Page 293 - Essentials of Human Communication

272 ChaPtEr 13 The Informative Speech

4. Too much color and too many sounds will be distracting.

5. These colors do not provide sufficient contrast—as would, say, red and black. Also, many people have
difficulty distinguishing red and green.
6. Use phrases for the slides; sentences take too much time to read.
7. No, you should be the main attraction. Your slides are simply aids to your presentation.

8. Only add photos or graphics when they are integral to your slide’s message.
9. Any more than 10 slides is probably too much.
10. Images from websites don’t translate well to slides; instead, use clip art images if you need graphics.

what wILL yOu dO? Presentation software is a fact of life for public speakers. Resolve to learn to use it as
effectively as you can and keep up with the new developments. For starters, take a look at the humorous but
most helpful Life After Death by PowerPoint by Don McMillan.

Computer-assisted presentations possess all of the advantages of aids already noted
(from maintaining interest and attention to adding clarity and reinforcing your message). In
addition, however, they have advantages all their own—so many, in fact, that you’ll want to
seriously consider using this technology in your speeches. They give your speech a profes-
sional, up-to-date look, and in the process add to your credibility. They show that you’re pre-
pared and that you care about your topic and audience.
Various presentation software packages are available. Figure 13.5 illustrates how a set of
slides might look. The slides are built around the “culture shock” speech outline discussed in
Chapter 12 and were constructed in PowerPoint. As you review this figure, try to visualize
how you’d use a slide show to present your next speech.

ways of using presentation software Presentation software
enables you to produce a variety of aids. The easiest is to create your slides
and then show them on your computer screen. If you’re speaking to a very
small group and you have a large monitor, it may be possible to have your
listeners gather around your computer as you speak. With larger audiences,
you’ll need a computer projector.
Computer presentation software also enables you to print out a vari-
ety of materials to use as handouts: slides, slides with speaker’s notes,
slides with room for listener notes, and outlines of your speech. You can
print out your complete set of slides to distribute to your listeners, or you
can print out a selection of slides from the talk or even slides that you
didn’t have time to cover in your speech but would like your audience to
look at later.
Another useful option is to print out your slides with speaker’s notes
for your own use (as illustrated in Figure 13.6). That way you’ll have your
slides and any notes you may find useful—examples you want to use,
numerical data that would be difficult to memorize, quotations that you
want to read to your audience, or delivery notes. Still another option is to
print out your slides with room for listeners to write their own notes (as
ViewpOInts illustrated in Figure 13.7).
presentation aids
Although presentation aids are extremely useful, rehearsing with presentation programs Presentation programs
speakers often use them ineffectively. What are are especially helpful in enabling you to rehearse your speech and time it
some of the major mistakes people make in using precisely. As you rehearse, the computer program records the time you
presentation aids?
spend on each slide and will display it under the slide; it will also record the