Effective Presentation Strategies
Speech faculty will provide strategies for effective presentations. Participants
will be given methods to provide effective delivery, appropriate content,
and effective speech organization.
By Carolyn DeLecour and Joseph
Coppola
What appeals to you in a presentation?
Your thoughts?
A good conversational style by the
speaker
Good Content and organized structure
Interesting sensory aids
Audience Participation
Good Conversational Style
 We should aim for a
conversational style
with regard to
enthusiasm, vocal
expressiveness,
emphasis, spontaneity,
and fluency in our
voice.
 Let’s try an activity
Ben Stein from Ferris Buehler’s Day Off
I Have a Dream Activity
• On the sheet of paper provided…take a
minute to finish the sentence I have a
dream that…
• Be as creative as possible
• Provide it to the person next to you
• One of you say aloud in a conversational
style what the other wrote
• Now switch
Good Conversational Style
• Maintain steady eye contact with your
audience
• Use your hands when appropriate to
complement your verbal message
• Stand in a confident and poised manner
• Use appropriate facial expressions
Creating Good Content
Have something meaningful to
say…remember that time is precious and each
of your audience members is sacrificing their
time to listen to you
Basic Content Structure
• Introduction
 Attention Getter-Captivate audience at beginning
 State Topic directly-what is your point
 Provide the audience an incentive to listen
 Why are you qualified to speak on the topic
 Preview what is to follow to make it easier for the
audience to follow along
Basic Content Structure
• Body-The Main Ideas you want to present
 Signpost-to help audience follow along use words
such as initially or first to tell the audience where
you are in the presentation
 State your idea via the use of main headings
which are clear complete sentences that provide
an organized division between main ideas
 Support the idea based on research to include
examples, definitions, comparisons, or testimony
Basic Content Structure
• Conclusion
Summarize by telling the audience what
you want them to remember
Provide closure by telling the audience
what you want them to do with the
information
Let’s see if we can organize our speech
now
• Partner with up to five people
• Open your envelope
• Each envelope contains different components to
the introduction, body and conclusion
• Your job is to correctly correspond each cut out
strip of paper to the structure discussed
• The winning groups will receive some sweet treats
Interesting Sensory Aids
Types of Sensory Aids
• Power Point
• Windows Movie Maker
• Audio Clips
• Objects themselves
• Poster Boards
Always Prepare your
Sensory Aid
Audience Participation
Involving your audience in your presentation
helps them feel connected to it.
How do you do it
Ask them questions
Give them an activity to do
Thank you for your time
• Please feel free to contact us at
• cdelecour@alamo.edu
• jcoppola2@alamo.edu