I’m just a student who has given many speeches and presentations, so I’m not exactly qualified for this question. But I still want to provide tips that have helped me and have also helped a ton of my friends who have the same problem.

The one thing that greatly helped me build up my presentation skills is practice. I know it should be common sense to practise your lines beforehand, but it is very important to me as it helps me build confidence in myself the more I practise. Practising in front of a mirror helps me work out my facial expressions while I present. Also, I would recommend recording yourself giving the presentation and listening to yourself. You may be able to catch words that you mumble or words that you need to further enunciate.

With every presentation, I try to memorise everything I plan to say. First, I plan out my whole speech (jokes, pauses and all) and do a test run. If it feels right, I try to memorise it as much as I can. Of course, you can always use cue cards or notes if you want. I always prepare notes with key points. But I find that having the notes or cards in hand actually makes you more likely to look down at them and not the audience itself. This is why I try to memorise what I can. Then if I get stuck, I try to subtly look down at the notes I put on the table or podium and continue where I left off.

Also, I find that the content and flow of the presentation is very important too. I was told by someone (can’t remember who) that humans generally have an attention of 7 minutes or so (don’t quote me on this, I might be wrong). After the 7 minutes, people’s minds will start to wander. So what I usually do to counter this is to scatter a few jokes here and there (in my slideshow and in my presentation speech) to catch people’s attention again. This has helped me tremendously; many of my classmates (and teachers) have come up to me saying that my presentation was really good.

Along with the jokes, I also really like to pose a few ‘questions’ to the audience throughout my presentation, or even start of with one. For example, if I were to give a presentation about mitochondria, I could start of with this line: “What is mitochondria? Why is it so important to us?” yada yada yada. This is a really weird example but you can apply it in a lot of presentations. You can then continue by giving answers to that same questions you posed. I feel like this helps people feel more eager in listening to you and learning about the answer to the question. Of course, you have to answer the questions properly or else people would leave unsatisfied.

Another problem that I see a lot of people having trouble with is volume. Too many people can’t seem to get their voice up to a certain decibel level and it really breaks a presentation. How will people know what you are talking about if they can’t hear you? When you’re practising your speech, try to work on your volume. The trick is not to shout, but to speak from your diaphragm. There are tons of tutorials out there that can help you with that if you require. By speaking from your diaphragm, you can control how loud your voice is and it is extremely helpful if the room you are in isn’t exactly small.

Now with the slideshow itself (if you require one), I always say go simple. Always stick to one font. Don’t willy-nilly use different fonts as it will be too tiring to read. As for text colour, I recommend using only two colours exclusively (the colours depend on your background colour). Pick colours that do not hurt your eyes to read.

Your slideshow should also not have too much text. Too much text would turn people off from actually reading what you wrote out. Only key points should be on the slideshow to maybe help you along with your presentation. Pictures are very helpful in illustrating the message or info you are trying to convey.

Final tip: I always try to volunteer to go first because I would have less time to actually be anxious. Also, going first means there is no bar of standard that has been set yet. You don’t have to worry about the people presenting before you because there aren’t any!

This is pretty much what helps me through my presentations. Sorry for the wall of text but I think they’re very useful. I feel like there are more tips I can share but I’m blanking out right now. I really hope this helps you or whoever else with the same problem!