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COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 13

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Chapter 13

Presentation Aids

Goal: To understand how to use presentational aids effectively

Overview: audiences have come to expect messages to be enhanced with presentational

aids. This chapter discusses how to create and display presentational aids that are

appropriate to the specific situation.

Learning Outcomes

13-1 Identify several reasons for incorporating presentational aids into your speech.

13-2 Describe the different types of presentational aids.

13-3 Choose appropriate presentational aids.

13-4 Prepare effective presentational aids.

Key Terms

Actual objects

Audio aids

Audiovisual aids

Bar graph

Chart

Diagram

Flip chart

Flow chart

Graph

Handout

Line graph

Model

Organizational chart

Pie chart

Presentational aid

Visual aids

Figures and Tables:

Figure 13.1 Sample Diagram

Figure 13.2 Sample Map

Figure 13.3 Sample Flow Chart

Figure 13.4 Sample Organizational Chart

Figure 13.5 Sample Pie Chart

Figure 13.6 Sample Bar Graph

Figure 13.7 Sample Line Graph

Figure 13.8 An Ineffective Visual Aid

Figure 13.9 An Effective Visual Aid

Chapter Outline

Action Step 4

Identify, prepare, and use appropriate presentational aids

I. Benefits of presentational aids

A. A presentational aid is any visual, audio, audiovisual, or other sensory material used

to enhance a verbal message

1. Visual aids enhance a speech by allowing audience members to see what it is you

are describing or explaining

2. Audio aids enhance the speaker’s verbal message through sound

3. Audiovisual aids enhance the speech using a combination of sight and sound

4. Other sensory aids include materials that enhance your ideas by appealing to

smell, touch, or taste

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B. Research documents several benefits for using presentational aids:

1. They clarify and dramatize your verbal message

2. They help audiences remember information

3. They allow you to address the diverse learning style preferences of your audience

4. They increase persuasive appeal

II. Types of presentational aids

A. Visual aids

1. Actual objects: three-dimensional representation of an idea you are

communicating

2. Models: useful when an object is too large or too small to be seen

3. Photographs

4. Simple drawings

5. Maps

6. Charts: graphic representations that present information in easily interpreted

formats

a. Flow chart: uses symbols and connecting lines to diagram the progression

through a complicated process

b. Organizational chart: shows the structure of an organization in terms of rank

and chain of command

c. Pie chart: shows the relationships among parts of a single unit

7. Graphs: diagram that presents numerical information

a. Bar graph: chart that presents information using a series of vertical or

horizontal lines

b. Line graph: chart that represents the changes in time through a line or a

series of lines

B. Audio aids enhance a verbal message through sound. They are especially useful

when it is difficult, if not impossible, to describe a sound in words

C. Audiovisual aids enhance a verbal message using a combination of sight and sound.

You can use short clips from films and videos to demonstrate concepts or processes

or to expose audiences to important people

D. Depending on your topic, other sensory aids that appeal to smell, touch, or taste

may effectively enhance your speech

III. Choosing presentational aids

A. With so many different types of presentational aids, you have to decide which ones

will best illustrate the content you want to highlight. Some simple guidelines can help

you make good choices.

B. Choose aids that:

1. Illustrate the most important ideas for your audience to understand and

remember

2. Clarify complex ideas that are difficult to explain verbally

3. Are appropriate for the size of the audience

4. Make dull information or details more interesting

5. You will feel comfortable using and transporting to the speech site

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6. Enhance rather than overwhelm the verbal message

C. Preparing presentational aids

1. Limit the reading required of the audience

2. Customize presentational aids from other sources

3. Use aids that can be seen and heard easily by your entire audience

4. Use a consistent print style that is easy to read

5. Make sure information is laid out in a way that is aesthetically pleasing

6. Use pictures or other visual symbols on all visual aids

7. Use color strategically

IV. Displaying presentational aids

A. Posters: easy to use but fairly small

B. Whiteboards or chalkboards: easy to prepare but only a good choice for short items

of information that can be quickly written

C. Flip charts

1. A large pad of paper on an easel

2. Leave pages between so that later pages do not show through

3. Must be neat and easy to read

D. Handouts

1. Can distract audience from your speech

2. Distribute at the end of the speech

E. Document cameras: makes a photo or object larger and easier to see

F. Computers, CD/DVD Players, and LCD projectors: ensure it is large enough to see

and prepare backup aid in case of equipment failure

Technology Resources

PowerPoint Tips & Tutorials

http://www.bates.edu/powerpoint-tips.xml This site at Bates College provides a concise but

informative list of tips for creating and displaying PowerPoint slides effectively. Be sure to

click on the link “PowerPoint: Web Image Capturing and Basic Slideshow” for links to

PowerPoint tutorials and an excellent discussion about copyright issues related to web text

and images.

Visual Aids

http://www.rufwork.com/110/mats/oshaVisualAids.html This site at the U.S. Department of

Labor features a thorough discussion of the methods and guidelines for using visual aids in

presentations.

Other Media Resources

1. Using Visual Aids

http://www.hawaii.edu/mauispeech/html/visual_aids.html

2. Electronic Presentations

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http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/frame_found_sr2/tns/tn-16.pdf

3. Making infographics and using elements of design in visual aids

https://www.canva.com

4. Alternate presentation software platforms

http://www.prezi.com

Discussion and Assignment Ideas

I. Do certain audiences lend themselves toward or away from the use of presentational

aids? What about certain topics?

II. Quotes: These can be used to introduce topics, questions perspectives, or gain

individual opinion. Providing students with a quote and prompting them to write or

reflect on their personal feelings about the quote can help to spark discussion and

interest. Suggested prompts may include “Define this concept in your own words”; “Do

you agree with this statement? Explain”; “What text material can be used to support or

refute this idea?”

A picture is worth a thousand words.

—Anonymous

Few speeches which have produced an electrical effect on an audience can bear the

colourless photography of a printed record.

—Archibald Philip Primrose

III. Visual aids are often duplicates of verbal information, unnecessary, or unhelpful. Under

what conditions is a visual aid a valuable inclusion in a speech? How do you know if a

visual aid will help or hinder your speech? What risks are involved with visual aids? What

steps should be taken to ensure these risks will not be detrimental?

Chapter Activity

13.1: Presentational Aids throughout History

Purpose: To help students understand when and how to use presentational aids

Time: 10-30 minutes

Process: Have students select a significant historical speech. They may either select

from an assortment you have collected or use the Internet to research a

speech themselves. Instruct students to imagine that they are preparing to

give the speech they have selected, and that they should create a number of

presentational aids to bolster the impact of the speech. Depending on the

time and resources available, students may either create the actual visual

aids, or describe the aids they would use. Students should write a short

paragraph for each aid, explaining why they chose to use that particular type

of aid and what it adds to the speech.

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13.2: Infographic Mapping

Purpose: To help students understand how to build an infographic that crisply and

visually organizes large amounts of information

Time: 30 minutes

Process: Assemble a data set of roughly 10 to 12 statistics on a particular topic (coffee

farming and markets, baseball, history of the cell phone, etc.). A single robust

news article on the topic could be all that you need; or you may need to

supplement with additional data. (Alternatively, you could create a

nonsensical data set, for example, “water usage data for the planet

Guanuflaron during the Grotona period.”) Give each student a handout

containing the data and a blank piece of paper. Then, instruct students to

begin mapping out how they would use the data in a comprehensive

infographic on the topic. Extend the project by having students experiment

with the Prezi.com platform to create a presentation that includes their

graphics. A final infographic or prezi could be a gradable assignment.

Journal Assignment

Choosing Visual Aids

Choose a topic that is familiar to you and choose a potential audience. Using this

information, determine how many different visual aids you can use for this presentation.

Give a brief description of each potential visual aid and choose two you think will be the

most effective. Provide reasoning for each choice, and explain why your top two are best

suited to your presentation.

What Would You Do?

As Oscar and Max were finishing dinner, Max asked, “Have you figured out what you’re

going to use for presentational aids in your speech next week in Professor Gilman’s class?

I’m totally stumped.”

Oscar looked up from his plate. “Oh, I am so ready,” he said. ”I’m actually pretty

pumped about mine.”

“Really?” Max raised an eyebrow. ”So what’s the plan?” “Well, you know I’m going to try

to persuade the class to agree with me that the death penalty is wrong.” Oscar leaned in

and lowered his voice. “I got ahold of an audio clip of someone writhing in pain during an

execution. I’m going to play it while I show several photographs of people who have been

executed. THAT should really make my speech memorable and my argument convincing!”

“Yikes!” Max said. “Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”

“Yeah, why not?”

1. Is it ethical to use potentially offensive presentational aids if doing so will make your

speech more memorable or your argument more convincing? Why or why not?

2. Could Oscar achieve his goal using different presentational aids? If so, which type would

be most effective?

SkillBuilder

Creating Through Productive Thinking (Handout)

Use the data in the table on the handout to practice productive thinking. Create a list of all

of the speech ideas suggested by these data. Total tuition, room and board rates charged

for full-time undergraduate students in degree-granting institutions, by type and control of

institution, etc.

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PopComm!

Ignite: The Power(Point) of eXtreme Audience Adaptation

Ignite asks speakers, “If you had five minutes on stage, what would you say? What if you

only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds?”. Ignite challenges

speakers to engage in what could be called extreme audience adaptation, sharing

information in a timely and relevant manner that is easily comprehended by its techie

audience. Ignite presentations focus on what the target demographic wants to see: short

and fast communication.

Ignite is a style of presentation that began in Seattle in 2006, created by Brady Forrest

of O’Reilly Radar, a blog sponsored by the computer–book publisher O’Reilly Media, and Bre

Pettis of Make Magazine, a publication devoted to DIY technology projects. Started as a way

to provide fun, informal conferences for people working in the technology industry, the

events have spread to cities all over the United States and beyond, including Sydney,

Australia, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ignite events are free of charge, only relying on

sponsors to provide food and drink.

Speeches at Ignite events range from “Fighting Dirty in Scrabble” to “Causal Inference

Is Hard, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Counterfactuals” to “How I Learned to

Appreciate Dance: Being Married to a Ballerina” to “Geek Generation”. The emphasis on

extreme brevity as a way to share ideas is reflected in Ignite Seattle’s tagline: “Enlighten

us, but make it quick”. Aside from their strict limits on presentation structure, Ignite events

are low on rules—most cities’ Ignite websites say in their basic guidelines, “We want Ignite

to be about promoting and sharing burning ideas. If those ideas happen to take the form of

. . . any other self-serving commercial interest, then so be it. We’re fine with it, really. But

whatever you present had better be interesting”.

Luciana Lopez of The Oregonian calls Ignite events “attention deficit theater,” and these

events are indeed tailored to a generation increasingly comfortable with pared-down forms

of communication, such as text messaging and Twitter. Event organizer Jason Prothero

says, “[Ignite is] a deliberate attempt to avoid what sucks about presentations. They’re

boring”. An online review of Ignite Seattle recommends that “all presentations should be

five minutes long,” explaining: “Anyone who knows PowerPoint presentations knows that a

‘five–minute presentation,’ after including setup time, switching between applications,

waiting for your web browser demo to respond, etc., lasts a half hour but feels like an

eternity. Ignite’s presentation style is a slap in the face to convention”. Another online

reviewer wrote, “The messages were succinct and powerful because the speakers knew they

didn’t have time for the clutter that normally pops up in conferences”.

Part of Ignite’s success has been its ability to adapt to the interests of its various

audiences. For example, co-creator Brady Forrest attempts to balance the gender of the

speakers and to keep topics only moderately techie so that more audience members can

relate. Ignite Bend in Oregon has applied Ignite’s presentation style to community

organization, and IgniteChange in Boston focuses on social justice.

In addition, Ignite’s message has spread so rapidly because of its incorporation of online

social networking tools. Ignite Web sites feature real-time Twitter feeds, Flickr photos and

streaming videos, and links to individual blog posts that review Ignite events. Of Ignite’s

intense Internet focus, Luciana Lopez says, “This crowd was so wired, organizers went

online to update folks waiting to get inside the [theater].”

Extreme audience adaptation? Perhaps for now—sounds like pretty soon everybody will

be doing it. If you’d like to see for yourself what Ignite is all about, visit the Ignite Seattle

Web site at www.igniteseattle.com.

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Sources:

Basic guidelines at Ignite Columbus. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://ignitecbus.com/?page_id=2; Guzman, M. (2009, April 16). A Seattle geek fest

spreads its wings. Seattle Pi. Retrieved from

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/405192_IGNITE16.html; Ignite Seattle. (n.d.).

Retrieved from http://www.igniteseattle.com/; Lopez, L. (2008, February 5). Attention

Deficit theater. OregonLive.com. Retrieved from

http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2008/02/attention_deficit_theater.html

; Neznanski, M. (2008, November 14). Sharing ideas quickly. Gazette Times. Retrieved from

http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2008/11/14/news/community/3loc01_tech.txt;

Raybould, B. (2007, August 11). Gnomedex: Ignite Seattle. Bold Words. Retrieved from

http://boldwords.wordpress.com/2007/08/11/gnomedex-ignite-seattle/; Weill, J. (2006,

December 18). All presentations should be five minutes long. Jason Weill Web Productions.

Retrieved from http://weill.org/2006/12/08/all-presentations-should-be-five-minutes-long/;

What is Ignite? (n.d.). Ignite. Retrieved from http://ignite.oreilly.com

Experiential Assignments

Evaluating Visual Aids (handout)

Analyze speeches or other public presentations such as lectures, articles, essays, newscasts,

infomercials, and so on that you can find on campus, in print, online, or via television.

Evaluate the use of at least one item from each of the following visuals aids: (1) objects, (2)

models, (3) photographs, (4) slides, (5) film/video clips, (6) drawings, (7) maps, (8) charts,

and (9) graphs. How effectively does the speaker or author use each item to illustrate or

support his or her speech or presentation? Are there other ways the speaker might have

used the visual aid more effectively? Would a different type of visual aid have conveyed the

presentation’s message more clearly?

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Experiential Assignment Handouts

Evaluating Visual Aids

Analyze speeches or other public presentations such as lectures, articles, essays, newscasts,

infomercials, and so on that you can find on campus, in print, online, or via television.

Evaluate the use of at least one item from each of the following visuals aids: (1) objects, (2)

models, (3) photographs, (4) slides, (5) film/video clips, (6) drawings, (7) maps, (8) charts,

and (9) graphs. How effectively does the speaker or author use each item to illustrate or

support his or her speech or presentation? Are there other ways the speaker might have

used the visual aid more effectively? Would a different type of visual aid have conveyed the

presentation’s message more clearly?

Objects

Models

Photographs

Slides

Film Clips

Drawings

Maps

Charts

Graphs