GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING PRESENTATION AIDS

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Effectively developing your presentation aids—that is, figuring out exactly what aids to use and the appearance and organization of the aids—is crucial to reaping their potential benefits, from making your speech more interesting and simplifying your topic to helping your audience remember your speech. Even if you already have a general idea of what you want your aids to achieve—for example, show the audience paintings from Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period, or help them remember the most important aspects of the job-interview process—you still have many factors to consider to achieve maximum impact. As you develop your presentation aids, pay special attention to the forum, consider audience demographics and prior exposure, make sure your aids support your points, keep your aids simple and clear, and make sure to rehearse with your aids. Let’s address each of these important factors in turn.