BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

MNJ275
SESSION 13
Developing Oral and Online Presentations
 OBJECTIVES

1  Highlight the importance of presentations in your business

career and explain how to adapt the planning step of the three-
step process to presentations.
2  Describe the tasks involved in developing a presentation.
3  Describe the six major design and writing tasks required to
enhance
your presentation with effective visuals.
4  Outline three special tasks involved in completing a presentation.
5  Describe four important aspects of delivering a presentation in
today’s social media environment.
 Planning a Presentation
• Oral presentations, delivered in person or online, offer important
opportunities to put all your communication skills on display, including
research, planning, writing, visual design, and interpersonal and
nonverbal communication.
• Presentations also let you demonstrate your ability to think on your feet,
grasp complex business issues, and handle challenging situations all
attributes that executives look for when searching for talented employees
to promote.
• The three-step writing process
can help you create more effective presentations and turn your public
speaking anxiety into positive energy.
 Selecting the Right Medium
• The task of selecting the right medium might seem obvious. After all,
you are speaking, so it’s an oral medium. However, you have an array
of choices these days, from live, in-person presentations to webcasts
(online presentations that people either view live or download later
from your website), screencasts (recordings of activity on computer
displays with audio voiceover), or twebinars (the use of Twitter as a
backchannel—for real-time conversation during a web-based
seminar).
 Organizing Your Presentation
• Defining Your Main Idea : If you can’t express your main idea in a single
sentence, you probably haven’t defined it clearly enough.
• Limiting Your Scope : Limiting your scope ensures that your presentation
fits the allotted time and your content meets audience needs and
expectations. The only sure way to measure the length of your
presentation is to complete a practice run.
• Choosing Your Approach : Organize short presentations the same way you
would a letter or brief memo; organize long presentations as you would a
report or proposal. Using a storytelling model can be a great way to catch
and hold the audience’s attention.
• Preparing Your Outline : In addition to planning your speech, a
presentation outline helps you plan your speaking notes
 Developing a Presentation
• Adapting to your audience involves a number of issues, from speaking style to
technology choices.
• Composing Your Presentation
Presentation Introduction, An effective introduction arouses interest in your
topic, establishes your credibility, and prepares the audience for the body of your
presentation.
Presentation Body, Use transitions to repeat key ideas, particularly in longer
presentations. The most important way to hold an audience’s attention is to
show how your message relates to their individual needs and concerns.
Presentation Close , Plan your close carefully so that your audience leaves with a
clear summary of your main idea. Plan your final statement carefully so you can
end on a strong, positive note.
 TASKS in developing a presentation
a) Although you usually don’t write out a presentation word for word, you still
engage in the writing process developing your ideas, structuring support points,
phrasing your transitions, and so on.
b) Adapting to the audience is crucial because presentation audiences and venues
can vary widely, from small, informal gatherings to formal keynote speeches in
large auditoriums to virtual presentations given entirely online.
c) To compose a presentation, break it down into three essential parts: an
introduction that arouses the audience’s interest in your topic, establishes your
credibility, and prepares the audience for what will follow; a body that conveys
your information in a way that maintains audience interest and makes it easy to
connect one idea to the next; and a close that restates your main points, wraps
up any unfinished business, and lets you end with clarity and confidence.
Enhancing Your Presentation with
Effective Visuals
• Thoughtfully designed visuals create interest, illustrate
complex points in your message, add variety, and help the
audience absorb and remember information.
• Focus on making your presentations simple and authentic.
 Choosing Structured or Free-Form Slides
• Structured slides are usually based on templates that give all the slides in a
presentation the same general look (which usually involves a lot of bullet
points); free-form slides are much less rigid and emphasize visual appeal.
• Free-form slides often have far less content per slide than structured designs,
which requires many more slides to cover a presentation of equal length.
• Structured slides are often the best choice for project updates and other
routine information presentations, particularly if the slides are intended to
be used only once.
• Well-designed free-form slides help viewers understand, process, and
remember the speaker’s message.
• Free-form slides can require more skill and time to create, and they put more
demands on the speaker during the presentation.
 Designing Effective Slides
• Use presentation software wisely
to avoid the “death by PowerPoint” stigma that presentations have in
the mind of many professionals.
• “Slideuments” are hybrids that try to function as both presentation
slides and readable documents—and usually fail at both tasks.
• Rather than packing your slides with enough information to make them
readable as standalone documents, complement well-designed slides
with printed handouts.
• Organizing a slide around a key visual can help the audience quickly
grasp how ideas are related.
 Completing a Presentation
• The completion step for presentations involves a wider range of tasks
than most printed documents require. Make sure you allow enough to
time to test your presentation slides, verify equipment operation,
practice your speech, and create handout materials.
• With a first draft of your presentation in hand, revise your slides to make
sure they are readable, concise, consistent, and fully operational
(including transitions, builds, animation, and multimedia).
• Complete your production efforts by finalizing your slides, creating
handouts, choosing your presentation method, and practicing your
delivery.
 Finalizing Your Slides
■ Title slide(s). You can make a good first impression with one or two
title slides, the equivalent of a report’s cover and title page.
■ Agenda and program details. These slides communicate the agenda
for your presentation and any additional information the audience might
need such as hashtags and WiFi log-in information.
■ Navigation slides. To tell your audience where you’re going and where
you’ve been, you can use a series of navigation slides. A simple way to
do this is to repeat your agenda slide at the beginning of each major
section in your presentation, with the upcoming section highlighted in
some way.
• Creating Effective Handouts : Use handout materials to support the points
made in your presentation and to offer the audience additional information
on your topic.
• Choosing Your Presentation Method : In nearly all instances, speaking from
notes (rather than a full script) is the most effective delivery mode.
• Practicing Your Delivery : The more you practice, the more confidence you’ll
have in yourself and your material. Make sure you’re comfortable with the
equipment you’ll be expected to use; you don’t want to be fumbling with
controls while the audience is watching and waiting
 Delivering a Presentation
• It’s show time. This section offers practical advice on four important
aspects of delivery:
overcoming anxiety, handling questions responsively, embracing the
backchannel, and giving presentations online.

Overcoming Anxiety
• Preparation is the best antidote for anxiety; it gives you confidence
that you know your material and that you can recover from any
glitches you might encounter.
• Handling Questions Responsively
Don’t leave the question-and-answer period to chance: Anticipate potential questions
and think through your answers.
If you don’t have the complete an- swer to an important question, offer to provide it
after the presentation.
If you ever face hostile questions, respond honestly and directly while keeping your cool.
• Embracing the Backchannel
backchannel, which presentation expert Cliff Atkinson defines as “a line of com-
munication created by people in an audience to connect with others inside or outside
the room, with or without the knowledge of the speaker.
Twitter and other social media are changing business presentations by making it easy for
all audience mem- bers to participate in the backchannel
Resist the urge to ignore or fight the backchannel; instead, learn how to use it to your
advantage
• Giving Presentations Online
Online presentations give you a way to reach more people in less time,
but they require special preparation and skills.
To ensure successful online presentations, keep the following advice in
mind:
• Consider sending preview study materials ahead of time.
• Keep your presentation as simple as possible.
• Ask for feedback frequently.
• Consider the viewing experience from the audience members’ point of view.
• Allow plenty of time for everyone to get connected and familiar with the
screen they’re viewing.
Quiz 13 :

1. Describe four important aspects of delivering a presentation in

today’s social media environment.
2. Describe the tasks involved in developing a presentation.
END OF SLIDE
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