Post on 31-Dec-2015
Using Visual Aids in a Speech
Visual Aids can be powerful when giving a speech.
However, make sure they will improve your speech.
Ask yourself the following questions:
1. Will they contribute new information?
Will using a visual aid
add an element to your speech
that words alone cannot?
In other words, is the visual aid indispensable1?
1 indispensable – absolutely necessary; can’t do without it
2. Will they help the audience
understand my message?
Sometimes a picture or chart
can convey1 information better than words.
1 convey – to make known; to communicate
3. Will they detract1 from my role as a speaker?
If the audience is looking at your visual aids,
they aren’t looking at you!
Why is this important?
1 detract – take away from; diminish; decrease; reduce
Non-verbal:
1. facial expressions
2. eyes (your eye-contact won’t be as strong)
3. gestures and body language
Facial expressions, eye-contact, gestures
and body language are all important –
especially in a persuasive speech!
So keep in mind that you will be
reducing the impact
of these to some extent
when you use visual aids.
If the audience is not looking at you,
they will pay less attention to your
verbal
delivery techniques!
Really?
They don’t need to see me to hear me, right?
Well, the human brain is amazing,
and is good at multi-tasking.
However . . .
When you have visual aids,
the audience’s attention is diverted1
to some extent . . .
away from your spoken words
toward the written words.
1 divert – redirect, move away, turn aside
So you have to decide whether the reduced impact
of your verbal and non-verbal techniques
is worth using the visual aids.
Is it a good trade-off ?
Sometimes the answer is “Yes”.
Visual aids are extremely valuable.
Other times, you may decide that your message
will not be as effective with visual aids.
Finally, keep in mind that technology sometimes
fails (at the most inopportune1 time) !
Make sure that you are still
prepared to deliver your speech,
even if something goes wrong technically.
1 inopportune – happening at a bad time; ill-timed; inconvenient
Recommendations
First, don’t fall into the trap of believing
that visual aids always make a speech better.
Just because other speakers use them
doesn’t mean that you must use them as well.
Recommendations
For an Informative Speech
– especially a workplace presentation or proposal –
in which you need to convey a lot of information,
visual aids are probably a good idea.
Recommendations
For a Persuasive Speech
– in which you want the audience to really
pay attention to your
eyes, facial expressions, and spoken words –
visual aids might be a bad idea.
Recommendations
PowerPoint™ (PPT) is the most commonly used
tool for presentations, and can be quite helpful.
A good speech can be enhanced with PowerPoint.
However,
a bad speech will always be bad,
even if you use a visual aid like PowerPoint.
So don’t use PPT thinking it will
automatically make your speech better!
Recommendations
If only a small portion of your speech needs a visual
aid, show the slide or movie clip for a short time.
Then turn it off so people won’t be distracted.
OR
Consider using an old-fashioned display,
for example, a poster board.
If you decide to use PowerPoint,
here are some tips to make your presentation
more appealing to your audience.
1. Don’t put too much information on one slide.
Limit each slide to just a few sentences.
2. Make sure you use a font style and size that
is easy for everyone to read.
3. Emphasize important points by using bold, italics,
or underlining – or a combination of these.
4. Use both uppercase and lowercase letters.
DON’T USE ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS, OR IT
WILL BE MUCH MORE DIFFICULT FOR THE
AUDIENCE TO READ YOUR TEXT!
5. Double-check everything to make sure you don’t
have any spelling errors, or anything that will
conflict with your spoken words.
6. Don’t turn your back to the audience when you are
explaining a slide.
7. Finally, when you give your speech, make sure you
leave each slide on the screen long enough to
make your point, but not so long that the slide
becomes boring.