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It’s About Them: 12.1 What Are Presentation Aids?

It’s About Them
12.1 What Are Presentation Aids?
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table of contents
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Table Of Contents
  5. Preface
  6. What Is an Open Textbook?
  7. Chapter 1: Why Public Speaking Matters Today
    1. 1.1 Public Speaking in the Twenty-First Century
    2. 1.2 Why Is Public Speaking Important?
    3. 1.3 The Process of Public Speaking
  8. Chapter 2: Building Confidence
    1. 2.1 What is Communication Apprehension?
    2. 2.2 Classifying PSA
    3. 2.3 Learning Confidence
  9. Chapter 3: Audience Analysis
    1. 3.1 What Is Audience Analysis? Why Conduct It?
    2. 3.2 Why Conduct an Audience Analysis?
    3. 3.3 Three Types of Audience Analysis
    4. 3.4 Conducting Audience Analysis
    5. 3.5 Using Your Audience Analysis
  10. Chapter 4: The Importance of Listening
    1. 4.1 Importance of Listening
    2. 4.2 Listening vs. Hearing
    3. 4.3 Listening Styles
    4. 4.4 Why Listening Is Difficult
    5. 4.5 Stages of Listening
    6. 4.6 Listening Critically
  11. Chapter 5: Ethics
    1. 5.1 The Ethics Pyramid
    2. 5.2 Ethics in Public Speaking
    3. 5.3 Free Speech
    4. 5.4 Mass Communication and Ethics
  12. Chapter 6: Researching Your Speech
    1. 6.1 Beginning the Research Process
    2. 6.2 What Is Research?
    3. 6.3 Developing a Research Strategy
    4. 6.4 Citing Sources
  13. Chapter 7: Supporting Ideas and Building Arguments
    1. 7.1 Crafting Supporting Ideas
    2. 7.2 Using Research as Support
    3. 7.3 Exploring Types of Support
    4. 7.4 Using Support and Creating Arguments
  14. Chapter 8: Organizing and Outlining
    1. 8.1 Why is Organizing and Outlining Important
    2. 8.2 The Topic, General Purpose, Specific Purpose, and Thesis
    3. 8.3 Organizational Patterns of Arrangement for Informative Speeches
    4. 8.4 Outlining Your Speech
  15. Chapter 9: Delivery
    1. 9.1 The Importance of Delivery
    2. 9.2 Methods of Speech Delivery
    3. 9.3 Preparing for Your Delivery
    4. 9.4 Practicing Your Delivery
    5. 9.5 What to Do When Delivering Your Speech
  16. Chapter 10: Introductions and Conclusions
    1. 10.1 Introductions
    2. 10.2 Conclusions
  17. Chapter 11: Language
    1. 11.1 What Language Is and Does
    2. 11.2 Standards for Language in Public
    3. 11.3 Using Effective Language in Public Speaking
  18. Chapter 12: Presentation Aids
    1. 12.1 What Are Presentation Aids?
    2. 12.2 Functions of Presentation Aids
    3. 12.3 Types of Presentation Aids
    4. 12.4 Using Presentation Slides
    5. 12.5 Low-Tech Presentation Aids
  19. Chapter 13 Informative Speaking
    1. 13.1 What is an Informative Speech?
    2. 13.2 Types of Informative Speeches
    3. 13.3 Guidelines for Informative Speech Topic Selection and Preparation
    4. 13.4 Sample Informative Speeches and Speech Outlines
  20. Chapter 14: Persuasive Speaking
    1. 14.1 Why Persuade?
    2. 14.2 A Definition of Persuasion
    3. 14.3 Why is Persuasion Hard?
    4. 14.4 Traditional Views of Persuasion
    5. 14.5 Constructing a Persuasive Speech
    6. 14.6 Sample Persuasive Speech Outlines
  21. Chapter 15: Special Occasion Speaking
    1. 15.1 Understanding Special Occasion Speaking
    2. 15.2 Types of Special Occasion Speeches
    3. 15.3 Special Occasion Language
    4. 15.4 Special Occasion Delivery
    5. 15.5 Sample Special Occasion Speech Outline
  22. Chapter 16: Online Public Speaking
    1. 16.1 Online Public Speaking
  23. About the Contributors
  24. Adaptations
  25. Glossary
  26. Appendix A: Checklist for Accessibility

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. In some speaking situations, the speaker appeals only to the sense of hearing. They more or less ignore the other senses except to avoid visual distractions by dressing and presenting themselves in an appropriate manner. But the speaking event can be greatly enriched by appeals to the other senses. This is the role of presentation aids.

Presentation aids are the resources beyond the speech words and delivery that a speaker uses to enhance the message conveyed to the audience. The type of presentation aids that speakers most typically make use of are visual aids: pictures, diagrams, charts and graphs, maps, and the like. Audible aids include musical excerpts, audio speech excerpts, and sound effects. A speaker may also use fragrance samples or food samples as olfactory (sense of smell) or gustatory (sense of taste) aids. Finally, presentation aids can be three-dimensional objects, animals, and people.

As you can see, the range of possible presentation aids is almost unlimited. However, all presentation aids have one thing in common: To be effective, each presentation aid a speaker uses must be a direct, uncluttered example of a specific element of the speech. It is understandable that someone presenting a speech about Abraham Lincoln might want to include a photograph of him, but because everyone already knows what Lincoln looked like, the picture would not contribute much to the message unless, perhaps, the message was specifically about the changes in Lincoln’s appearance during his time in office.

Other visual artifacts are more likely to deliver information more directly relevant to the speech—a diagram of the interior of Ford’s Theater where Lincoln was assassinated, a facsimile of the messy and much-edited Gettysburg Address, or a photograph of the Lincoln family, for example. The key is that each presentation aid must directly express an idea in your speech.

Moreover, presentation aids must be used at the time when you are presenting the specific ideas related to the aid. 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.

To be effective, presentation aids must also be easy to use and easy for the listeners to see and understand. In this chapter, we will present some principles and strategies to help you incorporate effective presentation aids into your speech. We will begin by discussing the functions that good presentation aids fulfill. Next, we will explore some of the many types of presentation aids and how best to design and utilize them. We will also describe various media that can be used for presentation aids. We will conclude with tips for successful preparation and use of presentation aids in a speech.

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12.2 Functions of Presentation Aids
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Presenting and Public Speaking
It’s About Them: Public Speaking in the 21st Century Copyright © 2022 by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted
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