Preparation of the Oral Version

The key to a successful presentation is careful and intelligent preparation. Without this, the presentation may be hopelessly disorganized. When preparing for a presentation it is important to think about:

• Purpose

• Audience

• Structure

• Communication aids

Even professionals can and sometimes do fail to make proper prepara­tion, whether out of over-confidence, lack of time, or even laziness. We cannot all be brilliant, witty, or elegant public speakers, but anyone can turn in a polished and professional performer—if they want to. The key is in the organization. Trust the credibility of the advice below adapted from Pfeiffer (1994) and Seely (1998):

Think of your purpose

Begin by thinking about whyyou are making the presentation. It may be:

· to inform

· to persuade

· to entertain

· to meet and get on with your audience

Frequently it will be a mixture of some or all of these.

To inform

Most presentations provide information, often considerable amounts of it. It is not uncommon for members of an audience to go away with the feeling that 'there was a lot of good stuff there, but it was far more than I could take in at one sitting'. With this in mind, it is valuable to break 'information talk' down into different kinds:

■ straight facts (data)

While these are undoubtedly important, they are often the most difficult to digest. A string of unrelated figures, dates, names, and events is very difficult for most of us to remember, so the speaker has to provide as much help as possible by putting such data ink contexts, patterns, and pictures.

■ stories

People find stories much easier to remember. There are two reasons for this. First, a story has its own built-in pattern, and patterns make facts easier to remember; and secondly, stories fulfill a very primi­tive need in human beings – the love of a beginning, a middle, and an end, and the desire to 'know what happens next" are strong in almost everybody. 'Story' may sound rather a childish name; in the 'grown-up’ world, stories are often called 'reports'.

■ descriptions and explanations

Descriptions of what things or people look like are easy to remem­ber in the same way that stories are. More often, however, it is ne­cessary to explain the functioning of organizations, machines, or institutions. Here it is important to make sure that the description creates clear patterns to help the audience visualize what is being described, for example by using images or analogies.

To persuade

Many business presentations have as their chief purpose to persuade the audience to do something: buy your product, sign up for a differ­ent way of doing things, agree to a particular course of action. Even apparently factual presentations such as a college lecture may involve persuasion: for example, the lecturer may wish to persuade students to take a subject more seriously than they currently do, or to open their minds to a new and challenging way of thinking.

To entertain

Sometimes – as in the case of an after-dinner speech – the speaker's main aim may be to entertain. Even when it is not the primary aim of a presentation, however, it is very often an important secondary aim. If you can entertain your audience it often makes your primary aim of informing or persuading very much easier.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 769