Printed Page 408

If serving as a presentation aid yourself would complicate things too much or prevent you from interacting with your audience, consider asking someone to help you reinforce points from your speech or to demonstrate something. For example, in speeches about lifesaving techniques and the use of CPR, lifeguards teaching new recruits often ask an assistant to role-play the victim of a drowning accident, concussion, heart attack, or stroke. The lifeguard then demonstrates techniques and procedures on the assistant while the class watches. As we saw earlier in the chapter, using an assistant can also help you surmount unique challenges in using presentation aids—such as how to show a motorcycle to a classroom of students.