As with writing, presenting is a skill you can develop that can serve you for a lifetime.

Graphics, not Text

Do not cover your slides in text. It's boring and the audience will read the text instead of listen to you. Think of TED talks you've watched: did they have walls of text? No walls of text! If you write a wall of text, shove it into the "Notes" section in PowerPoint (or your other presentation-software of choice).

Instead, put relevant images on your slide. You can even re-use the same image to anchor specific concepts. For example, if you use an image or icon representative of "anxiety" while introducing the concept early in a presentation, you can re-use that image or icon later, when presenting results, and that will remind the audience that you are discussing "anxiety".

Naturally, some of your slides will need to have some text on them sometimes. For example, you need text in graphs and for statistics. That said, here are some principles to follow when you must use text:

• Use no more than two fonts if you can avoid it (neither of which should be Comic Sans...)
• Text should be horizontally oriented, not sideways or on a diagonal
• Don’t use strings of capital letters because WE READ THAT AS YELLING
• DAUFU: Define Acronyms Upon First Use
• Bold or italics are usually better than underlining on slides, though if you feel the need to bold or italics on slides, you should try to rephrase the idea in a more potent way
• Avoid mixing red and green on the same slide to prevent colour-blindness difficulties
• As mentioned, you can often add a visual element that acts as a conceptual anchor (e.g. display an icon when introducing your measure, then use it again when showing results)

Practise the Nerves Away!

Anxiety before presentations is extremely common. Feeling anxious does not have to be a "bad" thing, though: you can think of anxiety as a signal that you need to prepare more to feel comfortable. If you feel a bit on edge, that's good because it means that performing well matters to you. You can perform better by practising.

When you practise, two things are paramount: (1) do it out loud and (2) force yourself to present your entire slide-deck.

(1) Practising in your head is of very limited use. Stand up. Speak aloud. Speak as if you were speaking to your audience. The closer your simulation, the more it will translate to your success.

(2) Do not restart every time you make a mistake or think of some edit to make! If you do that, you'll end up practising your first three slides to perfection, but you'll never get to the end. Also, when you present to your real audience you will need to keep going to the end so best to practice with that same constraint. Treat yourself kindly when it goes badly, but hold yourself to this constraint and you will learn to power through.

The purpose of practising is not to "do it right"; the purpose of practising is to realistically measure your preparedness level.

The first time you practise it will probably fall apart, but of course it will; why would you expect anything else on a first practice of a new deck? Still, you get through the whole deck, then you rework it. Then you practise again and it goes bad, but a little better. Then you rework, and it gets better again. This is especially true if you write yourself a script because you probably speak differently than you write, but once you say your script out loud you can go back and edit it to sound more like something you'd say with your mouth. It's okay to speak in your own voice and use your words. Do not try to sound "academic". Don't use the word "utilize" when every normal person would say "use". Talk like a normal person and your audience will understand you.

Here are some more general pointers for presenting:

• Do not keep looking back at the slides behind you.
• Do not read your slides (you should not be able to anyway because there should be almost no text on them)
• Do not apologize for slides or data or ideas
• Do not chew gum, don’t keep your hands in your pockets, don’t make repetitive motions, like swaying in place
• Do not uptalk. If you uptalk your whole presentation it will drive your audience insane.
• If you think you might have a bad habit like pocket-hands or uptalking, build in a section of your presentation where you self-reflect and check in with your body, e.g. "On slide seven, when I show the histogram, I will pause and make sure I'm not picking up and setting down by water-bottle"
• Try to avoid saying “Um” or using other filler, such as like you know okay sort of. This can be challenging, but bearing a silence conveys thoughtfulness even if you are anxious on the inside. The best way to notice this is to record yourself speaking just one time and you'll see. It is awkward as hell to hear oneself do it, but it is amazing how quickly hearing evidence and noticing can help one train oneself to stop doing it. Think of any podcaster you listen to and how much smarter they sound when they don't use filler-words.
• Presentations often leave time for questions. When this is true, try to answer as best you can without fabricating. If you don't know the answer to a question, be ready to gracefully say, "That's a great question. I don't know." If it is a detailed methodological question, you can offer to look it up and email them. If it is a theoretical question, you can speculate, but make it clear that you are speculating rather than trying to come across as knowing something you don't know.
• When you're in the audience, pay attention and consider trying to come up with a question.
• Keep track of how long practising your presentation takes and make sure you are within the time limits. Follow the instructions! Presentations are usually part of a group of presentations and everyone needs to fit into tight times so you need to stay within your time. It is good to pace yourself and get some markers (e.g. "I need to finish my background intro by X min to have time; it takes me about Y min to do the results, which I don't want to speed through)

Chances are, for most undergrads and early grad students, no amount of practising will completely eliminate performance anxiety. That makes sense. Undergrads have generally given very few presentations. Presentation anxiety lifts the more presentations you give and by your tenth, it should be much easier, but the first few can be very challenging. Once you've prepared as best you can, that's that.

In the meantime, it's worth noting that your audience wants you to succeed. You know this is true because when you're in the audience you generally want the presenter to succeed, too. Also, the presentation itself will last as long as it lasts, then it will be done, and you'll be safe and alive and have come to no harm. You will have gained experience and your next presentation will go that much better. It could be the worst presentation you ever give and it will still be over and you will still be safe.

Come back to it later

Practising and revising makes your work much, much better, but you also need time in between revisions. Practise, then make your changes, then practise again, but then do other things so you can come back to your presentation in the next day or two with fresh eyes. Sleep between edits: sleep is like magic and makes everything better! You'll also be more likely to notice places where it might make sense to reorder something for the flow to work better (remember "A to B to C. C to D to E. E to F." rather than "A to C to B. C to E to D. B to F.").

Editing time is nice to have, and can help your presentation really come together. Still, deadlines are a real thing so if you're not going to leave extra time, at the very least make sure to make slides without text! And while you need slides, you should consider practising to be more important than the detailed nuanced appearance of slides when you are considering how to spend your time. Be sure to practice! And as always: follow the instructions!

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