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COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 13
13-1
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
COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 13
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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.
COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 13
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COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 13
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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.
COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 13
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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?
COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 13
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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
