Chapter 4

Presenting A Proposal
After a proposal is written, the next step that a presenter needs to do is presenting what he/she has
done in the proposal. Verbal presentation is one of the most well known ways of presentation. When it
comes to oral presentation, here are some important points that a presenter must notice:
 Know your audience.
 Use presentation kits such as projector, charts, or even a model.
 Audio visual helps much in presentation
 Time limitation
 Language used
 Facial expressions and gestures
 Open a discussion space

Proposal presentation is another “urgent” step of conducting an event or a program. This is the
phase whether your proposal is approved or not. Decision makers may approve what you have written
as long as it is logic, and worth-conducting. Therefore, all elements in written proposal which is later
presented in oral form must be parallel. Otherwise, it could only be a trash which will never be
approved.

CREATING YOUR PROPOSAL PRESENTATION

A proposal presentation has a distinct audience and purpose

Persuading evaluators to support your research project

 Assume that your audience comprises

 experts in your topic
 intelligent generalists with exposure to your field
 How can you make your proposal compelling?
 Convince audience that project is worth doing
 Convince audience that you are capable of carrying it out

Components of the presentation

 brief project overview

 sufficient background information for everyone to understand your proposal
 statement of the research problem and goals
 project details and methods
 predicted outcomes if everything goes according to plan and if nothing does
 needed resources to complete the work
 societal impact if all goes well

Dividing up the presentation:

 Each partner should speak roughly the same amount of time

 Audiences will assume change in speakers corresponds to change in topic -- don’t confuse
them
 Changing speakers can distract audience/slow the talk down -- keep shifts to a minimum
 How you choose to divide the talk depends on the shape of your presentation -- many
different options!
Revision is an essential part of the collaborative process

 Be prepared: collaborative presentations will require more revision than individual ones
 Invest yourself in the success of the presentation a whole
 don’t get too emotionally attached to your own contributions
 Rehearse before and after you revise

Help focus the audience’s attention on the right speaker

 During overview, identify who will speak on what topic

 Review/Preview as you proceed through the talk
 Articulate transitions explicitly -- “hand off”
 Only one partner “onstage” at a time
 If you’re not speaking, don’t hover nearby
 Do not interrupt each other

Rehearse as a team

 Note timing of each section and of talk as a whole

 Practice moving into speaking position at transition points
 Will you advance each other’s slides?
 Aim for similar speaking styles
 don’t imitate each other, but match your formality levels
 Familiarize yourself with partner’s Material
 Practice Q&A

Questions to ask yourselves about organization

 Does our talk fit together as a coherent whole?

 Are all sections of the talk adequately developed?
 Do we have a focused, well-defined hypothesis?
 Is it clear what is going to be done and how?
 Have we realistically articulated the scope of the work?
 Have we omitted extraneous material?
 Will our project fire up an audience’s interest?
 What might make this proposal more convincing to a funding body?

Questions to ask yourselves about slide design

 Is everything on the slide readable?

 Are our slides a good balance of text and figures?
 Have we chosen clear, specific titles that express the main point of each slide?
 Is the design/format of our slides consistent, or were they obviously designed by different
people?

Questions to ask yourselves about delivery

 Can we get through our whole presentation in 12 minutes?

 Do we know where to position ourselves, and how to coordinate our shifts smoothly?
 Do our speaking styles work well together?
 Are we making the transitions between topics and speakers clear to the audience?
ORAL PRESENTATION EVALUATION FORM

Circle the answer that best describes your reaction to this individual's presentation.
1. How would you rate the quality of this individual's presentation?
a. very ineffective
b. ineffective
c. neither
d. effective
e. very effective

2. This individual's presentation was

a. very unprofessional
b. unprofessional
c. neither
d. professional
e. very professional

3. This individual was

a. very unprepared
b. unprepared
c. neither
d. prepared
e. very prepared

Write in the number that best describes your reaction to this individual's presentation
based on the presentation rubric.

Criterion Score 1-5 Comments

Individual's Eye Contact    

Individual's command of Material    

Individual's Voice Qualities    

Individual's Visual Aids    

Individual's Content    
Table: A Rubric for Judging the Quality of an Oral Business Presentation

Eye Essentially no eye Somewhere Moderate eye Somewhere Continuous eye

Contact contact. Reads between no contact. Either faces between contact. faces
continuously, and moderate audience but refers to moderate and audience and refers
glancing up only eye contact. notes or slides continuous eye to notes or slides less
once or twice a occasionally (couple contact. than once a minute.
minute. Stares at of times a minute) or Rarely glances at
ceiling or turns body slide screen or at part
consistently looks at sometimes at screen. of room away from
slide screen. audience.
Body Distracting. Sways, Somewhere Neutral. Stands Somewhere Engaging. Uses
Language paces, or fidgets so between facing the audience. between gestures (e.g.,
that audience is distracting and Occasionally uses neutral and pointing with hands)
distracted from neutral body hands and body engaging body and expressions to
presentation. Poor language. movements language. enhance the
use of hands (in appropriately, but presentation. Speaker
pockets, jingling may still be a little looks very
keys, playing with stiff or nervous. comfortable and
pen). natural.
Voice Poor. Halting, Somewhere Adequate pace and Somewhere Fluid, natural
Qualities uneven pace. Cannot between poor volume. Speaks between delivery. Speaks
hear all of the words and adequate fairly clearly but adequate and moderately slowly
due to mumbling, voice lacks sufficient excellent voice with good vocal
speaking too softly, qualities. variations in vocal qualities. variety, articulation,
speaking too fast, or intonation for and volume.
in monotone. emphasis.
Command Poor. Struggles often Somewhere Reads less than once Somewhere Excellent. Does not
of Material to find words. Reads between poor a minute, struggles between read from notes or
most of presentation. and adequate occasionally to find adequate and slides. Expresses
command of words. excellent ideas fluently in own
material. command of words.
material.
Visual Ineffective. Somewhere Adequate. Readable Somewhere Excellent overheads
Aids Overheads, slides or between overheads, handouts. between or slides. Easy to
handouts are hard to ineffective and Enhance adequate and read, attractive,
read, distracting, or adequate presentation. excellent greatly enhance
inadequate for visual aids. visual aids. presentation.
presentation.
Content Poor. Purpose not Somewhere Adequate. Somewhere Engaging.
clear, information between poor Information is between Information is
disjointed or and adequate usually relevant and adequate and relevant to audience.
inadequate. content. appropriate to engaging Excellent details.
audience. content.