ENG 333 Communication for Science and Research

The following steps will help you both inform and persuade your audience:

1. Determine your purpose
2. Plan your structure
3. Prepare to answer potential questions

Determine your purpose

As a professional, you will be called upon to give presentations that cover a wide range of purposes. Some will meet internal company needs, and others will involve appealing to others outside your organization, and with interests other than yours.

An informative presentation might involve:

• Updating others about the status of your work
• Reviewing your research for feedback
• Instructing others how to complete a task
• Describing a new feature or function in a product

Persuasive presentations often involve more consideration about the order of the information that you present. If you find yourself in one of the following situations, you may want to build your case before you provide the bottom line information:

• Defending your company's practices
• Recommending the best of three alternatives
• Asking your manager for a raise
• Proving how your proposal solves a problem

With the range of purposes available, you will also be presented with a range of settings. You may find yourself in an office, conference room, classroom, auditorium, convention center, or even a cafeteria. Knowing what your purpose and setting are will help you adapt to these varying situations.

Plan your structure

You first need to decide on your main point(s), or theme. You will need to delete details so that you provide the most important information. Meeting your time limit is crucial so structuring your information within a time frame (e.g., introduction, middle, and ending) can help you achieve your goals.

Introduction

You want to gain audience attention, and interest from your first words. Briefly give the context, the why , of your talk before the how . For example, note the problem being addressed before you turn to the solution. A good opener can help you establish rapport, and also engage the audience's curiosity. Consider the following techniques as you decide on how to begin your presentation:

• Mention a reference point, or detail, that is familiar to the audience
• Tell an anecdote that relates to your purpose
• Open with a question you assume is on the audience's mind
• Talk about the purpose of the talk in terms of what the audience will gain from listening
• Introduce yourself, and qualifications
• Show a preview slide that forecasts the outline of your talk

Middle

Here is where you tell your story. In informative talks, you will describe, or narrate, your presentation. In a persuasive presentation, you will use examples, statistics, or expert testimony to help your audience visualize and commit to the position that you are proposing. Remember not to get bogged down in detail. You want to aim more at impression than depth.

Ending

You do not want your audience to think "So what?" when you are finished. You want to solidly finish without rambling to a close. You can control the ending by:

• Identifying clearly any action that you want the audience to take
• Building motivation for the audience to act
• Recapping the main theme
• Summarizing your main evidence or point
• Creating a dramatic image in the listeners' minds

For example, a rhetorical end to your talk might be:

You have learned, from my brief experiences of surfing the net, how to wade through a sea of information and make sense of what you see and read.

Prepare to answer potential questions

Offering a question and answer session at the end of your talk can help you redirect audience attention on your main points, as well as help you ensure that the audience understood your message. One good thing to do is to always announce the time allotted for questions. Here are some guidelines for answering questions:

• Answer the question asked
• Request that the question be rephrased if you do not completely understand it
• Do not fake an answer - if you do not know, say that you will be happy to find out and get back to the person who asked
• Repeat the question if you are speaking in front of a large group

Expect to be nervous the day of the presentation (even professionals get nervous - they just have more experience handling the adrenalin rush). Realize that you are presenting to help achieve something with the audience that cannot be achieved in the same way in writing. As you present, keep in mind the following three guidelines:

1. Talk with your audience
2. Control the visuals
3. Answer questions effectively

Talk with your audience

• Be flexible. Look for signs of restlessness or misunderstanding. Puzzled expressions can be a signal that you may need to back up, redefine a term, or use another example or analogy.
• Avoid slang, jargon, and acronyms. This can distract audience attention from your main points.
• Watch being distracting. Jingling change in your pockets, or turning and talking to the screen can focus audience attention on things other than your topic.
• Pause when you need to think and before you present something complex or potentially confusing.

Control your visuals

Answer questions effectively

• Answer the question asked
• Request that the question be rephrased if you do not understand it
• Suggest where an answer can be found if you do not know the answer. Don't fake it. It is also appropriate to say you don't know, but that you will find out the answer and get back to the interested party.
• Repeat or restate the question if you are speaking in front of a large group, or if the questioner has a soft voice.

Remember, be a good listener. That is often the most important aid a speaker can have when delivering an effective message.

Selecting Visuals

Visuals can be used to convey varied scientific and technical information. You want to use visuals to display new information or teach your audience how to understand a new form of presentation of familiar data.

Visuals can effectively help you to compress a discussion that would be lengthy if strictly presented as prose. They can also simplify complex explanations. The best thing that visuals can do is to help maintain audience interest. You can control where listeners are looking and therefore control their attention as well.

Overall, when selecting visuals you should consider the following:

• Match the form to the information and to your audience's expectations
• Compare discrete units (numbers or words) in tables
• Show trends and relationships with charts and graphs
• Describe and instruct using drawings and photographs
• Use maps to show connections in a landscape, and in an argument

For assignment 3, do not simply show your trip through a website. Select those screens that illustrate a point that you are making. For example, if you see a lot of pictures of families, you might conclude that a company emphasizes benefits to families. Showing a screen with these pictures can help you make your point that this company cares about its employees.