Re-enforce it with your body language. As you tell them, “There are five key points,” put your hand up with all your fingers stretched out. Next say, “Here’s the first.” Put your forefinger out with your hand up to make clear you are referring to the first one. Repeat this for each of the main points as you come to them during the presentation.
You’ll be amazed how often people get their pens at the ready when you do this, and it will also help you to structure your presentation.
“We shouldn’t abbreviate the truth but rather get a new method of presentation.”
Edward Tufte (Yale Professor)
2.4 Don’t learn your script
It is a natural temptation to learn what you plan saying. After all, you know you’ll feel under pressure up there in front of the audience – what could give you more confidence than memorising your message?
However, this idea is fundamentally flawed.
Most presenters speak at around 100 words per minute. If you have to learn a 25-minute presentation, that’s 2,500 words. Doesn’t sound too much, does it? Well, to put it in perspective, that’s the equivalent of the first act of Macbeth, or two times the length of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech.
Check the movie on YouTube (tinyurl.com/3minJFKspeech): you’ll see JFK didn’t bother to learn it either.
If you try to do so, you will – without exception – forget a part of your script. If you are fixed on a certain text, when you lose the thread it’s a struggle to get back. And if you do manage to memorise it, there’s a chance you’ll come across as non-spontaneous and insincere.