Gestures and Body Language

Presenter: Hattie Liu

July 11, 2004

Communicating a message
• 55% facial expression
• 38% body language
• 7% verbal

CIE 2004 Presentation Skills Workshop material - prepared by Grace Tyler

2
Gestures and Body Language
• Presence
• Facial Expression
• Eye Contact
• Gestures
• Movement

CIE 2004 Presentation Skills Workshop material - prepared by Grace Tyler

3
Gestures and Body Language
• Presence
• Show confidence
• Show enthusiasm
• Show authority
• Personal appearance
• Don’t wear anything that distracts your audience
• Dress conservatively
• Dress one level better than your audience

CIE 2004 Presentation Skills Workshop material - prepared by Grace Tyler

4
Gestures and Body Language
• Facial Expression
• Express sadness, fear, happiness, anger,
frustration, nervousness, excitement, boredom,
interest, wonder, exhaustion, aggressiveness,
confidence and uncertainty.

CIE 2004 Presentation Skills Workshop material - prepared by Grace Tyler

5
 Gestures and Body Language
• Eye Contact
• Genuine
• Responsive
• A natural expression of your interest in the audience
• Look directly at one person until you finish a thought,
then move to another person.
• If it is a large audience, pick out one or two people in
each section of the room and look directly at each one,
so they get the impression you are talking to them
directly.

CIE 2004 Presentation Skills Workshop material - prepared by Grace Tyler

6
Gestures and Body Language

• Gestures
• Show size, weight, shape, direction, location, etc.
• Show importance or urgency
• Show comparison and contrast
• Project strength and determination

CIE 2004 Presentation Skills Workshop material - prepared by Grace Tyler

7
Gestures and Body Language
• Movement
• Moving around displays energy and provides
variety for the audience
• Step towards the audience to emphasize a point
• Step back to conclude a point
• Move sideways to emphasize that you are
proceeding to another point

CIE 2004 Presentation Skills Workshop material - prepared by Grace Tyler

8
Gestures and Body Language

The Buzz Session Discussion

CIE 2004 Presentation Skills Workshop material - prepared by Grace Tyler

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Gestures and Body Language
• Tips
– Show confidence, enthusiasm and authority
– Match facial expression with your message.
– Match body movement with your message.
– Your movements should always be purposeful.
– Avoid pacing back and forth, rocking or swaying, so that you
don’t distract or irritate your audience.
– Be sure to rehearse many times.
– Use a mirror, a tape recorder, or a video recorder to rehearse.

CIE 2004 Presentation Skills Workshop material - prepared by Grace10

Tyler
Closing

Actions speak louder

than words.