which of the following is a presentation cue apex

What are Cue Cards: A Comprehensive Guide

In public speaking, cue card plays a pivotal role, acting as a silent yet powerful ally for performers and presenters alike. Much more than mere prompts, these unobtrusive cards become a guiding force, ensuring speakers stay on course while providing a safety net for seamless delivery.

Cue cards for presentations amplify the impact of every spoken sentence, contributing to the overall success of the presentation.

What are Cue Cards?

Cue cards are brief prompts that assist speakers in delivering a well-structured and engaging presentation. These handy tools help speakers stay on track while maintaining a natural and confident delivery.

Understanding how to utilize cue cards effectively can elevate your communication skills to new heights. Think of them as compact companions that provide a speaker with a roadmap, ensuring they stay on course while allowing for a fluid and authentic delivery. The beauty of cue cards lies in their ability to distill complex ideas into succinct points, offering a safety net that empowers speakers to confidently convey their message without the constraints of a rigid script.

How do you write on a cue card?

Crafting cue cards involves strategic note-taking, utilizing bullet points, and organizing ideas for optimal impact. Whether using cue cards, note cards, or even going for a blank canvas, the key lies in concise, well-structured content.

Each word, each line, represents a carefully chosen cue that guides your presentation. It's about distilling complex ideas into simple prompts that serve as your navigation through the talk, ensuring a seamless and confident delivery.

The Role of Cue Cards in Presentation

Maintaining eye contact with the audience is essential for an engaging presentation. Using cue cards effectively allows speakers to balance delivering their message with engaging the audience, creating a harmonious connection between the speaker and the listeners. With cue cards, speakers can maintain a fluid and natural delivery, letting their words resonate authentically with each audience member and creating an impactful presentation.

Practical Tips for Using Cue Cards

Engaging in regular and purposeful practice with cue cards for presentations is a cornerstone for honing your presentation skills. The saying "practice makes perfect" holds true, as the more familiar you become with your cue cards, the smoother and more confident your delivery will be.

Consider making practice enjoyable by incorporating games and exercises. This not only makes the process more enjoyable but also enhances the effectiveness of your learning experience. Turning practice into an interactive session refines your familiarity with the material and ensures you are well-prepared for any unexpected twists during your presentation.

Overcoming Challenges

Mistakes are inevitable, but cue cards provide a safety net. Learn how to recover gracefully and turn challenges into opportunities for improvement. Embrace resilience and master the art of graceful recovery, turning blunders into growth opportunities

Additionally, in this age of technology, teleprompters stand as invaluable companions. Integrating these tools into your arsenal not only enhances performance but also ensures a polished and uninterrupted presentation. By acknowledging and overcoming challenges with a strategic blend of traditional and technological tools, speakers can transform setbacks into moments that add depth and authenticity to their public speaking journey.

The Visual Impact: Integrating Camera Techniques

In a visual-centric world, the camera becomes a critical element in public speaking. Whether you're addressing an audience in person or through a virtual platform, understanding how the camera operates can significantly enhance your presentation.

Consider the framing, lighting, and overall composition to ensure that your words and expressions are effectively conveyed. Pay attention to the nuances of non-verbal communication , allowing the camera to capture the essence of your speech. Visual impact in presentations is crucial for audience engagement.

Crafting Engaging Lines for Impactful Delivery

When scripting your speech , focus on crafting lines that resonate with your audience. A well-written script is the foundation upon which your entire presentation stands. Each word should be carefully chosen to convey your ideas effectively.

Consider the rhythm and flow of your lines, ensuring that they are not only easy to deliver but also memorable for your audience. Treat your script as a roadmap, allowing room for spontaneity and connection with your audience, making the experience more engaging and dynamic. Here are some presentation tips with cue cards to keep in mind.

Advanced Cue Card Techniques

For speakers looking to refine their use of cue cards, advanced techniques can make a significant difference. Here are some tips for using cue cards effectively:

Color Coding : Use different colors for various sections of your speech. This can help you quickly locate information and stay organized during your presentation.
Highlight Key Points : Bold or underline crucial words and phrases to ensure they stand out. This helps you emphasize important parts of your speech without losing your place.
Cue Cards and Teleprompters : Combining cue cards and teleprompters can enhance your delivery. While teleprompters provide a continuous script, cue cards offer flexibility, allowing you to glance at key points and maintain natural eye contact with your audience.
Interactive Elements : Incorporate interactive elements, such as questions or prompts, into your cue cards. This can engage your audience and make your presentation more dynamic.
Minimal Text : Keep text on cue cards minimal. Use keywords and short phrases to trigger your memory rather than complete sentences. This encourages a more conversational and less robotic delivery.

Turning Ideas into a Game Plan for Effective Communication

Transforming an idea into a compelling presentation is akin to playing a strategic game. Your speech is the playbook, and each word, line, and idea serves as a crucial move. Develop a game plan that not only captures your audience's attention but also guides them through a journey of discovery.

Use your words strategically, turning each idea into a piece of the puzzle that contributes to the overall narrative. By approaching your speech as a well-thought-out plan, you inject enthusiasm and energy into your delivery, keeping your audience captivated from start to finish. This approach embodies effective cue card techniques.

Navigating the Stage

The stage is more than just a physical platform; it is a dynamic space where your words come to life through movement and presence. Understand the power of stage dynamics for speakers to amplify the impact of your talk. Utilize the entire stage to engage with different sections of the audience, making them feel included and connected.

Your movements should complement your words, adding depth and emphasis to key points. Master the art of stage presence and you can transform your talk into a multidimensional experience that resonates with your audience on a visual and emotional level.

Final Thoughts

Cue cards are more than just props; they are tools that empower speakers to deliver memorable presentations. Beyond being a crutch for those stepping onto the stage, cue cards serve as a strategic companion for seasoned performers, guiding them through the intricacies of a flawless delivery.

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Resource Tips for Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Slideshows are quick to produce, easy to update and an effective way to inject visual interest into almost any presentation.

However, slideshows can also spell disaster even for experienced presenters. The key to success is to make certain your slideshow is a visual aid and not a visual distraction.

Tips for Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Use the slide master feature to create a consistent and simple design template. It is fine to vary the content presentation (bulleted list, two-column text, text and image, etc.), but be consistent with other elements such as font, colors and background.
Simplify and limit the number of words on each screen. Use key phrases and include only essential information.
Limit punctuation and avoid putting words in all-capital letters. Empty space on the slide will enhance readability.
Use contrasting colors for text and background. Light text on a dark background is best. Patterned backgrounds can reduce readability.
Avoid the use of flashy transitions such as text fly-ins. These features may seem impressive at first but are distracting and get old quickly.
Overuse of special effects such as animation and sounds may make your presentation “cutesy” and could negatively affect your credibility.
Use good-quality images that reinforce and complement your message. Ensure that your image maintains its impact and resolution when projected on a larger screen.
If you use builds (lines of text appearing each time you click the mouse), have content appear on the screen in a consistent, simple manner; from the top or left is best. Use the feature only when necessary to make your point, because builds can slow your presentation.
Limit the number of slides. Presenters who constantly “flip” to the next slide are likely to lose their audience. A good rule of thumb is one slide per minute.
Learn to navigate your presentation in a nonlinear fashion. PowerPoint allows the presenter to jump ahead or back without having to page through all the interim slides.
Know how to and practice moving forward and backward within your presentation. Audiences often ask to see a previous screen again.
If possible, view your slides on the screen you’ll be using for your presentation. Make sure the slides are readable from the back row seats. Text and graphic images should be large enough to read but not so large as to appear “loud.”
Have a Plan B in the event of technical difficulties. Remember that transparencies and handouts will not show animation or other special effects.
Practice with someone who has never seen your presentation. Ask them for honest feedback about colors, content and any effects or graphic images you’ve included.
Do not read from your slides. The content of your slides is for the audience, not for the presenter.
Do not speak to your slides. Many presenters face their presentation onscreen rather than their audience.
Do not apologize for anything in your presentation. If you believe something will be hard to read or understand, don’t use it.

The Seven Deadly Sins of PowerPoint Presentations

By Joseph Sommerville

It’s not surprising PowerPoint© slideshows have become the norm for visuals in most business presentations. Slideshows are quick to produce, easy to update and effective to inject visual interest into the presentation. However, slideshows can also spell disaster even for experienced presenters. The key to success is to make certain your slide show is a visual aid and not a visual distraction. For the best results, avoid these common “seven deadly sins” of PowerPoint© presentations.

Slide Transitions And Sound Effects: Transitions and sound effects can become the focus of attention, which in turn distracts the audience. Worse yet, when a presentation containing several effects and transitions runs on a computer much slower than the one on which it was created, the result is a sluggish, almost comical when viewed. Such gimmicks rarely enhance the message you’re trying to communicate. Unless you are presenting at a science fiction convention, leave out the laser-guided text! Leave the fade-ins, fade-outs, wipes, blinds, dissolves, checkerboards, cuts, covers and splits to Hollywood filmmakers. Even “builds” (lines of text appearing each time you click the mouse) can be distracting. Focus on your message, not the technology..
Standard Clipart: Death to screen beans! PowerPoint© is now so widely used the clipart included with it has become a “visual cliché.” It shows a lack of creativity and a tired adherence to a standard form. First, make certain that you need graphical images to enhance your message. If you do, use your own scanned photographs or better-quality graphics from companies such as PhotoDisc (www.photodisc.com) or Hemera’s Photo Objects (www.hemera.com). Screen captures can add realism when presenting information about a Website or computer program. Two popular screen capture programs are Snagit (www.techsmith.com) for Windows and Snapz Pro (www.ambrosiasw.com) for Macintosh. Both are available as shareware.
Presentation Templates: Another visual cliché. Templates force you to fit your original ideas into someone else’s pre-packaged mold. The templates often contain distracting backgrounds and poor color combinations. Select a good book on Web graphics and apply the same principles to your slides. Create your own distinctive look or use your company logo in a corner of the screen.
Text-Heavy Slides: Projected slides are a good medium for depicting an idea graphically or providing an overview. Slides are a poor medium for detail and reading. Avoid paragraphs, quotations and even complete sentences. Limit your slides to five lines of text and use words and phrases to make your points. The audience will be able to digest and retain key points more easily. Don’t use your slides as speaker’s notes or to simply project an outline of your presentation.
The “Me” Paradigm: Presenters often scan a table or graphical image directly from their existing print corporate material and include it in their slide show presentations. The results are almost always sub-optimal. Print visuals are usually meant to be seen from 8-12 inches rather than viewed from several feet. Typically, these images are too small, too detailed and too textual for an effective visual presentation. The same is true for font size; 12 point font is adequate when the text is in front of you. In a slideshow, aim for a minimum of 40 point font. Remember the audience and move the circle from “me” to “we.” Make certain all elements of any particular slide are large enough to be seen easily. Size really does matter.
Reading: A verbal presentation should focus on interactive speaking and listening, not reading by the speaker or the audience. The demands of spoken and written language differ significantly. Spoken language is shorter, less formal and more direct. Reading text ruins a presentation. A related point has to do with handouts for the audience. One of your goals as a presenter is to capture and hold the audience’s attention. If you distribute materials before your presentation, your audience will be reading the handouts rather than listening to you. Often, parts of an effective presentation depend on creating suspense to engage the audience. If the audience can read everything you’re going to say, that element is lost.
Faith in Technology: You never know when an equipment malfunction or incompatible interfaces will force you to give your presentation on another computer. Be prepared by having a back-up of your presentation on a CD-ROM. Better yet is a compact-flash memory card with an adapter for the PCMCIA slot in your notebook. With it, you can still make last-minute changes. It’s also a good idea to prepare a few color transparencies of your key slides. In the worst-case scenario, none of the technology works and you have no visuals to present. You should still be able to give an excellent presentation if you focus on the message. Always familiarize yourself with the presentation, practice it and be ready to engage the audience regardless of the technology that is available. It’s almost a lost art.

Joseph Sommerville has earned the title “The Presentation Expert” for helping professionals design, develop and deliver more effective presentations. He is the principal of Peak Communication Performance, a Houston-based firm working worldwide to help professionals develop skills in strategic communication.

Tips for Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Select a single sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Helvetica. Avoid serif fonts such as Times New Roman or Palatino because these fonts are sometimes more difficult to read.
Use no font size smaller than 24 point.
Use the same font for all your headlines.
Select a font for body copy and another for headlines.
Use bold and different sizes of those fonts for captions and subheadings.
Add a fourth font for page numbers or as a secondary body font for sidebars.
Don’t use more than four fonts in any one publication.
Clearly label each screen. Use a larger font (35-45 points) or different color for the title.
Use larger fonts to indicate importance.
Use different colors, sizes and styles (e.g., bold) for impact.
Avoid italicized fonts as these are difficult to read quickly.
Avoid long sentences.
Avoid abbreviations and acronyms.
Limit punctuation marks.
No more than 6-8 words per line
For bullet points, use the 6 x 6 Rule. One thought per line with no more than 6 words per line and no more than 6 lines per slide
Use dark text on light background or light text on dark background. However, dark backgrounds sometimes make it difficult for some people to read the text.
Do not use all caps except for titles.
Put repeating elements (like page numbers) in the same location on each page of a multi-page document.
To test the font, stand six feet from the monitor and see if you can read the slide.

Design and Graphical Images

Use design templates.
Standardize position, colors, and styles.
Include only necessary information.
Limit the information to essentials.
Content should be self-evident
Use colors that contrast and compliment.
Too may slides can lose your audience.
Keep the background consistent and subtle.
Limit the number of transitions used. It is often better to use only one so the audience knows what to expect.
Use a single style of dingbat for bullets throughout the page.
Use the same graphical rule at the top of all pages in a multi-page document.
Use one or two large images rather than several small images.
Prioritize images instead of a barrage of images for competing attention.
Make images all the same size.
Use the same border.
Arrange images vertically or horizontally.
Use only enough text when using charts or graphical images to explain the chart or graph and clearly label the image.
Keep the design clean and uncluttered. Leave empty space around the text and graphical images.
Use quality clipart and use it sparingly. A graphical image should relate to and enhance the topic of the slide.
Try to use the same style graphical image throughout the presentation (e.g., cartoon, photographs)
Limit the number of graphical images on each slide.
Repetition of an image reinforces the message. Tie the number of copies of an image to the numbers in your text.
Resize, recolor, reverse to turn one image into many. Use duplicates of varying sizes, colors, and orientations to multiply the usefulness of a single clip art image.
Make a single image stand out with dramatic contrast. Use color to make a dramatic change to a single copy of your clip art.
Check all images on a projection screen before the actual presentation.
Avoid flashy images and noisy animation effects unless it relates directly to the slide.
Limit the number of colors on a single screen.
Bright colors make small objects and thin lines stand out. However, some vibrant colors are difficult to read when projected.
Use no more than four colors on one chart.
Check all colors on a projection screen before the actual presentation. Colors may project differently than what appears on the monitor.

General Presentation

Plan carefully.
Do your research.
Know your audience.
Time your presentation.
Speak comfortably and clearly.
Check the spelling and grammar.
Do not read the presentation. Practice the presentation so you can speak from bullet points. The text should be a cue for the presenter rather than a message for the viewer.
Give a brief overview at the start. Then present the information. Finally review important points.
It is often more effective to have bulleted points appear one at a time so the audience listens to the presenter rather than reading the screen.
Use a wireless mouse or pick up the wired mouse so you can move around as you speak.
If sound effects are used, wait until the sound has finished to speak.
If the content is complex, print the slides so the audience can take notes.
Do not turn your back on the audience. Try to position the monitor so you can speak from it.

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14.3 Using Notes Effectively

Learning objectives.

Know how to use notecards to free you from your manuscript.
Know how to use notecards to stay organized while you make audience contact.
Understand how to develop effective notecards for a speech.

Dave Gray – Blank index card! – CC BY 2.0.

It’s a great deal of work to prepare a good speech, and you want to present it effectively so that your audience will benefit as much as possible. We’ve already said that extemporaneous speaking provides the best opportunity for speaker-audience contact and that speaking extemporaneously means you do not have your full manuscript or outline with you. Instead, you will use notecards. The cards should have notes, not the full text of your speech. This can also be done with an autocue device—the TelePrompTer does not have to provide a full word-for-word script.

We have developed a system for creating highly effective notecards. Our system has been used effectively both in public speaking courses and in freshman composition courses. Surprisingly, the system consists of only five cards. For many people, this does not sound like nearly enough cards. We would make the case that you can do a good job with five cards, and we have seen many students do just that.

The Purpose of Speaker Notes

Using notes adds to your credibility as a speaker. If you depend on a full manuscript to get through your delivery, your listeners might believe you don’t know the content of your speech. Second, the temptation to read the entire speech directly from a manuscript, even if you’re only carrying it as a safety net, is nearly overwhelming. Third, well-prepared cards are more gracefully handled than sheets of paper, and they don’t rattle if your hands tremble from nervousness. Finally, cards look better than sheets of paper. Five carefully prepared cards, together with practice, will help you more than you might think.

Key Tips for Using Notes

Plan on using just five cards, written on one side only. Get 4 × 6 cards. Use one card for the introduction, one card for each of your three main points, and one card for the conclusion.

Include Only Key Words

Your cards should include key words and phrases, not full sentences. The words and phrases should be arranged in order so that you can stay organized and avoid forgetting important points.

One exception to the key word guideline would be an extended or highly technical quotation from an authoritative source. If it is critically important to present an exact quotation, you may add one additional card that will contain the quotation together with its citation. If you plan to use such a quotation, make sure it has central importance in your speech.

Hold Your Notes Naturally

Notes are a normal part of giving a presentation. You do not need to conceal them from the audience; in fact, trying to hide and use your notes at the same time tends to be very awkward and distracting. Some instructors recommend that you avoid gesturing with your notes on the grounds that nervous shaking is more noticeable if you are holding your notes in your hand. If this is the case for you, practice gesturing with your free hand, or put your cards down if you need to use both hands. Other instructors recommend treating notecards as a natural extension of your hand, as they believe it is distracting to put your notes down and pick them up again. Whichever “rule” you follow, remember that the goal is for your use of notecards to contribute to your overall appearance of confidence and credibility.

Prepare Notecards to Trigger Recall

The “trick” to selecting the words to write on your cards is to identify the keywords that will trigger a recall sequence. For instance, if the word “Fukushima” brings to mind the nuclear power plant meltdown that followed the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, then that one word on your notecard should propel you through a sizable sequence of points and details. Once you have delivered that material, perhaps you’ll glance at your card again to remind yourself of the key word or phrase that comes next.

You must discover what works for you and then select those words that tend to jog your recall. Having identified what works, make a preliminary set of five cards, written on one side only. Number the cards, and practice with them. Revise and refine them the way you would an outline. If you must, rewrite an entire card to make it work better, and test it the next time you practice.

Always practice with your notecards—and with any visual aids you plan to use. Practicing is also the best way to find out what kinds of things might go wrong with your notes in the presented speech and what steps you should take to make things go smoothly.

Write in Large Letters

You should be able to read something on your card by glancing, not peering at it. A few key words and phrases, written in large, bold print with plenty of white space between them, will help you. If the lighting in your speech location is likely to have glare, be sure to write your notes in ink, as pencil can be hard to read in poor lighting.

Using Notecards Effectively

If you use as much care in developing your five notecards as you do your speech, they should serve you well. If you lose your place or go blank during the speech, you will only need a few seconds to find where you were and get going again. For instance, if you know that you presented the introduction and the first main point, which centers on the Emancipation Proclamation, you can readily go to your second card and remind yourself that your next main point is about the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.

In addition, the use of your notecards allows you to depart from the exact prepared wordings in your manuscript. In your recovery from losing your place, you can transpose a word or phrase to make your recovery graceful. It allows you to avoid feeling pressured to say every single word in your manuscript.

Under no circumstances should you ever attempt to put your entire speech on cards in little tiny writing. You will end up reading words to your audience instead of telling them your meaning, and the visual aspect of your speech will be spoiled by your need to squint to read your cards.

Key Takeaways

Good notecards keep you from reading to your audience.
Good notecards are carefully based on key words and phrases to promote recall.
Good notecards should enhance your relationship with listeners.
Using the introduction to your speech, create a 4 × 6 notecard that includes the grabber, the thesis statement, and the preview. Test it by standing as you would during a speech and using it to guide you.
Answer these questions: Is it absolutely crucial to utter every word on your outline? Are there some words or phrases that are crucially important? How can you use your notecards to focus on the most important ideas?
Select key terms from your speech that you believe will trigger your recall of the sequence of main ideas in your speech. Use them as the basis of your next four notecards. Test the cards by practicing with them to see whether your selected terms are the ones you should use.

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Chapter 12: Presentation Aids

12.1 – what are presentation aids.

When you give a speech, you are presenting much more than just a collection of words and ideas. Because you are speaking “live and in person,” your audience members will experience your speech through all five of their senses: hearing, vision, smell, taste, and touch. A public speaking event can be greatly enriched by appealing to multiple senses: this is the role of presentation aids.

Typical presentation aids include pictures, diagrams, charts and graphs, maps, and the like. Audible aids include musical excerpts, audio speech excerpts, and sound effects. Short video clips are also popular. A speaker may even use fragrance samples or food samples as aids. Finally, presentation aids can be three-dimensional objects, animals, and people.

To be effective, each presentation aid needs to legitimately add value to the presentation and be used when presenting the relevant, related ideas.

For example, if you are speaking about coral reefs and one of your supporting points is about the location of the world’s major reefs, it would make sense to display a map of these reefs while you’re talking about location. If you display it while you are explaining what coral actually is or describing the kinds of fish that feed on a reef, the map will not serve as a useful visual aid—in fact, it’s likely to be a distraction.

12.2 – Functions of Presentation Aids

While impressive presentation aids will not rescue a poor speech, a good speech can often be made even better by the strategic use of presentation aids.

Presentation aids can improve your audience’s understanding and retention of the message, add variety and interest, and enhance your credibility.

Improving Audience Understanding

As a speaker, one of your basic goals is to help your audience understand your message. To reduce misunderstanding, presentation aids can be used to clarify or to emphasize.

If the information you convey is unclear, your listeners will come away puzzled or possibly even misled. Presentation aids can help clarify a message if the information is complex or if the point being made is a visual one. Another aspect of clarifying occurs when a speaker wants to help audience members understand a visual concept.

When you use a presentational aid for emphasis, you impress your listeners with the importance of an idea. Another way of emphasizing that can be done visually is to “zoom in” on a specific aspect of interest within your speech.

Aiding Retention and Recall

The second function that presentation aids can serve is to increase the audience’s chances of remembering your speech. An article by the U.S. Department of Labor (1996) found that “83% of human learning occurs visually, and the remaining 17% through the other senses—11% through hearing, 3.5% through smell, 1% through taste, and 1.5% through touch.”

For this reason, exposure to an image can serve as a memory aid to your listeners. When your graphic images deliver information effectively, and when your listeners understand them clearly, audience members are likely to remember your message long after your speech is over. Moreover, people often are able to remember information that is presented in sequential steps more easily than if the presentation is disorganized. Using a presentation aid to display the organization of your speech will help your listeners to observe, follow, and remember the sequence of information. This is why some instructors display a lecture outline for their students to follow during class and why a slide with a preview of your main points can be helpful as you move into the body of your speech.

An added benefit of using presentation aids is that they can boost your memory while you are speaking. Using your presentation aids while you rehearse your speech will familiarize you with the association between a given place in your speech and the presentation aid that accompanies that material.

Adding Variety and Interest

A third function of presentation aids is simply to make your speech more interesting. For example, wouldn’t a speech on varieties of roses have greater impact if you accompanied your remarks with a picture of each rose? You can imagine that your audience would be even more enthralled if you had the ability to display an actual flower of each variety in a bud vase. Similarly, if you were speaking to a group of gourmet cooks about Indian spices, you might want to provide tiny samples of spices that they could smell and taste during your speech.

Enhancing a Speaker’s Credibility

Presentation aids alone will not be enough to create a professional image. As mentioned earlier, impressive presentation aids will not rescue a poor speech. Even if you give a good speech, you run the risk of appearing unprofessional if your presentation aids are poorly executed. Conversely, a high quality presentation will contribute to your professional image. This means that, in addition to containing important information, your presentation aids must be clear, clean, uncluttered, organized, and large enough for the audience to see and interpret correctly. Misspellings and poorly designed presentation aids can damage your credibility as a speaker.

In addition, make sure that you give proper credit to the source of any presentation aids that you take from other sources. Using a statistical chart or a map without proper credit will detract from your credibility, just as using a quotation in your speech without credit would.

If you focus your efforts on producing presentation aids that contribute effectively to your meaning, that look professional, and that are handled well, your audience will most likely appreciate your efforts and pay close attention to your message. That attention will help them learn or understand your topic in a new way and will thus help the audience see you as a knowledgeable, competent, and credible speaker. With the prevalence of digital communication, the audience expectation of quality visual aids has increased.

Avoiding Problems with Presentation Aids

Using presentation aids can come with some risks.

One principle to keep in mind is to use only as many presentation aids as necessary to present your message. The number and the technical sophistication of your presentation aids should never overshadow your speech.

Another important consideration is technology. Keep your presentation aids within the limits of the working technology available to you (and know exactly what will be available beforehand).

What will you do if the computer file containing your slides is corrupted? What will you do if the easel is broken? What if you had counted on stacking your visuals on a table that disappears right when you need it? Or the Internet connection is down for a YouTube video you plan to show?

You must be prepared to adapt to an uncomfortable situation. This is why speakers should go to the venue well ahead of time to test the equipment and ascertain the condition of items they’re planning to use. As the speaker, you are responsible for arranging the equipment, props, or other supports you need to make your presentation aids work as intended. Carry a roll of masking tape so you can display your poster even if the easel is gone. Test the computer setup. Have your slides on a flash drive AND send it to yourself as an attachment or upload to a Cloud service. Have an alternative plan prepared in case there is some glitch that prevents your computer-based presentation aids from being usable. And of course, you must know how to use the technology.

More important than the method of delivery is the audience’s ability to see and understand the presentation aid. It must deliver clear information and it must not distract from the message. Avoid overly elaborate presentation aids. Instead, simplify as much as possible, emphasizing the information you want your audience to understand.

Another point to remember is that presentation aids do not “speak for themselves.” When you display a visual aid, you should explain what it shows, pointing out and naming the most important features. If you use an audio aid, such as a musical excerpt, you need to tell your audience what to listen for. Similarly, if you use a video clip, it is up to you as the speaker to point out the characteristics in the video that support the point you are making—but probably beforehand, so you are not speaking over the video. At the same time, a visual aid should be quickly accessible to the audience. This is where simplicity comes in. Limit the categories of information in a visual aid, just as in the organization of a speech.

12.3 – Types of Presentation Aids

Now that we’ve explored some basic hints for preparing visual aids, let’s look at the most common types of visual aids: charts, graphs, representations, objects/models, and people.

A chart is commonly defined as a graphical representation of data (often numerical) or a sketch representing an ordered process. Whether you create your charts or do research to find charts that already exist, match the specific purpose in your speech.

Statistical Charts

For most audiences, statistical presentations must be kept as simple as possible and they must be explained.

When visually displaying information from a quantitative study, you need to make sure that you understand the material and can successfully and simply explain how one should interpret the data. If you are unsure about the data yourself, then you should probably not use this type of information. This is definitely an example of a visual aid that, although it delivers a limited kind of information, does not speak for itself. As with all other principles of public speaking, remember rule number one of communication: know your audience and put them first.

Decision Trees and Sequence-of-Steps Charts

Sequence-of-steps charts are also useful when you are trying to explain a process that involves several steps. Decision trees are useful for showing the relationships between ideas. As with the other types of charts, you want to be sure that the information in the chart is relevant to the purpose of your speech and that each question and decision is clearly labeled. Here, the sequence for making red and white wine—which are very similar, but not identical—can be seen as a flow from the grapes to the bottle, with red wine and white wine taking slightly different routes (and white wine not necessarily going through malolactic fermentation).

Strictly speaking, a graph may be considered a type of chart, but graphs are so widely used that we will discuss them separately. A graph is a pictorial representation of the relationships of quantitative data using dots, lines, bars, pie slices, and the like. Graphs show how one factor (such as size, weight, number of items) varies in comparison to other items. Whereas a statistical chart may report the mean ages of individuals entering college, a graph would show how the mean age changes over time. A statistical chart may report the number of computers sold in the United States, while a graph will use bars or lines to show their breakdown by operating systems such as Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.

Public speakers can show graphs using a range of different formats. Some of those formats are specialized for various professional fields. Very complex graphs often contain too much information that is not related to the purpose of a speaker’s speech. If the graph is cluttered, it becomes difficult to comprehend. In this section, we’re going to analyze the common graphs speakers utilize in their speeches: line graphs, bar graphs, pie graphs, and pictographs.

A line graph is designed to show trends over time. In Figure 10.3 (“Enron’s Stock Price”), we see a line graph depicting the fall of Enron’s stock price from August 2000 to January 2002. Notice that, although it has some steep rises, the line has an overall downward trend clearly depicting the plummeting of Enron’s stock price. This is far more effective in showing the relationship of numbers than a chart (as in Figure 10.1) or reading the numbers aloud.

Bar graphs are useful for showing the differences between quantities. They can be used for population demographics, fuel costs, and many other kinds of data. The graph in Figure 10.4 (World’s Ten Largest Wine Producers) is well designed. It is relatively simple and is carefully labeled, guiding the audience through the changes in market share. The bar graph is designed to show how the three largest wine-producing nations are losing market share to the others. When you look at the chart, you can see Italy, France, and Spain decreasing in market share, while Chile, China, and the USA are gaining global market share.

Pie graphs are usually depicted as circles and are designed to show proportional relationships within sets of data; in other words, they show parts of or percentages of a whole. They should be as simple as possible without eliminating important information.

As with other graphs, the sections of the pie need to be plotted proportionally. In the pie graph shown in Figure 10.5, we see a clear and proportional chart that has been colour-coded. In this graph, audience members can see very quickly that more than half of the world’s population lives in the seven largest countries.

Similar to bar graphs, pictographs use numbers and/or sizes of iconic symbols to dramatize differences in amounts. These are seldom used in professional documents and require a great deal of graphic design skill to do well. Without due care (and skill), they can come off as amateurish.

Diagrams are drawings or sketches that outline and explain the parts of an object, process, or phenomenon that cannot be readily seen. Like graphs, diagrams can be considered a type of chart, as in the case of organizational charts and process-flow charts.

When you use a diagram, be sure to explain each part of the phenomenon, paying special attention to elements that are complicated or prone to misunderstanding. In the example shown in Figure 10.6, you might wish to highlight that the light stimulus is inverted when it is processed in the brain.

Maps are extremely useful if the information is clear and limited. There are all kinds of maps, including population, weather, ocean current, political, and economic maps, so you should find the right kind for the purpose of your speech. Choose a map that emphasizes the information you need to deliver.

The map shown in Figure 10.7 is simple, but may be surprising to many, as it is shows the intense population density of southern and eastern Asia by demonstrating how half of the world’s population lives in a circle that is only a fraction of the world’s total land area.

Photographs and Drawings

Sometimes a photograph or a drawing is the best way to show an unfamiliar but important detail. Audiences expect high quality photographs now and, as with all presentation aids, they should enhance the speech and not just “be there.” Avoid stock images for the sake of an image and never use clip art. Make your images relevant.

Video or Audio Recordings

Another very useful type of presentation aid is a video or audio recording. Whether it is a short video from a website, such as YouTube or Vimeo, a segment from a song, or a piece of a podcast, a well-chosen video or audio recording may be a good choice to enhance your speech. Imagine, for example, that you’re giving a speech on how crowd surges can injure people at concerts or protests. One of the sections of your speech could explain what you’re talking about, but then you could easily show a short video of what a crowd surge looks like.

There is one major warning to using audio and video clips during a speech: do not forget that they are supposed to be aids to your speech, not the speech itself. In addition, be sure to avoid these five mistakes that speakers often make when using audio and video clips:

Avoid choosing clips that are too long for the overall length of the speech. At most, 10% of your presentation should be clips.
Practice with the audio or video equipment prior to speaking. If you are unfamiliar with the equipment, you’ll look foolish trying to figure out how it works. This fiddling around will not only take your audience out of your speech but also have a negative impact on your credibility. It also wastes valuable time. Finally, be sure that the speakers on the computer are on and at the right volume level.
Cue the clip to the appropriate place prior to beginning your speech. We cannot tell you the number of times we’ve seen students spend valuable speech time trying to find a clip on YouTube or a DVD. You need to make sure your clip is ready to go before you start speaking.
In addition to cuing the clip to the appropriate place, the browser window should be open and ready to go. If there are advertisements before the video, be sure to have the video cued to play after the ad. The audience should not have to sit through a commercial.
The audience must be given context before a video or audio clip is played, specifically what the clip is and why it relates to the speech. At the same time, the video should not repeat what you have already said, but add to it.

Objects or Models

Objects and models are another form of presentation aid that can be very helpful in getting your audience to understand your message. Objects refer to anything you could hold up and talk about during your speech. If you’re talking about the importance of not using plastic water bottles, you might hold up a plastic water bottle and a stainless steel water bottle as examples.

Models, on the other hand, are re-creations of physical objects that you cannot have readily available with you during a speech. Major real estate development projects are often displayed as scale models to help potential customers, investors, governments, and other stakeholders visualize what the project will look like after completion.

People and Animals

The next category of presentation aids are people and animals. We can often use ourselves or other people to adequately demonstrate an idea during our speeches.

Animals as Presentation Aids

Many are tempted to bring an animal to serve as a presentation aid. While this can sometimes add a very engaging dimension to the speech, it carries some serious risks that you need to consider. Generally speaking, it’s a bad idea.

The first risk is that animal behaviour tends to be unpredictable. With a confined animal, such as a goldfish or a bird in a cage, this will not be a problem. However, even caged animals can be very distracting to your audience if they run about, chirp, or seem agitated. The chances are great that an animal will react negatively to an unfamiliar situation with a large number of new people. Additionally, the animal’s behaviour may not only affect audience attention during your speech, but potentially during other speeches, as well.

The second risk is that some audience members may respond negatively to a live animal. In addition to common fears and aversions to animals like snakes, spiders, and mice, many people have allergies to various animals.

The third risk is that some locations may have regulations about bringing non-service animals onto the premises. If animals are allowed, the person bringing the animal may be required to bring a veterinary certificate or may be legally responsible for any damage caused by the animal.

For these reasons, before you decide to use an animal as a presentation aid, ask yourself if you could make your point equally well with a picture, model, diagram, or other representation of the animal in question. (Stuffed animals go over surprisingly well.)

Speaker as Presentation Aid

Speakers can often use their own bodies to demonstrate facets of a speech. If your speech is about ballroom dancing or ballet, you might use your body to demonstrate the basic moves in the cha-cha or the five basic ballet positions.

12.4 – Using Presentation Slides

Ever since the 1990s and the mainstreaming of personal computer technology, speakers have had the option of using slide presentation software to accompany their speeches and presentations. The most commonly known one is PowerPoint, although there are several others that are popular:

Slide Rocket
Google Slides
AdobeAcrobat Presenter

These products, some of which are offered free for trial or basic subscriptions (called a “freemium”), allow you to present professional-looking slides. Each one is “robust,” a word used to mean it has a large number of functions and features, some of which are helpful and some of which are distracting. For example, you can use the full range of fonts, although many of them are not appropriate for presentations because they are hard to read.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Presentation Slides

In some industries and businesses, there is an assumption that speakers will use presentation slides. They allow visualization of concepts, are easily portable, and can be embedded with videos and audio. You will probably also be expected to have slide presentations in future assignments in college. Knowing how to use them, beyond the basic technology, is vital to being a proficient presenter.

But why not use them? Franck Frommer, a French journalist and communication expert, published the book How PowerPoint Makes You Stupid (2012); the title says it all. He criticizes the “linearity” of PowerPoint and similar presentation software, meaning that audiences are not encouraged to see the relationship of ideas and that PowerPoint hurts critical thinking in the audience. Slide follows slide of bulleted information without one slide being more important or the logical connections being clear.

As recently as the mid-2000s, critics such as well-known graphics expert and NASA consultant Edward Tufte (2005) charged that PowerPoint’s tendency to force the user to put a certain number of bullet points on each slide in a certain format was a serious threat to the accurate presentation of data. As Tufte put it, “the rigid slide-by-slide hierarchies, indifferent to content, slice and dice the evidence into arbitrary compartments, producing an anti-narrative with choppy continuity.”

Prezi helps address one of the major criticisms of PowerPoint. Because Prezi, in its design stage, looks something like a mind map on a very large canvas with grid lines, it allows you to show the relationship and hierarchy of ideas better. For example, you can see and design the slides so that the “Big Ideas” are in big circles and the subordinate ideas are in smaller ones.

In addition to recognizing the truth behind Frommer’s and Tufte’s critiques, we have all sat through a presenter who committed the errors of putting far too much text on the slide. When a speaker does this, the audience is confused—do they read the text or listen to the speaker? An audience member cannot do both.

Creating Quality Slide Shows

Unity and Consistency

In terms of unity, the adage, “Keep It Simple, Speaker” definitely applies to presentation slides. Each slide should have one message, one photo, one graphic. The audience members should know what they are supposed to look at on the slide. A phrase to remember about presentation slides and the wide range of design elements available is “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

Never was this more true than with animation on slides. There are a number of ways to animate a slide, most of which is not helpful. Having text appear line by line could be helpful, but using this tool too much demands too much attention (and you shouldn’t have that much text anyway).

Animation demands audience attention; that’s not good. The audience should be focused on you, drawing on your visual aids as an aid . They support you; they don’t share the stage with you or distract the audience.

Slide transitions animate the movement from one slide to the next. In PowerPoint you can have the slides appear automatically or as blinds, as little checkerboards, from different sides of the screen, in opening circles, or other methods, but using one simple transition is best. The less jarring, the better. (You can also use sound effects, but that is strongly discouraged.) In Prezi, the slides transition by zooming in and out, which is a clever effect, but does make some audience members experience motion sickness.

With animation, less is more and more is awful.

Emphasis, Focal Point, and Visibility

Several points should be made about how to make sure the audience sees what they need to see on the slides.

Make information is large enough for the audience; since the display size may vary according to the projector you are using, this is another reason for practicing with the equipment in advance.
The standard rule is for text is 6 X 6. Does this mean 36 words on the slide? No. It means that you should have no more than six horizontal lines of text (this does not mean bullet points, but lines of text, including the heading) and the longest line should not exceed six words.
Following the 6 X 6 rule will keep you from putting too much information on a slide and you should also avoid too many slides. Again, less is more. There is no “rule,” but a ten-minute speech probably needs fewer than ten slides, perhaps as few as three.
Do not assume that all the templates feature visible text. In fact, be warned that many templates are terrible. Text should not be smaller than 22 point font for best visibility and some of the templates use much smaller fonts than 22 point. This is especially important in those situations where the speaker creates handouts. Text smaller than 22 is very difficult to see on handouts of your slides. (However, handouts are not recommended for most situations.)
High contrast between the text and slides is extremely important. White fonts against very dark backgrounds and black fonts against very light backgrounds are probably your safest bet here. Avoid words on photos.

Rhythm in Presenting

The rhythm of your slide display should be reasonably consistent—you would not want to display a dozen different slides in the first minute of a five-minute presentation and then display only one slide per minute for the rest of the speech. Timing them so that the audience can actually take them in is important. Presenters often overdo the number of slides, thinking they will get a better response, but too many slides just causes overkill.

If you can obtain a remote mouse to change slides, that can help you feel independent of the mouse attached to the computer. However, you have to practice with the remote “clicker.” But if you have to use the mouse to change slide, keep your hands off of it between clicks. We have seen speakers wiggle the little arrow all over the screen. It is extremely annoying.

Graphic designers love to loathe certain fonts and justifiably so. Some fonts are simply not professionally acceptable, Comic Sans, Papyrus, Bradley Hand, and Brush Script being among the worst offenders. Other fonts were once acceptable, but now look like a relic of another age or have been used to death, such as Times New Roman, Courier New, Lucida Console, and Trajan Pro.

Some of the best fonts must be purchased and beware of free font websites; those can be a quick way to install viruses or other malware into your computer.

However, a variety of free fonts that are generally acceptable are available, such as Avenir, Garamond, Helvetica, Cambria, Tahoma, and Calibri.

A good font is easy to read both digitally and in print, provides no distraction to the reader, and is aesthetically consistent with the content.

For a more in-depth discussion of fonts and typefaces, this is a useful primer .

In your design, use a single font for your visuals so that they look like a unified set. Alternately, you can use two different fonts in consistent ways, such as having all headings and titles in the one font and all body text and bullet points in a second font. Additionally, the background should probably remain consistent, whether you choose one of the many design templates or if you just opt for a background colour.

Colour palettes

Choosing an aesthetically appealing colour palette is also necessary for slides. There are a wide variety of websites that offer technical assistance in producing an appealing palette, such as Canva or Adobe . An image search of “colour palettes” will also yield a wide selection of pre-made palettes to choose from. Ultimately, colour selection is a subjective decision, but that doesn’t mean every colour choice is merely “a matter of opinion.” Pretty much everybody finds the combination of lime green, neon pink, silver, and brown to be a hideous colour palette. Give care and thought to your selections and, especially if art and design are not your forte, take advantage of the attractive colour palettes that others have already assembled and published.

12.5 – Low-Tech Presentation Aids

One reason for using digital media is that they aren’t prone to physical damage in the form of smudges, scratches, dents, and rips. Digital images don’t suffer the effects of weather or accidents. However, there are times when “low-tech” media could work best for a presentation.

Dry-Erase Board

If you use a chalkboard or dry-erase board (a.k.a. “whiteboard”), you are not using a prepared presentation aid. Your failure to prepare visuals ahead of time can be interpreted in several ways, mostly negative. If other speakers carefully design, produce, and use attractive visual aids, yours will stand out by contrast.

However, numerous speakers do use whiteboards effectively. Typically, these speakers use the whiteboard for interactive components of a speech. For example, maybe you’re giving a speech in front of a group of executives. You may have a PowerPoint all prepared, but at various points in your speech you want to get your audience’s responses. (More recent technologies, such as on iPads, allow you to do the interaction on the screen, but this would have to be supported by the environment.) Whiteboards are very useful when you want to visually show information that you are receiving from your audience. If you ever use a whiteboard, follow these four simple rules:

Write large enough so that everyone in the room can see (which is harder than it sounds; it is also hard to write and talk at the same time).
Print legibly; don’t write in cursive script.
Write short phrases; don’t take time to write complete sentences.
Be sure you have markers that will not go dry and clean the board afterward.
If possible, have a scribe do the writing for you. (This also applies to flipcharts below.)

A flipchart is useful for situations when you want to save what you have written for future reference or to distribute to the audience after the presentation. As with whiteboards, you will need good markers and readable handwriting, as well as a strong easel to keep the flipchart upright.

You may have the opportunity in your college years to attend or participate in a “poster session.” These are times during an academic conference where visitors can view a well-designed poster depicting a research project and discuss it one-on-one with the researcher. These kinds of posters are quite large and involve a great deal of work. Posters are probably not the best way to approach presentation aids in a speech. There are problems with visibility and portability.

Handouts are appropriate for delivering information that audience members can take away with them.

First, make sure the handout is worth the trouble of making, copying, and distributing it. Second, make sure to bring enough copies of the handout for each audience member to get one.

If you need your listeners to refer to the handout during your speech, place a copy of the handout at each seat before the speech or ask a volunteer to quickly distribute them right before you begin speaking. If the handout is a “takeaway,” leave it on a table near the exit and remind the audience to take one as they leave. Avoid distributing handouts during your speech; doing so is distracting and time consuming.

Attribution

This chapter was adapted from Exploring Public Speaking , 4th Edition by Barbara Tucker and Matthew LeHew, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Public Speaking for Today's Audiences Copyright © 2023 by Sam Schechter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Chapter Fourteen – Presentation Aids

A fountain resembling a faucet floating in midair gushing out an endless supply of water.

“Grifo mágico” by emijrp. CC-BY .

“I know you can’t read this from the back there,” the presenter apologizes to a screen so full of words you would think the entire speech had been crammed into one slide. This is just the first of a seemingly endless string of slides I can’t read, charts so full of numbers I can’t decipher the meaning, and clip art so clichéd I can’t help but roll my eyes and sigh. It is not long before I’m presented with an incredibly dense graph I can’t make any sense of since he keeps interrupting my concentration with actual talking. “When is he going to come to the point already?” I think to myself as I start to doodle in the margins of the handout of the PowerPoint slides for the very talk I’m currently sitting through. Why did he even bother with a presentation? He could have just emailed us all of the handout and saved us from this painful, dull spectacle. As he reads from his slides and belabors his statistics, my mind drifts to grocery lists and the upcoming weekend. I can think of a hundred better uses for an hour.

It seems nearly impossible to see a presentation that doesn’t revolve around a lengthy PowerPoint, so much so that you might think it was a requirement for giving a speech. The phrase “death by PowerPoint” was coined in response to the ubiquitous, wordy, and intellectually deadening presentations that focus on the slides rather than the content or the presenter. With the speaker reading directly from the slides, or worse, showing slides with text so small that it can’t be read, viewers are often left wondering what the need for the presentation is at all. A simple handout would convey the message and save everyone’s time. PowerPoint, however, is just one of the visual aids available to you as a speaker. Your ability to incorporate the right visual aid at the right time and in the right format can have a powerful effect on your audience. Because your message is the central focus of your speech, you only want to add visual aids that enhance your message, clarify the meaning of your words, target the emotions of your audience, and/or show what words fail to clearly describe.

A visual image is a simple thing, a picture that enters the eyes. – Roy H. Williams

“mwdCyborgLenses” by em den. CC-BY-NC-SA .

Learning how to create effective visuals that resonate with your audience is important for a quality presentation. Understanding basic principles of how visual information is processed alone and in combination with audio information can make or break your visuals’ effectiveness and impact. Incorporating visuals into your speech that complement your words rather than stand in place of them or distract from them, will set you apart from other presenters, increase your credibility, and make a bigger and more memorable impact on your audience.

Types of Visual Aids

In the past, transparencies displayed with overhead projectors, posters, and flip charts were common visual aids, but these have mostly been replaced with computer technology. For many people, the term “visual aids” for presentations or speeches is synonymous with PowerPoint (often long, dry, painful PowerPoint at that), but this is just one type of visual aid. You should consider all the available options to determine what will be most effective and appropriate for your presentation.

If you wear clothes that don’t suit you, you’re a fashion victim. You have to wear clothes that make you look better. – Vivienne Westwood

Personal Appearance

Some people choose to dress up as part of their presentation, and this can help set the tone of the speech or reinforce a specific point. A speaker may wear a handmade sweater in a talk about knitting in order to inspire others to begin the hobby. Another speaker may opt for a firefighter’s uniform in a speech about joining the local volunteer fire department in an effort to appeal to the respect most people have for people in uniform. As mentioned in the previous chapter, if you’re delivering a speech on sleep deprivation, wearing pj’s could be appropriate!

If you wear clothes that don’t suit you, you’re a fashion victim. You have to wear clothes that make you look better . – Vivienne Westwood

“Firefighters Onboard Royal Navy Destroyer HMS Edinburgh” by UK Ministry of Defence. CC-BY-NC .

If you aren’t dressing in relation to your topic, you should dress appropriately for your audience and venue. A presentation to a professional audience or at a professional conference would lend itself to appropriate business attire. If you are giving a presentation to your local Girl Scout troop, more casual clothing may be the best choice. Any time you are doing a demonstration, make sure you are dressed appropriately to give the demonstration. It is difficult for a speaker to show how to correctly put on a rock-climbing harness if she is wearing a skirt the day of the presentation.

Beyond dressing appropriately for your audience and topic, the audience will make judgments about you even before your presentation begins. Your dress, mannerisms, the way you greet the audience when they are arriving, how you are introduced, and the first words out of your mouth all impact your credibility and ability to connect with your audience. Make sure you are calm and welcoming to your audience when they arrive and greet them in a professional manner. Your credibility and professionalism suffer when the audience arrives and you are busy scrambling around attempting to finish your preparations. [1]

Objects and Props

“Honestly I Don’t Remember Much from This Lecture” by Daniel Lu. CC-BY-NC-ND .

Objects and props, such as a bicycle helmet for a speech on bike safety or an actual sample of the product you are trying to sell, can greatly enhance your presentation. Seeing the actual item will often make it easier for your audience to understand your meaning and will help you connect with your audience on an emotional level. Props can be used as part of demonstrations (discussed below) or as a stand-alone item that you refer to in your speech.

There are several important considerations for using props in your presentation. If you have a large audience, showing the prop at the front of the venue may mean that audience members can’t see the item. The alternative to this is to pass the item around, though Young and Travis [2] advise caution in passing objects around during your speech, as most people will be seeing the object after you have moved on with your talk. Having your prop out of sync with your presentation, either as it is passed around disrupting your audience’s attention or by having your prop visible when you aren’t talking about it, is distracting to your audience and message. To make the most effective use of props in your presentation, carefully consider how the object will be visible to your entire audience when you are speaking about it, and make sure it is out of sight when you are not.

Demonstration

“A dad teaches his daughter the hula hoop at the 2011 Downton Cuckoo Fair” by Anguskirk. CC-BY-NC-ND .

A demonstration can serve two different purposes in a speech. First, it can be used to “wow” the audience. Showing off the features of your new product, illustrating the catastrophic failure of a poorly tied climbing knot, or launching a cork across the room during a chemistry experiment are all ways of capturing the audience’s attention. Demonstration should not be gimmicky, but should add value to your presentation. When done well, it can be the memorable moment from your speech, so make sure it reinforces the central message of your talk.

Demonstration can also be used to show how something is done. People have different learning styles, and a process demonstration can help visual learners better understand the concept being taught. Consider for a moment the difference between reading the instructions on how to perform CPR, watching someone perform CPR, and trying CPR on the training dummy. As evidenced by the huge number of online videos illustrating how to do something, there is great value in watching while you learn a new task.

If your presentation includes a process where seeing will improve understanding, consider including a demonstration.

Because you have a limited time to present, make sure your demonstrations are succinct, well-rehearsed, and visible to the entire audience. Be prepared for the demonstration to fail and have a back-up plan in place. It is better to move forward with your presentation than to fret with trying to get your demonstration perfect or fixed. However, if you are providing a demonstration of your new product, make sure it is as error free as possible. If you can’t be positive the product will perform as expected, it is better to skip the demonstration.

Posters and Flip Charts

If you are presenting to a small audience, around a dozen people, you may choose to use a poster rather than PowerPoint. The focus of your poster should be to support your core message and can be left behind to remind those in attendance of your presentation after you have left. Posters should look professional (e.g., not handwritten), be visible to everyone in the room, and follow design rules covered later in this chapter. Before your presentation, you should ask whether posters must be hung or be free standing. For posters that will be hung from a wall, sturdy poster or matte boards will suffice. If your poster is going to be free standing or if you are going to use the same poster for multiple presentations, you should consider using a tri-fold display board.

“Dad’s Jr. Year Science Fair Project” by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos. CC-BY-NC-SA .

Other text-based visual aids include white boards and flip charts. Both can be used to write or draw on during the presentation and should be used with several caveats. Writing during your presentation actually takes away from your speaking time, so make sure to factor this into your speaking time. Speaking and writing at the same time can be tricky because the audience will have a difficult time processing what they are hearing when they are also trying to read what you write. Additionally, if you are writing, you need to be careful not to turn your back on your audience, which is makes it harder for them to hear you and for you to connect with your audience. Legible handwriting that can be seen at a distance is of prime importance, so using these kinds of visual aids should be limited to small audiences. While some speakers write and draw to highlight important points, this takes an enormous amount of skill and practice. For those with less developed skills, flip charts are best limited to situations where audience input is necessary for the direction or continuation of the presentation. [3]

The soul never thinks without a picture. – Aristotle

Audio and Video

A large amount of digitized audio and video is now available to be included and embedded in your presentation. Select short clips; Young and Travis [4] recommend only 10 – 20 seconds, but this will depend in part on the length of the presentation, the purpose of the presentation, and clip content and relevance. You should not have a presentation primarily composed of audio/video clips. Select only clips that reinforce the message or serve as an appropriate segue into your next topic.

When including audio or video in your speech, there are several technical considerations. It is important that the clip be properly cued to start at exactly where you want it to begin playing. It distracts from both your audience’s attention and your credibility when you are fumbling with technology during a speech. It is also important that your file format can be played on the computer you are using. Since not all computers will play all file formats, be sure to test playability and audio volume before your presentation. Again, going back to providing a professional appearance from your first interaction with your audience, you should iron out the technical details before they enter the room. As with a demonstration, if your clip isn’t playing properly, move on rather than attempt to correct the issue. Fumbling with technology is a waste of your audience’s valuable time.

There are many schools of thought on the use of handouts during a presentation. The most common current practice is that the presenters provide a copy of their PowerPoint slides to the participants before or after the presentation. This is so common that some academic and professional conferences require presenters to submit their slides prior to the event, so copies of the slides can be made for each attendee. Despite this prevailing trend, you should avoid using your slides as handouts because they serve different purposes. Using your presentation slides as the handout both shortchanges your slides and fails as a handout.

U.S. soldier distributing handouts explaining symptoms of tuberculosis to local residents at Bunabun Health Center in Madang, Papua New Guinea.

“Lt. Lydia Battey distributes handouts” by Kerryl Cacho. Public domain.

Handouts are best used to supplement the content of your talk. If you are providing statistical data, your slide may only show the relevant statistic focusing on the conclusion you want your audience to draw. Your handout, on the other hand, can contain the full table of data. If you need to show a complex diagram or chart, a handout will be more legible than trying to cram all that information on a slide. Since you need to simplify the data to make it understandable on a slide, the handout can contain the evidence for your message in a way that is legible, detailed, complex, and shows respect for the audience’s time and intelligence. [5]

You don’t need to include everything in your talk, and you don’t need to pack all your information into your slides. Write a handout document with as much detail as you want and keep the slides simple. Presenters often feel the need to display all the data and information they have so they will appear knowledgeable, informed, and thoroughly prepared. You can help ease this feeling by creating a handout with all of the detailed data you wish, which leaves your slides open to focus on your key message. [6]

There are many true statements about complex topics that are too long to fit on a PowerPoint slide. – Edward Tufte

Crafting an appropriate handout will take additional time for the presenter but doing so will result in a take-away document that will stand on its own and a slide show that focuses on effective visual content. Duarte (2008) and Tufte (2003) recommend handouts only for dense, detailed information. Reynolds [7] expands on this idea, noting that your handout needs to be complete enough to stand in your place since you won’t be there to present the information or answer questions.

When to distribute handouts is also heavily debated. So common is the practice of providing handouts at the beginning of a presentation that it may seem wrong to break the convention. It is important to understand, however, that if people have paper in front of them while you are speaking, their attention will be split between the handout, your other visual aids, and your words. To counter this, you might consider distributing handouts as they are needed during the presentation and allowing time for people to review them before continuing on. [8] This may not be a viable option for shorter presentations, and the interruption in the flow of the presentation may be hard to recover from. Unless having the documents in front of your audience is absolutely critical to the success of the presentation, handouts should be distributed at the end of the presentation.

“Steve Jobs Presentation” by Ken.gz. CC-BY .

Slideware is a generic term for the software used create and display slide shows such as Microsoft PowerPoint , Apple iWorks Keynote , Google Drive Presentation , Zoho Show and others. Composed of individual slides, collectively known as the slide deck , slideware is a de facto standard for presentation visual aids despite criticisms and complaints about the format. In truth, the problem is not with the software but in the use of the software. The focus of much of the remainder of this chapter will be suggestions and best practices for creating effective slide decks that will be high impact and avoid many of the complaints of slideware detractors. Before this discussion, there are two distinct slideware presentation styles that should be mentioned.

A picture is a poem without words. – Horace

Pecha Kucha

Pecha Kucha is a method of presenting using a slide deck of 20 slides that display for 20 seconds per slide, advance automatically, and generally contain no text. [9] This method began in 2003 as a way to contain the length of presentations of architects and continues to grow in popularity, but is still reserved mostly for people in creative industries. [10] Because of the restrictive format, Pecha Kucha-style presentations help the speaker practice editing, pacing, connecting with the audience, focusing on the message, and using images in place of words. [11]

While not quite slideware, Prezi is digital presentation software that breaks away from the standard slide deck presentation. It requires users to plot out their themes before adding primarily image-focused content. [12] Instead of flipping through the slide deck, the presenter zooms in and out of the presentation to visually demonstrate connections not available in other slideware. The design of the software lends itself toward more rapidly changing visuals. This helps to keep the viewer engaged but also lends itself to over-populating the blank canvas with images. [13]

Prezi’s fast-moving images and, at times, unusual movement can make users dizzy or disoriented. Careful work is needed during planning and practice so that the point of the talk isn’t the wow factor of the Prezi software, but that your visuals enhance your presentation. The best way to learn more about this emerging tool is to visit the Prezi website to view examples .

If opting to use Prezi in a corporate environment, you should strongly consider one of the paid options for the sole purpose of removing the Prezi logo from the presentation.

Now that you have a better understanding of the different types of presentation aids you could employ during your speech, let’s discuss effective design principles of visual aids.

Design Principles

Slide and slide show design have a major impact on your ability to get your message across to your audience. Research shows that people have trouble grasping information when it comes at them simultaneously. “They will either listen to you or read your slides; they cannot do both.” [14] This leaves you, the presenter, with a lot of power to direct or scatter your audience’s attention. This section will serve as an overview of basic design considerations that even novices can use to improve their slides.

Figure 13.1. Two Powerpoint slides. The 'Too Little Information' slide shows a bulleted list of types of bicycles. The 'Too Much Information' slide shows the names and definitions of five kinds of bicycles.

Figure 13.1 by the Public Speaking Project. CC-BY-NC-ND .

First and foremost, design with your audience in mind. Your slide show is not your outline. The show is also not your handout. As discussed earlier, you can make a significantly more meaningful, content-rich handout that complements your presentation if you do not try to save time by making a slide show that serves as both. Keep your slides short, create a separate handout if needed, and write as many notes for yourself as you need.

All decisions, from the images you use to their placement, should be done with a focus on your message, your medium, and your audience. Each slide should reinforce or enhance your message, so make conscious decisions about each element and concept you include [15] and edit mercilessly. Taken a step further, graphic designer Robin Williams [16] suggests each element be placed on the slide deliberately in relation to every other element on the slide.

Providing the right amount of information, neither too much nor too little, is one of the key aspects in effective communication. [17] See Figure 13.1 as an example of slides with too little or too much information. The foundation of this idea is that if the viewers have too little information, they must struggle to put the pieces of the presentation together. Most people, however, include too much information (e.g., slides full of text, meaningless images, overly complicated charts), which taxes the audience’s ability to process the message. “There is simply a limit to a person’s ability to process new information efficiently and effectively.” [18] As a presenter, reducing the amount of information directed at your audience (words, images, sounds, etc.) will help them to better remember your message. [19] In this case, less is actually more.

Powerpoint slide with bar graph, titled College Enrollment by Gender, 1970-2009

Figure 13.2 by the Public Speaking Project. CC-BY-NC-ND .

The first strategy to keeping your slides simple is to include only one concept or idea per slide. If you need more than one slide, use it, but don’t cram more than one idea on a slide. While many have tried to prescribe the number of slides you need based on the length of your talk, there is no formula that works for every presentation. Use only the number of slides necessary to communicate your message, and make sure the number of slides corresponds to the amount of time allotted for your speech. Practice with more and fewer slides and more and less content on each slide to find the balance between too much information and too little.

With simplicity in mind, the goal is to have a slide that can be understood in 3 seconds. Think of it like a billboard you are passing on the highway. [20] You can achieve this by reducing the amount of irrelevant information, also known as noise , in your slide as much as possible. This might include eliminating background images, using clear icons and images, or creating simplified graphs. Your approach should be to remove as much from your slide as possible until it no longer makes any sense if you remove more. [21]

Slide Layout

Figure 13.3. The top slide is low contrast. The heading and bullet points are all the same color, weight, and size. The background of the slide is a gradient gradually switching from black to beige. The bottom slide is high contrast. The heading and bullet points have different weights, and the first letter of each bullet point is a different size and color. The background is pale, while the lettering is dark.

Figure 13.3 by the Public Speaking Project. CC-BY-NC-ND .

It is easy to simply open up your slideware and start typing in the bullet points that outline your talk. If you do this, you will likely fall into the traps for which PowerPoint is infamous. Presentation design experts Reynolds [22] and Duarte [23] both recommend starting with paper and pen. This will help you break away from the text-based, bullet-filled slide shows we all dread. Instead, consider how you can turn your words and concepts into images. Don’t let the software lead you into making a mediocre slide show.

Regarding slide design, focus on simplicity. Don’t over-crowd your slide with text and images. Cluttered slides are hard to understand (see Figure 13.2). Leaving empty space, also known as white space , gives breathing room to your design. The white space actually draws attention to your focus point and makes your slide appear more elegant and professional. Using repetition of color, font, images, and layout throughout your presentation will help tie all of your slides together. This is especially important if a group is putting visuals together collaboratively. If you have handouts, they should also match this formatting in order to convey a more professional look and tie all your pieces together. [24]

Another general principle is to use contrast to highlight your message. Contrast should not be subtle. Make type sizes significantly different. Make contrasting image placements, such as horizontal and vertical, glaringly obvious. A general principle to follow: if things are not the same, then make them very, very different, [25] as in Figure 13.3.

A common layout design is called the rule of thirds . If you divide the screen using two imaginary lines horizontally and two vertically, you end up with nine sections. The most visually interesting and pleasing portions of the screen will be at the points where the lines intersect.

by the Public Speaking Project. .

Aligning your text and images with these points is preferred to centering everything on the screen. [26] [27] See Figure 13.4. Feel free to experiment with the right and left aligned content for contrast and interest. Sticking with a centered layout means more work trying to make the slide interesting. [28]

Understanding how people view images (and thus slides) can help you direct the viewer’s attention to the main point of your slide. In countries that read text from left to right and top to bottom, like English-speaking countries, people tend to also read images and slides the same way. Starting in the upper left of the screen, they read in a Z pattern , exiting the page in the bottom right corner unless their vision is side-tracked by the objects they are looking at (as in Figure 13.5).

Viewers’ eyes are scanning from focus point to focus point in an image, so you need to consciously create visual cues to direct them to the relevant information. Cues can be created subtly by the placement of objects in the slide, by showing movement, or more obviously by using a simple arrow. [29] Make sure all people and pets are facing into your slide and preferably at your main point, as in Figure 13.6. If your slide contains a road, path, car, plane, etc., have them also facing into your slide. When the natural motion or gaze of your images points away from your slide, your viewers look that way too. Being aware of this and addressing the natural tendencies of people when viewing images can help you select images and design slides that keep the viewer engaged in your message. [30]

Backgrounds and Effects

PowerPoint and other slideware have a variety of templates containing backgrounds that are easy to implement for a consistent slide show. Most of them, however, contain distracting graphics that are counter to the simplicity you are aiming for in order to produce a clear message. It is best to use solid colors, if you even need a background at all. For some slide shows, you can make the slides with full-screen images, thus eliminating the need for a background color.

Graphic design is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, abnormality, hobbies and humors. – George Santayana

Should you choose to use a background color, make sure you are consistent throughout your presentation. Different colors portray different meanings, but much of this is cultural and contextual, so there are few hard and fast rules about the meaning of colors. One universal recommendation is to avoid the color red because it has been shown to reduce your ability to think clearly. Bright colors, such as yellow, pink, and orange, should also be avoided as background colors, as they are too distracting. Black, on the other hand, is generally associated with sophistication and can be a very effective background as long as there is sufficient contrast with the other elements on your slide. [31]

When designing your presentation, it is tempting to show off your tech skills with glitzy transitions, wipes, fades, moving text, sounds, and a variety of other actions. These are distracting to your audience and should be avoided. They draw attention away from you and your message, instead focusing the audience’s attention on the screen. Since people naturally look at what is moving and expect it to mean something, meaningless effects, no matter how subtle, distract your audience, and affect their ability to grasp the content. Make sure that all your changes are meaningful and reinforce your message [32] .

There are complicated and fascinating biological and psychological processes associated with color and color perception that are beyond the scope of this chapter. Because color can have such a huge impact on the ability to see and understand your visuals, this section will explore basic rules and recommendations for working with color.

Figure 13.7, warm and cool colors. A slide divided in half, with a cool blue color on one side and a warm orange color on the other. Words in different colors stretch across both halves to demonstrate the contrast. The words say warm colors, cool colors, tints are lighter, shades are darker. Warm colors is in warm colors, cool colors is in cool colors, tints are lighter is in a tint similar to the cool background, and shades are darker is in a shade similar to the warm background. It is clear that warm colors are easier to read against a cool background, cool colors are easier to read against a warm color, tints are hard to read against a similar tint, and shades are hard to read against a similar shade.

Figure 13.7 by the Public Speaking Project. CC-BY-NC-ND .

Much of what we perceive in terms of a color is based on what color is next to it. Be sure to use colors that contrast so they can be easily distinguished from each other (think yellow and dark blue for high contrast, not dark blue and purple). High contrast improves visibility, particularly at a distance. To ensure you have sufficient contrast, you can view your presentation in greyscale either in the software if available or by printing out your slides on a black and white printer. [33]

Color does not add a pleasant quality to design — it reinforces it. – Pierre Bonnard

As seen in Figure 13.7, warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows) appear to come to the foreground when set next to a cool color (blues, grays, purples) which recede into the background. Tints (pure color mixed with white, think pink) stand out against a darker background. Shades (pure color mixed with black, think maroon) recede into a light background. [34] If you want something to stand out, these color combination rules can act as a guide.

Figure 13.8. Two color wheels. The top wheel shows complementary colors, in this example, purple and yellow, are opposite each other on the color wheel. The analogous color wheel shows that analogous colors, in this example yellow, yellow-orange, and orange, are next to each other on the color wheel.

Figure 13.8 by the Public Speaking Project. CC-BY-NC-ND .

Avoid using red and green closely together. Red-green color blindness is the predominate form of color blindness, meaning that the person cannot distinguish between those two colors (Vorick, 2011). There are other forms of color blindness, and you can easily check to see if your visuals will be understandable to everyone using an online tool such as the Coblis Color Blindness Simulator to preview images as a color-blind person would see it. Certain red-blue pairings can be difficult to look at for the non-color blind. These colors appear to vibrate when adjacent to each other and are distracting and sometimes unpleasant to view. [35]

With all these rules in place, selecting a color palette , the group of colors to use throughout your presentation, can be daunting. Some color pairs, like complementary colors or analogous colors as in Figure 13.8, are naturally pleasing to the eye and can be easy options for the color novice. There are also online tools for selecting pleasing color palettes using standard color pairings including Kuler and Color Scheme Designer . You can also use websites like Colorbrewer to help identify an appropriate palette of colors that are visually distinct, appropriate for the colorblind, and that will photocopy well, should you decide to also include this information in a handout.

I’m a visual thinker, not a language-based thinker. My brain is like Google Images. – Temple Grandin

Figure 13.9. A list of bad font effects. Each term is in a font demonstrating the style. Script fonts is a cursive, flourished style. Decorative fonts is a medieval, short-stroked, thick style. Upper case is in only capitalized letters. All bold is bolded. Small Caps is all capitalized, with the first letter of each word slightly larger. Shadows has a lighter, slanted shadow behind it. Outlines is thinly outlined. Word Art is written on a curved baseline. Stretched has short, wide letters with lots of space between each letter.

Figure 13.9 by the Public Speaking Project. CC-BY-NC-ND .

There are thousands of fonts available today. One might even say there has been a renaissance in font design with the onset of the digital age. Despite many beautiful options, it is best to stick to standard fonts that are considered screen friendly. These include the serif fonts Times New Roman, Georgia, and Palatino, and the sans serif fonts Ariel, Helvetica, Tahoma, and Veranda. [36] These fonts work well with the limitations of computer screens and are legible from a distance if sized appropriately. Other non-standard fonts, while attractive and eye-catching, may not display properly on all computers. If the font isn’t installed on the computer you are presenting from, the default font will be used which alters the text and design of the slide.

Readability is a top concern with font use, particularly for those at the back of your audience, furthest from the screen. After you have selected a font (see previous paragraph), make sure that the font size is large enough for everyone to read clearly. If you have the opportunity to use the presentation room before the event, view your slides from the back of the room. They should be clearly visible. This is not always possible and should not be done immediately preceding your talk, as you won’t have time to effectively edit your entire presentation. Presentation guru Duarte [37] describes an ingenious way to test visibility from your own computer.

Measure your monitor diagonally in inches, display your slides, then step back the same number of feet as you measured on your monitor in inches. For example, if you have a 17-inch screen, step back 17 feet to see what is legible.

Create your own visual style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others. – Orson Welles

In addition to font style and size, there are other font “rules” to improve your slides:

Don’t use decorative, script, or visually complex fonts.
Never use the Comic Sans font if you want to retain any credibility with your audience.
If you must use more than one font, use one serif font and one sans serif font.
Use the same font(s) and size(s) consistently throughout your presentation.
Don’t use all upper case or all bold.
Avoid small caps and all word art, shadows, outlines, stretching text, and other visual effects.
Use italics and underlines only for their intended purposes, not for design.

While there are many rules listed here, they can be summarized as” keep it as simple as possible.” [38] See Figure 13.9 for examples of poor font choices.

Nothing is more hotly debated in slide design than the amount of text that should be on a slide. Godin says “no more than six words on a slide. EVER.” [39] Other common approaches include the 5×5 rule — 5 lines of text, 5 words per line—and similar 6×6 and 7×7 rules. [40] Even with these recommendations, it is still painfully common to see slides with so much text on them that they can’t be read by the audience. The type has to be so small to fit all the words on the slide that no one can read it. Duarte [41] keenly points out that if you have too many words, you no longer have a visual aid. You have either a paper or a teleprompter, and she recommends opting for a small number of words.

Once you understand that the words on the screen are competing for your audience’s attention, it will be easier to edit your slide text down to a minimum. The next time you are watching a presentation and the slide changes, notice how you aren’t really grasping what the speaker is saying, and you also aren’t really understanding what you are reading. Studies have proved this split-attention affects our ability to retain information; [42] so when presenting, you need to give your audience silent reading time when you display a new slide. That is: talk, advance to your next slide, wait for them to read the slide, and resume talking. If you consider how much time your audience is reading rather than listening, hopefully you will decide to reduce the text on your slide and return the focus back to you, the speaker, and your message.

There are several ways to reduce the number of words on your page, but don’t do it haphazardly. As previously discussed, instead of simply abbreviating your message to make it “fit,” consider turning as many concepts as possible into images. Studies have shown that people retain more information when they see images that relate to the words they are hearing. [43] And when people are presented information for a very short time, they remember images better than words. [44]

An easy way to judge how much time your audience needs to read your slide silently, is to read the slide text to yourself in reverse order.

Figure 13.10, Quotations on Slides. A large black-and-white photograph showing two men in historical clothing standing on a cliff. Several mountains are behind them. A quote reads 'Government protection should be thrown around every wild grove and forest on the mountains.'

Figure 13.10 by the Public Speaking Project. CC-BY-NC-ND .

The ubiquitous use of bulleted lists is also hotly debated. PowerPoint is practically designed around the bulleted-list format, even though is it regularly blamed for dull, tedious presentations with either overly dense or overly superficial content. [45] Mostly this format is used (incorrectly) as a presenter’s outline. “ No one can do a good presentation with slide after slide of bullet points. No One. ” [46] Reserve bulleted lists for specifications or explaining the order of processes. In all other cases, look for ways to use images, a short phrase, or even no visual at all.

Quotes, on the other hand, are not as offensive to design when they are short, legible, and infrequently used. They can be a very powerful way to hammer a point home or to launch into your next topic. [47] See Figure 13.10 for an example. If you do use a quote in your slide show, immediately stop and read it out loud or allow time for it to be read silently. If the quote is important enough for you to include it in the talk, the quote deserves the audience’s time to read and think about it. Alternately, use a photo of the speaker or of the subject with a phrase from the quote you will be reading them, making the slide enhance the point of the quote.

Images can be powerful and efficient ways to tap into your audience’s emotions. Use photographs to introduce an abstract idea, to evoke emotion, to present evidence, or to direct the audience attention, just make sure it is compatible with your message. [48] Photos aren’t the only images available. You might consider using simplified images like silhouettes, line art, diagrams, enlargements, or exploded views, but these should be high quality and relevant. Simplified can be easier to understand, particularly if you are showing something that has a lot of detail. Simple images also translate better than words to a multicultural audience. [49] In all cases, choose only images that enhance your spoken words and are professional quality. This generally rules out the clip art that comes with slideware, whose use is a sign of amateurism. Select high-quality images and don’t be afraid to use your entire slide to display the image. Boldness with images often adds impact.

When using images, do not enlarge them to the point that the image becomes blurry, also known as pixelation . Pixelation, (Figure 13.11) is caused when the resolution of your image is too low for your output device (e.g. printer, monitor, projector). When selecting images, look for clear ones that can be placed in your presentation without enlarging them. A common practice is to use images over 1,000 pixels wide for filling an entire slide. If your images begin to pixelate, either reduce the size of the image or select a different image.

by the Public Speaking Project. .

Never use an image that has a watermark on it, as in Figure 13.2. A watermark is text or a logo that is placed in a digital image to prevent people from re-using it. It is common for companies that sell images to have a preview available that has a watermark on it. This allows you, the potential customer, to see the image, but prevents you from using the image until you have paid for it. Using a watermarked image in your presentation is unprofessional. Select another image without a watermark, take a similar photo yourself, or pay to get the watermark-free version.

You can create images yourself, use free images from places like Pexels, or pay for images from companies like iStockphoto for your presentations. Purchasing images can get expensive quickly and searching for free images is time consuming. Be sure to only use images that you have permission or rights to use and give proper credit for their use. If you are looking for free images, try searching the Creative Commons database for images from places like Flickr, Google, and others. The creators of images with a Creative Commons License allow others to use their work, but with specific restrictions. What is and isn’t allowed is described in the license for each image. Generally, images can be used in educational or non-commercial settings at no cost as long as you give the photographer credit. Also, images created by the U.S. government and its agencies are copyright free and can be used at no cost.

One final consideration with using images: having the same image on every page, be it part of the slide background or your company logo, can be distracting and should be removed or minimized. As mentioned earlier, the more you can simplify your slide, the easier it will be for your audience to understand your message.

Graphs and Charts

As we mentioned in the chapter on support materials, if you have numerical data that you want to present, consider using a graph or chart. You are trying to make a specific point with the data on the slide, so make sure that the point—the conclusion you want your audience to draw — is clear. This may mean that you reduce the amount of data you present, even though it is tempting to include all of your data on your slide.

It is best to minimize the amount of information and focus instead on the simple and clear conclusion. [50] You can include the complete data set in your handout if you feel it is necessary. [51] Particularly when it comes to numerical data, identify the meaning in the numbers and exclude the rest. “Audiences are screaming ‘make it clear,’ not ‘cram more in.’ You won’t often hear an audience member say, ‘That presentation would have been so much better if it were longer.” [52] In some cases you can even ditch the graph altogether and display the one relevant fact that is your conclusion.

by the Public Speaking Project. .

Different charts have different purposes, and it is important to select the one that puts your data in the appropriate context to be clearly understood. [53] Pie charts show how the parts relate to the whole and are suitable for up to eight segments, as long as they remain visually distinct. [54] Start your first slice of the pie at 12:00 with your smallest portion and continue around the circle clockwise as the sections increase in size. Usea line graph to show trends over time or how data relates or interacts. Bar charts are good for showing comparisons of size or magnitude [55] and for showing precise comparisons. [56] There are other types of charts and graphs available, but these are the most common.

When designing charts, one should use easily distinguishable colors with clear labels. Be consistent with your colors and data groupings. [57] For clarity, avoid using 3-D graphs and charts, and remove as much of the background noise (lines, shading, etc.) as possible. [58] All components of your graph, once the clutter is removed, should be distinct from any background color. Finally, don’t get too complex in any one graph, make sure your message is as clear as possible, and make sure to visually highlight the conclusion you want the audience to draw.

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LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS

Chapter 13 Design Principles. Authored by : Sheila Kasperek, MLIS, MSIT. Provided by : Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA. Located at : http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html . Project : The Public Speaking Project. License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
Figures 13.1-13.14. Authored by : Sheila Kasperek and Tom Oswald . Located at : http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html . Project : The Public Speaking Project. License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivative
Chapter 13 Objectives, Outline, and Introduction. Authored by : Sheila Kasperek, MLIS, MSIT. Provided by : Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA. Located at : http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html . Project : The Public Speaking Project. License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
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Chapter 13 Types of Visual Aids. Authored by : Sheila Kasperek, MLIS, MSIT. Provided by : Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA. Located at : http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html . Project : The Public Speaking Project. License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
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	'); document.write(' '); } --> '); document.write(' '); } -->


				video clips.
				confidential e-mails.
				photos.
				audio clips.


				90 percent.
				100 percent.
				180 percent.
				360 percent.


				organization charts.
				flowcharts.
				pictorial graphs.
				information charts.


				Distribute the handout after the question-and-answer period.
				Pass around the handout during the speech and tell the audience to stay with you and not read ahead.
				Use an overhead transparency to project the handout onto a screen so that everyone can read it at the same time.
				Distribute the handout a few minutes before you start speaking.


				Transparencies are easy to produce.
				You don't need another person to operate the machine for you.
				You can't make last-minute changes.
				When you want to point to an item, you don't have to turn your back to the audience.


				progression
				accumulation
				template
				build


				bold print
				underlining
				italics
				lower-case letters


				Avoid excessive artwork.
				Use all-capital letters for all text material.
				Avoid using many different typefaces.
				Have no more than 7 words per line.


				m
				n
				o
				p


				one-half inch high.
				one inch high.
				one and one-half inches high.
				two and one-half inches high.


				Santa Fe, New Mexico
				New York, New York
				Seattle, Washington
				Tokyo, Japan


				animals
				themselves
				friends
				food


				one
				two
				three
				four


				gradual unfolding.
				progressive revelation.
				purposeful suspense.
				dramatic disclosure.


				Turn lights on and off.
				Handle emergencies such as loud noise outside the room.
				Say "Time's up!" when you have reached your time limit.
				Give you a critique after the speech.

Which of the following is a presentation cue? 0000 OA. Mumbling B. Crossing your arms OC. Repeating words D. Whistling

Frostyglitter87 is waiting for your help., expert-verified answer.

154 answers
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Final answer:

Presentation cues are nonverbal behaviors or actions that impact how a presentation is perceived. Examples include crossing arms, repeating words, and mumbling.

Explanation:

A presentation cue refers to a nonverbal behavior or action that can affect how a presentation is perceived by the audience. Out of the options provided, crossing your arms , repeating words , and mumbling are all examples of presentation cues.

Learn more about Presentation cues here:

brainly.com/question/23575902

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Presentations: Cues

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Some students require help staying focused and on task. Cues are concrete reminders to do something or attend to something. Two of the most commonly used cues are:

Highlighting key words or phrases. For example, in a set of directions that askthe students to complete addition problems, highlight the addition sign.
Symbol cues. For example, write or draw cues such as arrows (e.g., indicating anew problem) and stop signs (signaling the end) on the response form or testbooklet to remind the student to do something.
Review the test booklet and form.
Select only those terms and phrases that will trulyhelp the student stay focused and on task.
Highlight those terms and phrases.
It is important to use only those cues that the student needs.
To prevent clutter ormistakes, make a copy of the test booklet page and experiment before marking thefinal version.
One variation of the technique is to have the student follow along as you read thedirections and highlight the important words or phrases. This variation helps ensurethat the student understands the purpose of the highlighting.
On tests that ask students to match a word to a definition, students can underline or highlight the wordas a way to stay focused.

Before marking anything, it is a good idea to identify any special considerations. Forexample, if the answer form is computer readable, any stray markings may interferewith scoring. In such cases, the teacher may need to transfer the student's answers toanother form, an accommodation that may require additional sign-offs or specificprocedures.

In addition, keep in mind that this accommodation may be perceived as giving thestudent the answer. To avoid inadvertently selecting cues that coach the student,have another adult review them prior to sharing with the student.

Excerpted from Assessment Accommodations Toolkit .

Council for Exceptional Children

Featured high school resources.

Related Resources

Guiding Principles for Assessment Accommodations

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IMAGES

Schematic depiction of the presentation sequences from cue onset to
Brain activation following presentation of the Cue stimulus. a Human
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COMMENTS

Which of the following is a presentation cue?
Whistling of the following is a presentation cue.. What is presentation cue? Some pupils need assistance in remaining concentrated and on task.Cues are definite signals that something ought to be done or attended to.The following are two of the most typical cues: underlining important words or phrases. For instance, underline the addition sign in a series of instructions that asks pupils to ...
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Question 21 of 40 Which of the following is a presentation cue?
Final answer: Repeating words is a presentation cue that can be used to emphasize important points and reinforce key ideas.. Therefore, the correct answer is: option - B. Repeating words. Explanation: A presentation cue is a behavior or action used during a public speaking event to enhance the delivery of a message.. Out of the options given, repeating words is a presentation cue that can be ...
Ch 11 Public Speaking Flashcards
Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like A ____________ outline is a detailed outline developed during the planning stage of a speech., A preparation outline should include A. a bibliography. B. research notes. C. delivery cues. D. All answers are correct., A preparation outline should include: Specific purpose statement, Central idea, Connectives, or All answers are ...
Public Speaking Chapters 1,3,11,12 Flashcards
Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Which of the following is not an example of a nonverbal cue? A. Tone of Voice B. Facial expression C. Eye behavior D. Our smell E. All of the above are examples of nonverbal cues, Which of the following is true about the communication context? A. It can refer to a physical setting like a restaurant B. It can refer to the ...
Teleprompter
Cue cards are brief prompts that assist speakers in delivering a well-structured and engaging presentation. These handy tools help speakers stay on track while maintaining a natural and confident delivery. Understanding how to utilize cue cards effectively can elevate your communication skills to new heights. Think of them as compact companions ...
Tips for Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations
General Presentation. Plan carefully. Do your research. Know your audience. Time your presentation. Speak comfortably and clearly. Check the spelling and grammar. Do not read the presentation. Practice the presentation so you can speak from bullet points. The text should be a cue for the presenter rather than a message for the viewer.
14.3 Using Notes Effectively
The Purpose of Speaker Notes. Using notes adds to your credibility as a speaker. If you depend on a full manuscript to get through your delivery, your listeners might believe you don't know the content of your speech. Second, the temptation to read the entire speech directly from a manuscript, even if you're only carrying it as a safety net ...
Verbal Cues Definition, Types & Examples
Three examples of verbal cues include direct cues such as 'Go to the car in five minutes', and indirect cues such as 'Get groceries when you can' and 'you should pay your bills at some point ...
Which of the following is a presentation cue?
Final answer: Repetition, gestures, and vocal cues are essential presentation cues that enhance audience engagement. Explanation: Repetition is a crucial presentation cue that reinforces verbal and nonverbal communication, helping the audience to understand and remember key points. Using gestures such as holding up fingers or incorporating natural movements can also enhance a presentation's ...
Which of the following is a presentation cue?
Repeating words can be a deliberate strategy used by presenters.. Repeating important phrases or keywords can help ensure the audience remembers the core message.; Repeating a statement can be used to clarify a point or simplify it if the audience seems confused.; Repeating can even be used to buy time to gather thoughts or to repeat the main point when transitioning between points.
Nonverbal Communication Skills That Affect Presentations
Use the following checklist to make your presentations a success: Facial expressions. One of the key elements of nonverbal communication is your facial expressions. Here are a few points to keep in mind when presenting: Smile appropriately. A genuine smile can help build rapport with your audience and convey warmth and friendliness.
Chapter 12: Presentation Aids
12.2 - Functions of Presentation Aids. While impressive presentation aids will not rescue a poor speech, a good speech can often be made even better by the strategic use of presentation aids. Presentation aids can improve your audience's understanding and retention of the message, add variety and interest, and enhance your credibility.
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen - Presentation Aids. "Grifo mágico" by emijrp. CC-BY. "I know you can't read this from the back there," the presenter apologizes to a screen so full of words you would think the entire speech had been crammed into one slide. This is just the first of a seemingly endless string of slides I can't read, charts so ...
Public Speaking for College and Career
All of the following are acceptable ways that a friend can assist you during a presentation EXCEPT: A) Turn lights on and off. B) Handle emergencies such as loud noise outside the room. C) Say "Time's up!" when you have reached your time limit. D) Give you a critique after the speech.
Which of the following is a presentation cue? 0000
Presentation cues are nonverbal behaviors or actions that impact how a presentation is perceived. Examples include crossing arms, repeating words, and mumbling. Explanation: A presentation cue refers to a nonverbal behavior or action that can affect how a presentation is perceived by the audience.
Ch. 9 Presentation Aids in Speaking Flashcards
Ch. 9 Presentation Aids in Speaking. the resources beyond the speech itself that a speaker uses to enhance the message conveyed to the audience the resources beyond the speech itself that a speaker uses to enhance the message conveyed to the audience "They can appeal to all the senses—smell, taste, touch, hearing, as well as sight" (Range of ...
Presentations: Cues
Description. Some students require help staying focused and on task. Cues are concrete reminders to do something or attend to something. Two of the most commonly used cues are: Highlighting key words or phrases. For example, in a set of directions that askthe students to complete addition problems, highlight the addition sign. Symbol cues.
Nonverbal Cues in Communication
Chronemics (Time) describes the use of time as a nonverbal cue. For example, the amount of time that it takes to respond to an email or text message is a nonverbal cue that tells the recipient how ...
Presenting using PowerPoint? Use these tips
Effective power point presentation can help you to grow your business as it can catch good attention of audiences; We offer you best hacks to design power point presentation. ... cue the operator to uncover the projector or switch the dual monitor screens. If you're both the presenter and the projector operator, you can take steps so that ...
Pub Speaking Quiz #5 Flashcards
Handouts, physical objects, or videos are all appropriate types of presentation aids. (True or False) True. A speaker should not put large blocks of text on slides. Emphasizing main points would be the best. (True or False) True. A speaker should use as much animation on each slide as possible. True.
KINS 7437 Flashcards
they help the learner develop an accurate motor plan. One of the first considerations in task presentation is. getting the attention of the learner. Management cues or signals. alert learners as to when to begin activity. Verbal directions for a task are sufficient if: learners have experience with a task.

What are Cue Cards: A Comprehensive Guide

What are Cue Cards?

How do you write on a cue card?

The Role of Cue Cards in Presentation

Practical Tips for Using Cue Cards

Overcoming Challenges

The Visual Impact: Integrating Camera Techniques

Crafting Engaging Lines for Impactful Delivery

Advanced Cue Card Techniques

Turning Ideas into a Game Plan for Effective Communication

Navigating the Stage

Final Thoughts

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Resource Tips for Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Tips for Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations

The Seven Deadly Sins of PowerPoint Presentations

Tips for Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Design and Graphical Images

General Presentation

DO NOT DELETE - NCSL Search Page Data

14.3 Using Notes Effectively

The Purpose of Speaker Notes

Key Tips for Using Notes

Include Only Key Words

Hold Your Notes Naturally

Prepare Notecards to Trigger Recall

Write in Large Letters

Using Notecards Effectively

Key Takeaways

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Chapter 12: Presentation Aids

12.2 – Functions of Presentation Aids

Improving Audience Understanding

Aiding Retention and Recall

Adding Variety and Interest

Enhancing a Speaker’s Credibility

Avoiding Problems with Presentation Aids

12.3 – Types of Presentation Aids

Statistical Charts

Decision Trees and Sequence-of-Steps Charts

Photographs and Drawings

Video or Audio Recordings

Objects or Models

People and Animals

Animals as Presentation Aids

Speaker as Presentation Aid

Other People as Presentation Aids

12.4 – Using Presentation Slides

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Presentation Slides

Creating Quality Slide Shows

Emphasis, Focal Point, and Visibility

Rhythm in Presenting

Colour palettes

12.5 – Low-Tech Presentation Aids

Dry-Erase Board

Attribution

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Chapter Fourteen – Presentation Aids

Types of Visual Aids

Personal Appearance

Objects and Props

Demonstration

Posters and Flip Charts

Audio and Video

Pecha Kucha

Design Principles

Slide Layout

Backgrounds and Effects

Graphs and Charts

LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS

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Which of the following is a presentation cue? 0000 OA. Mumbling B. Crossing your arms OC. Repeating words D. Whistling

Final answer:

Explanation:

Learn more about Presentation cues here:

Still have questions?