Presentations & Posters

Giving a speech to show and explain content to an audience is an essential part of life and work. In a professional context, whether you are presenting to a client or speaking at a team meeting, being able to communicate clearly and concisely in spoken form will help you advance your career.

It's always a good idea to start by analysing your task, as you would for any other assessment. Analyse the task and think about what you need to say (the content) and who you will say it to (the audience).

Analysing the question (video, 2:35) from Western Sydney University Library.

Click the icons on the left to access the resources.

	Analysing the assignment question (full guide)	Tips and information about understanding your assignment question.
	Analysing the assignment question (3-min guide)	Quick tips and information about understanding your assignment question.
	Analysing the assignment question checklist	Use this checklist to make sure you've done everything you need to understand your assignment question.
	Common task words	Learn what common assignment task words mean.
	Understanding what the marker is looking for	Learn how to interpret the marking criteria (or rubric) for your assignment.

Researching

For most of your assignments, you will need to do some research. This means searching for scholarly information related to the topic in order to find out what researchers have said about the topic and to develop your own ideas.

Ask a Library staff member for help in finding scholarly sources for your assignments.

Click the icons on the left to access the resources.

	Successful Searching tutorials	These Library online tutorials will take you through five skills that are important for finding and using information effectively.
	Types of sources	Understand the different kinds of sources that you can use for your assignment.
	Critical thinking	Practical resources to develop your skills in critical thinking.
	APPEAL source evaluation worksheet	Learn how to evaluate each source you find, to ensure that the sources you use are scholarly sources.

Reading

Many students struggle with reading for university, but it doesn't have to be an uphill battle. You just need to figure out what you need to read and why you need to read it, then use the strategies in the resources below to help you become a more effective reader.

Interactive tutorials

Click on the images to access the tutorials.

Use pre-reading techniques to decide whether to spend time reading a source.

Use selective reading techniques to quickly find the information you need.

Use active reading techniques to understand and engage with what you read.

Click the icons on the left to access the resources.

	The why, when, and what of reading	Learn why reading at university is important, when you should read, and what you should read.
	How to read effectively	Here you will find practical strategies and tips for effective and efficient reading.
	Organising your reading	Learn how to keep on top of your reading workload.
	Note-making for critical thinking	Examples of note-taking systems to help you read and think critically. Find more resources on note-taking in Attending lectures and tutorials.
	Reading worksheet	Keep a copy of this resource to guide your note-taking whenever you read for university.
	Reading graphic organiser	Use this interactive tool to take notes on the main points as you read.

Giving a presentation isn't like chatting to your friends. You can't just stand up and speak without any preparation. You should take time to organise your ideas and find the right volume, pace, tone, and pitch for your voice and your meaning.

Click the icons on the left to access the resources.

	Presentation Structure	Learn how to structure your presentation.
	Written language vs. spoken language	Learn about the most effective language choices for a presentation.
	Using visual aids	Learn the pros and cons of different types of visual aids.
	Body language and gesture	Learn tips for using body language and gesture effectively.
	Reducing anxiety	Learn tips for reducing your anxiety before giving a presentation.

Tips for making yourself heard

• Speak loudly, so that you can be heard, but don't shout or strain your voice. Instead, learn to project your voice: this means that you can be heard in the back of the room, but you're not yelling.
• Adjust your volume to the size of the room. You can also change your volume for emphasis or to get your audience's attention (not just by shouting – lowering your volume slightly will make your audience lean forward to hear what's coming next).
• Speak slowly and clearly, especially for key points.
• Don't be afraid of silence – it's fine to pause for effect or to remember your next point!
• Try varying your pace for effect, for example by speaking more quickly when you get to an exciting point (100 words on the page = around 1 minute of speech).
• Try varying your vocal tone and pitch.
• Practise pronouncing sounds clearly so that your audience can understand you.
• Practise pronouncing unfamiliar words and check pronunciation with a friend, a dictionary, or an online resource.

One of the key challenges of producing a poster is knowing what to put in, what to leave out, and what order to put it in. You should have a good idea of what the most important information is from your previous research and completed tasks. Make sure to check your assessment guidelines and organise your ideas and information in the required format.

• Start by preparing a draft of the text your will use on your poster.
• Be selective in what you include. Deciding what can be left out is as important as deciding what to put in. This is called prioritising. While it can be tempting to include everything about the topic, your poster needs to convey key information succinctly and visually as much as possible.
• Consider the main message you want to convey and dedicate the largest space to it on your poster. The largest element will draw the most attention.
• Consider your audience. What are their wants, expectations, or assumed knowledge?
• Consider the order of information on the page. Most English readers will read from the top left to bottom right corner. Make sure the design of your poster allows the reader to follow your thinking.

Developing visuals

Visuals such as data figures, photos, and sketches are often included in posters to help your audience understand a process or to illustrate design ideas. They can be useful to explain and clarify key points.

If you include visuals in your poster, you must do the following:

• Annotate them to accurately describe the content.
• Position them carefully so that they are visually well organised and appealing.

Tip: If you do your sketches by hand, you'll need to digitise them to include in the digital copy of your poster. To do this, you can use the scan function on a photocopier or printer, or you may be able to use a scanning app on your phone. Be aware that light pencil lines may lose definition in the scanning process, so you'll need to either darken them manually before scanning, or adjust the settings on the scanning device.

Working in a group?

The different members of your group might have very different ideas of what looks good. This can be challenging when you need to design visuals as a group.

Here are some tips to help guide the process:

• Decide as a group how you would like your poster to look visually. Collecting some examples of other posters that you all like can provide some basic guidelines.
• Decide as a group who will complete each task or poster to avoid duplication.
• Make sure posters and graphics are visually consistent so they look like they belong together.
• Use appropriate collaborative tools to share work e.g. Google Drive, OneDrive etc.
• Agree on how you will make suggestions and changes. Consider using features such as ‘track changes’ in Microsoft Office products, or ‘suggestion mode’ in Google Docs.
• When reviewing each other’s designs, make sure to give constructive feedback, providing suggestions or alternatives. It is not helpful to say that it just ‘doesn’t look good’. Why does that element not work? How could it be improved?

The University offers free workshops on academic writing, referencing, and grammar. These are open to all students enrolled at Western Sydney University. You can find out more information on the Academic literacy and grammar workshops page (opens in a new window).

Click the icons on the left to access the resources.

	Paragraph structure	Learn how to structure paragraphs in academic writing.
	Sentence structure	Learn how to structure sentences in academic writing.
	Sentences 3-min guide	Learn how to find and fix common sentence structure problems in your writing.
	Grammar - Tense and subject-verb agreement	Learn how to appropriately apply grammar in academic writing (including tense and subject-verb agreement).
	Grammar - Articles and determiners	Learn how to appropriately use articles and determiners in academic writing.
	Purpose and language choice 3-min guide	Learn how to choose the right kind of language for your purpose.
	Vocabulary	Tips for using appropriate vocabulary in academic writing.

Once you've done all the research and prepared your presentation, you'll probably feel like you've finished. But it's still a draft and probably won't be your best work until you've practised it a couple of times and made changes.

Practise without an audience

Practise without an audience to check that the organisation and timing of your content work well. Reflect on how it went by asking yourself:

• What worked well?
• What didn't work so well?
• At what points were there problems in the flow?

Make changes based on your reflections.

Practise with an audience

Practice your presentation with one or more onlookers. As your audience:

• What worked well?
• What didn't work so well?
• At what points were there problems in the flow?

Then, reflect on the feedback from your audience, and how you felt giving your presentation in front of other people, and make changes as needed.

Click the icons on the left to access the resources.

	Editing	Learn a 5-step approach to editing your work.
	Editing Checklist	Keep this interactive resource handy to guide you through the editing process.
	Academic Integrity Checklist	Use this checklist to see if your work meets academic integrity expectations.

Check out these tips for improving the final draft of your presentation or poster.

• If working in a group, assign different people to focus on different elements of your slides or poster. Someone can check referencing and another can check that the graphics are consistent.
• The Spelling and Grammar tool in Microsoft PowerPoint is useful but should not be relied on. It cannot tell if you’ve used the correct form of a verb, or if a comma is in the right place. Make sure you conduct a manual check as well.
• If possible, have someone other than the creator of the slides do the proofreading. Someone new can pick up errors that might have been missed.

Click the icons on the left to access the resources.

	Proofreading	Learn the importance of proofreading and how to do it successfully.
	Proofreading checklist	Keep this interactive resource handy to guide you through the proofreading process
	Using Turnitin	Learn how to use Turnitin to submit your assignnment.

When your presentation has been marked, don't just look at the mark you got, but read through all the feedback and reflect on what you could do to improve next time.

Follow these steps after your presentation:

1. Reflect on your audience’s feedback and your own experience.
2. Make some brief notes so you can improve your next presentation.
3. If you worked in a group, debrief the presentation as a group. Ask yourselves: What went well? What could be improved for next time?
4. Make sure you celebrate as a group for a job well done!

Click the icons on the left to access the resources.