CHAPTER 10

Verbal and Visual Support in

Presentations.

CHAPTER OUTLINE
Functions of Supporting Material
Clarity
Interest
Proof

Verbal Support

Definitions
Examples
Stories
Statistics

Visual Aids

Types of Visual Aids

Media for Presenting Visual Aids
Presentation Software
Guidelines for Using Aids

FUNCTIONS OF SUPPORTING MATERIAL

Supporting
Material:
Is anything that backs up
the claims in a
presentation. You can see
the relationships between
these claims and
supporting's material in
the following examples:
Carefully selected supporting
material can make a
presentation more effective by
adding these three things:
clarity, interest, and proof.

Claim:
We could increase sales
by staying open until 10
pm on weekday
evenings.

Support:

An article in Modern
Retailing cites statistics
showing that stores with
extended evening hours
boost profits by more that
20 percent of the direct
overhead involved with the
longer business day.

Heres a video that shows

how easy it can be.

Configuring a wireless
network isnt as hard as
it might seem.

CLARITY
Can make abstract or
complicated ideas more
understandable.

INTEREST
Supporting material can enliven a presentation by making your
main points more vivid or meaningful to the audience.

PROOF
Besides adding clarity and interest, supporting material can provide evidence
for your claims and make you presentation more convincing.

VERBAL SUPPORT
Many kinds of verbal supporting
material can be used to add interest
to a presentation.

Definitions

Examples

The most common you will see in a

business presentation are:

Stories
Statistics

Comparisons

Quotations

DEFINITIONS
Explain the meaning of terms that are unfamiliar to the audience or used in a
specialized or uncommon way.

Example: Bollywood is the informal name of the Hindi language film industry
based in Mumbai India.
Definitions remove confusion

EXAMPLES
Examples are brief illustrations that back up or explain a point.

STORIES
Stories illustrate a point by describing an incident in
some detail.
Almost everyone wants to hear a good story.
Stories can come in three categories: fictional, hypothetical, and factual.
There are three types of stories: Fictional, Hypothetical and Factual

FICTIONAL STORIES
Allow you to create material that
perfectly illustrates the point you
want to make.
This fictional story uses humor to
help listeners understand the
importance of being proactive in
business.

In Greece there is an old monastery perched on top of a high mountain,

with steep cliffs on every side. The only way to visit it is to get in a wicker
basket and have a monk pull you up by ropes. One visitor noticed that
this rope The one is life depended on-was old and quite frayed. He
asked the monk, When do you change the rope? The monk replied,
Whenever it breaks.

HYPOTHETICAL STORIES
Allow you to create a situation that
illustrates exactly the point you are trying
to make.
You can adjust details
Create dialogue
Use figures that support your case.

A representative explain Guaranteed

Account Value might use a hypothetical
example like this:

Suppose you were unlucky enough to have a nasty accident that kept
you from working for six months. Imagine dealing with the pain and
inconvenience of your injuries. Then imagine yourself trying to cope with
your loss of income. Would you have enough money saved to support
yourself and the people who are counting on you? Would you have
enough insurance coverage to make up for your lost income?

FACTUAL STORIES
Factual stories can also add interest
and clarity.
While both factual and fictional
storied can kake a presentation
clearer and more interesting, only
the factual type can prove a point:

Cutting the payroll by using temporary employees sounds like a good

idea, but it has problems. Listen to what happened when we tried it at
the place I used to work

STATISTICS
Statistics are numbers used to represent an idea.
Most statistics are collections of examples reduced to numerical form for
clarity.

If you were arguing that there was a serious manufacturing problem with a
new product line, describing one or two dissatisfied customers wouldnt
prove the problem. The following statement work: Our return rate on the
new line is just over 40% -As opposed to the usual rate of 5%- and of all
those returns, 4/5ths are related to a flaw in

COMPARISONS
Comparisons can make a point by showing how one idea resembles another.
Some comparisons, called analogies, are figurative.

By linking the familiar with the unfamiliar, figurative analogies can also help
listeners understand concepts that would otherwise be mystifying.

QUOTATION
Use the words of others who are authoritative or articulate to help you make
a point more effectively than you could on your own.

CITING YOUR SOURCES

Whether you are quoting someone
or using a statistic, its both proper
and effective to cite the source.

1.

State your point. The trend of

working from home is growing.

2. Identify the source of your citation.

In March 12 edition on USA TODAY,
columnist Stephanie Armour states..
3. State the content of your citation.
Just about anyone with high-speed
Internet connection and a telephone can
become a virtual free agent..
4. Explain how and why the material is
important for members if your
audience. That means almost
everybody in this room has the potential
to work from home

VISUAL AIDS
A picture is sometimes worth a thousand words.
Audience members who saw a presentation the visuals were clearly more
impressed than those who saw the same talk with no visual support.

Visual aids perform many useful functions:

Show how things look.

Show how things work
Show how things relate to one another.
Emphasize important points.

TYPES OF VISUAL AIDS

Objects and Models

Photographs

Diagrams

Objects can add interest, clarity,

and proof to your topic.

Photographs can be the most

effective means of illustration a
variety of images that need literal
representation.

Diagrams are abstract, two

dimensional drawings that show
the important properties of
objects without being completely
representational.

Make sure they are large enough

for everyone to see.

PIE CHARTS
Pie Charts illustrate component
percentages of a single item.

Sales

Place the segment you want to

emphasize at the top center.
Label each segment.
List the percentage for each
segment

1st Qtr

2nd Qtr

3rd Qtr

4th Qtr

BAR AND COLUMN CHARTS

Bar Chart

Bar charts compare the value of

several items.

Category 4
Category 3

Column charts reflects changes in a

single item over time.

Category 2
Category 1
0

Column Chart
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Category 1

Category 2
Series 1

Category 3
Series 2

Series 3

1
Series 1

Category 4

Series 2

4
Series 3

PICTOGRAMS
Pictograms are artistic variations of
bar, column or pie charts.
Pictograms are often not
mathematically exact. Which makes
them less suited for reports that
require exact data.

GRAPHS
Graphs show the correlation
between two quantities.
They are ideally suited to showing
trends, such as growth or decline in
sales over time.
They represent a large amount of
data without becoming cluttered.

Hi. Im a graph.
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Category 1

Category 2
Series 1

Category 3
Series 2

Series 3

Category 4

VIDEOS
There are times when video support
is a plus.
If youre illustrating action
Or the performance of an athletic
team.

https://www.youtube.com/results?
search_query=beauty+is+nothing+without+brains

MEDIA FOR PRESENTING VISUAL AIDS

Chalk and Dry Erase Board

When these boards are available in a presentation room, they can be

useful for recording information that comes up on the spot.

Flip Charts and Poster

Board

Flip charts consist of a large pad of paper attached to an easel.

HANDOUTS
Handouts provide a permanent record of your ideas.
You can use handouts to reduce or eliminate your listeners need too take
notes.

The biggest problem with handouts is that they can be distracting. The
activity that accompanies passing around papers interrupts the flow of your
presentation.
Its better to distribute handouts (after) youve finished speaking.

PRESENTATION SOFTWARE
Advantages of
Presentation Software

Presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple, Keynote and

Prezi allow anyone with a computer to create and deliver a professional
looking presentation with text and visuals.

Deliver an onscreen show with special effects such as smooth

transactions.

Organize a set of speakers notes for yourself.

Prepare a variety of handouts for your audience.

Although, computer assisted design can be very effective, it isnt

foolproof.

DANGERS OF PRESENTATION SOFTWARE

Poorly conceived
messages

Design over
content

Overly complex
presentation

Presentation software
makes it relatively easy
to create charts and ,
graphs, import image,
integrate snappy
animation, and wrap
them all up in a
handsome design.

A common mistake is to
spend more time in the
design of a presentation
that its content.

A digital display may

dazzle your audience,
but the spectacle might
actually draw attention
away from you and your
message.

GUIDELINES FOR USING VISUAL AIDS

Be sure to have a reason for using a visual aid.
If your image does not explain a point better than words alone,
dont use it.
When using a PowerPoint presentation, keep your slideshows
brief, Less is more

DESIGN
Make sure the visual is large enough
to see.
Keep the design simple.
Use only a few words on each slide.
Use horizontal printing.

Label al items for clear

identification.
Display a visual only while you
are discussing it.
Make sure your visuals will work
in the meeting room.
Practice.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+office+idiot