When using visuals in delivering an oral presentation, it is recommended that you avoid

Section 2.10.4

The most important element of an oral presentation is, of course, the content and ideas you are trying to communicate. However, the communication of content is often impeded by a poor manner of delivery. Effective public speaking involves the whole person, not just ideas. Manner of delivery includes style of speech, handling of equipment, dress, and movement.

Rehearsing Oral Presentations

You must rehearse so that your presentation will be clear, concise, and delivered in a relaxed and understandable manner.

Part of your rehearsal is the drafting and report-planning process you must go through to organize your topic, as well as the process of preparing your visuals.

• Get information on the kind of room in which you will be delivering your oral report. How big is it? What kind of sound system, if any, is available? Always try to familiarize yourself with the physical setting of your presentation beforehand.
• Check out any equipment you will be using, such as overhead projectors, ahead of time. Be prepared to give the talk in an alternative format if properly functioning equipment is not available.
• Never write out a full text of your talk with the intent of memorizing it. A memorized written text contains syntax appropriate to the page and the eye but will be difficult for the audience of an oral presentation to follow. If you are nervous, you may forget key memorized passages and become confused.
• Use visuals as your main cue cards--if they are well designed, they will communicate your key ideas to the audience and serve as notes for you as well.
• Write transitional phrases on the hard-copy version of your visuals. Avoid using index cards with notes on them. They will be difficult to handle during your presentation and will add to the clutter of materials at the podium.

Your first rehearsal should simply be a review of the order of presenting your material. Riffle through your visuals until you have an intuitive understanding of their order and of their relevance to the organization and to the purpose of your presentation.

Once you have established this intuitive flow for your presentation, try delivering a version of the complete report, noting those places where transitions or key ideas are weak. Repeat this process several times until you are satisfied that you have covered your topic clearly and concisely with language appropriate to your audience.

Style of Speech

A relaxed, extemporaneous style of speech and delivery will suit most formal and informal oral report situations. Effective speakers can deliver a presentation with great clarity yet with a relaxed and open manner. Extemporaneous speaking does not rely on a memorized text, nor is it a droning reading of a written manuscript. Instead, this style of speaking relies on visuals as cue cards. Let the main items on your overheads prompt you. If you have rehearsed your presentation, you will have a store of prepared but not stiff, memorized speech at your command. Extemporaneous speaking employs syntax close to that of conversational speech, without needless digressions or repetitions.

Extemporaneous speaking allows you to react to any audience interaction on the spot without fear of deviating from a memorized script.

1. Identify and try to avoid your verbal tics. All speakers have verbal tics, those phrases or sounds (for example, "okay," "umm," "and") that they insert during pauses or between sentences. Verbal tics, if repeated often enough, will annoy an audience and distract them from the content or argument you are trying to develop.
2. Speak clearly and loudly. If you cannot be heard you cannot communicate your ideas.
3. Modulate your voice to show emphasis. Oral communication does not have access to the rich store of typographical styles available to the writer to show emphasis. You can, however, show emphasis by stressing various words or by repeating key terms both in your visual materials and in your speech. In addition, varying your rate of speech will alleviate boredom and keep your audience alert.
4. Face the audience and establish eye contact with them. If you do not face the audience (and sometimes nervous speakers don't), most likely you will seem distracted; if you are facing the screen, you will not be audible. As you face your audience, establish eye contact with them.

Handling Equipment

Point to the screen to indicate parts of a figure. If you bend over the overhead projector and use your hand or a pen to point out parts of an overhead, you will most likely obscure the full projected image and leave your audience in the dark. Move back from the projector, stand beside the screen, and, while facing the audience, use a pointer or a hand-held laser arrow to emphasize elements of the overhead.

• Do not write on your overhead during a formal oral presentation. Writing in real-time (for example, to sketch out a derivation of an equation) during a formal presentation looks messy. Some pens will not write well on acetates. You will most likely obscure the image on the screen behind you. Instead, prepare additional overheads to show detailed derivations of equations in case you are asked to provide this information during the question-and-answer period.
• Move away from the projector and to the side of the screen once you have placed an overhead on the projector so that you do not block the audience's view.

Movement

Avoid excessive movement around the podium. Unnecessary movements can distract the audience's attention from the content of your presentation. Similarly, a stiff, rigid posture will distance some audience members. Adopt a relaxed yet inoffensive posture at the podium. Remember, the audience is more interested in what you have to say than in you.

• If you are delivering a formal oral presentation before a large audience, position yourself so that you do not obscure the screen behind you. Limit your range of motion, moving comfortably between the podium and the screen if necessary to underscore important items. Do not meander around in front of an audience.
• Hand gestures may be used to show emphasis, but as with verbal tics, be sure you are not indulging in nervousness by gesticulating unnecessarily.
• Always face the audience to maintain good eye contact and so that your voice will project into the room.

## Delivery ##

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Which of the following should the introduction to an oral presentation do?

Why do you not want to pass an object out to the audience during a speech?

Which of the following elements should be included in the conclusion of a speech or presentation?

Which action should you take as you start your presentation?