14.7: Chapter Exercises

Conclusion

Presentation aids should help audiences more thoroughly understand a speaker’s basic message. There are four basic reasons to use presentation aids. First, they increase audience understanding of a speaker’s message. Second, they help audiences retain and recall a speaker’s message after the fact. Third, they make a speech more interesting by adding variety. Lastly, by making a speaker’s overall speech more polished, presentation aids can increase an audience’s perception of the speaker’s credibility.

Presentation aids help an audience more clearly understand a speaker’s message in two ways: they help clarify and they help emphasize. Speakers in professional contexts are expected to be familiar with presentation software, such as PowerPoint. Computer-based media can produce very professional-looking presentation aids, but as with any other media, the universal principles of good design apply.

Speakers using computer-based media need to practice ahead of time with the computer they intend to use in the speech. Each presentation aid vehicle has advantages and disadvantages. As such, speakers need to think through the use of visual aids and select the most appropriate ones for their individual speeches.Every presentation aid should be created with careful attention to content and appearance. The universal principles of good design can be a useful guide. Remember, presentation aids are supposed to aid a speech, not become the speech itself. When presentation aids look unprofessional, they can decrease a speaker’s credibility.

Various types of charts can aid audience understanding of a speaker’s message. Statistical charts help audiences see and interpret numerical information. Sequence-of-steps charts show how a process occurs. Decision trees help audience members see how a specific decision can be made in a logical fashion. Line graphs, bar graphs, and pie graphs are commonly used by speakers to help present numerical information. The information presented on a graph should be clean and easily understandable from a distance. Representations are presentation aids designed to represent a real process or object. Commonly used representations in public speaking include diagrams, maps, photographs, and video or audio recordings. Objects are physical items that can be held up and used during a speech. Models, on the other hand, refer to tangible items that can be held during a speech, but are not the actual object but rather a facsimile of it.

Always practice with your presentation aids, and be prepared for unexpected problems.Speakers often will use their own bodies or the bodies of other people to help them illustrate a part of a speech. When using another person, it is very important to coach that person prior to the speech to ensure that he or she will not upstage the speaker. Using animals as presentation aids is generally not recommended.

Exercises

• What’s wrong with this presentation aid?

  

• How would you change it?
• What kind of presentation aids might you use in a speech on the health benefits of laughter? Why might these be good choice?

1. Look at the outline you have prepared for a classroom speech. Where in the speech would it be appropriate to use presentation aids? Why would presentation aids help at the points you identify?
2. Presentational slides from speeches are sometimes available online. Search for and evaluate three sets of presentation slides you find online. Identify three ways that the slides could be improved to be more effective presentation aids.
3. Examine Figure 15.14 “World Populations” in this chapter. How could you go about making this visual aid more understandable?
4. Create a new presentation aid for a previous speech given in your public speaking class. How could that aid have helped your overall speech?
5. Take some time to explore the presentation software packages discussed in Table 15.1 “Presentation Software Packages” What do you see as some of the advantages and disadvantages of the different software packages?
6. Find a speech on YouTube and see what types of presentation aids the speaker uses. Does the speaker select appropriate aids? How could you have made them better? Were there any missing presentation aids that should have been in the speech?
7. Create a chart representing the speech creation process. Try using either a sequence-of-steps chart or a decision tree.
8. Think about your next speech. What presentation aids can you use in your speech to enhance your audience’s understanding?