Unit 6: Delivery and Presentation Aids

6a. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of each delivery mode

  • Why is extemporaneous speech usually required in classrooms?
  • What is the main danger of manuscript delivery?
  • When is impromptu delivery most likely to occur?
  • What is the risk of memorized delivery?

There are four delivery modes:

  1. Impromptu delivery is the presentation of a short message without any specific preparation. The speaker is generally spurred by an immediate need to speak, such as being asked to share their thoughts or expertise without prior notice. This might occur during a question-and-answer session at a meeting or when presenting a toast at a celebration.
  2. Extemporaneous delivery involves the careful planning and rehearsal of a speech, but the delivery is done using only brief notes or a speaking outline. This allows for a conversational, spontaneous tone while ensuring the speaker covers all planned points. Extemporaneous delivery is the preferred mode for classroom assignments because it teaches students to balance preparation with audience engagement. It forces the speaker to internalize the material rather than just read it, allowing them to maintain eye contact and adapt their message to the audience's reactions.
  3. Manuscript delivery involves reading a fully written-out script word-for-word. This mode is used when the exact wording is critical, such as for a formal press release. The main danger of this mode is that the speaker becomes tethered to the page, which kills audience connection. Because the speaker is focused on reading the specific words, they often lose eye contact, use fewer natural gestures, and speak in a monotone, rhythmic voice that fails to emphasize key ideas. This often leads to the audience tuning out.
  4. Memorized delivery is the act of committing the entire manuscript to memory and reciting it without any notes. This is often used in performance-based contexts, such as theater or oratorical contests. The primary risk of this mode is forgetting what has been memorized when at the lectern. If a speaker forgets even one specific word or transition, they often cannot recover because they have memorized the speech as a linear string of words rather than a series of concepts. Memorized speeches often sound mechanical and lack the genuine warmth of conversational speaking.
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6b. Explain how the characteristics of the physical setting of a speech impact the speaker's preparation

  • How does audience size change the way you use gestures?
  • Why is lighting a factor in speaker preparation?
  • How does the presence of a lectern affect delivery?
  • What should a speaker check for regarding the room's technology?

The physical setting encompasses the environmental factors where the speech occurs, including the size of the room, the arrangement of the seating (such as theater-style vs. around a table), the acoustics and potential for background noise, the room's temperature, lighting, technology, and even the distance between the speaker and the audience. These characteristics dictate how loudly a speaker must talk, how much they need to move, and how they should position themselves to remain visible and audible to everyone.

The scale of your physical delivery must match the room's size. In a small setting, subtle gestures and facial expressions are effective because the audience is close enough to see them. As the audience size increases, gestures must become larger and more exaggerated. Small movements that look natural in a boardroom will disappear in a large auditorium.

Lighting is critical because the audience needs to see the speaker's face to fully process the message and build trust. If the lighting is too dim, the speaker may appear as a silhouette, hiding important facial expressions and nonverbal cues. Conversely, if the light is too bright or poorly directed, it can cause the speaker to squint at the audience. A speaker must also ensure that lighting does not wash out presentation aids.

A lectern serves as a place to hold notes, but it often acts as a physical and psychological barrier between the speaker and the audience. It can tempt a speaker to lean, grip the edges tightly, or stay rooted in one spot, all of which reduce their energy and engagement. To combat this, speakers are encouraged to stand tall, avoid leaning, and, if possible, step out from behind the lectern periodically to create a more direct and open connection with the audience.

If technology is part of a presentation, the speaker must ensure it is working properly. Essential checks include testing the microphone for volume and feedback, ensuring that slide clickers have fresh batteries, and verifying that the computer system is compatible with their presentation files. Additionally, check cord placement to avoid tripping hazards, and always have a non-electronic backup plan.

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6c. Explain effective use of delivery characteristics, including the use of eye contact, vocal qualities, and gesture

  • How much eye contact is considered effective in North American public speaking?
  • What are the three components of vocal variety?
  • How do gestures improve a speaker's message?
  • Why is posture important for both breathing and credibility?

Effective delivery includes both the oral or verbal part of the message and its nonverbal delivery characteristics, which enhance the verbal message and help establish the speaker's credibility and sincerity. These include:

  • Eye contact: The speaker's ability to maintain visual contact with the audience. It is essential for capturing and maintaining audience interest and building trust. In North American public speaking, maintaining eye contact with the audience 80% to 90% of the time is considered effective for building trust and rapport. If eye contact falls below this level, the audience may perceive the speaker as untrustworthy, nervous, or overly dependent on their notes.
  • Gestures: Natural, spontaneous movements of the arms and hands used to enhance the message. Gestures serve as visual reinforcement, clarifying, emphasizing, and conveying emotion, making the message more memorable. When gestures are natural and spontaneous, they make the speaker appear more "real" and approachable.
  • Vocalics: This is the speaker's use of their voice and includes qualities such as pauses, vocal variety (volume, rate, and pitch), and correct pronunciation. Vocal variety is designed to enhance engagement with the message and the audience. Pitch is the highness or lowness of the speaker's voice. Rate is the speed that a person speaks at. Volume is the loudness or softness of the voice.
  • Posture: A strong, balanced, and upright stance communicates authority and confidence. It also supports proper breathing for vocal projection. Conversely, slouching or shifting weight can make a speaker look unprepared, which undermines the audience's trust in their message.
  • Facial expression: This involves using the face to communicate emotions and animation, which helps invite the audience's serious attention to the speaker and the topic.
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6d. Discuss the differences between denotative and connotative language

  • What is the denotative meaning of a word?
  • How does connotation vary between different cultures?
  • Why should a speaker be careful with words that have strong negative connotations?
  • In what way can connotation be used to persuade an audience?

Language is not neutral; every word choice sends an emotional signal.

The denotative meaning refers to the literal, objective definition of a word, often called its dictionary definition. It is the neutral meaning that most people agree upon when they look the word up. For example, the denotative meaning of snake is a scaly, legless, carnivorous reptile.

Connotative meaning refers to the emotional or culturally specific use of a word. Using the previous example, the word snake could have the connotative meaning of describing an unscrupulous person.

Because these associations are learned, they change across different groups, even within the same community, such as slang used by people of different age groups or ethnic backgrounds. While one culture might associate a word like "individualism" with independence and heroism, another might associate it with selfishness or a lack of community. Speakers must be aware that a word intended as a compliment in one culture might carry a negative connotation in another. Words with strong negative connotations can trigger an immediate emotional defensiveness in the audience. If you use a word that the audience finds offensive, hurtful, or unfairly biased, they may stop listening to your logical arguments and find you insensitive or unprofessional.

Connotation is a powerful tool for persuasion because it allows a speaker to frame an issue emotionally without changing the underlying facts. By choosing words with positive connotations (such as "investment" instead of "expense") or negative ones (such as "burden" instead of "responsibility"), a speaker can subtly nudge the audience toward a specific feeling or viewpoint. This strategic word choice helps align the audience's emotions with the speaker's goals.

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6e. Explain examples of appropriate use of language, including vivid language and inclusive language

Inclusive language is the deliberate use of words and phrases that avoid exclusion, stereotyping, or demeaning of people based on their gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, or other identity markers. Since a primary goal of communication is to foster a sense of respect and connection with all members of the audience, by using inclusive language, a speaker demonstrates awareness and empathy, which significantly bolsters their credibility and prevents the audience from feeling alienated or offended by biased terminology. There are several practical ways to make language more inclusive. Consider replacing gender-specific terms like "manpower" with gender-neutral alternatives like "human resources" or "policeman" with "police officer". Using people-first language focuses on the person rather than their condition, such as saying "a person who uses a wheelchair" instead of "a wheelchair-bound person". Avoid using stereotypical groupings, such as gendered pronouns for groups or individuals, or making assumptions about family structures.

Vivid language is the use of specific, sensory-driven words to create mental images or word pictures that help the audience visualize the speaker's ideas. Instead of using abstract or generic terms, vivid language utilizes imagery, which is words that appeal to the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch). This technique makes a speech more engaging and easier to remember because it turns information into a concrete experience the audience can see in their minds, rather than just a series of facts to process. Vivid language relies on specific imagery and figures of speech such as similes and metaphors, sensory descriptions, and action verbs. Saying "the project was a sinking ship" is the use of a metaphor; "the city was like a beehive of activity" is the use of a simile. These figures of speech create vivid mental associations. Sensory descriptions require creative language. Instead of saying "the weather was bad", a speaker might say "the biting, icy wind whipped across my face", which appeals to the sense of touch and sight. Using action verbs like "sprinted" instead of "ran fast" or "shattered" instead of "broke" gives the audience a clearer sense of the intensity of an action.

Inclusive language helps ensure you don't lose audience members due to bias. Vivid language engages your audience's senses.

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6f. Define the six elements of language

There are six core elements of language for public speaking: clarity, economy, avoidance of obscenity, avoidance of obscure language/jargon, power, and variety. These elements emphasize the use of concise, respectful, and impactful language tailored to ensure audience understanding and engagement.

  • Clarity means using words that help the audience understand ideas without confusion. Clarity is achieved by avoiding ambiguous, abstract terms, using concrete language, and keeping sentence structures simple.
  • Economy means using only the words necessary to accurately convey an idea. In public speaking, wordiness can clutter a message and cause the audience to lose focus. A speaker who practices economy avoids "filler" words and redundant phrases, choosing the most direct and efficient path to express their point.
  • Obscenity refers to avoiding the use of indecent, profane, or offensive language. Using obscene language is offensive to the audience and destroys the speaker's credibility, making the speaker appear unprofessional or disrespectful of the occasion.
  • Obscure language/jargon includes terms that are not commonly understood by a general audience, as well as the specialized language of a specific profession or hobby. While these terms might be efficient among experts, they create a barrier in public speaking. If a speaker must use an obscure term, then they must define it immediately to ensure the audience is not left behind.
  • Power in language refers to a speaker's ability to influence the audience's perception of them as competent and confident. Powerful language avoids hedges (like "I sort of think"), tag questions (like "right?"), and hesitations (like "uh" or "um"). By using direct phrasing, the speaker conveys certainty and authority, making the audience more likely to trust and accept their message.
  • Variety is the intentional use of different types of words, sentence lengths, and rhetorical devices to keep the audience's attention. A speech that lacks variety becomes predictable and monotonous. By mixing short, punchy sentences with longer, more complex ones and using different descriptive techniques, a speaker keeps the auditory experience interesting and prevents the audience from tuning out.
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6g. Choose the most appropriate type of presentation aid to support the main points in a sample speech

Presentation aids (also called sensory aids or visual aids) are the resources beyond the speech itself that a speaker uses to enhance the message conveyed to the audience and include charts, graphs, representations, objects or models, and audio/video recordings.

  • Charts are graphical representations of data or sketches that represent an ordered process or relationship. Examples of charts that might be useful in a speech include statistical charts, sequence-of-steps charts, or decision trees. Charts are good at clarifying complex processes or showing logical relationships.
  • Graphs are pictorial representations of the relationships between quantitative data points. Examples of graphics include line graphs, bar graphs, or pie graphs. Graphs are best for helping audiences interpret numerical information and see trends or comparisons that would be difficult to grasp through spoken numbers alone.
  • Representations are aids that depict a real process, object, or place that cannot be easily brought to the venue of the speech, such as diagrams, maps, photographs, and drawings. Representations are ideal for illustrating things that are not readily seen, such as internal anatomy or distant geographic locations.
  • Objects are tangible, physical items that a speaker can hold up and show during a speech, such as a piece of equipment, a historical artifact, or a specific tool.
  • Models are three-dimensional re-creations or facsimiles of a physical object. Examples of models include a plastic model of the human heart or a 3D miniature architectural mockup of a building. Objects and models are superior for providing a tangible sense of scale or a physical reality that anchors the speech in the real world.
  • Audio/video recordings are multimedia used to provide specific sound or moving visual evidence to support a point, such as a YouTube clip of a surgery or a sound bite from a famous speech. Audio/video aids are good at adding realism and variety, allowing the audience to hear or see evidence firsthand, which increases both interest and retention.
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6h. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of different presentation media

  • What are the advantages of each presentation aid?
  • What are the disadvantages of each presentation aid?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of using people or animals in a presentation?

Each type of traditional presentation aid has its advantages and disadvantages.

  • Charts:
    • Advantages: They are excellent for organizing and summarizing large amounts of information, clarifying complex processes, and showing logical relationships. They help the audience follow a sequence and remember the structure of information.
    • Disadvantages: They can easily become overcrowded or text-heavy, which may distract the audience from the speaker's spoken words.
  • Graphs:
    • Advantages: Graphs are effective for helping audiences quickly interpret numerical data and identify trends, comparisons, and proportional relationships. They make abstract numbers concrete and visually impactful.
    • Disadvantages: They can be misleading if not scaled correctly. If a graph is too cluttered with data points or small labels, it becomes impossible for the audience in the back of the room to read.
  • Representations:
    • Advantages: These are the best tools for showing the audience something they cannot readily see with their own eyes, such as internal anatomy, distant locations, or specific historical moments.
    • Disadvantages: They can be highly distracting if they are too small or of low quality. Photographs, in particular, can be so compelling that the audience studies the image rather than listening to the speaker.
  • Objects and Models:
    • Advantages: They provide a tangible, three-dimensional reality that other aids cannot match. They allow the audience to understand the actual size, texture, or physical operation of a thing.
    • Disadvantages: Objects can be too small for everyone to see (making it tempting to pass them around, which is a distraction). They can also be difficult to transport or manage while speaking.
  • Audio and Video Recordings:
    • Advantages: They add variety and a sense of real life to the speech. They allow the audience to hear or see primary evidence, such as a snippet of a famous speech or a short demonstration of a technique.
    • Disadvantages: They are prone to technical failure. If a clip is too long, it can upstage the speaker and break the flow of the presentation.

People and animals are also a choice of presentation aid. Using a person (the speaker or a volunteer) can effectively demonstrate a physical action or process, such as a yoga pose or a CPR technique. But they can also become a distraction. Animals are highly unpredictable and generally not recommended as they can cause distractions, allergies, or safety concerns. Others can also upstage the speaker if they are not properly coached beforehand. An example of a positive use is if the speaker uses their own body to demonstrate the proper stance and grip for swinging a golf club.

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6i. Critique the organization, simplicity, and clarity of presentation aids in a speech

  • What are the common design principles of presentation aids?
  • How are these principles used to evaluate the effectiveness of presentation aids?
  • How can these principles be used to improve presentation aids?

Presentation aids are evaluated based on criteria to ensure they support, rather than distract from, the speaker's message. The five common design principles are unity, emphasis, scale and proportion, balance, and rhythm.

  1. Unity refers to the consistency and harmony between all elements of your presentation aids. For instance, using the same font, background color, and style across all slides ensures they look like a unified set, which preserves your professionalism and credibility.
  2. Emphasis means that every aid should have a clear focal point that draws the audience's eyes to the most important information. By making key elements larger, bolder, or a different color, you control what the audience notices first.
  3. Scale and proportion involve the relative size of elements on an aid. Information must be large enough (typically at least 24-point font) for the entire audience to see. Proportion ensures that important items are appropriately sized compared to secondary details.
  4. Balance means a well-designed aid should have an even distribution of visual weight. This prevents an aid from feeling lopsided or disorganized, which can be distracting and make the content harder for the audience to process.
  5. Rhythm creates a sense of movement or flow within the aid, guiding the audience's eyes from one point to the next in a logical order. Using consistent spacing or recurring visual cues helps the audience follow the structure of the information you are presenting.

When applying the criteria, a presentation aid must be clear and simple enough for the audience to understand immediately. It should be a direct, uncluttered example of a specific element of the speech, avoiding excessive text or overly complex visuals that take too long to interpret. The most fundamental rule is that every audience member, including those in the back row, must be able to see, hear, or otherwise experience the aid. For visual aids, this means using large, bold text and high-contrast color combinations; for audio, it means ensuring sufficient volume.

Every aid must explicitly express or illustrate an idea in the speech. Unrelated visuals or media used simply because they are available are considered distractions that can undermine the speaker's credibility. To be effective, an aid must be used at the precise time the related idea is being presented. It should be smoothly integrated into the speech, with the speaker providing a verbal transition to explain what the aid shows and why it is important. Aids should look like they were designed as a cohesive set to maintain a polished, professional image. This includes using consistent fonts and a unified design style throughout a presentation. An aid must be easy for the speaker to use without fumbling. Furthermore, a speaker is evaluated on their preparedness for technical failures; they must have a backup plan, such as printed handouts or an outline, to continue the speech if the primary aid fails.

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Unit 6 Vocabulary

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.

  • audio/video recordings
  • balance
  • charts
  • clarity
  • connotative meaning
  • denotative meaning
  • design principles
  • economy
  • emphasis
  • extemporaneous delivery
  • eye contact
  • facial expression
  • gestures
  • graphs
  • impromptu delivery
  • inclusive language
  • manuscript delivery
  • memorized delivery
  • models
  • nonverbal delivery characteristics
  • objects
  • obscenity
  • obscure language/jargon
  • physical setting
  • posture
  • power
  • presentation aids
  • representations
  • rhythm
  • scale and proportion
  • unity
  • variety
  • vivid language
  • vocalics
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