Use Notes for Preparing Your Presentation By using notes or notecards, you can easily review, organize, and reorder your thoughts. You can also refer to them later.

Dress Appropriately And Smile if Possible. Before you get a chance to speak, your audience will make several judgements about you and your abilities by the way you look. Smile if it is appropriate.

Deliver a Strong Introduction and a Strong Conclusion Introductions get their attention and conclusions reinforce your main message. By memorizing these key points, you can really focus your body language during delivery. And when speaking from memory, your mouth is on autopilot. This allows you to start formulating your next point.

Establish Credibility regardless of what you say, if your audience is skeptical about your credibility, your message will have less impact. Try to establish yourself as being a credible source of information so that your audience is more inclined to really listen.

Reinforce Your Walk-Away Message Even if you gave a dynamite presentation, your audience will only remember a few things you said one month later. Decide what you want them to remember when they "walk-away." Reinforce this message throughout your presentation.

Be Prepared. Organized and Have Smooth Transitions Make sure your presented information "makes sense." If you start with a strong statement you need to support it. If you start with various facts, make sure it leads to a main point. Does your presentation correlate to time or to location? Keep it consistent. You are also responsible for making transitions between main points very obvious to your audience (yes, it is called hand holding).

Keep a Sense of Humor While almost everyone says it is good to have one, be aware that everyone has different "senses" of humor. So use this tool, but use it carefully.

Avoid PUD'ing Around "P" or pauses can show uncertainty if not used deliberately. "U" or uhms can easily distract your audience and make them lose attention. "D" or double words can sound like you are stuttering. For example, "when we look at the, the way that ..." (the "the" is the doubled word)

Perfect Your Timing Start on time and end on time because if your audience feels you don't respect their time, they will not listen. Also start your conclusion on time because a rushed conclusion will not convincingly reinforce your main message.

This article was published in the Pacesetter, copyright, Interative Solutions, Inc., Atlanta Georgia.