Giving a Seminar

by the end of this study skills guide, you should be better able to:

(1) minimise nervousness when you are faced with presenting a seminar.

(2) Prepare your material well

(3) Devise and produce simple visual aids to support your presentation

(4) Devise and produce handout material, if appropriate, to support your presentation.

(5) If appropriate, being in the views of your audience in a structured and controlled way.

(6) Deal professionally with questions about your material.

Usually, when you're asked to prepare and present a seminar, it's to do with talking to a small group of fellow-students, with a lecturer present. You'll also be expected to handle questions from the group, either during your presentation, or after it. There may be ground-rules laid down about whether or not you can use visual support and handouts. There will certainly be some indication of how long your seminar should last. It's best not to over-run, - but your main fear may be of drying up too early. In fact, you may be afraid of drying up, full stop!

However, it's well worth you becoming skilled at giving presentations to small groups (and large groups). In your future career, much is to be gained by having such skills. Let's look at some of the benefits to you of becoming a good performer!

• You'll be able to go to conferences, presenting papers and so on. Often, the "ticket" to get "sent" to a conference is the fact that you'll be a contributor and not just a delegate.
  
  
• You'll be able to become "respected" in your field, through presentations, and the publications in conference proceedings which usually result.
  
  
• You'll be able to convince others of the value of your work, thoughts and ideas. This could lead you to funding of further work, enhanced job prospects, and so on.
  
  
• presenting a seminar is very good practice for interviews. In fact, it's probably more demanding than the average interview. So if you become good at giving seminars - you'll sail through interviews. You won't always be offered the job - but your chances will be a lot higher!
  
  

You'll normally be given some idea (or even choice) concerning the subject of your seminar. It's useful to start collecting information early. The longer you've been familiar with the material, the easier it will be for you to talk confidently about it. Also it will be easier for you to answer questions if you know the material well. You may well find the "Lay an Egg!" technique which I describe in another study skills guide in this series useful. It's in the study skills guide including the heading "Getting Started". The technique will help you to make sure that your seminar includes all the main points which it needs to live up to its title. So preparing the content should not be a last-minute job, but should be done gradually over a long period if possible. In the end, you may have the luxury of being able to decide what to leave out of your seminar. Being able to select on the spot from various content options may be your key to a successful, confident presentation.

How do you feel about the prospect of talking to a group? Choose the option (s) in the activity below closest to your own feelings, then see what I've said about them in my response.

My feelings about the prosepct of giving a seminar are:

(a) Absolute panic

(b) It's not the content that worriesme, its the idea of people watching me and listening to me talking.

(c) My main fear is drying up

(d) I've given a few seminars already, so I don't feel nervousabout the prospect.

(e) I like performing, so I look forward to it.

(f) I'm worried about how many marks may be associated with the seminar.  

I hope now that you've got any feelings of panic out of your system. Let's go on to explore how you can prepare constructively for your seminar. The better-prepared you are, the better you'll feel. The better-prepared you are, the less is the chance of anything going wrong on the day. It makes quite a difference to have some things prepared to support your seminar. For example, if you have handouts and visual aids already prepared, less depends on the quality of your actual performance on the day. We'll now explore handouts and visual backup in more detail.

Suppose your seminar is to last twenty minutes, plus ten for questions, You wouldn't be very popular if you produced a twenty-page handout, containing every word you were saying, and more. People would be so busy trying to read the handout, they'd not have time to listen to you.

See if you can think of three reasons why its useful to have some sort of handout. Jot them in below be careful to do this before reading ahead!

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It is useful to have some sort of handout which summarises the main points of your seminar. It's best to give this out at the start, as it then serves as a sort of map for your audience, and indeed for you too. You can work your way through each main point in turn, adding extra detail from your spoken words, and from any visual aid material you've prepared. A handout can be helpful to you if you're a bit nervous. Whenever your audience is referred to a point in your handout, eyes will be on the paper and not you. Handouts can look attractive, or they can look boring! For a start, make sure that the text isn't too "solid" - use white space between main points. This allows your audience to make brief notes as they listen. It's useful to start the handout with some sort of Aim or Objective associated with the seminar, so your audience can see exactly what you intend to do. If the audience sees your intentions, then sees you fulfill them, you are likely to be regarded as having been very successful. You don't want your handout to give everything away. If your audience reads ahead of you, you may appear boring when you repeat something already read. A good way round this is to turn your main points into questions in your handout, then go logically through answering the questions as you talk. You'll know you're winning if members of your audience can be seen writing down your answers to the questions in the white space you've carefully left between questions in the handout. If your handwriting is as bad as mine, it's probably best to type your handout (if you can type). If you can't type, in most universities you can persuade someone to do a little typing for you. You may be able to charm your Departmental Secretary! If not, there are usually adverts to be seen around the university where people offer typing services, for example to postgraduate students writing theses. The ultimate in luxury is a word-processor, if you can get at one. Once you've mastered it, you can quickly churn out a handout, print it out, have a look at how it appears, modify and polish it till you're quite content with both the layout and the content.

If you know there's going to be an overhead projector available, it's very easy to make a few transparencies to show during your seminar. Like handouts, these should have main headings or questions, rather than a lot of detail. You can also get things like tables, graphs, diagrams and so on photocopied onto acetate sheets, to use as illustrations. A particular advantage of an overhead projector is that you don't have to turn your back on your audience (as you would have to using a blackboard or whiteboard). This means your voice doesn't get lost as it would if you turned around. It also means you can watch the expression on everyone's face, all the time, and respond accordingly. It's often worth making a point again in different words, if some rather puzzled looks are on some faces. If you're nervous, using an overhead projector is very calming. This is because as soon as you show a transparency, your audience's gaze goes away from you, and on to the screen. (Make sure, of course, that you know exactly how to switch the projector on, and that it is plugged in and focused correctly before you start). Also, switch it off whenever you're not using it -this is a mark of the professional presenter! The most important thing to remember about writing transparencies is not to put too much on them. Your writing should be large enough to be easily read at the back of the room. It's best to use a few different colours as well, this tends to make transparencies look more attractive. It's usually better to print than to use normal handwriting. It's better to use "permanent" pens rather than "washable" ones. This is because if your hands get a bit sweaty in the heat of the moment, washable ink can smudge and look messy projected on the screen. Some colours come out better than others! Orange is not worth using - it is not very visible! Even red can sometimes be hard to see at the back of a large room. Blue, brown, black, green, and purple show up best. A few different colours on each acetate sheet make it look more interesting and attractive. You may even be able to get some coloured acetate to make your presentation more colourful. But remember, there's usually someone who is colour blind in any audience! So don't make the sense of your transparency dependent on the colours you use. If someone in your audience makes a good point while you're displaying an acetate, why not quickly respond, and write that point onto your transparency before everyone's eyes? You can, of course, use slides and a projector. However, I've stopped using slides myself, because I have much more control over acetates. I can go back at will to any one transparency. I can choose to miss out some. In short, transparencies can be used much more flexibly than slides (no pun intended!). If you want one or more of your visual aids to be permanently visible through most of your seminar, a flipchart is useful. With a bit of "blue-tack" you can fix your flipchart to a wall or door where everyone can see it. You don't necessarily have to have the "easel" itself, just the big sheet(s) of paper, pre-prepared. Always have a flipchart marker-pen or two, in case it's politic to add something said by a member of your audience. People do like to have their words of wisdom written down by the presenter!

You may have thought this would come before thinking about visual aids or handouts, but it's best done last. Your "script" can also flag exactly when you'll show each visual, and exactly when you'll refer the audience to particular things in a handout. It's very useful for you to put such instructions to yourself in a different colour from the content of the seminar (you don't want to read out aloud your instructions to yourself!) It's best to make your script fairly easy to read at a distance. You don't want to have to stoop down to read it. Again, typescript well spaced out is easier than small handwriting. You'll need to decide whether your script is going to be a framework around which you'll "ad lib", or whether it's going to contain the exact words you intend to say. Personally, I don't like to see people reading from a script. It looks "forced" . If you do decide that you want the comfort of having your full script beside you, keep the sentences short! Most of us write in much longer sentences than we use when we talk. Short sentences give you more time to breathe - yes, you do need to do this!

Some people dread this! However, there's lots you can do to become very skilled at it. And practice is very good for you. Being able to handle questions is a skills that will be valuable to you all through your career - so you may as well start to develop that skills now. The skills you develop now in the relative safety of presenting your seminar will help you in important interviews in the future - or when giving a paper to a prestigious international conference! Back to your seminar now! When someone asks you a question, it may seem like an age before you can find enough words to start your answer. You'll feel painfully conscious of each second of silence before you start to answer. Your audience too will be conscious of such silences. Silence is obviously a bad thing! What can you do about it? One simple but effective technique is to repeat the question, "so that everyone can hear it" as your obvious purpose (but to give you valuable thinking time as your real purpose). It can be very useful to write up a shortened version of that question on overhead projector or flipchart, so that everyone knows exactly what question you're going to deal with. It is often helpful to get the questioner to clarify exactly what the question is. All of this gives you time to think. What if you don't know the answer? The issue is "to waffle or not to waffle!" In general, it's best not to waffle, but to admit that you don't yet know the answer - but in a way that shows that you are keen to find out. With a bit of luck someone else may step in with an answer! When you're answering a question, don't just look at the person who asked it. That person most probably knows the answer anyway. Look around at other people as you answer, your eye-contact will do a lot to convince them that you know what you're talking about (even if you don't!). What if there's a silence when you're waiting for another question? We've already agreed, I hope, that silence is a bad thing. A useful trick is to have a question or two of your own that you can pose, then answer.

Although having to give a seminar may seem like a bit of an ordeal, the experience is very valuable to you. All through your future career, you'll be performing in front of people in one way or another. The earlier you start consciously developing your performing skills - the better you'll get at it! Don't worry if you've not been comfortable in past attempts. You now know several ways of preparing for your seminar, so that much less depends on the words you actually speak.

Read on to see what I've said about the option(s) you chose.

(a) "Absolute panic!".

You're not alone. Many students feel this first time round. In fact, most people who later become very skilled at giving presentations felt this once, and some continue to feel so. However, it's never as bad as you think it will be. Why cross all your bridges before you come to them? There's a lot you can do to take away the panic. Read what I've said for the other options too, then read on through the study skills guide.

(b) "It's not the content that worries me, it's the idea of people watching me and listening to me talking."

This too is a common reaction. In fact, fellow-students who haven't already given their seminar, won't be watching you nearly as closely as you fear. They will be too busy worrying about how they are going to do when their turn comes!

(c) "My main fear is "drying up"".

Again, you're in good company! At one time or another, this has been the fear of almost every famous actor or broadcaster. However, giving a seminar, you're at an advantage. You haven't got to stick to particular words in a script. You can change the order of things. People seldom notice what you've missed out. You can move on to another part of your presentation. You can use a visual aid or a handout to keep your audience busy while you work out what you're going to say next. In fact, even if you didn't say much at all, you'd still get some credit for the content of any handouts you had prepared, and for the relevance and quality of any visual aids you used.

(d) "I've given a few seminars already, so don't feel nervous about the prospect".

Yes, the first one is always the most taxing. Now that you've passed that hurdle, it's time to concentrate on giving a really professional touch to your seminars. I hope the comments I make about use of handouts, visual aids, and handling questions, will all help you make seminars even better.

(e) "I like performing, so I look forward to it". That's the spirit! Use my suggestions, where appropriate, to make your performance even more distinguished.

(f) "I'm worried about how many marks may be associated with the seminar". This is natural if the seminar is an assessed part of your course. However, the marks may not be as difficult to score as you imagine. More than likely, you'll still pass even if you were to give a rather mediocre seminar. Simply arriving, and starting gets credit! (If you don't show up, you avoid the risk of gaining any marks at all!). Even if your actual talk is not done too well, there's credit to be earned for any supporting materials such as handouts or visual aids which you use.

Here are some reasons why it's useful to have some sort of handout.

• It helps take the focus away from yourself - useful if you're nervous.
  
  
• It gives your audience members.something they can take away - making your seminar more memorable.
  
  
• Your handout can be interesting and good-looking - making the whole seminar appear more interesting and better-structured .

You may well have thought of more reasons for producing a handout. Now please return to the text where I have expanded on some of these points.