Most presentations are brief talks about a particular topic delivered by a knowledgeable speaker to a specific audience. Often they are persuasive—aimed at getting audience members to agree with the speaker about something, and/or to take action. For example, a salesperson might give a presentation to try to convince a potential client to adopt a particular product. Or you might give a presentation to persuade your classmates to agree with you about a specific topic or issue.

With software available on the Web, you can reach more viewers and listeners, and make your presentation more visual and multimodal. For example, in the workplace, you might use online meeting products such as WebEx, Microsoft Live Meeting, or Elluminate to reach people at remote locations. You can also record a presentation and then post it online for future viewing, such as in Matthew Inman’s Ignite talk featured in the guided reading.

To put a presentation together, you can use software to organize your ideas. For years, PowerPoint, part of Microsoft Office, was the standard in many workplaces and classrooms. However, some presenters are now turning to more visually engaging tools, such as Prezi.