1. Enhancing Oral Presentations
Using Electronic Slides and Overhead Transparencies
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2. Business Communication Today
Using Visual Aids
Audience
Clarify
Main Points
Create
Interest
Setting
Content
Add
Variety
Improve
Learning
Chapter 15 presents a three-step process for designing and delivering oral presentations, focusing on how to organize and develop content for oral presentations and how to deliver that content effectively. But, good content and a smooth delivery are not enough. Audiences will also expect you to use visual aids in your oral presentations.
Visual aids can improve the quality and impact of your oral presentation by creating interest, illustrating points that are difficult to explain in words alone, adding variety, and increasing the audience’s ability to absorb and remember information.
As a speaker, you’ll find that visual aids can help you remember the details of the message and improve your professional image. Speakers who use visuals generally appear better prepared and more knowledgeable than speakers who do not use visuals aids.
Today’s speakers can select from a variety of visual aids to enhance oral presentations. Among the most popular types of visual aids are overhead transparencies, electronic presentations, chalkboards and whiteboards, flip charts, and 35-millimeter slides (see the next slide).
Purpose
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3. Types of Visual Aids Overhead Transparencies Electronic Presentations
Chalkboards
and Whiteboards
Used as a standard visual aid for decades, an overhead transparency is a piece of clear plastic with writing or some other image on it. Transparencies are shown by placing them on an overhead projector that projects the image or writing on a screen.
An electronic presentation consists of a series of slides composed using popular computer software such as Microsoft PowerPoint.The software allows you to incorporate photos, sound, video, graphics, animation, and other movement into the slides, enabling you to capture and engage your audience like no other visual aid.
Chalkboards and whiteboards are effective tools for recording points made during small-group brainstorming sessions. Because these visual aids are produced on the spot, they offer flexibility. However, they're too informal for some situations.
Flip charts are large sheets of paper attached at the top like a tablet. These charts can be propped on an easel so that you can flip the pages as you speak, with each chart illustrating or clarifying a point.
The content of 35-millimeter slides may be text, graphics, or pictures. If you're trying to create a polished, professional atmosphere, you might find this approach worthwhile, particularly if you'll be addressing a crowd and don't mind speaking in a darkened room.
Flip Charts
35-Millimeter Slides
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4. Television and Videotapes Business Communication Today
Types of Visual Aids
Product Samples
Scale Models
Audio Tapes
In addition to overhead transparencies, electronic presentations, chalkboards and whiteboards, flip charts, and 35-millimeter slides, the following visual aids can enhance a presentation:
In technical or scientific presentations, a sample of a product or material allows the audience to experience your subject directly.
Models built to scale are convenient representations of an object.
Audiotapes are often used to supplement a slide show or to present a precisely worded and timed message.
Filmstrips and movies can capture the audience's attention with color and movement.
Television and videotapes are good for showing demonstrations, interviews, and other events.
In addition, filmstrips, movies, television, and videotapes can be used as stand-alone vehicles (independent of a speaker) to communicate with dispersed audiences at various times.
Film Strips and Movies
Television and Videotapes
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5. Planning Effective Slides
Audience
Gather
Information
Select
the Format
Purpose
Purpose
Effective slides are the result of careful planning. Overhead transparencies and electronic slides are no different from the text of your presentation; that is, they send a message to your audience. Thus you need to analyze both your purpose in creating the slides and the audience who will be viewing them.
Once you have completely analyzed each slide, make sure you have all the information you need to include visually. Gather the details carefully, and document your sources fairly and thoroughly.
Finally, to adapt your message to your audience and establish a good relationship, be careful to choose the correct form of slide for your presentation. Both overhead transparencies and electronic slides have advantages and disadvantages.
Audience
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6. Overhead Transparencies
Advantages
Inexpensive
Easy to Use
Simple to Create
Many business people prefer to use overhead transparencies in oral presentations for a number of reasons. They are inexpensive, easy to create, and simple to use.
You can prepare high-quality overheads using a computer and a high-resolution color inkjet or laser printer. Moreover, they require little extra equipment to show. Most conference rooms or classrooms have overhead projectors and a table large enough to stack transparencies. And, because transparency images can be projected in full daylight, speakers can maintain eye contact with the audience. They can also use special markers to write on transparencies as they present information.
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7. Overhead Transparencies
Disadvantages
Lack of Flexibility
Fragile Format
Overhead Projectors
In spite of these advantages, transparencies have a number of drawbacks. First, because they are in a permanent printed format, they must be replaced if their content changes. Each time you add or remove an overhead from the sequence, you must manually renumber the batch.
Transparencies are fragile: they chip, flake, scratch, and tear easily. You can protect transparencies with cardboard or plastic frames or with transparent sleeves, but these protectors are costly and are bulky to store or transport.
Overhead projectors can be noisy and a challenge to talk over. Transparencies must be aligned carefully on the overhead projector (one at a time). This requirement limits the presenter’s ability to move freely about the room.
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8. Electronic Presentations Business Communication Today
Advantages
Disadvantages
Real-Time Data
Specialized
Equipment
Multimedia
Technique
Over Content
The biggest advantage of electronic presentations is their computerized format, which makes it easy to perform real-time manipulation of data. You can change a graphic, add a bulleted phrase, and even alter the sequence of your slides with a simple click of the mouse. You can add animation, video clips, sound, hypertext, and other multimedia effects to slides. You can preprogram and automate the release of text and graphical elements. In addition, electronic presentations are easy to store, transport, and customize for different audiences.
Electronic presentations are not without disadvantages, however. First, electronic slides require more expensive display equipment than overhead transparencies—especially if you are presenting to large audiences. This equipment can be complicated to use and may not be available in all situations. Second, most people spend too much time focusing on the technical components of an electronic presentation—they pay more attention to the animation and special effects of their slide shows than they do to the content of their message. Third, inexperienced presenters tend to pack too many special effects in their electronic slides, creating a visual feast of pictures and graphics that dazzle the audience, but blur the key message.
Flexibility
and Portability
Overuse of
Special Effects
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9. Creating Effective Slides
Simplicity
Content
and Graphics
Consistency
Design
Elements
Special
Effects
Readability
Readability
When creating slides, keep in mind that simplicity is the key to effectiveness. Slides that are too complex or poorly written will confuse the audience. People can’t read and listen at the same time so your slides must be simple enough for the audience to understand within a moment or two. Therefore, your primary focus when creating text or graphic slides is to keep content and graphics simple and readable, select design elements that enhance your message without overshadowing it, be consistent in your design selections, and use special effects selectively .
Simplicity
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10. Writing Readable Content
Select a central idea
Limit the content
Write short phrases
Use parallel grammar
Prefer the active voice
Use short informative titles
Text visuals consist of words and help the audience follow the flow of ideas. They are simplified outlines of your presentation and are used to summarize and preview your message or to signal major shifts in thought. One of the biggest mistakes you can make when writing text visuals is to overload them with too much information.
Effective text slides supplement your words. They highlight key points of your message, illustrate concepts, and help create interest in your oral message but they are not the presentation itself.
When writing content for text slides, keep your message short and simple:
Limit each slide to one thought, concept, or idea.
Limit the content to about 40 words—with no more than six lines of text containing about six or seven words per line.
Write short bulleted phrases rather than long sentences or paragraph-length blocks of text.
Phrase list items in grammatical form and use telegraphic wording (“Profits Soar,” for example) without being cryptic (“Profits).
Make your slides easy to read by using the active voice.
Include short informative titles.
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11. Business Communication Today
Effective Graphics
Reduce
Details
Avoid
Repetition
Shorten
Numbers
Limit
Data
Highlight
Key Points
Adjust
Size & Design
When using graphics in oral presentations, your first task is to simplify them. When slides contain excessive graphic detail, they are difficult to read on screen. You can create effective visuals by following these guidelines:
Reduce the detail. Eliminate anything that is not absolutely essential to the message.
Avoid repeating text. Minimize repetition by including the word in a title, subtitle, label, or legend.
Shorten numbers. On graphs, use 02 for the year 2002; round numbers such as $12, to $12 or $12.5, and then label the axis to indicate thousands.
Limit data. Don’t put more than five lines or five sets of bars on one chart.
Highlight key points. Use arrows, boldface type, and color to direct your audience’s eyes to the main point of a visual.
Adjust the size and design. Modify the size of the graphic to accommodate the size of a slide. Leave plenty of white space (area with no text or graphics) so the audience members can view and interpret content from a distance. Use colors that stand out from the slide’s background and choose a font that’s clear and easy to read.
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12. Selecting Design Elements
Color Schemes
Background
Design
Color is a critical design element. It grabs the viewer’s attention, emphasizes important ideas, creates contrast, and isolates slide elements. Color can make your slides more attractive, lively, and professional. It can also play a key role in the overall acceptance of your message.
A good background design is the key to a positive first impression. Your design choice can silently persuade the audience to pay attention or it can encourage them to look the other way.
Your selection of clip art is just as important as your selection of a background design. Inappropriate clip art, improperly-sized clip art, and clip-art overkill detract from a slide’s message.
When selecting fonts and type style for slides, follow these guidelines:
Avoid script or decorative fonts.
Limit your fonts to one or two per slide.
Use boldface type for slides so that letters won’t look washed out.
Avoid italicized type because it is difficult to read when projected.
Use both uppercase and lowercase letters, with extra white space between lines of text.
A good rule is to use 24- and 36-point type for electronic presentations, reserving the larger size for titles and the smaller size for bullet items.
Fonts and
Type Styles
Clip Art Images
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13. Achieving Design Consistency Business Communication Today
Slide Master
Feature
Layout
Templates
Consistency of design makes slides easier to read and gives the presentation a clean, professional look. Fortunately, most electronic presentation software programs can help you with this challenge. By programming your design selections into the software’s special slide master, the saved design elements are included on all the new slides you insert in your presentation.
Another good way to achieve design consistency is to use the layout templates that are included with most presentation software packages. Each layout contains placeholders for specific slide elements such as a title, graphic art, or bulleted text.
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14. Animation and Special Effects
Hyperlinks
Transitions
Builds
Unlike transparencies, electronic slide shows can include a number of special effects such as sound, animation, and video. Resist the tendency to use too many of these features. Excessive special effects overwhelm and distract audiences. Used sparingly, special effects add punch to an oral presentation.
Transitions control how one electronic slide replaces another on screen. When used effectively, transitions can make your presentation flow smoothly from slide to slide so that you keep the audience’s attention.
Similar to transitions, builds control the release of text, graphics, and other elements on slides. With builds you can make your bullet points appear one at a time rather than having all of them appear on a slide at once.
Hyperlinks allow you to build interactivity into electronic slides by coding text, graphics, or pictures, with hypertext markup language. When you click on a slide’s hyperlink with a mouse you are taken to a different slide in your presentation, to other files on a computer, or even to a Web page.
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15. Business Communication Today
Effective Slides
Readable
Consistent
Simple
Audience
Centered
Just as you would review any written message for content, style, tone, readability, clarity, and conciseness, you must also do the same for slides and transparencies. As you look over your presentation for the final time, make sure that all visuals are:
Readable. Are the font sizes large enough? Too large? Can they be seen from the back of the room? Does the font color stand out from the background?
Consistent: Are colors and design elements used consistently?
Simple. Should some information be illustrated by a chart, diagram, or picture? Should some information be eliminated or moved to handouts or backup slides? Should some slides be eliminated altogether?
Audience-centered. Are design elements such as clip art and color appropriate for the audience?
Mechanically correct. Is text written in concise phrases? Are the phrases parallel?
Clear and Focused. Is the main point of a slide obvious? Easy to understand? Can the audience grasp the main point in five to eight seconds? Does each slide cover only one thought, concept or idea? Does the slide grab the viewer’s attention in the right place and support the key points of the message?
Mechanically
Correct
Clear and
Focused
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16. Developing a Clear Structure
Cover
Slides
Introduction
Slides
Blueprint
Slides
Present the Title
Name the Presenter
Grab Attention
Define the Topic
Clarify the Topic
Inform the Audience
Define an Agenda
Provide a Road Map
Serve as a Sign Post
Three types of structural slides can help you tell the audience what you’re talking about, why, and in what order:
A cover slide is your opportunity to make a good first impression on the audience. It is the equivalent of a report’s title page and should contain these elements: The title of your presentation (and optional subtitle); the presenter’s name and affiliation (if appropriate); and an image that grabs the audience’s attention and invites them to start looking at the screen.
Introduction slides define the topic of the presentation, clarify the topic, and inform the audience why you are speaking on this topic in addition to what expectations, if any, you may have for the audience. Are you going to ask them to make a decision? Take some action? Or are you simply explaining a new company policy?
A blueprint slide serves as your agenda chart and provides a road map of your presentation, telling the audience where you’re going and where you’ve been. Used in the beginning of a presentation, it lists three or four major points your presentation will cover. Used later in the presentation, moving blueprint slides serve as a sign post; they signal to the audience that you are moving from one major part of the presentation to another. Moving blueprint slides can also be used at the end of the presentation to summarize and review the presentation’s key points.
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17. Creating Effective Handouts
Complex Charts
or Diagrams
Case Studies
Magazine
Articles
Copies
of Slides
Company
Reports
Lists
of Websites
Handouts are a terrific way to offer your audience additional material without overloading your slides with information. Candidates for good handout material include the following:
Complex charts and diagrams. Charts and tables that are too unwieldy for the screen or that demand thorough analysis make good handouts.
Company reports. In most cases lengthy research reports are inappropriate for handouts. Use photocopies of specific pages instead.
Magazine articles. Magazine articles make good handout materials. They are easy to photocopy and they are already formatted in an easy-to-read layout.
Case studies. Summaries of case studies along with references and contact information make good supplemental reading material.
Websites. Lists of Websites related to your topic are useful. In addition to the URL address, annotate each item with a one-or-two sentence summary of each site’s content.
Copies of presentation slides. In many cases, audiences like to have small print versions of slides used by the speaker (about 3 to a page) along with accompanying comments and blank lines for note taking.
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18. Preparing to Give a Presentation
Master the Material
Learn Hardware
and Software
Practice the Delivery
Limit the
Number of Slides
The most common mistake people make when delivering a presentation is reading their slides. . Audiences expect speakers to add valuable information that is not included on slides. To do so, however, speakers must know enough about the subject of their presentation to elaborate on each bullet point. They must do their research and practice.
As you practice, keep in mind that using overhead transparencies and electronic slides effectively during oral presentations requires three extra steps:
First, you must learn the software to create your slides or transparencies and you must learn how to operate the technology to deliver your visuals. You must also know how to fix minor technological glitches, since you will likely encounter some during a presentation.
Second, you must introduce your visuals and practice coordinating your visuals with your talk so that the end result is as seamless as a professionally-staged production.
Third, you must limit the number of slides so that you can deliver your presentation in the allotted time frame.
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19. Introducing the Slides
Highlighting
Overhead
Transparencies
Electronic
Slides
Changing
Pointing
All visual aids must be properly introduced. Too many speakers show a visual aid first and then introduce it. Effective speakers do the reverse.
If you are using overhead transparencies, the best approach is to introduce the next overhead as you remove the old one and position the new one on the projector. Immediately cover all but the first bulleted phrase with a sheet of paper to prevent the audience from reading ahead. As you advance through your discussion, you can move the paper down the transparency to uncover the next bullet, waiting a few seconds for the audience to find your point of reference. When you are finished using the transparency, it’s often a good idea to cover it until you’re ready to introduce a new slide.
If you are using electronic slides, the best approach is to introduce the slide before you show it and then give the audience a few seconds to view the title and design elements. With electronic slides you have more control over the release of information than you do if you’re using overhead transparencies.
If you’re using a pointer, remember that it’s a tool meant to guide the audience to a specific part of a visual. Use the pointer only at the time you need it, then fold it and remove it from sight. If you are using a laser pointer that puts a focused dot of light on the desired part of your visual, don’t overdo it.
Discussing
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20. Limiting the Number of Slides
Length of the Presentation
Complexity of the Material
Having too many visuals can detract from your message. It forces you to either rush through a presentation or to skip slides—some of which may be critical to your message.
So how do you gauge the correct number of slides to use? That depends on the length of your presentation and the complexity of the subject matter. If you are using electronic slides, you must also factor in the time it takes for the special effects. As a general guideline, try to average one slide for every 90 seconds you speak. For a 30-minute presentation, you would create about 20 slides.
Nature of the Special Effects
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