The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book “How To Give a Pretty Good Presentation” (Wiley 2010)

Should I outline the key points of my presentation at the beginning?

No, why make it harder on yourself if you forget a point? If you never tell your audience all the points you are going to cover in advance, then they will never know if you left one out. Plus, you will never feel pressure to remember your 12th point from some complex outline. Sure, there are some world class speakers like Apple’s Steve Jobs who believe that you should always outline for your audience. However, if your audience isn’t writing down everything you say word-for-word (and that rarely happens) then outlining your presentation doesn’t help them or you.

My recommendation is for you to just focus on making one point at a time—this is easy for you and easy for your audience. When you finish with one point, by making examples, telling stories, etc, then move to the next point. After you have finished covering the handful of most important points you wanted to cover, sit down—you will have given a pretty good presentation.