Oral Report:

You will be presenting your research report. Because this is an online class it will have to be a virtual presentation. You will need to create PowerPoint slides and either (1) “Click to Add Notes” at the bottom of each slide (2) Click on the “Slide Show” tab in PowerPoint, then click “Record Slide Show” – if you choose this option, your presentation should be approximately 5-10 minutes in length; or (3) If you are not sure how to do either of the following two options, then you will still need to create a PowerPoint Presentation and include a Word Document explaining the bullets on each slide (use appropriate numbering). You should have between 7-10 slides in your presentation.

**Imagine you are presenting your research report in front of the class when creating your presentation**Chapter 16 – Lecture Outline:

Chapter 16: Developing and Delivering Business Presentations

CHAPTER OUTLINE

Planning a Presentation
Analyzing the Situation
Selecting the Best Combination of Media and Channels
Organizing a Presentation
Defining Your Main Idea
Limiting Your Scope
Choosing Your Approach
Preparing Your Outline
Developing a Presentation
Adapting to Your Audience
Crafting Presentation Content
Presentation Introduction
Presentation Body
Presentation Close
Delivering a Presentation
Choosing Your Presentation Method
Practicing Your Delivery
Overcoming Anxiety
Handling Questions Responsively
Incorporating Technology in Your Presentation
Embracing the Backchannel
Giving Presentations Online

LECTURE NOTES

Section 1: Planning a Presentation

Learning Objective 1:Describe the tasks involved in analyzing the situation for a presentation and organizing a presentation.

Oral presentations offer important opportunities to put all your communication skills on display, including:

Research

Planning

Writing

Visual design

Interpersonal communication

Nonverbal communication

Presentations also demonstrate your ability to think on your feet, grasp complex business issues, and handle challenging situations—all attributes of successful employees.

To avoid the jitters when presenting, keep three points in mind:

Everybody gets nervous when speaking in front of groups, even experienced professionals.

Being nervous is a good thing; it means you care about the topic, the audience, and career success.

With practice, you can convert nervous feelings into positive energy that helps you give more compelling presentations.

Preparing a professional-quality presentation takes time—a week or two for one-hour presentation.

Planning oral presentations is much like planning any other business message. The same four tasks apply:

Analyze the situation.

Gather information.

Select the right medium.

Organize the information.

Analyzing the Situation

Analyzing the situation for an oral presentation involves defining your purpose and developing an audience profile.

The purpose of most presentations is to inform or to persuade.

Make sure your purpose is crystal clear in order to maximize the opportunity and show respect for your listeners’ time and attention.

When developing an audience profile, try to anticipate the likely emotional state of your audience members.

Also consider the specific circumstances in which you’ll be making your presentation. The four basic formats have distinct advantages and disadvantages:

Classroom or theater seating, in which all chairs or desks face forward: keeps attention focused on the speaker; usually the best method for accommodating large audiences; inhibits interaction among audience members.

• Conference table seating, in which people sit along both sides of a long table and the speaker stands at one end: common arrangement for smaller meetings; promotes interaction among attendees; tends to isolate the speaker at one end of the room.
• Horseshoe seating, in which tables are arranged in the shape of a “U”: improves on conference table seating by allowing the speaker to walk between the tables to interact with individual audience members; impractical for large audiences; requires enough tables.
• Café seating, in which people sit in groups at individual tables: best for breakout sessions and other small-group activities; places some in the audience with their backs to the speaker, making it awkward for both them and the presenter.
• All these variables can influence not only the style of your presentation but also the content. In a public environment full of distractions, it’s best to keep content simple and short to retain audience attention.
• Selecting the Best Combination of Media and Channels
• When selecting the right medium for oral presentations, there is an array of choices, to include:

Live, in person presentations

Webcasts

Webinars (online presentations that people either view live or download later from your website)

• Screencasts (recordings of activity on computer displays with audio voiceover)
• Twebinars (online events that combine a webinar with the use of Twitter as a backchannel)
• Explore these options early in your planning efforts so that you can take full advantage of the media at your disposal.

Organizing a Presentation

The possibilities for organizing a business presentation fall into two basic categories.

Linear presentations (e.g., typical PowerPoint presentation) are like printed documents in the sense that they are outlined like conventional messages and follow a predefined flow from start to finish. Appropriate for:

• Speeches
• Technical and financial presentations
• Other presentations in which you want to convey your message point by point
• Nonlinear presentations (e.g., Prezi) don’t flow in any particularly direction but rather give the presenter the option to move back and forth between topics and up and down in terms of level of detail. Useful when you want to:

Show complicated relationships

Zoom in and out between the “big picture” and specific details

Explore complex visuals

• Have the flexibility to move from topic to topic in any order
• Prezi is sometimes viewed as more dynamic and engaging way, but keep several points in mind:

Always match the tool to the task, not the other way around.

Your message is what matters—not the software. If they are used poorly, even the best software features only get in the way.

PowerPoint and other slide programs aren’t limited to creating boring, linear flows of bullet points.

• Organizing a presentation involves the same tasks as organizing a written message:
• Define your main idea.
• Limit your scope.
• Select the direct or indirect approach.

Outline your content.

Defining Your Main Idea

Identify the most important message you want audience members to take away with them.

Make sure your purpose is based on a clear understanding of audience needs so that you can deliver information your audience truly cares about.

• Limiting Your Scope
• Limiting your scope is particularly vital with presentations, for two reasons:
• For most presentations, you must work within strict time limits.
• You have audience attention for only a finite amount of time.
• The only sure way to know how much material you can cover in a given time is to practice.

Factor in time for introductions, breaks, demonstrations, question-and-answer sessions, and anything else that takes away from your speaking time.

Consider a hybrid approach by presenting key points in summary form and give people printed handouts with additional detail.

Choosing Your Approach

For short presentations, organize your presentation much as you would a brief written message:

Use the direct approach if the subject involves routine information or good news.

• Use the indirect approach if the subject involves negative news or persuasion.
• For short presentations, plan your time well:
• Introduction: spend a minute or two to arouse interest and to give a preview of what’s to come.

Body: be prepared to explain the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your subject.

Closing: review the points you’ve made, and close with a statement that will help your audience remember the subject of your speech.

• If the purpose of the presentation is to inform, use the direct approach and a structure imposed naturally by the subject:
• Importance
• Sequence
• Chronology

Spatial orientation

Geography

• Category
• If your purpose of the presentation is to analyze, persuade, or collaborate, organize your material around:
• Conclusions

Recommendations

Logical arguments

• Use the direct approach if the audience is receptive, and the indirect approach if you expect resistance.
• Oral reports have one important advantage over written reports: you can readjust quickly if you need to.
• Regardless of the length of your presentation, remember that simplicity of organization is especially valuable in oral communication.
• No matter what the length, look for opportunities to integrate storytelling into the structure of your presentation. The dramatic tension at the heart of effective storytelling will capture and keep the audience’s attention.

Preparing Your Outline

A presentation outline helps organize your message, and it serves as the foundation for delivering your speech. Prepare your outline in several stages:

State your purpose and main idea and then use these to guide the rest of your planning.

Organize major points and subpoints in logical order, expressing each major point as a single, complete sentence.

Identify major points in the body first and then outline the introduction and close.

Identify transitions between major points or sections, and then write these transitions in full-sentence form.

• Prepare bibliography or source notes; highlight those sources you want to identify by name during your talk.
• Choose a compelling title. Make it brief, action oriented, and focused on what you can do for the audience.

Prepare both a detailed planning outline and a simpler speaking outline that provides all the cues and reminders you need to present the material.

To prepare an effective speaking outline, follow these steps:

Start with the planning outline. Then strip away what you don’t plan to say directly to the audience.

Condense points and transitions to key words or phrases.

Add delivery cues, such as places where you plan to pause for emphasis or use visuals.

Arrange your notes on numbered cards or use the notes capability in your presentation software.

• In addition to planning your speech, a presentation outline also helps you plan your speaking notes.
• You may find it helpful to create a simpler speaking outline from your planning outline.

Section 2: Developing a Presentation

Learning Objective 2: Explain how to adapt to your audience and develop an effective opening, body, and close for a presentation.

• Although you usually don’t write out a presentation word for word, you still engage in the writing process by:
• Developing your ideas

Structuring support points

Phrasing your transitions

Depending on the situation and your personal style, the eventual presentation might follow your initial words closely, or you might express your thoughts in fresh, spontaneous language.

Adapting to Your Audience

The style of your presentation is influenced by several significant factors:

Audience size

• Venue (in person or online)

Subject

Purpose

• Budget
• Time available for preparation
• Time allotted for your talk
• If you’re speaking to a small group, particularly people you already know, you can use a casual style that encourages audience participation. If you’re addressing a large audience, or if the event is important, establish a more formal atmosphere.
• Crafting Presentation Content
• Like written documents, presentations are composed of distinct elements:

Introduction

Body

• Close
• Presentation Introduction
• A good introduction arouses the audience’s interest in your topic, establishes your credibility, and prepares the audience for what will follow.

Arousing Audience Interest

Some subjects are naturally more interesting to some audiences than others. If you will be discussing a matter of profound significance that will personally affect the members of your audience, chances are they’ll listen. Other subjects call for more imagination. Here are six ways to arouse audience interest:

Unite the audience around a common goal. Invite listeners to help solve a problem, capitalize on an opportunity, or otherwise engage in the topic of your presentation.

Tell a story. Well-told stories are naturally interesting and can be compelling. Make sure your story illustrates an important and relevant point.

Pass around an example. You can get people to remember your points by appealing to their senses. A great way to do so is to pass around an example.

Ask a question. Asking questions will get the audience actively involved in your presentation and, at the same time, will give you information about them and their needs.

Share a startling statistic. An intriguing, unexpected, or shocking detail can often grab the attention of your listeners.

• Use humor. Opening with an amusing observation about yourself, the subject matter of the presentation, or the circumstances surrounding the presentation can be an effective way to lighten the “pre-presentation jitters.” Make sure any comments are relevant, appropriate, and not offensive to anyone in the audience.
• Regardless of which technique you choose, make sure you can give audience members a reason to care and to believe that the time they’re about to spend listening to you will be worth their while.
• Building Your Credibility
• In addition to grabbing the audience’s attention, your introduction needs to establish your credibility.
• Techniques for building credibility vary, depending on whether you will be introducing yourself or having someone else introduce you.
• If another person will introduce you, he or she can present your credentials so that you won’t appear boastful. However, make sure that the person introducing you doesn’t exaggerate your qualifications; your credibility will probably go down rather than up if this happens.
• If you will be introducing yourself, keep your comments simple. At the same time, don’t be afraid to mention your accomplishments. Your listeners will be curious about your qualifications, so tell them briefly who you are and why you’re the right person to be giving this presentation.

Previewing Your Message

In addition to arousing audience interest and establishing your credibility, a good introduction gives audience members a preview of what’s ahead, helping them understand the structure and content of the message. Your preview should:

• Summarize the main idea of your presentation.
• Identify major supporting points.
• Indicate the order in which you’ll develop those points.
• If you are using an indirect approach, the preview can discuss the nature of your main idea without disclosing it.

Presentation Body

The bulk of your speech or presentation is devoted to a discussion of the main supporting points from your outline.

Whether you’re using the direct or indirect approach, make sure the organization of your presentation is clear and your presentation holds the audience’s attention.

Connecting Your Ideas

If using written documents, you can show how ideas are related on the page or screen by using a variety of design clues, such as:

Headings

• Paragraph indentations
• Lists
• However, with oral communication—particularly when you aren’t using visuals for support—you have to rely primarily on words to link various parts and ideas.

For links between sentences and paragraphs, use transitional words and phrases:

therefore

because 

in addition

• in contrast 
• moreover 
• for example 
• consequently 
• nevertheless 
• finally 
• Holding Your Audience’s Attention

After capturing the audience’s attention with your introduction, work to keep it throughout the body of your presentation.

Remember, your audience can think and read faster than you can speak.

And with online presentations, where people in remote locations are sitting at their computers, they may be tempted by numerous distractions.

Here are a few helpful tips for keeping the audience tuned into your message:

• Relate your subject to your audience’s needs. People are naturally most interested in things that affect them personally.
• Anticipate your audience’s questions. Try to anticipate as many questions as you can and address these questions in the body of your presentation.
• Use clear, vivid language. If your presentation will involve abstract ideas, show how those abstractions connect with everyday life. Use familiar words, short sentences, and concrete examples.

Explain the relationship between your subject and familiar ideas. Show how your subject is related to ideas that the audience already understands and give people a way to categorize and remember your points.

Ask for opinions or pause occasionally for questions or comments. Audience feedback helps you determine whether the listeners understand a key point before beginning another section. Asking questions or providing comments also gives your audience members a chance to switch from listening to participating, which helps them engage with your message and develop a sense of shared ownership.

Illustrate your ideas with visuals. Consider developing visuals for your presentation and coordinating them with your delivery. Visuals enliven your message, help you connect with audience members, and help people remember your message more effectively.

Presentation Close

The close of a speech or presentation has two critical jobs to accomplish. Make sure your listeners leave with:

• The key points from your talk clear in their minds
• An appropriate emotional state
• Restating Your Main Points
• Use the close to succinctly restate your main points, emphasizing what you want your listeners to do or to think.
• Ending with Clarity and Confidence
• To ensure that you end the presentation on a strong note, take the following steps:

Confirm expectations regarding any actions or decisions that will follow the presentation.

Bolster the audience’s confidence in you and your message by retaining control.

Provide a clear wrap-up if the audience is expected to reach a decision or agree to take action.

Review the consensus if the audience agrees on an issue covered in the presentation.

Make the lack of consensus clear if they don’t agree.

Suggest a method of resolving any differences.

Explain who is responsible for doing what if you expect any action to occur.

List action items.

Establish due dates.

• Assign responsibility for each task.
• Make sure your final remarks are memorable and expressed in a tone that is appropriate to the situation.
• Expressing confident optimism will send the message that you believe in your message and ability to perform. Think through your closing remarks carefully before stepping in front of the audience.

Section 3: Delivering a Presentation

Learning Objective 3: Discuss five steps for delivering a successful presentation.

Delivering a successful presentation starts well before you begin to speak; the first step is choosing the best presentation method.

Choosing Your Presentation Method

Depending on the circumstance of your presentation, you can choose from a variety of delivery methods:

Except for extremely short speeches, trying to memorize an entire presentation is not a good idea. However, memorizing a quotation, an opening paragraph, and some strong finishing remarks can bolster your confidence and strengthen your delivery.

On rare occasions, you may need to read your speech from a prepared script. However, unless you’re required or expected to read your presentation verbatim, reading is never a good choice.

• Speaking from an outline or notes. Speaking with the help of an outline or note cards is nearly always the easiest and most effective delivery mode.
• Impromptu speaking. You may be called upon unexpectedly to give an impromptu or extemporaneous speech on the spot, without any planning or practice. Take a few seconds to identify the one key idea you want to share with the audience. If you are asked to speak on a topic and simply don’t have the information at hand, don’t try to fake it.
• Regardless of which delivery mode you use, be sure that you’re thoroughly familiar with your subject. Knowing what you’re talking about is the best way to build your self-confidence.

Practicing Your Delivery

Practice is key to the success of presentations, no matter how much experience you have. Practice helps ensure that you appear polished and confident, and it lets you verify the operation of visuals and equipment.

A day or two before you’re ready to step on stage for an important talk, consider the following questions to make sure you and your presentation are ready:

• Can you present your material naturally, without reading your slides?

Could you still make a compelling and complete presentation if you experience an equipment failure and have to proceed without using your slides at all?

• Is the equipment working, and do you know how to work it?

Is your timing on track?

• Can you easily pronounce all the words you plan to use?

Have you anticipated likely questions and objections?

• With experience, you’ll get a feel for how much practice is enough in any given situation. Practicing helps keep you on track, helps you maintain a conversational tone with your audience, and boosts your confidence and composure.

Preparing To Speak

• In addition to knowing your material thoroughly and practicing your delivery, make sure that your location is ready, you have everything you’ll need, and you’re prepared to address audiences from other cultures, if that applies.

Whenever you can:

• Scout the location for your presentation in advance.

Check the seating arrangement to make sure it’s appropriate for your needs and the audience’s.

• Verify the availability and operation of all the equipment and supplies you’re counting on.

Make sure you know how to get the file from your computer or other device to the projection system, if applicable.

• Consider using an interpreter if you’re addressing audience members who speak a different native language.

Send the interpreter a copy of your speaking notes and visuals in advance of your presentation.

• Team up with a sign-language interpreter if your audience is likely to include persons with hearing impairments.

Take into account cultural differences in appearances, mannerisms, and other customs.

Overcoming Anxiety

Recognize that nervousness is an indication that you care about your audience, your topic, and the occasion. These techniques will help you convert anxiety into positive energy:

Stop worrying about being perfect. Successful speakers focus on making an authentic connection with their listeners, rather than on trying to deliver a note-perfect presentation.

Prepare more material than necessary. Having extra knowledge will reduce your anxiety.

Practice, practice, practice. The more familiar you are with your material, the less panic you’ll feel.

Visualize your success. Visualize yourself in front of the audience, feeling confident, prepared, and able to handle any situation that might arise.

• Remember to breathe. Breathe slowly and deeply to maintain a sense of calm and confidence.
• Be ready with your opening line. Have your first sentence memorized.
• Be comfortable. Dress appropriately but as comfortably as possible.
• Take a three-second break. If you sense that you’re starting to race, pause and arrange your notes or perform some other small task while taking several deep breaths.
• Concentrate on your message and your audience, not on yourself. When you’re busy thinking about your subject and observing your audience’s response, you tend to forget your fears.
• Maintain eye contact with friendly audience members. Eye contact not only makes you appear sincere, confident, and trustworthy but can give you positive feedback as well.

Keep going. Things usually get better as you move along, with each successful minute, giving you more and more confidence.

Preparation is the best antidote for anxiety; it gives you confidence that you know your material and that you can recover from any glitches you might encounter.

Confident delivery starts as soon as you become the focus of attention, before you even begin to speak, so don’t rush. As you approach the front of the room:

• Walk with confidence.
• Breathe deeply.

Stand up straight.

Face your audience.

Adjust the microphone and other equipment.

Count to three slowly, and then scan the audience.

Make eye contact and smile.

• Look away, count to three again.
• Begin your presentation.
• If you are nervous, this slow, controlled beginning will help you establish rapport and appear more confident. Make sure your nonverbal signals also send a message of confidence. Use silence instead of meaningless filler words; silence adds dramatic punch and gives the audience time to think about your message.
• Handling Questions Responsively
• Handing questions from the audience is often one of the most important aspects of a presentation.
• Depending on the circumstances, you may answer questions as they come up, or you may have a designated question-and-answer (Q&A) period near the end of your presentation.
• Answering questions gives you a chance to:
• Obtain important information.
• Emphasize your main idea and supporting points.
• Build enthusiasm for your point of view .

Whether or not you can establish ground rules for Q&A depends on the audience and the situation.

Don’t assume that you can handle whatever comes up without some preparation. Learn enough about your audience members to get an idea of their concerns and think through answers to potential questions.

When people ask questions, take the following steps to maximize the opportunity:

Pay attention to nonverbal signals to help determine what each person really means.

Repeat the question to confirm your understanding and ensure that the entire audience has heard it.

Ask for clarification if the question is vague or confusing.

Give a simple, direct answer.

If you are asked a difficult or complex question, avoid the temptation to sidestep it.

• If you don’t know the answer, don’t pretend that you do. Instead, offer to get a complete answer as soon as possible.
• Be on guard for audience members who use questions to make impromptu speeches or to take control of your presentation.
• If a question puts you on the hot seat, respond honestly but keep your cool:
• Look the person in the eye.

Answer the question as well as you can.

Keep your emotions under control.

Defuse hostility by paraphrasing the question and confirm that you’ve understood it correctly.

Maintain a businesslike tone of voice and a pleasant expression.

Prepare the audience for the end of the presentation when your time is almost up.

• Summarize the main idea of the presentation.
• Thank people for their attention.
• Conclude with the same confident demeanor you’ve had from the beginning.
• Section 4: Incorporating Technology in Your Presentation
• Learning Objective 4: Explain the growing importance of the backchannel in presentations, and list six steps for giving effective presentations online.
• Like most business communication, presentations have become high-tech affairs in many companies.

Two such aspects you will most likely encounter on the job are the backchannel and online presentations.

Embracing The Backchannel

Many business presentations these days involve more than just the spoken conversation between the speaker and the audience.

By using Twitter and other digital media, audience members often carry on their own parallel communication during a presentation via the backchannel.

The backchannel presents both risks and rewards for business presenters. On the negative side, listeners can:

• Research your claims the instant you make them.
• Spread the word quickly if they think your information is shaky.
• Gain more leverage, sometimes leading to presentations spinning out of control.
• On the plus side, listeners who are excited about your message can:
• Build support for it.
• Expand on it and spread it to a much larger audience.
• Provide valuable feedback during and after presentations.
• Follow these tips to make the backchannel work for you:

Integrate social media into the presentation process.

Monitor and ask for feedback.

Review comments to improve your presentation.

• Automatically tweet key points from your presentation while you speak.
• Establish expectations with the audience.
• Giving Presentations Online
• Online presentations have become a routine matter in business communication.
• They are conducted via internal groupware, virtual meeting systems, or webcast systems designed specifically for online presentations. Therefore, your audience members will view your presentations on a variety of devices.
• The benefits of online presentations are considerable, by providing the opportunity to:
• Communicate with a geographically dispersed audience.
• Save significantly on the cost of travel.
• Allow a project team or an entire organization to meet at a moment’s notice.
• However, the challenges for a presenter can be significant due to the added layer of technology between you and your audience.
• To ensure successful online presentations, keep the following advice in mind:

Consider sending preview study materials ahead of time. Doing so allows audience members to familiarize themselves with any important background information.

Rehearse using the system live, if at all possible. Presenting online has the additional burden of having to operate the presentation system while talking. Practice with at least one test viewer.

Keep your presentation as simple as possible. Keep the direction of your discussion clear so no one gets lost.

• Ask for feedback frequently. Visual feedback is limited, making it hard to know when audience members are confused, and many online viewers are reluctant to call attention to themselves.
• Consider the viewing experience from the audience members’ point of view. Will they be able to see what you think they can see?
• Allow plenty of time for everyone to get connected and familiar with the screen they’re viewing.
• Don’t get lost in the technology. Remember that the most important aspect of any presentation is getting the audience to receive, understand, and embrace your message.
• Chapter 17 – Lecture Outline:
• Chapter 17: Enhancing Presentations with Slides and Other Visuals
• CHAPTER OUTLINE
• Planning Your Presentation Visuals
  Selecting the Type of Visuals to Use
  Verifying Your Design Plans
  Choosing Structured or Free-Form Slides
  Advantages and Disadvantages of Structured Slides
  Advantages and Disadvantages of Free-Form Slides
  Designing Effective Slides
  Designing Slides Around a Key Visual
  Selecting Design Elements
  Color
  Artwork
  Typefaces and Type Styles
  Maintaining Design Consistency
  Creating Effective Slide Content
  Writing Readable Content
  Creating Charts and Tables for Slides
  Adding Animation and Multimedia
• Integrating Mobile Devices in Presentations
  Completing Slides and Support Materials
  Creating Navigation and Support Slides

LECTURE NOTES

Section 1: Planning Your Presentation Visuals

Learning Objective 1: Explain the role of visuals in business presentations, and list the types of visuals commonly used.

Visuals can improve the quality and impact of any presentation by creating interest and illustrating points that are difficult to explain with words alone. They add variety and increase the audience’s ability to absorb and remember information.

But beware: Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your visuals are a presentation. Particularly when using presentation software, it’s easy to fall into the trap of letting the slides take center stage.

Your message is the presentation, not your visuals; your visuals are there to help support and clarify what you have to say.

• Selecting the Type of Visuals to Use
• You can select from a variety of visuals to enhance presentations, each with unique advantages and disadvantages:
• Prezis are the dominant example of nonlinear presentations.

Advantages: Flexibility, the ability to incorporate video and other media elements, and a more dynamic look and feel than conventional slide shows

Potential disadvantages: Fewer design options, the chance of viewers “losing the plot” as the presenter jumps from topic to topic, and the possibility of viewers feeling dizzy or even getting motion sickness

Slides created with PowerPoint and other programs are the mainstay of most business presentations.

Advantages: Relatively easy to create and edit (at least for simple slides), designs are easy to customize, slides are easy to incorporate into online meetings and webcasts

• Potential disadvantages: Linear nature of presentations (although slide shows don’t necessarily have to be linear), and the “death by PowerPoint” problem (slide after slide of dull bullet lists or text-heavy slides)
• Overhead transparencies are seriously old school, but they do have advantages. You can create them with nothing more than a marking pen, you can write on them during a presentation, and they never malfunction. However, you need to stand next to the projector during the presentation, and you may be hard-pressed to find a projector these days.
• Chalkboards and whiteboards are effective tools for recording points made during small-group sessions. With digital whiteboards, you can print and email copies of whatever is written, too.
• Flip charts are another dependable, low-tech tool for meetings and presentations. You can record comments and questions during a presentation, create a “group memory” during brainstorming sessions, and keep track of all the ideas the team generates.

Be creative when choosing other visuals to support your presentation. Some possibilities:

Video of a focus group talking about your company

• Sample of a product or material, which lets the audience experience your subject directly
• Mock-ups and models to help people envision what the final creation will look like

Software to show a new product’s design

Screencasts that shows the software in action

• On-screen annotations and an audio track to explain what is happening on-screen
• Verifying Your Design Plans
• After choosing the medium or media for your visuals, think through your presentation and plan carefully before creating anything. Review the plan for each visual and follow these steps:
• Ask yourself how it will help your audience understand and appreciate your message.
• Ensure your presentation style is appropriate for the subject matter, the audience, and the setting.
• Double-check any cultural assumptions that might be inappropriate.
• Let simplicity be your guide:
• Creating simple materials often takes less time, and time is a precious commodity.
• Simple visuals reduce the chances of distraction and misinterpretation.

The more complex your presentation, the more likely something might go wrong.

Use your time wisely.

Decide up front how much visual design is sufficient and then stop when you get there.

Rehearse your presentation.

Section 2: Choosing Structured or Free-Form Slides

Learning Objective 2: Explain the difference between structured and free-form slides, and suggest when each design strategy is more appropriate.

The most important design choice you face when creating slides is whether to use conventional structured slides or the looser, free-form slides.

Both design strategies have advantages and disadvantages, and one or the other can be a better choice for specific situations.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Structured Slides

• Structured slides follow the same basic format throughout the presentation; in fact, they’re based directly on the templates, which provides some advantages:
• Fast and easy to create: simply choose an overall design theme; select a template, and start typing
• More practical for routine presentations such as status updates

Can be more effective at conveying complex ideas or sets of interrelated data

More effective as stand-alone documents (“slideuments”) that people can read on their own, without a presenter, although this is a suboptimal way to present information in general

• However, structured slides have potential disadvantages:
• Mind-numbing, with text-heavy slides that all look alike
• Focused on delivering information without considering how the audience can convert that information into usable meaning

Advantages and Disadvantages of Free-Form Slides

The goal of free-form slide design is to overcome the drawbacks of text-heavy structured design by fulfilling three criteria for successful presentations:

• Provide complementary information through both textual and visual means.
• Limit the amount of information delivered at any one time to prevent cognitive overload.
• Help viewers process information by identifying priorities and connections.
• With appropriate imagery, free-form designs can also:
• Create a more dynamic and engaging experience for the audience.

Excite and engage.

Motivate, educate, and persuade.

In addition to these benefits, however, free-form slides have three potential disadvantages:

Effectively designing slides with both visual and textual elements is more creatively demanding and more time-consuming than simply typing text into preformatted templates.

Free-form slide designs require more preparation and practice on the part of the speaker.

• Dividing information into smaller chunks can make it difficult to present complex subjects in a cohesive, integrated manner.
• Effectively designed free-form slides should still be unified by design elements such as:
• Color.    

Typeface selections

Visual messages

Textual messages

• Section 3: Designing Effective Slides
• Learning Objective 3: Outline the decisions involved in using a key visual and selecting color, artwork, and typefaces to create effective slide designs.
• “Death by PowerPoint” refers to people being bored to death by mind-numbing presentations.
• The problem is not with the tools, however, but how they are used.
• In addition to the temptation to pack too much information onto every slide, “slideument” hybrids try to function as both presentation slides and readable documents.
• Slides by themselves should be useless to an audience without the speaker, because good slides are there to support the speaker.
• The ideal solution is to create an effective slide set and a separate handout document that provides additional details and supporting information.

However, if creating slideuments is your only option for some reason, be sure to emphasize clarity and simplicity.

Designing Slides Around a Key Visual

With both structured and free-form design strategies, it is often helpful to structure specific slides around a key visual that helps organize and explain the points you are trying to make. Two examples:

A pyramid suggests a hierarchical relationship.

A circular flow diagram emphasizes that the final stage in a process loops back to the beginning of the process.

Selecting Design Elements

When designing and creating slides, always keep the audience’s experience in mind: what will it be like to view this slide while listening to a speaker?

As you select the design elements for your slides and create content for each slide, recall the previously discussed six principles of effective design:

Consistency

Contrast

Balance

Emphasis

Convention

Simplicity

Color

Color is a critical design element, far more than mere decoration. Effective use of color:

Grabs the viewer’s attention

Emphasizes important ideas

Creates contrast

Isolates slide elements

Sends powerful nonverbal messages

Color can also play a key role in the overall acceptance of your message. Color visuals can account for:

60% increased chance of an audience’s acceptance or rejection of an idea

80% increase in willingness to read

75% enhancement in learning and improvement in reading

Color choices can also stimulate various emotions. Remember, however, that color has different meanings in certain cultures, so when creating slides for international audiences, research these cultural differences.

Artwork

Every slide has two layers or levels of visual elements: the background and foreground.

The background often stays the same from slide to slide, particularly with structured designs. Issues to keep in mind when using a background include:

The less your background does, the better.

Keep backgrounds open, spacious, and simple.

Cluttered or flashy backgrounds tend to distract from your message.

The background needs to stay in the background; it shouldn’t compete with foreground elements.

Backgrounds can be too busy to understand.

Some backgrounds are too playful for business use.

• You don’t need to use a background, except perhaps a solid color to set type and images against.
• The foreground contains the unique text and graphic elements that make up each individual slide.

When creating the foreground, consider that artwork can be either functional or decorative.

Functional artwork includes:

• Photos
• Technical drawings

Charts

Other visual elements containing information that is part of your message

In contrast, decorative artwork doesn’t deliver textual or numerical information, but can be helpful if it:

Establishes an appropriate emotional tone

Amplifies the message of a slide; simple, high-impact images are easier to remember than text

• Decorative artwork is unhelpful if it:
• Doesn’t add value
• Is off topic
• Conveys an unprofessional image
• Pulls viewer attention away from the essential elements on a slide
• Decorative artwork is usually the least important element of any slide, but it often causes the most trouble. Don’t include decorative artwork that gives your slides an unprofessional, cartoony appearance.

Typefaces and Type Styles

When selecting typefaces and type styles for slides, follow these guidelines:

Use serif typefaces with care and only with larger text.

• Limit the number of typefaces to one or two per slide.
• When using thinner typefaces, use boldface so letters won’t look washed out.
• Avoid most italicized type; it is usually difficult to read when projected.

Avoid all-capitalized words and phrases.

Allow extra white space between lines of text.

• Be consistent with typefaces, type styles, colors, and sizes.
• Make sure type is readable from everywhere in the room.
• Maintaining Design Consistency
• Don’t force viewers to repeatedly figure out the meaning of design elements by making arbitrary changes from slide to slide.
• Presentation software makes consistency easy to achieve, particularly for structured slide designs.
• The less work readers have to do to interpret your slide designs, the more attention they can pay to your message.

Section 4: Creating Effective Slide Content

Learning Objective 4: Explain how to create effective slide content.

When creating effective slide content, remember to watch out for information overload.

When slides have too much content—textual, visual, or both—viewers can’t process the incoming information fast enough to make sense of it and eventually tune out.

Keep your slides clear and easy to grasp, and pace the flow of information at a speed that lets people connect your ideas from one slide to the next.

Writing Readable Content

To choose effective words and phrases for slide content, think of the text on slides as a guide to the content, not the content itself. Stuffing slides with too much text creates several problems:

• It overloads the audience with too much information, too fast.
• It takes attention away from the speaker by forcing people to read more.
• It requires the presenter to use smaller type, making the slides even harder to read.
• Slide text should not display your entire speaking script or highlight every point you intend to make. Instead, slide text serves as the headings and subheadings for your presentation.

You primarily want your audience to listen, not read. Use slides to:

Highlight key points.

• Summarize and preview your message.
• Signal major shifts in thought.

Illustrate concepts.

Help create interest in your spoken message.

When writing content for text slides, keep your message short and simple:

• Limit each slide to one thought, concept, or idea.
• Limit text content to four or five lines with four or five words per line.
• Don’t show a large number of text-heavy slides in a row; give the audience some visual relief.

Write short, bulleted phrases rather than long sentences.

Use sentences only when you need to share a quotation or some other text item verbatim.

• List items in parallel grammatical form to facilitate quick reading.
• Use the active voice.
• Include short, informative titles.

The more information a visual can convey, the less words you need.

If the audience can benefit from additional information, provide those details in handouts.

• Creating Charts and Tables for Slides
• Just as text needs to be simplified for projection, so do many charts, graphs, tables, and other visual elements.
• Detailed visuals can be too dense and complicated for presentations. Follow these guidelines:

Reduce the detail. Eliminate anything that is not absolutely essential to the message.

Complex visuals are even more difficult to interpret on screen and from a distance.

• Shorten numbers (if doing so doesn’t hide essential details).
• Limit the amount of data shown. Line graphs should have no more than two or three lines; bar charts look crowded with more than five or six bars; and tables are difficult to read if they have too many rows or columns.
• Highlight key points. Use arrows, boldface type, and color to direct your audience’s eyes to the main point of a visual. Summarize the intent of the graphic in one clear title.
• Adjust the size and design. Modify the size of a graphic to accommodate the size of a slide. Leave plenty of white space and use colors that stand out from the slide’s background.

Adding Animation and Multimedia

Presentation software offers a wide array of options for livening up your slides, including:

Sound

Animation

Video clips

Transition effects from one slide to the next

Hyperlinks to websites and other resources

Make sure that any effects you use support your message.

Always consider the impact that all these effects will have on your audience members.

Animation and special effects can be grouped into four categories:

Functional animation

• Transitions and builds
• Hyperlinks

Multimedia

Software packages offer numerous tools for moving and changing things on screen; just as static graphic elements can be either functional or decorative, so too can animated elements.

You can control every aspect of the animation, so it’s easy to coordinate the movement with the points you’re making in your presentation

Use animation in support of your message, not for decoration or because it looks cool.

• Slide transitions control the motion as one slide replaces another on-screen.
• Subtle transitions ease your viewers’ gaze from one slide to the next.
• However, many of the transitions are like miniature animated shows and are distracting.
• If you use a transition effect, use the same one throughout the presentation and choose the effect carefully.
• Aim for a smooth, subtle effect that is easy on the eye.
• And unless a sound effect is integral to the message, don’t add audio to a transition.

Builds control the release of text, graphics, and other elements on individual slides.

This helps draw the audience’s attention to the point being discussed and keeps them from reading ahead. They are much more useful than transitions, when used with care and thought.

The point of a build is to release information in a controlled fashion, not to distract or entertain the audience. Stick with the subtle, basic options for builds.

• A hyperlink instructs your computer to jump to another slide in your presentation, to a website, or to another program. Hyperlinks are an effective way to customize presentations. Hyperlinks can be:
• Simple underlined text
• Invisible hotspots in graphical elements
• Clearly labeled action buttons
• Other advantages to hyperlinks include the options to:

Click an action button and jump right to the two or three most important slides.

Switch from the indirect approach to the direct approach, or vice versa.

• Adjust your presentation at a moment’s notice—and look polished and professional while you do it.
• Multimedia elements offer the ultimate in active presentations.
• Using audio and video clips can be an effective way to complement your live message.

Keep these elements brief and relevant, as supporting points for your presentation.

Integrating Mobile Devices in Presentations

Smartphones and tablets offer a variety of ways to enhance presentations, such as:

Broadcasting your slides to audience members in case they can’t see the main screen

Eliminating a conventional projection system entirely

Broadcasting a live presentation to mobile users anywhere in the world

• Section 5: Completing Slides and Support Materials
• Learning Objective 5: Explain the role of navigation slides, support slides, and handouts.
• Just as with messages, review slides and other visuals for:
• Content
• Style
• Tone
• Readability

Clarity

Conciseness

Also, make sure that all visuals are:

Can text be read from the back of the room? Does text stand out from the background?

Are colors and design elements used consistently?

Are each slide and the presentation as simple as possible? Can you eliminate any slides?

• Audience centered. Are the message and the design focused on the audience?
• Is the main point of each slide obvious? Easy to understand?
• Concise and grammatical. Is text written in concise phrases? Are bulleted phrases grammatically parallel?
• Does each slide cover only one thought, concept, or idea? Does the slide support the key points of the message? Is the audience’s attention drawn to the key sections of a chart or diagram?

Fully operational. Have you verified every slide in your presentation? Do all the animations and other special effects work as intended?

You want the audience to listen to you, not study the slides; make sure your slides are not distracting.

Using a slide sorter makes it easy to:

• Add and delete slides.
• Reposition slides.

Check for design consistency.

Preview animation and transition effects.

Experiment with design elements.

• For important presentations, consider having backup equipment on standby, loaded with your presentation, and ready to go. At the very least, have enough printed handouts ready to give the audience.
• Creating Navigation and Support Slides
• Once the content slides are complete, enhance your presentation with a few additional slides that add “finish” to your presentation and provide additional information to benefit your audience.
• Make a good first impression on your audience with one or two title slides. A title slide can contain the following elements:

Title of your presentation (and subtitle, if appropriate)

Your name

Your department affiliation (for internal audiences)

Your company affiliation (for external audiences)

• Presentation date
• Appropriate graphic elements
• Use agenda and program detail slides to communicate the agenda for your presentation and any additional information that your audience might need, such as wireless network logins.
• By answering such questions at the beginning of your presentation, you’ll minimize disruptions later and help the audience stay focused on your message.
• Use navigation slides to tell your audience where you’re going and where you’ve been.
• This technique is most useful in longer presentations with several major sections.
• As you complete each section, repeat the slide but indicate which material has been covered and which section you are about to cover.
• Creating Effective Handouts

Handouts, any printed materials you give the audience to supplement your talk, should be considered an integral part of your presentation strategy.

Plan them in tandem with your presentation so that you use each medium as effectively as possible.

Your presentation should:

Paint the big picture.

Convey and connect major ideas.

Set the emotional tone.

Rouse the audience to action.

Your handouts should then carry the rest of the information load, providing the supporting details that audience members can consume at their own speed, on their own time.

Possibilities for good handout materials include:

Complex charts and diagrams

Articles and technical papers

Case studies

Recommended resources

• Copies of presentation slides
• Timing the distribution of handouts depends on the content of your handouts, the nature of your presentation, and your personal preference.

Collepals.com Plagiarism Free Papers

Are you looking for custom essay writing service or even dissertation writing services? Just request for our write my paper service, and we'll match you with the best essay writer in your subject! With an exceptional team of professional academic experts in a wide range of subjects, we can guarantee you an unrivaled quality of custom-written papers.

Get ZERO PLAGIARISM, HUMAN WRITTEN ESSAYS

Why Hire Collepals.com writers to do your paper?

Quality- We are experienced and have access to ample research materials.

We write plagiarism Free Content

Confidential- We never share or sell your personal information to third parties.

Support-Chat with us today! We are always waiting to answer all your questions.