Oct 25 (Ch 10): Oral Presentation Basics

Oral Presentations

Your presentation will have these main parts:

1. Opener
2. Introduction w/ Overview
3. 3-4 Key Points (Signposts)
4. Summary
5. Conclusion

1. Plan A Strong Opening & Closing

• Points of emphasis
• Interest audience and emphasize key points
• Talk from notes
• Write out opener and closer

Four Strong Openers

1. Startling statement
2. Narration or anecdote
3. Question
4. Quotation

2. Introduction w/ Overview

Don’t forget to introduce yourself…
Give an overview of the presentation…

• Tell what you’ll cover first, second, and third
• Helps audience know what to expect
• Prepares audience for tracking and remembering your points
• Offers clear signpost as you end each point

3. Signposts

Give your presentation using clear signposts:

Match what you told your audience in your introduction (remember above: "Tell what you’ll cover first, second, and third")

• Key point #1
  - Supporting information
  - Supporting information
• Key point #2
  - Supporting information
  - Supporting information
• Key point #3
  - Supporting information
  - Supporting information

4. Summary

Summarize your presentation… give a fast review of what you just talked about (repeat what you told above: "Tell what you’ll cover first, second, and third")

• Key point #1
• Key point #2
• Key point #3

5. Conclusion

• Thank your audience for their participation
• Offer to answer any questions they might have

Overcoming Fear

• MOST IMPORTANT!! Be prepared
• Use only normal amount of caffeine
• Avoid alcoholic beverages
• Re-label your nerves

Effective Delivery: Notes

• Put notes on cards or sturdy paper
• Jot down details, examples you’ll use
• Indicate where you’ll refer to visual
• Look at notes rarely
• Hold notes high

PowerPoint Design Tips*

• The goal is improved learning
• Be conservative – keep it simple
• Use lots of white space
• Use contrast (dark-on-light or light-on-dark)
• Design from top left to bottom right
• People see graphics first, then text
• Use large font size – min 18 or 24 pts
• Limit use of boldface, italics, and underlining
• Don’t write in all upper case letters
• Use common fonts (Verdana, Arial, etc,)
• No more than two fonts on a screen
• Be concise with text
• One concept per slide
• Plan on spending about 2 minutes per slide
• Limit use of special effects
• Use background patterns wisely
• Use high quality original media
• Edit files to a meaningful length

*Teaching Well with PowerPoint, University of Notre Dame, 2/6/2004, http://www.nd.edu/~learning/powerpoint/designtips.pdf

Things to work on…

• Speak clearly… articulate
• Don’t rush… slow down…
• Speak up…

More things to work on…

• Don’t lean on the podium…
• Don’t read off the slides or cards…
• Present TO your audience (not the screen)

A few more things to work on…

• Maintain eye contact…
• PowerPoint must be readable…
• Be confident…

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Presentation Basics**

1. Informative presentations inform or teach the audience.
2. Persuasive presentations motivate the audience to act or to believe.
3. Goodwill presentations entertain and validate the audience.
4. Most oral presentations have more than one purpose.

A written message makes it easier to present extensive or complex information and to minimize undesirable emotions.

• Oral messages make it easier to…
  - use emotion,
  - to focus the audience's attention,
  - to answer questions and resolve conflicts quickly,
  - to modify a proposal that may not be acceptable in its original form,
  - and to get immediate action or response.

In both oral and written messages, you should

• Adapt the message to the specific audience.
• Show the audience how they benefit from the idea, policy, service, or product.
• Overcome any objections the audience may have.
• Use you-attitude and positive emphasis.
• Use visuals to clarify or emphasize material.
• Specify exactly what the audience should do.

An oral presentation needs to be simpler than a written message to the same audience.

• In a monologue presentation, the speaker plans the presentation in advance and delivers it without deviation.
• In a guided discussion, the speaker presents the questions or issues that both speaker and audience have agreed on in advance. Rather than functioning as an expert with all the answers, the speaker serves as a facilitator to help the audience tap its own knowledge.
• An interactive presentation is a conversation using questions to determine the buyer's needs, probe objections, and gain provisional and then final commitment to the purchase.

Adapt your message to your audience's beliefs, experiences, and interests.

• Use the beginning and end of the presentation to interest the audience and emphasize your key point.
• Use visuals to seem more prepared, more interesting, and more persuasive.
• Use a direct pattern of organization. Put your strongest reason first.
• Limit your talk to three main points. Early in your talk-perhaps immediately after your opener-provide an overview of the main points you will make.
• Offer a clear signpost as you come to each new point. A signpost is an explicit statement of the point you have reached.

To calm your nerves as you prepare to give an oral presentation,

• Be prepared. Analyze your audience, organize your thoughts, prepare visual aids, practice your opener and close, check out the arrangements.
• Use only the amount of caffeine you normally use.
• Avoid alcoholic beverages.
• Relabel your nerves. Instead of saying, "I'm scared," try saying, "My adrenaline is up."
• Adrenaline sharpens our reflexes and helps us do our best.

Just before your presentation…

• Consciously contract and then relax your muscles, starting with your feet and calves and going up to your shoulders, arms, and hands.
• Take several deep breaths from your diaphragm.

During your presentation,

• Pause and look at the audience before you begin speaking.
• Concentrate on communicating well.
• Use body energy in strong gestures and movement.
• Convey a sense of caring to your audience by making direct eye contact with them and by using a conversational style.
• Treat questions as opportunities to give more detailed information than you had time to give in your presentation.
• Link your answers to the points you made in your presentation.

Repeat the question before you answer it if the audience may not have heard it or if you want more time to think. Rephrase hostile or biased questions before you answer them.

The best group presentations result when the group writes a very detailed outline, chooses points and examples, and creates visuals together. Then, within each point, voices trade off.

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**Content attributed to Locker, Kitty O. and Donna Kienzler. Business and Administrative Communication, 8/e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 2008.

Oct 11: Negative Messages

Negative Messages

• Information conveyed is negative
• Audience’s reaction is negative
  - Message does not benefit them
  - Usually they experience disappointment or anger
• Varieties
  - Rejections, refusals
  - Policy changes not benefiting customer
  - Poor performance appraisals
  - Disciplinary notices
  - Insulting, intrusive requests
  - Product recalls

Purposes...

Primary

• To give audience negative news
• To have audience read, understand, and accept message
• To maintain as much goodwill as possible

Secondary

• To build good image of communicator
• To build good image of communicator’s organization
• To avoid future messages on same subject
• Want audience to feel
  - They have been taken serious
  - Your decision is fair and reasonable
  - If they were in your situation, they would make the same decision

Organizing Negative Messages: Clients and Customers

1. When you have a reason that the audience will understand and accept, give the reason before the refusal
2. Give the negative information, just once
3. Present an alternative or compromise
4. End with positive forward-looking statement

Organizing Negative Messages: Superiors

1. Describe problem clearly
2. Tell how it happened
3. Describe the options for fixing it
4. Recommend a solution and ask for action

Organizing Negative Messages: Peers and Subordinates

1. Describe problem objectively, clearly
2. Present an alternative or compromise
3. Ask for input or action, if you can
   - May suggest helpful solutions
   - Audience may accept outcomes better

Context Crucial In Messages

• Do you and audience have good bond?
• Does organization treat people well?
• Has audience been warned about possible negatives?
• Has audience accepted criteria for decision?
• Do follow-ups build goodwill?

Parts of Negative Messages

• Subject lines
• Buffers
• Reasons
• Refusals
• Alternatives
• Endings

Parts: Subject Lines

• Put the topic, not the specific negative
• Use negative subject lines when the audience—
  - May ignore message
  - Needs information to act
• Keep in mind not everyone reads all their messages
  - Be cautious of neutral subject lines

Parts: Buffers

• Buffer—neutral or positive statement that delays the negative
• Use a buffer when—
  - Audience values harmony
  - Buffer serves another purpose
  - You can write good buffer

Parts: Reasons

• Clear, convincing reasons precede refusal
  - Prepare audience for refusal
  - Help audience accept refusal
• Don’t hide behind company policy
  - Show how policy benefits audience
  - If no benefit, omit policy from message

Parts: Refusals

• Put refusal in ¶ with reason to deemphasize
• Imply—don’t state—refusal if you can
• Make it crystal clear
• Finalize message on subject
  - Don’t write 2nd message to say no

Parts: Alternatives and Endings

• Offers way to get what audience wants
• Shows you care about audience’s needs
• Returns audience’s psychological freedom
• Allows you to end on positive note
• Best endings look to future
• Avoid insincere endings:
  Please let us know if we can be of further help.

Tone in Negative Messages

• Tone—implied attitude of the author toward the audience and subject
• Show you took request seriously
• Use positive emphasis and you-attitude
• Think about visual appearance
• Consider timing of message
  

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Content attributed to Locker, Kitty O. and Donna Kienzler. Business and Administrative Communication, 9/e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 2010.

Oct 4: Informative, Positive and Persuasive Messages

Informative & Positive Messages

• Informative message - receiver’s reaction neutral
• Positive message - receiver’s reaction positive
• Neither message immediately asks receiver to do anything

Purposes

Primary

• To give information or good news
• To have receiver view information positively

Secondary

• To build good image of sender
• To build good image of sender’s organization
• To build good relationship between sender and receiver
• To deemphasize any negative elements
• To eliminate future messages on same subject

Common Media: Instant Messages and Text Messages

• Use IMs and TMs to
  - Be less intrusive (than visit or phone call)
  - Ask questions on tasks that fellow colleagues are working on
  - Leave a communication trail

Common Media: Letters/Memos

• Use letters to send messages to people outside your organization
• Use memos to send messages to people within your organization

Common Media: E-mail

• Use e-mail to accomplish routine business activities
• Save time
• Save money
• Allow readers to deal with messages at their convenience
• Communicate accurately
• Provide details for reference
• Create a paper trail

Organizing

• Start with good news or the most important information
• Clarify with details, background
• Present any negative points positively
• Explain any benefits
• Use a goodwill ending
  - Positive
  - Personal
  - Forward-looking

Subject Lines

• Serves three purposes
  1. Aids in filing, retrieving
  2. Tells readers why they should read
  3. Sets up message
• Specific, Concise, Appropriate for Message
  - Differentiate from others on same topic
  - Usually less than 35 characters
  - Must meet situation and purpose

Subject Lines—E-mail

• Specific, concise, and catchy
• Include important information/good news
• Name drop to make connection
• Make e-mail sound easy to deal with
• Create new subject line for reply when
  - Original becomes irrelevant
  - Re: Re: Re: Re: appears

Managing Information

• Give audience information they need
• Consider your purpose
• Develop a system that lets people know what is new if you send out regular messages
• Put the most vital information in e-mails, even if you send an attachment
• Check message for accuracy and completeness
• Remember e-mails are public documents

Audience Benefits

• Use audience benefits when
  - Presenting policies
  - Shaping audience’s attitudes
  - Stressing benefits presents the motives positively
  - Introducing benefits that may not be obvious
• Omit benefits when
  - Presenting factual information ONLY
  - Considering audience’s attitude does not matter
  - Stressing benefits makes audience seem selfish
  - Restating them may insult audience’s intelligence

Ending

• Not all messages end same way
• Goodwill ending–focuses on bond between reader, writer
  - Treats reader as individual
  - Contains you-attitude, positive emphasis
  Omits standard invitation
  - Ex: If you have questions, please do not hesitate to call.

Persuasive and Sales Messages

Purposes

• Primary
  - To have audience act or change beliefs
• Secondary
  - To build good image of the communicator
  - To build good image of communicator’s organization
  - To cement a good relationship between communicator and audience
  - To overcome any objections that might prevent or delay action
  - To reduce or eliminate future messages on subject

Choosing a Persuasive Strategy

1. What do you want people to do?
2. What objections will audience have?
3. How strong a case can you make?
4. What kind of persuasion is best for organization and culture?

Building Credibility

• Be factual—don’t exaggerate
• Be specific—if you say X is better, show in detail how it is better
• Be reliable—if project will take longer or cost more than estimated, tell audience immediately

Three Persuasive Patterns of Organization

• Direct Request
• Problem-solving
• Sales

Why Threats Don’t Persuade

• Don’t produce permanent change
• May not produce desired action
• May make people abandon action
• Produce tension
• People dislike/avoid one who threatens
• Can provoke counter-aggression

Organizing Direct Requests

• Ask immediately for the information or service you want
• Give audience all the information they need to act on your request
• Ask for the action you want

Subject line:

• Request itself
• Topic of request
• Question

Organizing Problem-Solving Messages

• Catch audience’s interest
• Define shared problem
• Explain solution to problem
• Show that advantages outweigh negatives
• Summarize additional benefits
• Ask for action you want

Subject line:

• Omit request or use neutral
• Use common ground or audience benefit

Developing Common Ground

• Suggest you and audience have mutual interest in solving problem
• Analyze audience to understand biases, objections, and needs
• Identify with readers; make them identify with you

Dealing with Objections

• Specify time, money required to act
• Put time, money in context of benefits
• Show that spent money now will save later
• Show benefit about audience’s values
• Show need for sacrifice to achieve larger, goal
• Turn a disadvantage into opportunity

Reasons to Act Promptly

• Show that time limit is real
• Show that acting now will save time or money
• Show the cost of delaying action

Building Emotional Appeal

• Storytelling
• Psychological description
  - Create word picture for readers’ senses
  - Help readers imagine themselves doing, enjoying what you ask

Tone in Persuasive Messages

• Be courteous
• Give solid reasons for requests
• Make requests clear
• Give enough information for audience to act

Varieties of Persuasive Messages

• Performance Appraisals
  - Cite specific observations, not inferences
  -Identify two or three areas for improvement
• Recommendation Letters
  - Be specific
  - Tell how well/ long writer knew applicant
  - Give details about applicant’s work
  - Say whether writer would rehire applicant

Sales and Fund-Raising Purposes

• Primary
  - To motivate reader to act (send donation, order a product)
• Secondary
  - To build good image of writer’s organization
  - To strengthen commitment of readers who act
  - To make readers who do not act more likely to act next time

Organizing Sales/Fund-Raising Messages

Opener

• Makes reader want to read entire message
• Types
  - Questions
  - Narration, stories, anecdotes
  - Startling statements
  - Quotations
• Sets up transition to letter body

Body

• Answers reader’s questions
• Overcomes reader’s objections
• Involves reader emotionally.
• Content usually includes
  - Information any reader can use
  - Stories about history of product/organization
  - Stories about people who use product
  - Readers enjoying benefits offered

Action Close

• Tells readers what to do
• Makes action sound easy
• Offers readers reason to act now
• Ends with positive picture
• May recall central selling point

Using a Postscript

• Reason to act promptly
• Description of premium reader receives
• Reference to another part of package
• Restatement of central selling point

Writing Style

• Make text interesting
• Use psychological description: vivid word pictures
• Make message sound like a letter, not an ad

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Content attributed to Locker, Kitty O. and Donna Kienzler. Business and Administrative Communication, 9/e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 2010.

Error: NO exam in BUS 3700 this week

The previous message about an exam (and study guide) was posted in error.
There is NO exam in BUS 3700 this week.

There will only be one (final) exam for this course (in December).

I apologize for the error.