Secrets for a good presentation

The material of your presentation should be concise, to the point and tell an interesting story. In addition to the obvious things like content and visual aids, the following are just as important as the audience will be subconsciously taking them in:

* Your voice - how you say it is as important as what you say

* Body language - a subject in its own right and something about which much has been written and said. In essence, your body movements express what your attitudes and thoughts really are.

* Appearance - first impressions influence the audience's attitudes to you. Dress appropriately for the occasion.

As with most personal skills oral communication cannot be taught. Instructors can only point the way. So as always, practice is essential, both to improve your skills generally and also to make the best of each individual presentation you make.

Preparation

Prepare the structure of the talk carefully and logically, just as you would for a written report. What are:

* the objectives of the talk?
* the main points you want to make?

Make a list of these two things as your starting point

Write out the presentation in rough, just like a first draft of a written report. Review the draft. You will find things that are irrelevant or superfluous - delete them. Check the story is consistent and flows smoothly. If there are things you cannot easily express, possibly because of doubt about your understanding, it is better to leave them unsaid.

Never read from a script. It is also unwise to have the talk written out in detail as a prompt sheet - the chances are you will not locate the thing you want to say amongst all the other text. You should know most of what you want to say - if you don't then you should not be giving the talk! So prepare cue cards which have key words and phrases (and possibly sketches) on them. Postcards are ideal for this. Don't forget to number the cards in case you drop them.

Remember to mark on your cards the visual aids that go with them so that the right OHP or slide is shown at the right time

Rehearse your presentation - to yourself at first and then in front of some colleagues. The initial rehearsal should consider how the words and the sequence of visual aids go together. How will you make effective use of your visual aids?

Making the presentation

Greet the audience (for example, 'Good morning, ladies and gentlemen'), and tell them who you are. Good presentations then follow this formula:

* tell the audience what you are going to tell them,
* then tell them,
* at the end tell them what you have told them.

Keep to the time allowed. If you can, keep it short. It's better to under-run than over-run. As a rule of thumb, allow 2 minutes for each general overhead transparency or Powerpoint slide you use, but longer for any that you want to use for developing specific points. 35mm slides are generally used more sparingly and stay on the screen longer. However, the audience will get bored with something on the screen for more than 5 minutes, especially if you are not actively talking about it. So switch the display off, or replace the slide with some form of 'wallpaper' such as a company logo.

Stick to the plan for the presentation, don't be tempted to digress - you will eat up time and could end up in a dead-end with no escape!

Unless explicitly told not to, leave time for discussion - 5 minutes is sufficient to allow clarification of points. The session chairman may extend this if the questioning becomes interesting.

At the end of your presentation ask if there are any questions - avoid being terse when you do this as the audience may find it intimidating (ie it may come across as any questions? - if there are, it shows you were not paying attention). If questions are slow in coming, you can start things off by asking a question of the audience - so have one prepared.


Delivery

Speak clearly. Don't shout or whisper - judge the acoustics of the room.

Don't rush, or talk deliberately slowly. Be natural - although not conversational.

Deliberately pause at key points - this has the effect of emphasising the importance of a particular point you are making.

Avoid jokes - always disastrous unless you are a natural expert

To make the presentation interesting, change your delivery, but not too obviously, eg:

* speed
* pitch of voice

Use your hands to emphasise points but don't indulge in to much hand waving. People can, over time, develop irritating habits. Ask colleagues occasionally what they think of your style.

Look at the audience as much as possible, but don't fix on an individual - it can be intimidating. Pitch your presentation towards the back of the audience, especially in larger rooms.

Don't face the display screen behind you and talk to it. Other annoying habits include:

* Standing in a position where you obscure the screen. In fact, positively check for anyone in the audience who may be disadvantaged and try to accommodate them.
* Muttering over a transparency on the OHP projector plate an not realising that you are blocking the projection of the image. It is preferable to point to the screen than the foil on the OHP (apart from the fact that you will probably dazzle yourself with the brightness of the projector)

Avoid moving about too much. Pacing up and down can unnerve the audience, although some animation is desirable.

Keep an eye on the audience's body language. Know when to stop and also when to cut out a piece of the presentation.


Visual Aids

Visual aids significantly improve the interest of a presentation. However, they must be relevant to what you want to say. A careless design or use of a slide can simply get in the way of the presentation. What you use depends on the type of talk you are giving. Here are some possibilities:

* Overhead projection transparencies (OHPs)
* 35mm slides
* Computer projection (Powerpoint, applications such as Excel, etc)
* Video, and film,
* Real objects - either handled from the speaker's bench or passed around
* Flip~chart or blackboard - possibly used as a 'scratch-pad' to expand on a point

Keep it simple though - a complex set of hardware can result in confusion for speaker and audience. Make sure you know in advance how to operate the equipment and also when you want particular displays to appear. Sometimes a technician will operate the equipment. Arrange beforehand, what is to happen and when and what signals you will use. Edit your slides as carefully as your talk - if a slide is superfluous then leave it out. If you need to use a slide twice, duplicate it. And always check your slides - for typographical errors, consistency of fonts and layout.

Slides and OHPs should contain the minimum information necessary. To do otherwise risks making the slide unreadable or will divert your audience's attention so that they spend time reading the slide rather than listening to you.

Try to limit words per slide to a maximum of 10. Use a reasonable size font and a typeface which will enlarge well. Typically use a minimum 18pt Times Roman on OHPs, and preferably larger. A guideline is: if you can read the OHP from a distance of 2 metres (without projection) then it's probably OK

Avoid using a diagram prepared for a technical report in your talk. It will be too detailed and difficult to read.

Use colour on your slides but avoid orange and yellow which do not show up very well when projected. For text only, white or yellow on blue is pleasant to look at and easy to read. Books on presentation techniques often have quite detailed advice on the design of slides. If possible consult an expert such as the Audio Visual Centre

Avoid adding to OHPs with a pen during the talk - it's messy and the audience will be fascinated by your shaking hand! On this point, this is another good reason for pointing to the screen when explaining a slide rather than pointing to the OHP transparency.

Room lighting should be considered. Too much light near the screen will make it difficult to see the detail. On the other hand, a completely darkened room can send the audience to sleep. Try to avoid having to keep switching lights on and off, but if you do have to do this, know where the light switches are and how to use them.


Finally ...,

Enjoy yourself. The audience will be on your side and want to hear what you have to say!

ref; Newcastle university

FAILURE OF 2 METRE DEEP EXCAVATION FOR PILE CAP

Type of building work

This involves construction of a 4-storey flatted factory (with no basement) located

between two existing single-storey terrace houses which were founded on small diameter

bored piles.

What went wrong

Timber planks were used to support a 2m deep excavation to construct a pilecap adjacent

to an existing single-storey house. The ground condition was poor, comprising of soft

marine clay and the timber planks to support the excavation was shoddily done.

Figure 1: Shoddy timber planks to support excavation for

pile cap

The timber planks were not effective in resisting the earth pressure and gave way,

resulting in movement of the marine clay beneath the adjacent house. The ground

movement cracked the small diameter bored pile supporting the adjacent house causing

the entire front section of the adjacent house to collapse.

Figure 2: Cracking and collapse of adjacent single-storey house .

Learning points

a) Every construction project, whether big or small should be given due attention.

b) Properly designed temporary earth-retaining structures should be provided to

protect the sides of the excavation, even for shallow excavation. The design

should take into consideration the effects of inclement weather and presence of

foundation of existing buildings.

c) Extra precautionary measures should be taken when working close to existing

building.

Contaminants that may be found in drinking water

There is no such thing as naturally pure water. People are increasingly concerned about the safety of their drinking water. As improvements in analytical methods allow us to detect impurities at very low concentrations in water, water supplies once considered pure are found to have contaminants. We cannot expect pure water, but we want safe water. The health effects of some contaminants in drinking water are not well understood, but the presence of contaminants does not mean that your health will be harmed.

Drinking water can become contaminated at the original water source, during treatment, or during distribution to the home.

• If your water comes from surface water (river or lake), it can be exposed to acid rain, storm water runoff, pesticide runoff, and industrial waste. This water is cleansed somewhat by exposure to sunlight, aeration, and micro-organisms in the water.
• If your water comes from groundwater (private wells and some public water supplies), it generally takes longer to become contaminated but the natural cleansing process also may take much longer. Groundwater moves slowly and is not exposed to sunlight, aeration, or aerobic (requiring oxygen) micro-organisms. Groundwater can be contaminated by disease-producing pathogens, leachate from landfills and septic systems, careless disposal of hazardous household products, agricultural chemicals, and leaking underground storage tanks.

In general all water contains some impurities

· Erosion of natural rock formations

· Substances discharged from factories

· Discharged from farmlands

· used by consumers in their homes and yards

The origin of drinking water to your taps

Our Drinking water comes from the water in lakes or rivers (surface water), or from water that comes from wells (groundwater) and some times the sky (rain water). Many people who live in large cities or towns get their water for drinking from lakes and rivers.

Figure 1 : The Water Cycle

How Web Servers Work

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How Ethernet Works

by Nick Pidgeon
In today's business world, reliable and efficient access to information has become an important asset in the quest to achieve a competitive advantage. File cabinets and mountains of papers have given way to computers that store and manage information electronically. Coworkers thousands of miles apart can share information instantaneously, just as hundreds of workers in a single location can simultaneously review research data maintained online.

Computer networking technologies are the glue that binds these elements together. The public Internet allows businesses around the world to share information with each other and their customers. The global computer network known as the World Wide Web provides services that let consumers buy books, clothes, and even cars online, or auction those same items off when no longer wanted.

Networking allows one computer to send information to and receive information from another. We may not always be aware of the numerous times we access information on computer networks. Certainly the Internet is the most conspicuous example of computer networking, linking millions of computers around the world, but smaller networks play a roll in information access on a daily basis. Many public libraries have replaced their card catalogs with computer terminals that allow patrons to search for books far more quickly and easily. Airports have numerous screens displaying information regarding arriving and departing flights. Many retail stores feature specialized computers that handle point-of-sale transactions. In each of these cases, networking allows many different devices in multiple locations to access a shared repository of data.

In this edition of HowStuffWorks, we will take a very close look at networking, and in particular the Ethernet networking standard, so you can understand the actual mechanics of how all of these computers connect to one another. Before getting into the details of a networking standard, we must first understand some basic terms and classifications that describe and differentiate network technologies -- so let's get started!

How Banner Ads Work

If you've spent any time surfing the Internet, you've seen more than your fair share of banner ads. These small rectangular advertisements appear on all sorts of Web pages and vary considerably in appearance and subject matter, but they all share a basic function: if you click on them, your Internet browser will take you to the advertiser's Web site. But how do they work and why are they there?

Banner ads are usually relatively simple pieces of HTML code, but their presence on the Web and their importance in Internet-based business is immense. In this edition of How Stuff Works, we'll examine banner ads and their place on the Internet. We'll see how they work, how advertisers rate their effectiveness, and how you can use them to advertise your site or bring in revenue. We'll also examine the technology behind them and look at some of the different forms they can take. By the end of this article, you will be a banner ad expert!

What is a Banner Ad?
Over the past few years, most of us have heard about all the money being made on the Internet. This new medium of education and entertainment has revolutionized the economy and brought many people and many companies a great deal of success. But where is all this money coming from? There are a lot of ways Web sites make money, but one of the main sources of revenue is advertising. And one of the most popular forms of Internet advertising is the banner ad.

A banner ad is simply a special sort of hypertext link. If you've read the How Stuff Works article "How Web Pages Work", then you know how a basic text link works. A bit of HTML code instructs a Web server to bring up a particular Web page when a user clicks on a certain piece of text. Banner ads are essentially the same thing, except that instead of text, the link is displayed as a box containing graphics (usually with textual elements) and sometimes animation.
Because of its graphic element, a banner ad is somewhat similar to a traditional ad you would see in a printed publication such as a newspaper or magazine, but it has the added ability to bring a potential customer directly to the advertiser's Web site. This is something like touching a printed ad and being immediately teleported to the advertiser's store! A banner ad also differs from a print ad in its dynamic capability. It stays in one place on a page, like a magazine ad, but it can present multiple images, include animation and change appearance in a number of other ways.
Types of Banner Ads Like print ads, banner ads come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The Internet Advertising Bureau(IAB) specifies eight different banner sizes, according to pixel dimensions. A pixel is the smallest unit of color used to make up images on a computer or television screen. The IAB's standard banner sizes are:
The full banner (468 x 60) is by far the most popular, but you will see all these variations all over the Web. These are not the only banner ad shapes and sizes, either, but they are a good representation of the range of common banner ads. There is no universal file-size constraint for banner ads, but most Web sites impose their own limits on memory size, usually something like 12K to 16K. This is because banner ads add to the total file size of the page they appear on, therefore increasing the time it takes for a browser to load that page.

As you've probably noticed while surfing the Web, actual graphic content, or creative, varies considerably among banner ads. The simplest banner ads feature only one, static GIF or JPEG image, which is linked to the advertiser's home page. More common is the GIF-animated banner ad, which displays several different images in succession, sometimes to create the effect of animated motion. Then there are rich media banner ads --ads that use audio, video, or Java and Shockwave programming. These banner ads, which usually have larger file sizes, are often
interactive beyond their simple linking function.