Tài liệu Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking pdf

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Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
Powerful Presentations will help all speakers improve their oral
language skills — their ability to plan and deliver presentations
with efficiency, confidence, and influence. To show you the best
way to become a more accomplished speaker, the book focuses
on specific strategies used by successful presenters and
challenges you to choose helpful strategies before, during, and
after your presentation.
7
SETTING FUTURE
GOALS
1
WHY
PRESENTATIONS?
2
SELECTING
CONTENT
3
CONSIDERING VOICE
AND ILLUSTRATIONS
4
COMMANDING

ATTENTION
5
PRESENTING
CONFIDENTLY
6
ASSESSING
IMPACT
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
Contents
1. Why Presentations?
Purpose, Audience, and Environment 4
Audience Survey 5
2. Selecting Content
Main Ideas and Details 6
Planning Form 7
3. Considering Voice and Illustrations
Emotion and Humor 8
Show As Well As Tell 9
Unique Expression 9
Sticky-Note Strategy 10
4. Commanding Attention
Powerful Introductions 10
Powerful Conclusions 12
Planning Form 13
5. Presenting Confidently
Print Support 14
Presentation Criteria 15
6. Assessing Impact
Assessment of Content and Delivery 16
Assessment of the Presentation’s Influence 19

7. Setting Future Goals 22
Using What You’ve Learned 21
SUPPORTING STUDENT PRESENTERS 24
REPRODUCIBLE PAGES 25
INDEX 30
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
Purpose, Audience, and Environment
More than one comedian has observed that many of us would
rather die than speak in public. You will be increasingly
confident in your presentations if you implement strategies
used by effective speakers. Effective presentations are planned
presentations. By thinking about why you are presenting, you
have begun the process of presenting successfully.
All oral presentations have content. Obviously, you are
planning to talk about something. However, content is not
enough. If you simply present information on a topic such as
nutrition, climate change, vacations, or a favorite book or
movie, you may enhance your audience’s understanding, but
will you change their behavior?
Effective oral presentations focus on a clearly defined purpose.
The speaker intends that the audience will do something with
the information. For topics listed above, purposes might be to eat
a balanced diet, to recycle and take public transit more
frequently, to travel to Morocco, to read Bridge to Terabithia by
Katherine Paterson, and to stay away from an inferior film. In
employment settings, speakers often challenge colleagues to work
together toward shared goals or outcomes. For instance, a
supervisor wants sales staff to greet customers when they enter
the store. In all of these examples, the speaker should not settle
on having the audience do no more than listen; the speaker

expects specific action. As you begin to plan a presentation,
clearly identify your purpose or purposes.
Effective oral presentations also respond to the interests and
needs of an audience. Remember that all of us typically
consider how any proposed action will affect us personally.
Often people have concerns about a proposed change.
Depending on their background, different audience members
will have different concerns. For instance, if you are advocating
a selected computer program for reporting sales results, the
concerns raised by someone who is afraid to use computers will
be different from those who are comfortable with them.
Anticipate the receptiveness of various audience members to
your purpose and content. Consider use of a survey such as the
following as one tool to learn about current understandings,
attitudes, and audience concerns.
4
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
As a speaker, your purpose is to increase the number of
audience members, a group of students, who volunteer for
community agencies and who can state at least one reason for
volunteering:
Audience Survey
If you are presenting to a small group, survey the entire group
if you can. If you are speaking to a large group, survey 20 or 30
individuals from the group or individuals similar to the group
that you are addressing. For the above example about
volunteering, be sure to survey students since that group will be
your audience. What knowledge and concerns does the survey
reveal? How will you respond?
Finally, as you plan, consider important aspects of your

speaking environment that will help you achieve your purpose
with your target audience:
●
How long should your presentation be? (Use no more time
than required.)
●
How large is your audience?
●
Will more than one presentation be required?
●
If you are part of a team planning the presentation, who will
present what?
●
Where will the presentation be held? Can you influence
seating arrangements?
●
What time of day will the presentation occur?
●
What is your relationship to the audience — peer, colleague,
supervisor, expert?
What options do you have about the speaking environment of
your presentation? What are the givens? What decisions will
you make about environment so that your audience will be
more receptive to the action that you will advocate?
1. WHY PRESENTATIONS
VOLUNTEERING SURVEY
1. In the past year, on average, how many hours per week did
you donate to volunteering? _______________________
2. Why is it important for young people to volunteer?
______________________________________________

3. What concerns do you have about volunteering?
______________________________________________
5
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
A critically important characteristic of powerful presentations is
the speaker’s careful, specific selection of content. Experts warn
about including too much information. You need to be selective
— limit yourself to three or four key points.
Ideas and Details
How familiar are you with the content of your presentation?
On a blank piece of paper, list topics that you feel strongly
about such as smoking, pet peeves, or perhaps a controversial
issue in your community. If you are the leader of a group that
seeks to achieve certain goals, list them. On another sheet of
paper, list one topic (what you will be speaking about) and
clearly identify your purpose (what you want the audience to
do). If your topic is smoking, your purpose might be to
decrease the amount of smoking among audience members.
With pet peeves, you might wish to discourage sending jokes by
e-mail. In a group or work setting, your purpose might be to
have everyone use a new computer program to communicate.
On your own or with a partner, brainstorm and list points on
the page that may relate to your topic and purpose.
You may need to complete research on your topic with print,
human, and media resources. Whether or not you need to
complete research, you need to select three or four key points
and ensure that you have adequate, relevant details for each
point. The following chart emphasizes key questions as it helps
you gather, select, and organize your content. If you anticipate
questions about your topic, you will be more responsive to

audience members and therefore more likely to achieve your
purpose. Note details related to each question. If you are short
on details, you need to do additional research.
Speakers should remember that planning begins with the
body of the presentation rather than the introduction. The
chart helps you to ensure that you have key questions and
adequate details related to your topic, purpose, and audience.
Once you are clear about content, your introduction will be
much easier to compose. The chart illustrates content related to
the Volunteering Survey included earlier in the book.
6
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
2. SELECTING CONTENT
QUESTION: What does it mean to
be a volunteer?
●
Volunteers think about needs in
their community.
●
Volunteers contribute their time
and talent without monetary
compensation.
●
Many organizations depend on
volunteers and could not operate
without them.
PLANNING CONTENT FOR A PRESENTATION
QUESTION: What are the benefits
of young people’s volunteering?
●

Volunteers express satisfaction in
supporting important causes and
helping others.
●
Volunteers use their strengths
and develop new skills.
●
Volunteers have advantages when
applying for jobs.
QUESTION: Why do young people
not volunteer?
●
Many state a lack of time. (Many
organizations offer flexible
hours.)
●
Young volunteers are afraid to
make the commitment.
(Consider how your life will be
enriched.)
●
Many do not know how to
volunteer.
TOPIC — Volunteering
PURPOSE(S) — 1. To increase
amount of volunteering in
audience.
2. To increase numbers of audience
members who can identify reasons
and benefits of volunteering.

AUDIENCE’S CONCERNS —
Lack of time and understanding of
how to volunteer.
QUESTION: How do young people
find the best volunteering options?
●
Complete a web search of
volunteering needs in your
community.
●
Identify your area of interest such
as hospitals, immigrants, the
environment.
●
Talk to friends who volunteer.
●
Learn about time commitments,
support, and benefits offered by
the organization.
7
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
Emotion and Humor
An effective presentation conveys the speaker’s honest
emotional response to the content. Often the key is to include
anecdotes, stories, and personal observations to illustrate key
points that you want to make. It is even better when the stories
emerge from your own experience rather than being repeated
from other sources. Audiences usually respond positively when
you are willing to risk inclusion of stories that illustrate your
own struggles, uncertainties, doubts, and mistakes. Since you

expect your audience to act on your suggestions, why not tell
anecdotes about how you arrived at them? Of course, you will
also share your successes and the successes of others. While you
do not want to sound like a pushy “know-it-all”, your honest
personal voice will enhance your presentation.
In the volunteering example earlier in the book, the speaker
worked from a personal experience of visiting hospital patients.
She described her fear on the first day of volunteering. She
thought she had so little in common with older patients. On
her first visit, she met a 74-year-old gentleman who was
reading a Harry Potter novel. He revealed that he was curious
about why the books were so popular with young people. Since
Martha, the young volunteer, was a Harry Potter fan, both she
and the patient enjoyed the conversation. She realized that she
needn’t have worried. What a useful personal anecdote to add
voice to the presentation!
While audiences usually appreciate humor, decide whether
humor is appropriate in your presentation. In addition, think
about how comfortable you are telling jokes and humorous
anecdotes. If humor is appropriate and comfortable for you,
consider using reference books and internet sites with indexes.
An index allows you to search efficiently for humor related to
your content. Better still, make a point of sharing something
both relevant and humorous that happened to you.
Show As Well As Tell
Once you have selected details for the bulleted points on your
planning chart, plan ways to illustrate your ideas. Showing
often works better than telling. Consider using charts, pictures,
work samples, dramatizations, and video clips as ways to
illustrate your ideas. Review the work that you have done with

the form Planning Content for a Presentation (page 7). Where
can you add effective visual or dramatic illustrations?
Remember that you should always explain how your visual
dramatization relates to key points.
8
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
Unique Expression
Effective presentations are strong in voice. You achieve voice as
a presenter by including details and language that are unique
and that put your own imprint on the presentation. Clichés are
the enemy of voice. The word cliché is derived from the French
word meaning “to stereotype”. Through over-use, clichés have
lost their vitality. Examples of clichés include “see red”, “apple
of my eye”, “took to the cleaners”, “run like the wind”, and “in a
nutshell”. As you avoid clichés in your presentation, consider
fresh comparisons that will add originality to your language
and voice to your presentation. Look at the points on your
planning form. Try to locate one or two points to think about
an original comparison. For example, in the volunteering
planning form presented on page 7, the speaker transformed
the point about the volunteer’s personal satisfaction as follows:
“In the satisfaction they received from helping others,
volunteers find technicolor moments in their black and white
days.” The expression adds voice to the presentation.
Sticky-Note Strategy
So that all of this advice is not overwhelming, use a systematic
approach with the form Planning Content for a Presentation,
on page 7. Read your notes on the form four times with a
specific purpose for each reading. Attach sticky notes by related
points as you complete each thoughtful reading:

1. Read for places where you might add a personal anecdote.
Briefly describe the anecdote on the sticky note; attach the
note near the related points.
2. Read for places where you might add humor, if humor is
appropriate and comfortable. If you have an anecdote in
mind, briefly indicate it on the sticky note. If you need to
find a humorous anecdote, write “Humor required here”
on the sticky note as you place it appropriately on the
planning chart.
3. Read for places where you can illustrate or dramatize a
point. Mark and attach the sticky note to indicate the
specific form you will use (chart, picture, video clip, etc.)
related to the point.
4. Read for places where you can add unique comparisons
for fresh expression in your presentation. Once again,
note possibilities on sticky notes and attach each note
near the related point.
3. CONSIDERING VOICE AND ILLUSTRATIONS
9
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
Powerful Introductions
Presentations often succeed or fail during the first and last
minutes. To succeed, your introduction must create interest;
your conclusion must effectively direct specific action. You
command attention through careful planning based on
strategies used by effective speakers in their introductions and
conclusions. First, let’s focus on introductions:
As you think about your opening words, remember that your
presentation is not the only item that your audience is
considering in their day. The reality is that with their busy lives,

some audience members are preoccupied with their own
deadlines, problems, and challenges. No doubt some are
wishing that they were doing something other than listening to
you. Your job is to command their attention in your
introduction. What do you know about the audience so that
your introduction will interest them and focus them for the
points that will follow?
Let’s begin with a few warnings about what not to do. Never
begin by telling the audience how nervous you are. Never begin
by telling them that you feel unprepared or that you are
unaccustomed to public speaking. Your systematic preparation
of critical main ideas and important details as well as of
relevant anecdotes, humor, and visual illustrations should build
your confidence. If you are still nervous, remember that the
audience wants you to succeed. Even though they have other
items on their day’s agenda, they know that they are your
audience for an assigned period of time. They would rather be
interested than bored. Therefore, they hope that you are
interesting. Apologetic introductions are dull and defeatist.
Avoid them.
With examples related to the volunteering topic used earlier
in this book, the following chart presents techniques to spark
interest. Consider how one or more of these techniques would
work with your content.
10
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
POWERFUL INTRODUCTIONS
Technique
●
Tell a brief story that indicates the importance of your

content.
●
State a startling fact.
●
Pose a question or questions.
●
Stress an incomplete or incorrect view.
Example
“Marsha, a thirteen-year-old, is visiting her grandmother in
the hospital. Her grandmother brightens with the
conversation and gifts. Marsha notices the sad, older lady
who shares the hospital room never receives a visitor.”
“Our community has 200 volunteer agencies. The need for
volunteering is increasing. Yet the number of volunteers has
steadily decreased in the past two years.”
“Do you sometimes wonder whether you should be doing
more to help others? How have you felt when you were able
to help someone? Why do young people not volunteer more
often?”
“Many people believe that volunteers dedicate time to
helping others. The view is only partially correct. While
volunteers improve the lives of others, they enhance their
own lives as well.”
4. COMMANDING ATTENTION
11
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
Powerful Conclusions
Since you expect your audience to act on the information that
you have presented, your conclusion requires an attention-
grabbing method to direct audience members to do something

with what you have shared. Consider how one or more of the
following techniques would enhance your conclusion:
POWERFUL CONCLUSIONS
Technique
●
Tell a story or offer an illustration about an
implementation of the action proposed.
●
Warn about consequences of not implementing your
proposed action.
●
Stress a final powerful point.
Example
“After two months of volunteering in the hospital’s visiting
program, Marsha reports that she no longer feels nervous
about conversing with strangers. She is glad to have made
older friends. She looks forward to her weekly two-hour
shift.”
“Without increased volunteering, many important needs in
our community will not be met. The loss to people who are
not volunteering is worse. They lose the chance to make
friends, develop skills, and feel the satisfaction of helping
someone else.”
“Young people volunteer for different reasons — the need to
serve, the need to improve job prospects. Yet all young
volunteers stress that volunteering has helped them learn
about themselves. Can you think of a better use of your
time?”
12
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.