DHC Faculty Handbook :: Assignment & Assessment

A&A: Assignment - Creating Visual Aids

Preparing for an Oral Presentation

1. Always have a goal you want to achieve with your audience. For instance, you want them to understand a particular concept or have their minds changed concerning a previously held view point. Know why, you want to achieve this goal with this audience. This will give you the emotional attachment to the topic. Recent research indicates that, we listen more attentively to material to which the presenter has an emotional investment. And of course organizationally, tell them what you are going to say, say it, and then tell them what you said.

2. Eat fruit and drink juice or water an hour prior to performing this will insure the energy for the performance.

3. Before you start to speak allow yourself a moment to take a breath and make eye contact with the audience. Some people combine this with an opening remark or story that furthers the connection between themselves and the audience.

4. Most importantly, remember audiences want you to succeed. Even in the most competitive public situations, public political debates, the majority of the viewing audience wants you to succeed. It is simply more interesting to them if you do, as is the basketball game that ties and goes into over time.

5. Enjoy yourself. Its your stage.

By Barbara Sellers-Young, Dramatic Art and Dance, UC Davis, 1999.

II. Creating Visual Presentations for Oral Reports

Good visual aids can go a long way towards helping your audience understand your presentation and keeping their attention on what you have to say. If you think you have something important to communicate, then it is in the best interests both of yourself and of your audience to keep them engaged with clear, appropriate visuals. Using some of the report writing guidelines you should be able to organize your content. Once you know what you want to say, here are some of the tools you can use to say it.

Slides: Slides are the most desired visual aid at large meetings. Anytime you are speaking to a large group, they offer the best resolution and brightest colors when projected in a large room. We have enclosed a modification of the Guidelines offered by the Society for Neuroscience to give you some solid advice on the basics of slide content. note they suggest about 7 slides for a 10 minute talk. Make the content count!

You can make slides yourself using a program like Power point. If you have access to a scanner, you can incorporate pictures or graphs from texts or brochures. You can create figures and tables with Power point yourself or you can save files you have made on other programs into Power point. Once you have made your slide set on Power point your files can be e-mailed to IT for development into 2X2 slides with a five-day turn-around time. Be sure to give yourself enough time to create and process your slides. You will need to preview and practice with them before a presentation!

If possible, arrive with your slides in order and correctly oriented in a tray. Otherwise, number them as directed in the accompanying Guidelines. Consistency here is a big help.

Preparing Effective Slides or Overheads:

The slide should have a clear purpose.
The main point should be clear in the slide.
Each slide should have a simple format.
Avoid any nonessential information.
Don't overwhelm the audience with too much information. The rule is seven items per slide plus or minus two.
All the slides should be organized in the same manner.
Try to graph information instead of using tables.
Contrast colors help make the slide more legible. Color combinations that work well are white letters on medium blue background or black letters on medium yellow background. Avoid black letters on a dark background.
The slides should support the verbal presentation, not just show a series of numbers. If you need to refer to one slide several times, make duplicates of it instead of flipping back to the one slide.
The slides should flow in a clear and logical pattern, as well as the verbal presentation. Don't get bogged down in details.

Overheads: Overheads or transparencies will also work. They don't have the intense colors, but you can make them quickly and they allow you to stay in control. You can use a copy machine to make overheads from anything you can copy. Black and white copiers will produce black and white overheads, but color overheads can be made with is color copier. You can also print out your computer files directly onto overheads (Power point works for this, too), again either color or black and white depending on the capacity of the printer. Make sure you have the right type of transparency sheets to load into the copier or printer you will be using.

One advantage of overheads is that you, the speaker, control them. We have all watched helpless speakers stutter and mumble when the slide machine jammed or slides were upside down or out-of-order. Well, you can drop overheads or put them upside down and backwards, but you can fix the problem yourself. You can also use transparency pens to write or draw as you speak, or to highlight something on the overhead during you talk. Some practice will be needed to make this work.

Videotapes: Short videotapes can be very effective to make a point. You may want to use a selection from a commercial video or possibly produce a short video of your own. This method can provide you with a dramatic way to present examples to your audience. Don't overdo it though.

Posters: Posters provide a much more intimate way of exchanging information. They are closer to preparing a bulletin board that you want to talk to someone about. They can be used to present data or other information that requires pictures, tables, or figures to be clear. There should be enough text so that someone can understand your point if they make an effort, but posters are intended to be talked about and promote an exchange of information. There are guidelines for poster preparation following.

Design:

The title should be visible from 10-15 feet away.
The information should be laid out in such a way that its obvious where to start viewing the poster and how the information flows. This can be accomplished through a top to bottom or left to right design. Numbers or arrows also serve as guides for information flow.
Don't try to pack too much information onto the poster. Its tiring for the viewer to see too much information in one area.
Vary the size and design of the components on the poster. This will keep the audience's attention and is more appealing.
Emphasize the most important information with larger font size and/or color. This will draw the viewer attention to the key information.
May sure photos are large enough to be clearly read and pertinent information is easily identifiable.
Avoid any unnecessary detail.
Try to convert any tables to bar graphs, scatter plots, or diagrams.
Bottom line: Simple is better.

Text:

The text should be legible from five feet away from your poster.
The font should not be smaller than 18 point, and preferably 24 point.
Titles should be 2-3 inches high and subheadings 1/2-1 inch high.
Upper case lettering should not be used in the text of the poster. It's harder to read than lower case lettering.

Handouts: Is there something you want your audience to remember very clearly or some action you want to promote? Here is the way to do it. That hotline number or list of addresses or summary of the key points or issues you've talked about can go into the hands of your audience if that is what you think will be effective.

Web Site: Creating Effective Oral, Visual and Poster Presentations by Kansas University Medical Center