Presentation Skills (Part III): Structured Instruments
A presentation is a structured instrument. Most of us cannot just enter the room, dazzle everyone, and take their loot. Some of us can, but that doesn't make it a presentation.
Essentially, a presentation has perhaps three common components. First, there is some sort of visual device: in the old days, there were chalkboards, flipcharts, and physical models; now, there are those ubiquitous PowerPoint and Keynote slideshows. Second, there may be handouts and other physical takeaways so that those with a slower intellectual digestive system can get their fibre. Third, there is the lecture, exposition or other form of oral presentation.
The key is that all three should be nearly orthogonal: the three components should not overlap except where they reinforce key points in different ways. They should all tell the same story, but the forte of each mode is not the same. The visual device shows something that can best be shown visually; the handout gives details that would otherwise bog the presentation down (and stuff that may need a longer cognitive process, like some kinds of numbers); the exposition provides a narrative that inducts the audience and conducts them through the domain under examination.
Within this combined triadic process, the presenter must say what the topic is, why it is important to the audience, and what to do about it. This can be further enlarged in some cases to be a section on definitions, a section on concepts and principles, a section on the situation and how it is to be improved, a section on actions to be taken, and a simple summary conclusion. In an argumentative presentation, the slant is more prescriptive — perhaps 'actions to be taken' becomes 'why you should do something rather than something else'. But in general, this tends to be an effective narrative flow.
As your grasp of presentation technique develops, you'll realise that it's a bit like music. With control over the basics, you will find exceptions to most rules. The one rule that is most unlikely to be broken is that presentation is a form of communication. The presenter intends to communicate something, most of all, and everything else follows that. All the points I've given are actually guidelines for the clueless; some who read this will already know that they can do other things and still perform outrageously well.
That too is in the nature of human communication. That is why our neocortex is such a complicated mass of neurons.
Essentially, a presentation has perhaps three common components. First, there is some sort of visual device: in the old days, there were chalkboards, flipcharts, and physical models; now, there are those ubiquitous PowerPoint and Keynote slideshows. Second, there may be handouts and other physical takeaways so that those with a slower intellectual digestive system can get their fibre. Third, there is the lecture, exposition or other form of oral presentation.
The key is that all three should be nearly orthogonal: the three components should not overlap except where they reinforce key points in different ways. They should all tell the same story, but the forte of each mode is not the same. The visual device shows something that can best be shown visually; the handout gives details that would otherwise bog the presentation down (and stuff that may need a longer cognitive process, like some kinds of numbers); the exposition provides a narrative that inducts the audience and conducts them through the domain under examination.
Within this combined triadic process, the presenter must say what the topic is, why it is important to the audience, and what to do about it. This can be further enlarged in some cases to be a section on definitions, a section on concepts and principles, a section on the situation and how it is to be improved, a section on actions to be taken, and a simple summary conclusion. In an argumentative presentation, the slant is more prescriptive — perhaps 'actions to be taken' becomes 'why you should do something rather than something else'. But in general, this tends to be an effective narrative flow.
As your grasp of presentation technique develops, you'll realise that it's a bit like music. With control over the basics, you will find exceptions to most rules. The one rule that is most unlikely to be broken is that presentation is a form of communication. The presenter intends to communicate something, most of all, and everything else follows that. All the points I've given are actually guidelines for the clueless; some who read this will already know that they can do other things and still perform outrageously well.
That too is in the nature of human communication. That is why our neocortex is such a complicated mass of neurons.
Labels: Cognition, Content, Presentation, Skills, Structure
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