Clarifying requirements, audience needs, &

goals Planning Presentations

Clarify requirementsClarify audience expectations and needsClarify goals

Essential to planning an effective presentation that clearly communicates keyideas is to first begin with ensuring the team understands any requirementsthe team is expected to meet, and reflect on characteristics of the consumersof the information they plan to share, and reflecting on the team’scommunication goals.

Clarifying requirements…

Before investing too much time developing the presentation, very important isto ensure that the requirements of the person grading the presentation areclesarly understood. Typically, the team will be provided one of three be provided one of three types of requirements:

Open: The team may use any communication tool they wish when designingand/or delivering their presentation.

Select from a list: The teacher has provided a list of specific communicationtools or techniques that the team must select from and employ.

Specific requirement: The team may utilize a wide array of presentationtools/techniques, but they must include among them one or more that havebeen specified by someone (e.g., “In addition with whatever techniques theteam uses during their oral presentation, each team member must also writea minimum of an 8 page paper that uses three different references”).

Some questions the team might ask and answer include:* What does the person grading the project want to happen as a result of

the report?

* How brief or extensive do evaluator want the report to be?

* Are there specific tools/techniques we are expected to employ?

* Is there an evaluation rubric the person grading our report plans to use?What areas and expectations are reflected on the rubric?

* Are we expected to develop our own presentation evaluation rubric?

Clarifying audience expectations and needs...The team should anticipate the expectations of their intended audience.

Questions that team might ask and answer include:What does the audience expect from the report?

… to be informed about something?… to be entertained?… to have their attitudes or beliefs impacted or challenged?

What format /style does the audience expect?

The team should anticipate the characteristics and needs of their intendedaudience. Questions that team might ask and answer include:

What might be the attention span of the audience for this information?

How familiar will the audience be with the topic? novice? expert?

Will the audience need handouts?

Will the audience need graphic organizers to better understand ourinformation?

Will the audience need to engage in some type of activity to betterunderstand our information?

Clarifying goals...

Once the team has clarified requirements and anticipated the needs of theaudience, each individual and the team as a whole should identify goals forthe presentation. The team can use the Presentation Goal Sheet (seeAppendix) to facilitate this process. This goal sheet is designed to cue thepresenters to various areas that might be considered when settingpresentation goals. The figure below provides an example of one developedby the Peace Corps team.

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__yes __no __optional About how long should it last? _____ minutes

__yes __no __optional Does each team member have to make part of the presentation?__yes __no __optional Expected to provide handouts?__yes __no __optional Expected to use overhead projector? __yes __no __optional Expected to construct and use graphic organizers or other visual aids?

Other expectations related to making an oral report? __________________________________________________________

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__yes __no __optional About how long? _____ words (or pages)

__yes __no __optional Does each team member have to write a separate report? __yes __no __optional Expected to provide copies for the audience?__yes __no __optional Citations (references) needed? How many? ___

What aspects of the written report will be evaluated?__yes __no Organization? __yes __no How well ideas are explained? __yes __no How detailed the report is?__yes __no Spelling/capitalization/punctuation? __yes __no Grammar and sentence structure?

Other expectations related to developing a written report? ________________________________________________

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__yes __no __optional ___________________

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__ older students__ same age/grade students__ younger students

__ parents/relatives__ teacher(s)

___ Entertain

___ Inform/explain what happened

___ Change attitudes/beliefs

___ Increase awareness of an issue or problem

___ Show solution to a problem

___ Change a behavior or way of doing things

__ Will already be pretty familiar with the topic; some may even be experts.

__ Won’t know much about the topic at all -- its probably new information for most of them

__ Have some background knowledge of the topic, but won’t know too many specifics; may have some misunderstandings about it

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