From Idea to Image: Using Presentation Aids
Using Presentation Aids
As you select each aid for your presentation, ask yourself:
- Is the type of aid the best choice to convey the information?
- Is my timing of the aid optimal?
- Will the aid help me achieve my desired effect?
Following are examples of one student’s effective use of presentation aids in her speech about plastic bags and the environment.
The Plastic Bag Plague
Introduction
- Picture a swirling, plastic-laden gyre of ocean waters, twice the size of Texas . . . (Attention getter)
The notion of such large garbage patches in the middle of the ocean is difficult to fathom without a visual, so to build credibility, the student decides to show a map.
Body
- Plastic bags choke the land and water . . .
- Americans throw out 30 million tons of plastic annually, or nearly 12 percent of all solid waste, and recycle only 6 percent of it.
Comparing recycling rates of solid wastes, the student uses a bar graph to show how plastic is the least biodegradable.
- 100,000 marine animals are killed annually . . .
To appeal to the audience’s emotions, or pathos, the student shows a video of marine life suffering the consequences of plastic bag pollution. She hyperlinks the image to the video URL. On the day of her presentation, she makes sure the presentation room has an Internet connection and that her hyperlinked video works.
Dave McAleavy/Shutterstock- 200,000 plastic bags get deposited in landfills every hour and take 1,000 years to decompose . . .
The student illustrates this dramatic statistic with a photograph of a landfill teeming with plastic.
Sami Sarkis/Photodisc/Getty Images - Americans throw out 30 million tons of plastic annually, or nearly 12 percent of all solid waste, and recycle only 6 percent of it.
Conclusion
- Prevent major impact on our world . . .
Stressing the need to act, the student concludes with a text slide listing actions students can take. Note that she selects a font color that contrasts well with the background color.
- Use environmentally friendly bags . . .
The student shows this reusable bag from Whole Foods as a prop to demonstrate her point.
David McNew/Getty Images News/Getty Images - Hold up your reusable bag and say, “No thank you, I brought my own . . . ”
Once again, the student holds up a reusable shopping bag to reiterate one of her speech’s primary points: Decrease plastic bag consumption.