Establishing the objectives for
your presentation requires an
analysis of your own goals, as
well as your audience's needs
and expectations. By considering
the nature of your audience, you
can more easily determine what
you will present and how you
will present it. An audience
analysis will enable you to:
Select appropriate points of
emphasis in your
presentation
Develop a useful level of
detail
Choose and prepare
appropriate visual aids
Create a tone that is sensitive
to your audience's
circumstance
Your presentation will ideally
form a bridge between
something you have and your
audience wants. Let the audience
analysis influence the form of
information presented so you
can create this bridge.
Planning and Organizing Your
Material
When you have determined the
characteristics of your audience,
then you are ready to plan and
organize your material. The tips
listed below will assist you in
tailoring your approach
accordingly. Keep in mind that
the use of visual aids will help to
produce effective one-way or
two-way communication. Many
factors are involved in choosing
these visual aids, and the type of
interaction you want to develop
with the audience will influence
your choice.
Planning Your Material
Do not wait to prepare
your presentation while
on you way to the training
session. You cannot do your
best at presenting or
persuading by "winging it."
At a minimum, prepare
an outline of goals, major
issues to be discussed, and
information to be presented
to support main themes.
Limit content to your major
point and no more than
five key supporting points.
Analyze your audience.
Prepare your content
considering such things as
whether they are likely to be
friendly or unfriendly, lay or
technical in their
background, and whether
they want only to listen or to
respond and contribute.
Select appropriate visual
aids and a presentation
style that will be effective in
the physical setting for your
training session.
Organizing Your Material
When organizing your material,
consider an "old chestnut" of
public speaking - "Tell 'em
what you're going to tell
'em; tell 'em; and tell 'em
what you told 'em." This
recommendation:
Recognizes the importance
of reinforcement in adult
learning
Completes the
communication for the
listener
Informs people who arrive
late of what they missed
Recognizes the importance
of organization, highlighting,
and summarizing main
points for the audience
Serves to clarify main
themes for the audience at
the end of the presentation
Using Visual Aids
Visual aids help your
presentation make things
happen. Visual aids help you
reach your objectives by
providing emphasis to whatever
is being said. Clear pictures
multiply the audience's level of
understanding of the material
presented, and they should be
used to reinforce your message,
clarify points, and create
excitement.
Visual aids involve your
audience and require a change
from one activity to another:
from hearing to seeing. When
you use visual aids, their use
tends to encourage gestures and
movement on your part. This
extra movement reinforces the
control that you, the speaker,
need over the presentation. The
use of visual aids, then, are
mutually beneficial to the
audience and you.
Visual aids add impact and
interest to a presentation. They
enable you to appeal to more
than one sense at the same
time, thereby increasing the
audience's understanding and
retention level. With pictures, the
concepts or ideas you present
are no longer simply words -
but words plus images. The
chart below cites the
effectiveness of visual aids on
audience retention.
People tend to eye-minded, and
the impacts visual aids bring to a
presentation are, indeed,
significant. The studies, below,
reveal interesting statistics that
support these findings:
In many studies,
experimental psychologists
and educators have found
that retention of information
three days after a meeting or
other event is six times
greater when information is
presented by visual and oral
means than when the
information is presented by
the spoken word alone.
Studies by educational
researchers suggest that
approximately 83% of
human learning occurs
visually, and the remaining
17% through the other
senses - 11% through
hearing, 3.5% through
smell, 1% through taste, and
1.5% through touch.
The studies suggest that
three days after an event,
people retain 10% of what
they heard from an oral
presentation, 35% from a
visual presentation, and 65%
from a visual and oral
presentation.
The use of visual aids, then, is
essential to all presentations.
Without them, the impact of
your presentation may leave the
audience shortly after the
audience leaves you. By
preparing a presentation with
visual aids that reinforce your
main ideas, you will reach your
audience far more effectively,
and, perhaps, continue to
"touch" them long after the
presentation ends.
ADDING THE VISUAL
DIMENSION
Visuals add an important
dimension to a presentation, and
you, the speaker, must capitalize
on this dimension. It is critical
that you prepare visual aids that
reinforce your major points,
stimulate your audience, and
work well in the physical setting
of your presentation.
Visual aids and audio-visuals
include a wide variety of
communication products,
including flip charts, overhead
transparencies, slides, audio-
slide shows, and video tapes.
Demonstrating a process or
simply passing around a sample
of some equipment or model
are also effective way to clarify
messages visually. If visual aids
are poorly selected or
inadequately done, they will
distract from what you are
saying. The tips listed below will
help you in the selection and
preparation of visual aids.

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