An old cliché states, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” To modernize the cliché we should say, “A picture plus sound plus motion and other special effects are worth a thousand words”—that is, of course, when they are used in a context that is appropriate to the topic, the audience, and the occasion (i.e., the rhetorical situation).

Presentation aids include objects, models, pictures, graphs, charts, video, audio, and multimedia. Each of these elements, used alone and in combination, helps the audience see relationships among concepts and elements. Aids also help audience members store and remember material and critically examine key ideas. As valuable as they can be, however, the strength of any particular presentation aid lies in the context in which it is used. No matter how powerful a photograph or chart or video may be, the audience will be less interested in merely gazing at it than in discovering how you will relate it to a specific point. Emphasis should be on using those aids that help audience members process and retain key speech points most efficiently.¹