Chp 7 : Designing Oral Presentation

Summary : Designing Oral Presentation

The ability to speak effectively is as crucial as the ability to write effectively, according to studies about kinds of communications most often required of employees. During a routine week, employees will actually spend more time speaking than writing; using the phone; conversing informally with colleagues, subordinates, and superiors on routine office topics; conducting meetings; working in problem solving groups; conducting employee evaluation sessions; participating in teleconferences and sales presentations; and frequently becoming involved in formal speaking situations before groups inside and outside the organization. Communication research also reveals that the higher an employee moves in an organization, the more important speaking skills become.
Being an effective speaker and an effective writer requires you to:
1.Understand the context of your presentation
2. Analyze your audience
3. Understand and articulate your presentation's purpose
4. Choose and shape your presentation's content
5. Organize your presentation
6. Choose an appropriate speaking style
7. Practice an effective delivery style
8. Select and use visual aids effectively
Because listening is a different information-processing method than reading, you will need to know how to adapt guidelines for organization, style, and graphics to fit the speaking situation. However, you will see that writing and speaking, despite their differences, are similar communication activities. So, Before I start writing my speech I have to determine what I want to write about, such as my interests, or skills and abilities. Sometimes you won’t have choice and the topic will be selected for you. Now I have to decide what my speech goal will be. What do I want from my audience and what do I want to communicate to them? There are four speech goals: informative, persuasive, requesting, and entertaining. Informative speeches can build audience awareness, knowledge, and memory about a subject. A persuasive speech intends to influence a change in an audience’s attitude, behavior, or belief. A requesting speech is a type
of persuasive speech, but its aim is to gain funding or approval for a specific product, program, or proposal. Entertainment or special occasion speeches mark special occasions, and arouse emotions through celebration. My introduction has to gain the attention of my audience. I have to make a connection between my listeners, the occasion, and myself.
For example, delivering a presentation at a meeting of project directors is different from briefing other people in your team about what you've been doing. Making a presentation at a company picnic is different from delivering a presentation at the annual meeting of a professional society. Knowing the situation is as important as knowing your audience and your purpose. In many cases, situation will be inextricably bound up with questions of audience attitude and the way you shape your purpose. Audience attitude frequently results from situational problems or current issues within the organization, and what you can or should say in your presentation, your purpose and the content you choose to present may be dictated by the context surrounding your presentation and the perspective that your audience brings.
How you sound when you speak is crucial to the success of your presentation. You may have effective content, excellent ideas, and accurate supporting statistics. However, if the style you use in speaking is inappropriate to the occasion, to the audience (as individuals and as members of an organization), or to the purpose you are trying to achieve, your content will more than likely be ineffective.
In general, you want to sound respectful, confident, courteous, and sincere. However, the precise tone and degree of formality will be dictated by your organizational role and your relationship to your audience.