3. Building an Effective Presentation Подготовка письменного текста с ориентацией на слушателей

By M. Gumming

Step one: Decide on Your Topic.

Before you consider how to give your presentation, you first must plan what you want to present. This is your topic. Do this asking:

1. What does my audience need or want to know about?

2. What do I know about, want to learn about or want to present?

3. What must I present? What is the assignment?

Step two: Analyzing Your Audience.

An important part of deciding on a topic is analyzing the audience. This means determining:

1. What does my audience need or want to know about?

2. What does my audience know about the topic?

3. What does my audience feel about the topic?

4. What must be done to make the presentation relevant to the audience?

Step three: Limit Your Topic.

One of the most serious mistakes a speaker can make is to have too broad a topic. To limit your topic you must consider:

1. How much time do I have to make the presentation?

2. How complex should my presentation be?

3. What aspect of the topic best suits the needs and interests of the audience?

4. What portion of the topic am I competent to discuss?

5. Do I have the resources and time to develop the topic?

Step four: Gather Information on Your Topic.

Step five: Organize Your Material Effectively.

Organization is crucial to the flow and effectiveness of your presentation To be effective, a speech should be organized so that its message is clear and easy to follow. The speaker can accomplish this by making sure that:

• The presentation contains verbal pointers to identify main ideas and important examples and details.

• Details and examples support the main ideas. -

• Points are sequenced logically.

• The type of organization is appropriate to the topic.

• The type of organization is important to the flow and effectiveness of your presentation Therefore, you must choose the type of organization that best fits your topic. Basically speaking, there arc two overall types of organization (deductive and inductive).

Deductive organization is an organization in which you state your thesis at the beginning of your presentation Then you support or explain it using concrete, specific details. This is the type of organization used in about 90% of all speeches.

Inductive organization, however, is an organization in which you build your case slowly and only state your thesis and purpose at the end of your presentation. This type of organization works well when you are giving bad news or presenting an unpopular idea or an idea about which the audience has already made up its mind.

4. Selecting and Using Visual Aids and Attention-Getting Devices Выбор и применение средств наглядности. Приемы привлечения внимания слушателей

Attention-getting devices are the spices of a presentation. They keep the audience alert, provide a visual record of your presentation information, and offer a change of pace to interest. Attention-getting devices fall into three categories:

1. Verbals: appropriate jokes, stories, anecdotes, questions, directed to the audience to get or to keep their attention.

2. Audience devices: charts, slides, film strips, three dimensional objects, video or audiotapes or photographs used to illustrate your presentation.

3. Audience participation devices; blackboards of flip charts used to list your main points as you present them or to record the responses of participants during your presentation.

To be used in a presentation, a story or an anecdote must:

• Relate directly to the idea it is intended to illustrate;

• Be brief and concise (usually not over 60 seconds long);

• Be free of material that would offend any audience member,

• Be cleared for use by those whom it involves (e.g. never tell a story about anyone without his or her knowledge and permission).

If you decide to use a story or anecdote, practice telling it until you can tell it without hesitation or reference to your notes. If the anecdote is humorous, don't laugh while you are telling the story.

Using questions directed to the audience

An excellent attention-getting device is to begin your presentation with a question to the audience. The question must relate directly to the thesis of your presentation. For example, if your presentation is about making money by investing in the U.S. penny stock market you might begin by asking your audience, «Who would like to double your money overnight in legal transaction?» The audience will respond either by raising their hands or silently to themselves. In any case, they will become involved immediately in the presentation.

To be used, questions must fit the following guidelines:

• Be open-ended (requiring a response)

• Relate directly to the idea they arc illustrating

• Be worded concisely and clearly

• Be a logical part of the presentation rather than an add-on or a way to avoid presenting information.