How to Create an Impromptu Presentation

According to Mark Twain it usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. Most of us however when called on at short notice to give a brief presentation in a meeting (for example) probably don’t even have the luxury of 5 minutes preparation time – let alone 3 weeks! So how can you still deliver a reasonably successful presentation if you’ve got about ZERO Preparation time?

Presentation Structure is the Key

In a situation like this, you need to have some form of standard structures in your head that you can call upon at very short notice.

One example structure that you can use quickly (if it’s relevant) is:-

1. What’s the issue
2. How is it affecting things?
3. And what is being done about it?

Using the Power of Three – so 3 main points and then if needed break down each of the points into 3.

Chronological Structures

Another structure you can use for impromptu presentations is:-

1. Past
2. Present
3. Future

 Another similar structure is based on:-

1. What was it like before?
2. What was the event?
3. What’s the result now?

 The Three 'W's Structure

1. What?
2. Which?
3. Who?

e.g.  Buying a car: What sort should I buy? Which brand should I purchase? From Whom should I buy it?

More Conventional Structure 

• Introduction
• Main Body
• Point 1 – with 3 sub points in support
• Point 2 –  with 3 sub points in support
• Point 3 – with 3 sub points in support
• Conclusion and call to action if relevant

Conclusions
As with most things the more you practise something the better you can become at it. And impromptu speaking is no exception!

Give yourself some topics to speak on and then allow 2-3 minutes of preparation for each one. Then try presenting on each of about 5 minutes. Learn as you go get someone to watch you and give you feedback on how it went. Try it in your POWERtalk club!

Not a member yet?  See the links to clubs in the right-hand panel or ask about starting a club in your area.

Stella Sneddon

Communication and Success

The quality of your life is the quality of your communication.

This means the way you communicate with others and, more importantly, the way you communicate with yourself.

What you focus on is what you get. If you look for the positive this is what you get.

This is a fundamental law of Nature.

The Top 200 Secrets of Success and the Pillars of Self-Mastery

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Top 20 Figures of Speech

Alliteration Repetition of an initial consonant sound

Anaphora Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verse.

Antithesis The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.

Assonance Identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighbouring words.

Chiasmus A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed.

Euphemism The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.

Hyperbole An extravagant statement, the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.

Irony The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement of situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance of presentation of the idea.

Litotes A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is
expressed by negating its opposite.

Metaphor. An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common.

Metonyomy. A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated; also the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it.

Onomatopoeia. The use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects of actions they refer to.

Oxymoron. A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.

Paradox. A statement that appears to contradict itself.

Personification A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.

Pun. A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar senses or sound of different words.

Simile A stated comparison (usually formed with "like" or "as") between two fundamentally dissimilar things that have certain qualities in common.

Synecdoche. A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole .

Understatement. A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is.