 Lecture 2, As-Salaam-Alaikum. Welcome to the virtual university's course on business and technical communication. Today we will look at oral communication. We will talk about the different types of oral communication, which include extemporary, impromptu, memorization and reading. We will also look at the different modes of delivery for making oral presentations and the different guidelines for making the delivery of oral presentations. It is important that you communicate well whether you are communicating orally or in writing. Ideas are useless unless you are able to communicate them properly to somebody else. For example, if you take the example of Ahmed who majored in metallurgy, he has analyzed a group of pistons that broke when used in experimental automobile engines. His skillful analysis is of no use unless he communicates the results to someone else such as the engineer who must redesign the pistons. Obviously, if you have identified a problem, you found a solution to a problem. For example, like Ahmed who identified the problem of the group of pistons that broke down and he analyzed why it happened and maybe what to do to make sure that it did not happen again. All this is of no use unless he is able to communicate his ideas to the engineers who are able to fix them or to people who are going to implement what his ideas are. So, it is important that whatever you have in your mind, you are able to communicate it well and properly to your audience. Whether you communicate that in writing or whether you communicate that in speech orally is something for you to decide depending on the purpose of that communication. In today's lecture, we will look specifically at oral communication and we will cover the different types of oral communication, the modes of delivery and the guidelines for delivery as I mentioned earlier. Now, oral presentations can be informal and formal both. It depends on what the purpose is. There are explicit purposes which are obvious, known to people and they are implicit purposes which are not known to everybody, but they are there, they are hidden purposes. So, both these explicit and implicit purposes will determine whether your presentation is going to be informal or formal and also the delivery situation. Where is it that the presentation has to be made? That will also determine whether it is to be a formal presentation or an informal presentation. An oral presentation can be almost any report type such as a design review, a proposal or a conference talk. Whatever the specific type of presentation however, an effective oral presentation is carefully planned with your objectives in mind and it pays close attention to the demands of your audience. Obviously, if you cannot pay attention to the demands of your audience, if you do not know what your audience wants or what your audience is expecting from you, then your presentation cannot achieve its purpose. That is why it is important that the audience that you are listening to, the expectations that they want from this presentation, meet them. And until you pay attention to this, your presentation will not be very effective. Let us have a look at a comparison table between written and oral communication. What is the difference between written communication and oral communication? In written communications, publications which are written permit potentially unlimited audience over time and place. Obviously, if something has been written down, then potentially the time over which it is viewed is unlimited because once it has been written down then it can be viewed over a long period of time and even where it is viewed is not limited. The written communication can go from one place to another and you do not have to be physically present there. Whereas, oral communication is generally limited to time and place of delivery. Oral communication has to be done at a particular time at a particular place and it cannot be duplicated in exactly the same way at another time or place unless it has been recorded. In written communication, there is no direct audience interaction. So, that is another major difference between written and oral communication. That in written communication, there is no direct interaction between audience and the presenter. Whereas, in oral communication, there is a very high level of audience interaction. Or at least a high level of audience interaction is possible. It can be low or high but there is direct interaction between the audience and the presenter. Another difference is that of structure. Whereas, in written communication, there is a very refined argumentative structure. Oral communication relies on a simple presentation of main points. In written communication, a complicated point can also be complicated whereas, in oral communication, the points are clearly stated directly. Also, in written communication, there is a large volume of detailed information which can be communicated. More information can be communicated in written communication and even detailed information can be read. Whereas, in oral communication, there is a very limited information because obviously, there is a factor of time. Secondly, you have to see how much information the audience can absorb. So, when in written communication, a large number of information can be sent out. In oral communication, the amount of information is limited. Moreover, in written communication, the syntax and diction that is used is very precise. The sentence structure, the vocabulary is very precise. It is tailored to written communication. It is more formal as well. In contrast, in oral communication, the syntax and the diction that is used, the style of speaking, the style of communicating is very conversational. It is less formal than written communication. It is more conversational. Similarly, in written communication, the emphasis is text whereas, in oral communication, the emphasis is on visuals. Similarly, in written communication, the sentence structure is formal. Similarly, in written communication, the text and the words used in the content and the way the content is written is more intense. Whereas, in oral presentation, the style is conversational. The vocabulary and grammar used are a bit casual. Moreover, the emphasis is more on visuals than what you are showing. Another difference is that in written communication, it is the reader who controls the pace of presentation. It is the reader who decides when to take a break, when to stop reading, how long it should take to read a particular document, etc. Whereas, in oral communication, it is the presenter who decides the pace. You as a presenter decide how many gaps to take, how many pauses to make, how long the presentation should take, or how short the presentation should be. Even if in written communication, as the presenter, you may have taken, for example, four days to write a particular paper or report, the reader might read it either in ten minutes or they might take a week to read it depending on the speed that they determine. In oral presentations, however, even if you have taken four days to prepare the presentation, you do not have the option of presenting it over four days. The option will be what you determine, but it will also be restricted to time, as we said earlier. And the reader or the listener, the audience does not have the choice of how long the presentation will take. Now, effective oral communication is a combination of many skills. It involves outlining and planning, preparing overhead slides or other display media. It involves rehearsing and delivery. So, whereas first you will outline, plan, what needs to go in the presentation. Then you will prepare accordingly the visuals, the overheads or the slides or display material that goes with it. Then once you've got that prepared, you will rehearse. You will practice. And then eventually you will deliver. And all these require a combination of many, many, many different skills. When we talk about formal and informal oral reports, we need to keep in mind that an oral report may be delivered around a small table with just a few listeners or it can be a large auditorium where you're delivering and the audience might consist of hundreds of people. So, that will also determine the size of the audience, the context in which the presentation is to be delivered will determine whether the presentation is to be formal or informal. Obviously, if the presentation is in front of hundreds of people, it is more likely that it is going to be formal. Informal oral reports are generally characterized by small group settings with a high degree of audience interaction and a relaxed manner of delivery and rest. Now, in informal presentations, it is more likely that the group will be small. It is not necessary that every time informal interaction is in front of a small group or every time it is in front of a small group, it is informal. It can also be formal. But the majority of the chances are that informal presentations are presented for a small group and the mode of delivery is also informal. The dress sense is also informal and the interaction with the audience is more. That means, the presenter will pause more and the audience can ask a question or have a discussion. Obviously, it is not possible in a large group. Informal presentations can foster the free exchange of ideas and they can be important for producing action items. Basically, if there is a small group of people and there is the possibility that ideas can be exchanged and that there can be pauses in the presentation and people can talk to each other and especially to the presenter, then it is also more likely that it can be decided what action to be taken immediately rather than people going away with the ideas and then deciding on actions that need to be taken as a result of the presentation. In informal, it is very likely that there will be a lot of interaction, people can talk to each other more. Obviously, it means work. And because of that, whatever action to be taken, it will be decided quickly. Oral presentations in a professional environment generally form into two categories. They can be informative or they can be persuasive. Now, informative speaking or informative presentations have audience learning as their primary goal. So, when we say that a particular presentation is going to be informative, then the idea is that we are expecting that the audience will learn something from it. An informative speech may explain a concept, instruct an audience, demonstrate a process or describe an event. For example, what I am doing right now is informative speaking. I am explaining a concept, I am instructing an audience. Similarly, informative speaking could be demonstrating a process or describing an event. All things which tell the audience something. In a professional setting, the informative speech may take many different forms. It can be in the form of an individual or group report. Oral briefings can be informative speaking, panel discussions and oral critique. These are all different forms of informative speaking. Persuasive speaking on the other hand is used to influence what an audience thinks or does. It is not used to tell an audience something, but it is used to influence or change the way they are doing something or they are thinking about something. Some of the goals of persuasive speaking include reinforcing the attitudes, beliefs and values that an audience already holds. They can be to inoculate an audience against counter-persuasion to make sure that the audience does not get persuaded against the idea. That is why it is called a preventive measure. Persuasive speaking is done so that the audience does not get persuaded against the idea. It is also used to change attitudes. If the audience has an attitude and you want to change their attitude or you want their belief to be different then persuasive speaking can be done. And also to motivate an audience to act. If you want the listeners to take a particular action on an audience then persuasive speaking is done so that they can motivate them to take action. There are at least four delivery methods for making an order presentation. These methods are called extemporary, impromptu, memorization or reading method. The extemporaneous method involves significant effort but it also results in a degree of quality that tells your audience that you care about them and the subject. Now basically this means that when you are engaging in extemporaneous speaking you are making the effort to prepare with the result that you get quality and the audience realizes that your audience is sure that you have cared enough to prepare. In extemporary you will prepare and as a result of that your presentation will have a good quality. The extemporaneous method requires the detailed laying out of the presentation from the beginning to end. You will prepare the presentation in a special detail. It involves doing your homework to fill in knowledge gaps. For extemporaneous presentation you will have to do some research. You will have to do some background work so that your knowledge can be fulfilled if it is lacking somewhere. It also involves the use of three by five cue cards or similar methods, similar prompts to jog your memory on specifics and to keep your presentation on track. So in an extemporary presentation you will use some kind of cue either small three by five cue cards that you can look at or that you can glance at when you are presenting just so that you don't forget or any similar paper or something which looks neat and has key points of your presentation so that you don't forget. The impromptu method on the other hand is when there is no formal preparation and the presenter just stands or sits in front of the audience without having prepared and gives a presentation. Now this it's impromptu it's off the cuff, it is unprepared and this impromptu method is characterized by poor organization and incompleteness. These are two main characteristics that come across in impromptu presentations. It tells the audience the message that goes to the audience is that you as a presenter are indifferent about them. Obviously when you have not prepared then your presentation has a lot of chances, 99% chance that your presentation will have some shortcomings. Some organizations will not be as good as extemporary prepared presentations. From this the audience gets this message or this idea that maybe you are indifferent to them you don't realize their needs and you are taking them very casually. The memorization method the third method that we mentioned is risky. Basically the memorization method means that you have memorized the whole presentation and you are not relying on any visual aids. Now obviously this is risky because you can lose where you were in the presentation. If you get distracted a bit then you can lose your place in the presentation or you can leave something out at the end or somewhere in the middle and in a panic you may also revert to impromptu method which means that if you panic if you miss out a part of what you had memorized then you will be forced to speak without any preparation and this can result in disaster. So try not to rely on the memorization method because obviously if you miss out on something and if you forget any words then your presentation will be completely twisted. It will fall apart and then you will have to go impromptu. You will have to speak without preparation because obviously you had memorized and you forgot you don't remember what you had to say now you will have to think and then you will have to stop confusing or disaster source of that. Finally the reading method it might be acceptable if you are presenting a discourse on some technical topic about which you lack expertise if it is something technical if it is something that you do not know much about it is a concept that you will not be able to talk about without reading then it might be acceptable otherwise generally the reading method is not acceptable basically because if you are reading then there is no audience interaction and also if you are constantly reading from a paper then it bores the audience and also it gives the impression that you do not know anything about your subject and therefore you are having to read. So obviously if you have to constantly read one thing then your audience becomes aware that you do not know anything about this topic or you do not know much that is why you have to constantly read that is why you should avoid it only in that case it will be acceptable if there is a very technical topic about which you are presenting and it is also understood that you may not know too much about it then it might be acceptable an example could be in presenting a paper at a technical meeting ill for example so if you are at a technical meeting you have to present a paper everybody knows that you have not written the paper you are reading it for a colleague who is ill then it is acceptable now when you are preparing for the presentation as we said it is better to prepare it is better to present extemporary rather than impromptu so you need to obviously have some preparation done before you actually make a presentation but irrespective of whatever method of delivery it is even if you are reading the presenter must consider the following parameters in preparing for the presentation these parameters are knowledge of the audience knowledge of the subject what it is that you are talking about the use of time how much time you have how will you use that properly rehearsal you obviously need to practice before and personal appearance and grooming five points are very very important and you have to keep these in mind when you are making a presentation no matter what the mode of delivery is especially when you are making an extemporary presentation but even for the other three types you have to keep these points in mind additionally the preparation and use of visual aids is an important element of any effective presentation obviously if you are reading then maybe you will not be using too many visual aids or if you are making an impromptu presentation then you will not have any visual aids and that is why also these presentations are not very effective for presentation to be effective make sure that you have appropriate and well planned visual aids talking of knowledge of the audience that we said we need to keep in mind you need to be careful that you are not patronizing your audience just because you are informing them or persuading them about a subject does not mean that they are in any way inferior to you don't speak down to them or up to them as your audience basically this means that you shouldn't think that they are below you in terms of knowledge and you shouldn't even make it very obvious that they are if they are very much more highly knowledgeable don't speak up to them don't become subservient to them either speak to them on an equal footing also keep in mind how much do they already know about your subject till you don't know how much your audience knows about your subject your presentation cannot be effective because it is also possible that you are telling basic points that the audience already knows and then they get bored or it is possible you are assuming that your audience knows basic things and you are presenting at an advanced level and then the audience doesn't understand so it is important that you know how much your audience knows about your subject also you should know the age level of the audience as well as its members level of education sophistication and special interests it always helps when your audience has a similar profile if your audience has a similar age level similar educational level similar interest then the work becomes easy for you because your presentation is targeted for a more uniform audience but if your audience has a similar age level background then you have to imagine what kind of people are in your audience so that your presentation is made according to that and that is basically when you have tailored your presentation accordingly that is when your presentation can actually reach all segments of your audience now when we say knowledge of the subject this we talked about knowledge of the audience the next point is knowledge of the subject this basically means that whether you use notes or you use a manuscript that you are reading from or you are strictly relying on memory you must know your subject well whatever your mode of delivery is but you should have complete control over your subject if there are any gaps if there are any areas that you do not know about and they can come to your presentation they can ask questions or if there are any gaps in your presentation then it is your responsibility to fill those gaps and if you do not know about that you should get knowledge you need to observe time limits you need to rehearse if you do not stick to a particular time that there is a chance that your presentation will be either very short or very long the likelihood is that presentations tend to go over so you need to rehearse to make sure that you stick to the time that has been given even if no time limit is given you should try to do justice to your subject in as little time as possible try to keep your presentation short rather than long because with the short presentation it is more likely that the audience will stay interested whereas with the long presentation you need to lose interest so if you have not been given a time limit then try to keep your presentation to the lower end try to keep it short but not at the expense of the content in the presentation the short-trip of the presentation does not mean that you should incomplete your presentation the important information is to be used but try to do it in a concise way so that you can make it longer your personal appearance affects your credibility it affects how the audience views you and how you come across to them so it is very important that your personal appearance should be like this that you are professional that you are listening to that you are in your audience that you have prepared so let us see what you think informal clothing is rarely appropriate for a professional presentation it is very unlikely that it will be acceptable for you to make a presentation in informal attire obviously you are in a professional setting normally you should go in informal clothes but the day you have to present it is better to wear a little formal clothes so that you look more professional that is why it is important that you should pay significant attention to personal grooming your hair, your dress whatever you have should be formal during the presentation the delivery is a very important aspect even if you have prepared well you have been conscious of time and your personal appearance is very neat and very effective but if you are not delivering properly then everything can crumble all your preparation can go down the drain basically so when we talk of presentation delivery it is important to keep in mind poise and enthusiasm you need to keep in mind eye contact use of voice and use of time what do we mean when we say poise and enthusiasm basically it means you should be well prepared and strive for muscular control alert attention vibrant interest in the subject and you should show an eagerness to communicate you need to be poised you need to look confident and you need to look enthusiastic you should not be your hands should not be shaking even if you are nervous it should not come across to the audience whatever your nervousness is you should not be confident you need to be poised you need to be alert so that your audience can be alert and you need to keep in mind your own interest in the subject so that your audience can know that you are eager and enthusiastic that should come across avoid distracting mannerisms whatever your body language or pencil use do not distract your audience for example some people have the habit of tapping if they have a pen in their hand they have the habit of tapping that or they have a habit of fidgeting with something in their hand try to avoid things like that because they can distract the audience and instead of that their tension will go on on your hands and they will distract but it does not mean that you will be a frozen statue you will move about not excessively but a bit so that the audience knows that you are interacting with them and that you are enthusiastic during a presentation try to make eye contact with most of the people in the room if not everybody in the room so make sure that you are looking at the people who are sitting in your presentation and that you are making eye contact don't look down or don't gaze blankly at a wall behind your audience if you make eye contact then it gives the impression that the audience knows that you are interested in them and that you are confident this is the way even in a warm professional setting and if we don't look at them then they will feel that either we are hiding something from them or we are lying or we are not confident in talking to them similarly when you are doing a presentation then make eye contact so that you are sincere and so that the audience is interested in you avoid fastening your gaze on your notes or on some point in space over the heads of the listeners as I said don't just look at your notes don't just look down don't look just at the screen that the audience is seeing or at the wall because then basically you are interacting with whatever you are looking at and you are not interacting with your audience obviously the way you are seeing the way you are speaking your interaction is with those who are sitting so avoid this that you are just looking at your paper and don't look up apart from this you should also avoid that you are only eye contact with one or two people and ignoring the rest because even with that who you have kept eye contact with the two people they will be a little intimidated and the rest will feel left out so it has a negative effect so try to be more friendly with other people use of voice don't speak too softly too fast or mumble your audience must be able to hear what you say and they must be able to understand what you say so avoid speaking too fast and avoid speaking so slow that your audience goes off to sleep another important thing is the time if you have not prepared adequately it is easy to become nervous and start rushing through your presentation so if you need to be careful that you don't speak too fast you don't finish your presentation long before the allotted time so instead try to use take a deep breath if you become nervous try to use the pacing that you established during your rehearsals whatever you did in your rehearsals try to keep that timing when you are making a formal presentation the material of the presentation should be concise to the point and it should tell an interesting story in addition to the obvious things like content and visual aids the following that we will talk about are just as important as the audience will subconsciously be taking them in the obvious things are the content and the visual aids there are just a few things that the audience will be able to see but there are also some other things that you need to take care of because they will also affect the audience the first of them is your voice how you say things is as important as what you say so even if your content is very effective very impressive how you deliver that content don't speak too loud don't speak too soft as I said earlier your audience should not be getting the impression that you are shouting at them and they shouldn't feel that you are mumbling so keep your voice pleasant keep it at the right pitch so that it gives a good impression body language is important a subject in its own right and something about which much has been written and said basically body language is basically how you stand, how you move about how you move your hands the movements of your body essentially your body movements express what your attitudes and thoughts really are now if your hands are shaking then it shows the audience that you are nervous if you are standing in a frozen position with your hands closed then it shows the audience that a. you are very tense b. and not relaxed and also b. that especially if your hands are closed then you are not forthcoming to their ideas it shows that you are closed you are closed up the appearance is important first impressions, inference the audience's attitude to you so you should dress appropriately for the occasion if you are sloppy then the audience will automatically when they see you on the stage or in front of them in a sloppy manner sloppy attire, hair going all over the place looking untidy then they will feel that you are a careless person you lose interest in the presentation or at least they will not take you very seriously so keep your appearance in mind as well as with most personal skills oral communication cannot be taught you can only point the way so don't think that you are teaching somebody you are just giving them information you are just persuading them you are just pointing out the way to them so as always practice it is essential so that you can improve your skills and also so that you can make the best of the individual presentations that you make so practice at the end practice is very important the more you practice the better your presentation will be now when you are preparing the presentation what do you need to keep in mind at that point you need to prepare the structure of your talk logically and carefully just as you would for a written report when you are writing a written report so obviously even then you practice the structure you think what should I write first what should I write later how should I start it similarly you will also carefully structure what will come first, what will come later what will come between you will also think what are the objectives of my talk why am I making this talk what do I hope to achieve out of it what are the main points that is something that you need to keep in mind make a list of these two things as you are starting as you are starting point your objectives and the main points that you want to put across in your presentation so if you have got the list of objectives list of main points that will make you make it easier for you to start write out the presentation in draft just like you would write out the draft of a written report a craft draft banai up the presentation review it see it again see what you have to add what you have to remove if there are things that are irrelevant or superfluous then delete them add information that you feel will be more relevant check that the story that you are giving or whatever if you are describing an event if that or if you are describing a process or idea check that it is consistent check that it flows smoothly there are no breaks or gaps if there are things that you cannot easily express possibly because you are in doubt about your understanding then it is better to leave them unsaid if there are any such points that you may not be able to explain maybe because they are complicated you may not have enough knowledge you may not be able to fill that gap if you get any information then it is better to leave them instead of using them in the presentation and then you will know that your knowledge was less never never read from a script don't write things down and read from it directly it is also unwise to have the talk written out in detail as a prompt sheet just try to keep points, notes the chances if you have something very long written down one disadvantage of that is that there is a high chance that you will miss where you were in the presentation if there is much written on the page then you will forget where you left if you removed your perspective from the paper then when you go back to the paper you will not get a point where you want to start so it is the chances that you will not locate the thing you want to say amongst all the other texts don't make a script to read from you should know most of what you want to say if you don't then you should not be giving the talk obviously if you are giving a talk about it there is no information about it then maybe you should not give that talk so it is better to make Q cards like I said 3x5 cards on which you can write keywords or key phrases maybe if you want to make diagrams which you can easily understand what you have written write on your Q cards so that you don't have to look at them for a long time postcards are ideal for this they are a good size you can have key information on them so you can use postcards and they look pleasant as well but don't forget to number them put a number on your cards so that if you fall or if you have one card in front of you then your presentation will not be full number them so that you can always put them in sequence remember also to mark your cards according to the visual aids that go with them if there are any visual aids that go with a particular Q then mark on your cards that there will be a visual aid here so that you have the right overhead projector slide transparency etc that is shown with them also rehearse your presentation first to yourself and then in front of some colleagues so that you don't make any mistakes the initial rehearsal should consider how the words and sequence of visual aids go together so in the first rehearsal rehearse according to where you will have the visual aids what will you be saying and then obviously you will make as you practice more perfect also note how you will make the most effective use of your visual aids where visual aids can make more of an impact now when you are actually delivering the presentation when you are actually making the presentation you need to greet the audience for example you will say good morning ladies and gentlemen you will tell them who you are introduce yourself good presentations basically follow a particular formula that you will first tell the audience what you are going to tell them basically this means that you will tell your audience in the beginning what presentation is about secondly you will tell them what you are talking about you will tell them in detail you will expand this will be the middle section and third and last at the end you will recap what you have told them so you will tell the audience what you will tell them you will then eventually tell them what you need what they need to know and then you will recap you will tell them what they were told it sounds as if you are constantly telling them but it really means that you are introducing then you are giving the main part of your presentation and then you are summarizing keep to the time allowed if you have been given a time limit stick to it if you can keep it short it is better to under run than over run and we have talked about this earlier as a rule allow two minutes for each general overhead transparency each transparency that you will be showing allow generally two minutes to discuss it or power point slide if you are using power point slides but if you want to develop any specific points then you can keep allocate more than two minutes for a particular slide 35mm slides are generally used more sparingly and stay on the screen longer so if you are using 35mm slides then you will not be using too many of them you will keep them on the screen long and you will talk about them for longer however please remember that your audience will get bored with something on the screen for more than five minutes especially if you are not actively talking about it so if there is something that is on the screen for longer than five minutes then you can change it the audience needs more visual changes so that they can be alert and they can remain interested in the presentation so either switch the display off or replace the slide with some form of wallpaper maybe your company logo if you are not actively talking about a slide then replace it stick to the plan for the presentation do not be tempted to digress do not go here and there when you have made a plan, you have made an outline stick to it if you move away from it too much you will eat up your time you will waste time and end up in a dead end with no escape sometimes it is very common that it happens that if you move away from the prepared presentation then you cannot find a way to come back so try to stay on your track unless you are directly explicitly told not to leave time for discussion if you are told that you will not have a discussion later that you will not leave time for discussion otherwise, as a rule you should always leave for discussion if you have more time then it is more but five minutes is generally sufficient so that whatever points are there whatever points are there in your presentation people can clarify and chairman, whoever it is may extend this if the questioning becomes interesting so obviously if people have more questions then whoever is organizing the presentation can obviously then give permission to have a longer question answer session at the end of your presentation always ask if there are any questions when you are asking for questions do not be very short do not ask in a way that the audience feels that we are doing something wrong or we are doing something wrong do not give them the impression that if they are asking questions then their knowledge is lacking but rather ask them in a way that they feel that you are inviting questions and you are encouraging them to ask questions so that the presentation can move forward if questions are slow and coming and people are feeling hesitant in asking you can ask you can start things off by asking a question of the audience so have a question prepared just in case if you feel that the audience is asking then ask them a question so that their hesitation ends when you are delivering the presentation speak clearly do not shout or whisper judge the acoustics of the room check before the presentation how the acoustics are how the voice moves does the voice go back or not etc do not rush or talk deliberately slowly be natural but do not be very conversational do not feel that you are completely casual relaxed just like you are sitting in the drawing room just like that deliberately pause at key points this has the effect of emphasizing the importance of a particular point that you are making so give pauses so that the audience can also digest what you are saying but do not make your pauses too long avoid jokes this is always disastrous unless you are natural at making jokes and you are very confident at making jokes generally what happens is that if people make jokes if it does not go well with the audience then it can leave a very bad taste in the mouth and it can leave a very awkward silence as well so try to avoid jokes just stick to the presentation to make the presentation interesting change your delivery but not obviously if you feel that the audience is getting bored change either your speed to emphasize points but do not indulge in too much hand waving do not your hand should not be going all over the place use them a bit so that the audience stays interested people can over time develop irritating habits so ask your colleagues if there is any particular habit that you have when making a presentation and if that seems irritating then you should avoid that look at the audience as much as possible and do not fix on an individual because it can be intimidating pitch your presentation towards the back of the room or the back of the audience especially if it is a large auditorium or a large room do not face the display screen behind you if you have a screen that is behind you and it is projecting there is something information being projected on that do not face it and have your back to the audience try to look at your audience as much as possible other annoying habits can be standing in a position where you obscure the screen if you are standing in a way that you are in front of the screen that can be very irritating for the audience because obviously what you have put on the screen is that the audience can see it if you stand in front of it then the audience's view will be obstructed in fact check consciously check to make sure that everybody in the audience can see what is on the screen if you feel cannot see then try to accommodate them try to move if you feel that one section of the audience cannot see the screen do not mutter over the transparency or an overhead projector plate because what happens is a lot of the times people point the overhead projector and they slide on that on the plate and they do not realize that they are blocking the projection of the image it is preferable to point to the screen rather than on the OHP avoid moving about too much you should not be running around all over the place in front of the screen because too much pacing up and down can unnerve the audience it is very distracting and it seems that you are very tense also apart from your own body language be aware of the audience's body language if you feel that people in the audience are completely relaxed or bored then you can change the pace change the speed change the audience's interest no when to stop and also when to cut out a piece of the presentation if you feel it is becoming too long and people are becoming bored then maybe you need to delete a section of the presentation and move on if you feel it is boring visual aids can significantly improve the interest in a presentation can be relevant to what you want to say and they must be well designed because a careless design or use of a slide can simply get in the way of a presentation what you use depends on the type of talk you are giving so whatever your visual aids are effective, well planned so that you are interested in a presentation some possibilities of visual aids are overhead projection transparencies which we call OHPs computer projection which can be in the form of power point applications such as Excel or applications like Excel video, film, these are very effective visual aids as well real objects either handled from the speakers bench where you are or passed around this could be in the form of handouts or it could be any other real objects that you want to display flip chart or blackboard are also effective as a scratch pad to expand on a point so you can have a flip chart or blackboard or whiteboard on the stage or in your space so that you can expand on a point very quickly and you can also have a combination of these visual aids if you are an expert at using them keep it simple however a complex set of hardware can result in confusion for the speaker and the audience make sure you know in advance what you are using and also when you want a particular display to appear sometimes a technician will operate the equipment so arrange beforehand what is to happen and when a particular slide or object is to be shown to the audience if you feel that there are things which are irrelevant superfluous then leave them out if you need to use a slide twice duplicate it going back and looking for it so that you can repeat it slides and OHPs should contain minimum information if there is too much information on slides and OHPs then the audience gets confused and it will divert your audience's attention and they will take more time in reading than listening to you try to limit words per slide to a maximum of 10 so don't use more than 10 words in one slide use a reasonable size font and a typeface which will enlarge well typically an 18 point times roman on OHPs is good or preferably larger a guideline is if you can read the OHP from a distance of 2 meters without projection then it's probably okay avoid using a diagram prepared for a technical report in your talk if you have made a technical report then don't use it in your presentation it becomes very detailed use color on your slides but avoid orange and yellow because they don't show up very well when they are projected if you're only using text white or yellow on blue background is very pleasant to look at and it's easy to read and then books and presentation techniques have a lot of detail as well on what to use and how to use it avoid adding to OHPs with a pen during the talk or even OHPs that you've prepared during your talk because it's messy, the audience gets distracted and they can also see if your hand is shaking on the projector this is also another good reason why you should point to the screen rather than on the projector when you are using the OHP consider the room lighting how is the room lit? don't keep it too dark or too bright because if it's too bright then you need to keep switching off lights when you're projecting your audience will go off to sleep so check the lighting, if you need to keep switching lights off then know, you should know where the light switch are and how to operate them in this lecture, we looked at the different types of oral communication which were extemporary impromptu, memorization and delivery by reading we also looked at the different modes of delivery the delivery guidelines how to deliver a presentation and how to actually make an oral presentation until next time, Allah Hafiz