In this guide, we will share with you a few good excuses to miss a presentation. We will also help you be less anxious about an oral presentation and teach you how to give a presentation like a pro.
Good excuses to miss a presentation
Here are a few good excuses to miss a presentation:
- Due to illness or injury (calling to report that one is sick is one of the most used excuses, whether or not you are sick)
- Family emergency (for example, if a relative is in the hospital or needs care during that day)
- For vehicle or transportation problems (what if I couldn’t get to the place where the presentation is held?)
- For computer/WiFi issues (especially if this hindered you to finish the presentation in time or to prepare for it)
- For taking a mental health day (mental health days can be taken last minute)
- For an emergency at home (broken pipe, power outages)
- For medical appointments (some things that cannot be done on the weekends must be done during the week!)
- For other unforeseen events (your pet is lost or you have to care for your baby sister)
- For falling asleep (it can happen to anyone)
- Medical tests (you didn’t know that a CT will take so long)
- Pets emergencies (you must take your pet to the vet, there is no one else who can do it)
- Deaths and funerals (these are unforeseen events that cannot be postponed)
- Tragedy at home (you don’t have to give to many details, tragedy can mean literally anything)
- Personal reasons (you need more time to finish the presentation, perhaps?).
Of course, there are many more excuses to miss a presentation, but if we are being honest, the real reason behind all of these excuses is that you don’t feel confident or prepared enough. This is why in the next paragraph, we will tell you the key elements of an oral presentation and how to always feel prepared for one.
Tips for feeling less anxious about an oral presentation
When preparing your presentation, always think about your audience and make sure to tailor your content according to their particularities.
- Make a plan: Make sure you prepare your presentation well with a clear plan in mind. Before developing your plan, the best thing to do to come up with good ideas is brainstorming; that is, a list of all the ideas that come to mind. At this point, it’s important not to censor yourself, you write EVERYTHING: good ideas and bad. You then reread what you wrote and select the best ideas.
- Structure your ideas: Some like to use sentences already constructed during their oral presentation (in this case, it is necessary at all costs to avoid reading it’s sheets forward), others prefer to use cue cards containing keywords. It’s up to you to choose the way that works best for you.
- Make your presentation attractive: Visual aids are needed to make a presentation more lively. In addition to clarifying the point, they capture the attention of the audience.
- Find pictures that can illustrate some important information. Diversify the visual supports (objects, photographs, videos, etc.) that will be used during your presentation, it will be more dynamic. Click here for HQ images on different topics.
- Prepare a presentation tool (PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.). With this visual aid, you cannot lose your train of thought and miss the point.
- Practice. Practising often before a presentation is a secret to feeling fully confident when the day comes. Different ways of doing things will help you to make your practice moments profitable.
- Record yourself and listen to yourself afterwards to self-assess. Make the necessary corrections to make your presentation better.
- Practice in front of your family or friends. Ask them for feedback to make your presentation more effective and interesting.
- Practice alone and out loud. Imagine that an audience is facing you. Memorize as much as possible the order in which you want to present the important elements of your content.
- Above all, don’t wait until the last minute. A presentation needs preparing. If you do everything the night before, you will feel stressed, which will not help the quality of your presentation.
How to make a presentation interesting?
- Look around the audience. Eye contact is very important so that the people you are talking to feel challenged.
- Focus on your audience’s participation. To do this, you can ask him a few questions, get him to vote on a question, etc. However, never forget that you are the star of the presentation and that it is your voice that will be evaluated.
- Take care of your language. The quality of the language is very important in an oral presentation, it is one of the main criteria. One must, among other things, avoid language tics (uh … so … um …, etc.). Again, it is a practice that will allow you to be well prepared for this.
- Keep calm and take the time to breathe. A presentation is not a race against time. In addition, if your flow is too fast, the audience will not have time to assimilate all the information you want to convey.
- Don’t be a slave to your cheat sheets. Even if it helps you, it is far from recommended that you read your sheets in front of the class (it could even lead to failure).
5 Essential elements for a successful presentation
Beyond the fact that they are extremely practical and you will be able to apply them immediately, they will have the effect of reducing the anxiety at the beginning of a presentation and will quickly bring positive reactions from the audience.
- Use visual, auditory, kinesthetic verbs in the first 2-3 sentences.
It is already known that each of us has a preferred sensory channel for receiving information. We know that some of us are mostly visual, and others are auditory or kinesthetic. Most likely in an audience, we will have 35% visual, 15% auditory and 50% kinesthetic. As a result, I recommend that you use verbs for each of these categories of people in the audience in the first 2-3 sentences.
Before each presentation, write and learn a small text in which you make sure that you put the visual, auditory and kinesthetic verbs to gain the attention of everyone in the room.
- Control your body language for the first 3-5 minutes.
It is said that it does not take more than a few minutes for those who watch you when you give your presentation to decide whether to allocate resources to listen to what you have to say or direct those resources to the buttoning of the mobile phone.
Make sure you maintain a straight (but not rigid) posture of the body, have a slightly raised chin (2-3 millimetres), smile and make open gestures in the first minutes of the presentation. Obviously, it’s not easy to monitor your body language throughout the presentation, and I’m not telling you that.
But if you do it in the first 3-5 minutes, the subconscious of those in the audience will conclude that you are in control of the situation, that you have something relevant to say and as a result will allocate resources to listen to you.
This initial decision will not change unless there is a significant difference between how you started the presentation and how you get to deliver it at some point (eg if you get to talk more and more monotonously). But as I have other tricks for you, everything will definitely be fine until the end.
- Do not go directly into the subject. Use a moment of transition to the theme of the presentation.
Time is money. Yes, we all know that. That’s why this trick will only need 1 minute of your presentation time. Let’s recap to realize that everything is ok with time. You need 10 seconds for trick 1 and another minute for trick 3. During all this time (70 seconds), but also in the next 3-4 minutes, you will control your body language as we set out in trick 2.
All you have to do is find out what is the best way for you not to get directly into the subject of the presentation. By doing so, you will favour your audience by discharging the oxytocin that well-being produces at the neuronal level.
- Set a pace for your presentation and keep it to the end.
Once you start running the slides and presenting what you have prepared on each of them, it is good to set a rhythm that you can keep until the end of the presentation.
Maybe you were in the audience at a presentation when you sat on one slide for 1 minute and the next 7-8 minutes (and so on). Even if such an approach would be justified in terms of content, from an audience point of view such a method would lead to a decoupling of attention.
Therefore, when you prepare your presentation, divide the information in such a way that you spend about 2-3 minutes on one slide, then move on to the next.
Because our brain is very interested in discovering patterns, patterns, immediately after realizing that you give it a new slide every 2-3 minutes will know how to portion and allocate the necessary resources to browse the entire content.
- Don’t consider yourself the centre of the universe. Make the presentation from the perspective of those in the room.
You may have noticed how quickly those who give presentations get to talk about them, about how they thought of bringing that project or client into the company, about how they propose to do things further, etc. Keep the presentation always focusing on how what you say is meaningful to those in the room.
For example, highlight what good things they have done or can do to implement that project, or how they can make a significant contribution to increasing results. If such an approach is not relevant or possible, use rhetorical questions. “In this table, I present the steps necessary to implement the new billing software. Don’t you think we have gained a lot from this change? Let’s find out on the next slide the areas of efficiency it will bring us. “
Conclusions
Finally, we think that it is important that the fear of presentations is real, and that it doesn’t have to stop you from saying what you think or promote absenteeism.
If none of the above excuses to miss a presentation work (or if you don’t want to lie), you could speak with your teacher/the coordinator and offer an alternative to the oral presentation. We are all human beings and I am sure you can find the right solution, even if it will require more time.
If you have any comments or questions on the content, please let us know.
FAQ on Good excuses to miss a presentation
What is a good excuse to miss something?
A good excuse to miss something is:
- Suddenly feeling sick;
- Family emergencies;
- Home emergencies;
- Death of a relative;
- Medical issues.
How do you skip a school presentation?
To skip a school presentation you have to speak with your teacher and/or school psychologist and explain the reasons why you have to skip the school presentation. You will then come to an arrangement.
What is a good last-minute excuse?
Some good last-minute excuses are:
- You got sick/injured.
- There’s no one to watch your child or your child is ill.
- There’s an emergency at home.
- You’re experiencing car trouble.
- There’s a problem with your home.
- Your pet has an appointment.
Can a teacher force you to do a presentation?
A teacher can’t really force you to do a presentation, but if you don’t come to an agreement, he may fail you. Speak with your teacher about the real reason you don’t want to do the presentation and ask for more time, support or an alternative.
References
Scholarships.com
Thehelpfulprofessor.com
