Compare the Difference Between Similar Terms

What is the Difference Between Presentation and Lecture

The key difference between presentation and lecture is that presentation is a mode of communication used in different speaking situations, whereas lecture is a well-organized talk delivered with the intention of educating people on a specific subject or a topic in a formal setting.

Both presentation and lecture are used in educating and transferring knowledge to people on particular subjects or topics. Nevertheless, there are slight differences between presentation and lecture.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is a Presentation
3. What is a Lecture
4. Presentation vs Lecture in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Presentation vs Lecture

What is a Presentation?

A presentation is an activity in which a presenter shows, describes, or explains something to an audience. It’s a mode of communication in speaking situations to deliver facts and points more clearly. Through presentations, the speaker or the presenter is able to explain or show the content of a particular topic or a subject. There are different types of presentations, and these presentations can be used according to the purpose of the presenter.

Preplanning and organization are required before doing a presentation. When planning a presentation, the presenter should consider the topic, subject, and level of the audience in order to create an effective presentation. At the same time, the presentation should have a structure starting from an introduction and ending with a conclusion. The voice projection of the speaker or the presenter is also very important when doing a presentation. He or she should also pay attention to his/her presentation skills and facial expressions.

What is a Lecture?

A lecture can be defined as an oral presentation of information to educate people on a particular subject or a topic. Lectures are used to deliver information on different subject areas like history, theories, equations, and background information. The presenter of the lecture is known as the lecturer, and the lecturer usually stands in the front of a room and conveys the information related to the particular subject.

Lectures are basically used as a teaching method for a large crowd. Universities and higher educational institutes around the world use lectures to deliver knowledge on various subject matter to their students. Lectures are delivered by talented lecturers. The students in the class may write down the notes while the lecturer delivers the lecture. There are many methods of delivering lectures. The use of multimedia presentations, videos, graphics, group activities, and discussions are some new ways of delivering lectures to students.

What is the Difference Between Presentation and Lecture?

Although both presentations and lectures are used to educate people on a particular subject, there are slight differences between these two methods. The key difference between presentation and lecture is that a presentation is less formal than a lecture. Also, although a lecture merely presents subject matter, presentations can have the elements of a demonstration. Furthermore, presentation skills and facial expressions are used in a presentation, whereas presentation skills and facial expressions are not much required in a lecture. Moreover, good preparation and practice are needed for a presentation, but much practice is not needed to deliver a lecture.

The below infographic presents the differences between presentation and lecture in tabular form for side by side comparison.

Summary – Presentation vs Lecture

Both presentations and lectures are used to educate people or students on a particular subject or a topic. The key difference between presentation and lecture is that presentation is a mode of communication used in different speaking situations, whereas lecture is a well-organized talk delivered with the intention of educating people on a specific subject or a topic in a formal setting.

Reference:

1. “What Is a Presentation?SkillsYouNeed.
2. “Lecture.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Confident woman giving presentation” (CC0) via Pixahive
2. “Photo of blackboard, university, speech, lecturer, lecture, teacher, teaching, physics, professor, orator, birger kollmeier, public speaking” (CC0) via Pxhere