In an oral presentation, you’ll use spoken language to connect personally with your audience. Through your choice of words, metaphors, imagery, and turns of speech, you’ll engage your listeners in your argument and ideas. Keep your purpose and role in mind as you decide how to address your audience. For example, if you are attempting to solve a problem, your goal might be to engage your audience personally with the problem. You might talk about how the problem affects “us” and ask them to consider what “we” should do to address it.

As you consider your language choices, keep in mind that spoken language is usually more casual than written language. If you adopt the formal tone of your academic research essay, you might sound stiff and unnatural. Remember as well the power of repetition in oral presentations. You’ll help your audience follow your line of argument by stating important points more than once and in different ways. Finally, consider the role of emotional appeals in your presentation. To connect personally with your audience and to engage your audience with your issue, you should explore the use of vivid descriptions, surprising statistics, and humor. Don’t rely heavily on emotional appeals, however. To maintain your credibility, you’ll want to balance emotional appeals with logic by presenting sound reasoning and support for your argument.