Tips for Using Presentation Aids

• Know how to use your aids. While composing and rehearsing your speech, spend time with the presentation visuals you’re going to be using—ideally, in the same setting where you’ll be giving your presentation. You can damage your credibility by fumbling with your slides or not knowing how to properly handle any physical objects you’ve brought.

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• Prepare your audience for what they’re about to see or hear. Take time to introduce any slide or handout you present—especially if it contains complex information. For example, you should explain what a graph shows: “As this next graph will demonstrate, the number of students in federal subsidized school lunch programs has doubled over the past five years.”

• Thoroughly explain the information on a presentation aid. Whether you’re introducing a slide, a poster, or a video, don’t rush your listeners through it. Take time to discuss the idea conveyed by the presentation aid.

• Talk to your audience, not the medium. Remember that you need to convey immediacy with your audience for them to pay attention. Don’t talk with your back to your audience while writing on a whiteboard or changing PowerPoint slides. Such behaviors will make your audience feel disconnected.

• Remove the presentation aid once you’re done with it. After you’ve made your point with a presentation aid, cover it up, remove it from the screen, or erase the image. You want your audience attending to you as you move to your next point, not mulling over a previous graph or image left up on the screen.

• Have a backup plan. You can never account for everything that might happen during your speech, but you should prepare alternatives in case your presentation aids fail. For example, what if a lightbulb in the projector burns out? Or your computer crashes? Or your marker runs out of ink? You always need to have a backup plan.