get started on a group presentation project, work through the same process as above; understand your assignment brief, know your audience and establish the topic of your presentation. Then you can start assigning tasks amongst the group. Take note of each group member's strengths and capabilities, for example strengths in research or skills using Microsoft PowerPoint. Additionally, listen to any expressions of interest by team members who want to use this opportunity to develop new skills. If someone wants to learn how to use software or practise their public speaking, make sure they get the chance. Where possible, team up on tasks with at least two people who can support each other in their role. You may want to elect a moderator in the group who will keep track of work progress and maintain communication amongst the team.
Research is a key part of everything we do at university and therefore it should be the responsibility of each group member to conduct research and contribute to the team project.
Planning in advance so that every group member knows their role, their deadlines and meet-up dates is an important part of your group communication. Making a shared timeline will ensure everyone knows the deadlines and will help the group to establish agreements such as:
- the goals and mini deadlines (milestones) for completing a work. For example, when do you need your research completed by?
- the dates and times the group will meet up to discuss progress and for decision making (online or in-person)
- the content the group will use in the presentation
Decide on the platforms you will use to communicate and work together. Ensure all your teammates have access, not forcing anyone to sign up to something they don’t want to. As CCCU students, you all have access to Microsoft 365 and the collaborative platforms available to assist your study. Microsoft Teams is a great tool for instant chat, video meetings and the sharing and editing of files in real time.
Activity
Take a moment to view the IT training and certification information to get an overview of the basics of Microsoft 365 and the applications available to you.
Creation of visual content
For some presentations, you are required to have visual content to depict your project. Each presentational type has its own requirements for the materials you will need to communicate your work and support your delivery.
Slide presentations and narrated PowerPoints (A)
Presentation slides are an important component of your narrative; they are there to tell a visual story and help you to communicate your message to your audience. Well-designed slides will help you to deliver your message clearly and ensure your audience gets the most out of your presentation. A poorly designed slide could distract your audience from your important information and create confusion, which will not showcase your knowledge effectively.
A slide deck should take your audience on a journey through your project. Storytelling is an important part of communicating your information. Like a story, your presentation will need a beginning (introduction), a middle (main discussion) and an end (conclusion). Each section of your presentation must walk your audience through your story, leaving a breadcrumb trail of information, leading up to your conclusion. Remember, your audience won’t be able to go back and reread any part of your slides like a written assignment, so having a clear structure to your slides can be invaluable in helping the audience stay engaged and without confusion. Give time to considering the thought, concept or idea you are gifting your audience as your key message will direct the storytelling of your information to your audience.
Here are some top tips for creating slide presentations:
- Always opt for quality over quantity of text
- Minimise your words by avoiding writing in paragraphs; use bullets instead
- Can you make the same point with a visual instead of text? For example, use a graph/chart, diagram or an image to communicate your information
- Avoid using animations and effects in your presentations. These can be distracting for your audience and are not always compatible with other technology if you need to download or upload the file to another computer.
- Make your slides meaningful by following a simple structure:
- Point; make this the title of your slide
- Evidence; use the main space of your slide to depict your information
- Explanation; use your speech to explain the relevance of your information (do not put this on your slides)
- You must include references on your slides to credit your research and all sources of information. This includes referencing any images you’ve used. See Cite Them Right for guidance on referencing images in styles including Harvard, APA and Chicago.
- Use a clear and simple font for your text, such as Arial or Calibri. Avoid using themed fonts or Times New Roman as these can be difficult to read. Avoid using italics.
- Use high contrast colours such as black and white (an off-white is better) and avoid using only colour to differentiate information. Red and green colours are hard to differentiate for people with colour blindness, so avoid contrasting these hues.
- Keep your visuals simple and limit the number on one slide. You will need to describe and summarise the visual if anyone in the audience is blind.
- Make sure any videos you use have captions.
- Consult Microsoft's guidance on creating accessible presentations.
Activity
Looking at the slides below and thinking about the guidance above, which do you think is a better slide design for your audience to read during your presentation?
Remember, your slides are a visual aid to your accompanying speech and are there to be interacted with. Design your slides to be engaged with as you deliver your verbal content.
You can learn more about how to make your information and data more visual by watching the below. David McCandless presents 'The beauty of data visualisation' in his Ted Talk.
There are a variety of platforms to choose from when it comes to creating your presentation slides and they all have their own benefits and disadvantages. CCCU recommends using Microsoft PowerPoint or Microsoft Sway as part of your student Microsoft 365 package.
Academic posters (A)
Posters are designed to capture the attention of people passing by and deliver your message on a single page in a brief and concise manner. Academic posters are a representation of your work, communicated through text, visual imagery, infographics and/or tables and graphs to summarise your project and its conclusions. Information is laid out in sections, using headings and subheadings to draw the attention and eyeline of the viewer. There is no standard format to an academic poster and, therefore you have the freedom to play with colour, composition and the style in which you’d like to display your information. However, always refer to your assignment brief for specific guidance for your module assessment.
When creating an academic poster, it’s important to consider both the message you want to communicate and your audience. These two come hand in hand and you cannot start designing until you know what you want to say and who you want to say it to.
It helps to first think about what your poster is being used for, as this will give you a starting point for your audience too. For example:
- Are you trying to incite a debate between specific parties or on a singular topic? Who would be interested in this debate and topic?
- Are you trying to showcase the journey of a project and its outcome? What was the topic of your project and your academic field of study?
- Are you creating a poster for sponsorship of your work? Who do you want sponsorship from and how can they sponsor you?
You will no doubt have a lot of information which will need reducing to communicate clearly and concisely on one page. The video below discusses the process of refining your content for your poster in easy-to-follow steps.
Now ready to start creating your poster. The video below will take you through how to start getting your information onto paper and all the elements you’ll need to consider to make your poster attractive and legible.
One last check before you finalise your work:
- Proofread your text for spelling and grammatical errors.
- Check all your in-text citations and references are correct.
- Ensure you have provided the source/credit for any images you’ve used, including those that are your own.
Activity
What do you consider to be the three most important aspects of poster design for delivering a clear message to your audience?
Podcasts (A)
The challenge for podcasters is the communication of an idea without visual content to support the information. Instead, the emphasis is on your storytelling ability and being able to discuss and describe well enough that listeners can create clear pictures in their minds.
Tips for groupwork (A)
You will need to decide as a group which platform you will use to build your visual content. Make sure everyone in the team can access your file for editing and final review.
The team might want to nominate one or two people in the group to design template slides or a basic poster template for others in the group to populate with information. If you are all going to work on the same slides or poster, have one person do the final edit to ensure you have consistency in font style and size, layout of information and language. All members of the group should proofread the document before presentation day and the final submission to ensure everyone is happy with the final draft and for any final comments. Your strength is in your differences of perspective so use this to your advantage by having all group members give it a final check.
Maintaining communication with your teammates throughout your project is achieved through your working channels, selected organisation platforms and team meetings. However, how you communicate with your teammates is another crucial factor to the success of your teamworking and project completion. Look at the graphic below for 7 tips to good team communication.
Developing your verbal content
The final component to your presentation is preparing your speech. This is the verbal delivery of your information to accompany your visual slides or poster, or the recording of your podcast. There are a few elements that you will need to consider when drafting your speech:
- Prompts; how will you remind yourself of what to say at each stage of your presentation?
- Timing; how long do you have to deliver your presentation, and can you complete your speech in this time?
- Delivery; will your presentation be delivered online, in-person or pre-recorded for your audience?
Slide presentations and narrated slides (B)
It can be useful to use something to help you remember what to say at each point of your presentation. These are called ‘prompts’. There are multiple methods for creating prompts such as using coded colours, using a transition word that will remind you of what is coming next or using repetition throughout your presentation. The important thing is to keep your prompts simple, easy to read and only use a limited amount of text.
Some people need written words for the extra support when they deliver. This is generally accepted at university as you practise your skills in presenting. However, think carefully about what you will use and how you will use it to prompt your speech. Use the drop down boxes below for some ideas with their benefits and risks:
Writing a script can help you to plan and draft your speech. However, you should not rely on it for the delivery of your presentation. This is because reading from a script can make your speech sound robotic and give the impression you have not practised and prepared well enough to know your topic by heart. It is also very boring for the audience to watch someone reading.
| pros (benefits) | cons (risks) |
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Cue cards are hand-sized pieces of card for you to write notes on. They are small enough to be discreet and not distracting so your audience can focus on you and your speech. Each card acts like one slide of your presentation; you can write a few words to remind you of what to say at each point of your presentation.
| pros (benefits) | cons (risks) |
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Most electronic devices come with apps for writing notes, preparing for or even writing a presentation. Therefore, it is tempting to use these devices to help you deliver your speech. However, think about how it will look from the audience perspective; using a phone can look unprofessional, and other devices could be a distraction.
| pros (benefits) | cons (risks) |
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Your slides or visual communication are a part of your presentation which will have key information for your audience. Visuals can also be used as a reminder of what you need to say at each point of your presentation. Remember, correctly designed slides should have a minimum of amount text and therefore you will not be able to read directly from a slide. When you change to the next slide, you may glance at it but make sure you turn back to face your audience quickly. No one wants to watch the back of your head as you present.
| pros (benefits) | cons (risks) |
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Activity
How will you remember your speech for your presentation and how you are going to keep track of time? Make a note of your preferred method so you can prepare for this during the drafting of your presentation.
Academic posters (B)
If you have to present your poster, give a summary of its content and reasoning to the layout. The detailed information is on the poster itself, therefore your job is to best summarise the content and guide your audience through the narrative of the project, as it is organised on your poster. Draw your audience’s attention to your visual elements on your poster as these should provide visual context to your speech, just as you would do in a slide presentation.
Podcasts (B)
Podcasts are a recording of a verbal presentation, otherwise known as spoken word, and therefore audio-only content. It could be formatted as a solo speech such as a monologue on a topic or storytelling, a discussion between two or more people, or a Q&A between an interviewer and interviewee(s). Although there is no visual material supporting your content like a slide presentation or poster, you still need to put all your research into creating a narrative for the recording.
To deliver a monologue on a subject, prepare a script of dialogue to help you stay on topic and stay within the time you’ve been allocated for the assignment. It can also be helpful as a transcript of the recording which may be required as part of your submission. Draft an introduction, the main content and a conclusion to end your podcast. You will want to divide your speech into sections of time, to ensure you can remain in your allocated time allowance. The average speaking rate is 120-160 words per minute, meaning roughly 1000 words equates to approximately 6-7minutes of audio.
Storytelling is a popular form of podcasting where the host tells a real or fictional story to the listener. Like a monologue, it requires the use of a script; however, the delivery could be very different, depending on the content. Prepare the narrative for your story, considering any dramatic emphasis you may wish to deliver in the recording, including added sound for dramatic effect.
Discussion-based podcasts involve conversation and reactions from others engaged in the dialogue. This can be scripted, where questions or prompts and their responses are pre-planned, or more spontaneous allowing for an organic conversation. Preparing the topic of conversation and the key points you want to cover can help you to create guiding questions and keep the discussion on topic. It is also important to think of timing at this stage, especially if you are allowing for a more organic dialogue, and allocate a set amount of time to each point of discussion to ensure you can cover everything in your time allowance.
Interviews are a common form of podcast where a host will ask a guest questions around a central topic or theme. It requires careful crafting of open questions to allow for the interviewee to talk at length and share their knowledge. Usually, questions are given to an interviewee ahead of the recording to allow them time to plan their answers. In this case, you could prepare guidance for your interviewee on how much time they have on each question to keep within your podcast time.
The Q&A
As part of your assignment, you may have been given time for a question and answers section at the end of your presentation. It is important to prepare for these to be able to answer questions with confidence and not be caught off-guard and without a response. A helpful tip is to practice asking and answering question in front of others. If someone has watched your presentation, what kind of questions have they asked about your work?
Activity
Watch other people’s presentations. Take note of any questions you had about their work and the questions asked by both tutors and students. You may get similar questions in your assessment so use these question to help you prepare for future assignments.
Tips for groupwork (B)
Consult your project brief and assignment criteria; how is your marking weighted - are all group members required to speak in your presentation? If not, then decide as a group how many of you will deliver the presentation and divide the presentation time between you. You might want to divide it by the section of presentation that you each worked on.
Delivery of your presentation
The key to the successful delivery of any presentation is practice, practice, practice. This will help you to make sure you can keep within your allotted time and help you to deal with nerves. Public speaking is, undeniably, nerve wracking. Here are some tips to help you tackle those nerves
Slide and poster presentations, and narrated slides
Delivering a presentation in person requires consideration towards your body language and how you interact with your slides. Think about how your audience will see you. They will want to see your face, talking directly to them (and not to your slides or notes), they will want to see your slides, and they will want to see how what you are saying relates to your slides. Be open and relaxed and gesture to your slides to emphasise a point and demonstrate connections between your speech and visuals. Although be careful if you are using an interactive whiteboard – they are sensitive and an accidental touch could move your slides on unintentionally!
You might be asked to record a presentation or deliver an online presentation while at university. These can be prepared for in the same way as you would for a presentation delivered in-person. However, you will need to do some extra preparation for the delivery of your speech. See below for some advice on recording
Whether your presentation is in-person, online or recorded, think about your tone and pace of your speech. Be professional, take your time, pause when appropriate and convey enthusiasm and pride in your work. You could use your notes or slides to keep track of time, to pause and breathe before moving onto the next part. These small details will make an audience feel relaxed and more likely to enjoy your presentation. If you are prone to fidgeting or pacing, have an item in your hand to fiddle with although try to keep it from distracting your audience (try to avoid loud items like clicky pens, for example!).
Podcasts (C)
Tone of voice is a crucial part of delivering a podcast. If you are dealing with a sensitive or newsworthy topic, then a more formal and neutral tone like a newsreader is suitable. If you are covering a more light-hearted topic, then it may be appropriate to have a more casual approach to your podcast. However, it is still an academic piece of work, therefore try to keep slang and colloquiums to a minimum.
Like delivering a slide presentation, it can be difficult to sound natural when reading. Practice your speech enough times so you can reduce the text in front of you and speak unscripted as much as possible for a more natural delivery. It can be strange to hear yourself recorded, so practice will also help you to become more familiar with the sound of your own voice. This will also help to minimise the number of ‘umms’ and ‘ahhs’ in your speech.
For podcasts, recorded slides and online presentations, you will need to consider your space, sound and technology for delivery:
- Find a quiet room with no background noise
- Make sure your technology is fully charged for delivery
- Use headphones with a microphone for better sound and to minimise background noise
- If you are using a camera to record yourself giving the presentation, make sure the light is not coming from behind you – this will make you appear as a dark shadow to your audience
- Do not have a distracting background or anything inappropriate behind you
Tips for groupwork (C)
Make sure you get time to practise your presentation together before you deliver (and not just on the day). Think about how you are going to hand over to other speakers and transition from one person to the next. A good tip is to introduce the next person to speak e.g. “Mark will now introduce...” and for the next speaker to acknowledge the transition with a “thank you”. This shows a clear handover for the audience and avoids any confusion over who is next to speak amongst the group.
Key takeaways
- A presentation is a gift, think carefully about what you want to ‘gift’ to your audience
- A good presentation relies on good preparation, planning and practice
- Consider your visuals carefully, paying attention to details that will enhance your communication
- Think about your audience at every stage of the project from preparation to delivery
- Be respectful and have empathy for your teammates to support each other through the project
- Practice, practice, practice!
Credit
Written by David Bedford, Kat Bryne Claudia España, & Emma Scanlan
Last updated 2026