As you are preparing your speech,
you're likely going to think about preparing your presentation aids, too,
so let's focus today on how you can select appropriate aids.
You have a variety of types of aids to choose from.
but what factors may come into selecting the aids?
The first thing to realize is that, just as your speech
needs to be ethical,the aids you choose need to be ethical as well.
Make sure that the aids you are using are not misleading the audience.
For example, this graph identifies
the percentage of people wanting help and not wanting help, and it looks like
there's a big difference...
until you notice that the scale is significantly off.
When you look at the actual numbers, you'll notice that only
a 1% difference exists between those people who want help
or who do not want help.
Don't take your aids or your recorded quotes out of context.
Consider the speaking situation. Some aids might be unethical to bring or even
illegal to bring into the speaking situation. If you're delivering your
speech in a classroom, for example,
and you decided to do a speech on, perhaps, guns and how people might select a gun,
you wouldn't want to bring a real gun and possibly not even a
fake gun into the classroom.
Consider copyright as well,
and we'll talk about that in a different video lecture.
But you want to consider that, if you are not in a classroom situation,
copyright is vitally important.
Beyond thinking about the ethics in selecting aids,
you should also select or design aids that meet the purpose of presentation aids.
Ask yourself: Does the aid you're considering help you audience better
understand the information?
Also, is it appropriate for this particular situation, topic, and audience?
Will your aid help your audience remember the information?
Does it keep their interest or add variety to the presentation, without distracting?
Did you include something that you thought was nifty
but really doesn't help or could be perceived as offensive?
Might the aid save time in explaining the point?
And does the aid contribute to your audience perceiving you as a credible speaker?
Consider also the concept of simplicity:
your aid should be simple designed in a way that will not only help you while
you're preparing them,
but will also help the audience understand.
Too much on an aid inhibits understanding and may reduce interest.
Each aid only address one concept
or idea. Too many concepts on an aid
and we don't know what we're supposed to be paying attention to.
if you think you have to show multiple concepts on a single aid
consider using builds, which are multiple aids that can be overlaid on top of each other.
For example, if you're demonstrating how draw Mickey Mouse,
you first aid could show the circle for his head, the second aid
adds to the circle, showing how the years would be drawn, and so on.
You can do this easily in PowerPoint, but it can even be done with multiple transparencies.
If you're limited with overhead projection, simple also relates to how
easy it is for you to transport your aids,
which is a reason PowerPoint or overhead transparencies are often recommended
over poster board; they're easier for you to carry around.
Also, poster board isn't very professional and is not used very often,
if at all, outside the academic environment. And in order for your aid to actually
aid the audience, it needs to be visible or audible to them.
If you're going to play a clip from a CD, we need to be able to hear it.
If you show was at 4 x 6 (inch) photograph, there's no way you can
expect us to see enough to know exactly what you're talking about.
Quiz Time:
What ethical considerations are involved in selecting appropriate aids?
How do the purposes of presentation aids
affect your selection of aids?
And, finally,
How many concepts, or ideas, should be on a single aid?
Now you ought to be able to approach the task at selecting
appropriate aids for your presentation with a lot more understanding of the guidelines.