Presentations

[minnie76]

If you are doing a presentation is it okay to read the whole presentation from a handwritten page rather than having cue cards with key words???

[factor-fiction]

Not unless you can look at the audience almost all the time, vary the pace, tone etc and make it sound natural

[boxtops]

It's poor practice, minnie, and it's very boring for the audience. Eye contact is really important - but I have problems with cue cards myself, worrying that I will forget what goes in between.

What I tend to do is type out what I want to say, then put it into a really large font on the page so I can read it from a distance/a lectern, then put key words in each paragraph in Bold larger font so they stand out. A tip I have too is to hold the page but to move your thumb down the page as you speak, so you can't lose your place.

This means you can lift your head between key words and look at the audience/ round the room, and speak some from memory, and you don't forget anything - it doesn't matter if you don't actually say what you've typed as long as yo give the gist of it and don't forget anything..

Speaking TO the audience makes it look as if you know what you are talking about - reading doesn't give that impression. I hope this helps!

[joko]

if you read it out you may as well just print it out and hand it round to them all.

best to try to learn it and use cards as prompts