How to Prepare for an Oral Report

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Spending long hours working on an oral report can be tedious. You have to research for accuracy, plan the layout, memorize what you are going to say. Knowing that you're going about the preparation in a fruitful way can help make the exercise seem more worthwhile.

Part 1 of 2:

What Do You Know About Your Topic?

Step 1 Research your topic.

Research your topic. If your topic initially seems quite boring, it means that you have taken a fairly superficial approach to it. There is always a story behind every topic and there are always things to discover that you didn't know. Look for the unusual, the untold and the unknown behind even the most commonplace and well known of topics. Plan to bedazzle your classmates with interesting facts that they didn't know.

Step 2 Search online and in books.

Search online and in books. Don't presume that all there is to know is available on the internet. A lot of it is yet to make it online, and much of what is online is often opinion rather than fact. So get down to the library, haul out some good books and learn different angles and greater details than simple web trawling will return.

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Step 3 Ask other people for their experience and ideas.

Ask other people for their experience and ideas. Some topics will be perfect for you to do real world research on. Family, friends, local businesses, professionals and experts are good people to ask questions of. Note the time and date of your interviews with them and keep a written record of the key points so that you can reference these if classmates or the teacher ask. Oral evidence of your topic can often be the most engaging, as it comes from people who know the subject-matter well and can bring to light real life examples. Practical examples that relate to real life can help everyone to learn better.