I think this is where Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle comes in—because in Aristotle’s understanding of rhetoric, credibility is connected to two things, the message itself (or the content) and the speaker’s ability to tap into the needs of the audience. So if we are not lucky enough to have some kind of reputation that precedes us in a presentation, then we have to do some hard work to earn credibility for ourselves.
- Innovative Content That We Know Very Well. Two things here—first we have to know our stuff (no reading from prepared notes) and second, we have to make some effort to bring information into the presentation that is innovative in some way. We need to do more than transfer information from an outside source to our audience; we need to instead transform information by doing something with it—filtering it through our consciousness or experiences; putting it in a unique context; in other words, surprising our audience with what we do with the content and in the process telling them something they don’t already know. To do that, we need to be creative and innovative in our thinking and presenting. This takes time and research and planning.
- A Deep Understanding of Our Audience and Their Needs. In order to decide whether information going to inspire our audience, we need to spend quite a bit of time understanding and exploring the world from their point of view. Of course, this also takes research and planning, but it will help us speak to the audience’s needs and interests and to frame our content in a way that is relevant and meaningful to them.
Aristotle’s method of establishing credibility is great but not always realistic. I think if every presenter knew what they were talking about and knew how to relate it to the audience, the world of presentations as we know it would go through a transformation. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the real world.
The question is not how we prepare for a presentation; it is how we prepare for a presentation for an audience of diverse individuals whom have very different views on what a presentation should be. I work for a large organization in which several presentations are made daily. I consider each presenter to be a genius in his/her field. However, being a genius does not always mean being a great presenter.
If you visit the knowhr website that Dr. Sisco provided in an earlier post, they discuss how important it is to be a performer in a presentation. I couldn’t agree more with this statement. I have not met anyone who has said that a presentation was too entertaining. If you can find some way to entertain your audience (humorous remarks or comical slides), I believe your presentation will be better for it.
A good point made. I would, perhaps, agree more as it pertains to the business world…at least as we have known the business world.
However, I do have to say that I believe in Aristotle’s method. It would be impossible not to read any work of fiction, attend a play, or watch a movie written today without seeing Aristotle’s modes of persuasion in action regardless of the genre. This has been a powerful formula since Aristotle’s first writings and teachings extending first to the Greek tragedy writers such as Sophocles. Oedipus Rex and Antigone come to mind. In reading any of these tragedies it becomes apparent that they looked to Aristotle’s Rhetoric as the basis of their story telling instituting his logos, ethos, and pathos modes of persuasion. For instance, all Greek tragedies start with the introduction of characters and their importance to the story then move to the middle where they create conflict, and finally will resolve the conflict, tragically, at the end. While today’s script writers often end on a happy note for the benefit of the majority of today’s audiences; they are still in essence resolving the conflict and appealing to logos, ethos, and pathos to tell their story.
I will agree with you terms of performing during the presentation. After all, the Greeks carried off their tragedies with great zeal to emphasize the conflict where men played the roles of men and women. This past week we certainly saw some great performances. The presentation convincing me that I can draw comes to mind. Anyone who could make me draw an eye/nose/brow that didn’t look like a stick figure definitely gave a good performance!
Presentation Planning Part 2
I believe that even a presentation that is not interesting in some cases may be better if a speaker knows the information. Even if the presentation is interesting it is still a problem if the speaker doesn’t give the correct information. Therefore the first point of knowing your stuff is very important to the success of your creditability to the audience. The art of blending together information to make a credible presentation and keeping your audience interested and involved is a difficult task to master. The way in which to constantly improve this difficult task I believe is research and planning in order to meet the audience’s needs. The way in which you cater and relate your presentation to particular audience will determine your success. I do think the best way to do this is threw stories because all people can relate to a good story because stories are often real with twists and turns. The tricky part is to choose a story that is particularly appropriate to the point you as a speaker is trying to get across to the audience.
When dong my first planning sheet, one of the questions was “Will your audience find you credible?” My first thoughts were no, because the audience was not familiar with who I was or with any of my accomplishments. However, when reading and discussing credibility in the class, I have come to realize that credibility can be developed in many ways. I found this very interesting because a major component of developing a successful presentation is by serving as a credible source to your audience. For example, my informative speech focused on Graphic Design and I established credibility with my audience by stating that I graduated from the university’s Computer Graphics Department. I also established credibility by telling stories of how I utilized by computer graphic skills when completing my internship. For the audience, proof of your sources and/or background is one technique when establishing credibility.
Also, the presenter’s ability to confidentially present information develops credibility. Audience members would like to see that the presenter is confident in the information that it being stated. A presenter that is not confident looks less credible than one who has accurately prepared for the presentation.
Recently, I watched Paul Bennett’s presentation. He used innovation content and a deep understanding of his audience and their needs to make a great presentation. He is the creative director at Ideo. This speech reminds us that design is in the detail, and need not invoke grand gestures or sweeping statements to be successful, but instead can focus on the little things in life, the obvious, and the overlooked. Paul Bennett used his personal experience to show how his firm works to reframe the everyday realities of its diverse clients to create results that truly make a difference. He mentioned “small is a new big.” I really agree that because every big idea is from a small thing, so he suggested us to keep looking and thinking, and put yourself in position. That is what idea, creativity come from. This presentation gave us a lot of ideas of designs and the design not only makes things more beautiful, but also making things more human. Further information can be attended from the following website: http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/40
A good presentation used power point to tell a story. In the beginning of Paul Bennett’s presentation, he used white slide with only word “hello” and in the end of presentation, the slide showed word “thank you”. It impressed me because the slide is clean, friendly and creative. Every picture told us a story about his credibility. He did not tell us how to design, but he told us where the design comes from which really helped us think. I like this presentation because it caught the audience’s mind to give them simple tools.
I will agree, as the day is long, that a critical element of presentation planning is to “know your stuff.” It is extremely difficult to win over the audience if reading directly from a placard or stumbling over presentation content. I firmly believe that this is the most important first step in establishing credibility and without it, the presentation is likely to be rated unforgettable as soon as the audience leaves the room.
Being knowledgeable, however, does not equate with being a good presenter. Great idea, Tania for elaborating on the need to perform for the audience. I agree that I have yet to be critical of presenters for injecting humor, telling stories, or acting out a specific idea through movement. It implies critical and strategic thinking in trying to convey the message and demonstrate your genuine concern for not only the topic, but also for the audience. A well planned and delivered presentation not only impacts, informs, or persuades the audience, but also creates respect and credibility for the speaker. This respect is earned through the concerted efforts of the presenter to deliver the message in a thoughtful manner.
An example, from my own experience as a nutrition educator, comes to mind that makes me smile to this day. I was speaking to a group of Multiple Sclerosis patients on the basics of healthy eating. As constipation is frequently a complication for many of these patients, I was trying to emphasize the all important inclusion of fiber –rich foods. Now, most of us are well aware that fiber is good for you, but why? I told this audience to visualize fiber in the intestinal tract as looking somewhat like a corn broom. At that, I spread my arms out wide to demonstrate what it might look like. I then explained that fiber in the intestines acted much like a corn broom, sweeping out and cleaning out all the dirt and debris left behind from foods. I took this one step further by sweeping my arms in a motion similar to a broom and moved across the front of the audience. Now, as strange as I might have looked, I received not only laughter and applause from the group, but also numerous comments on much they enjoyed my presentation. I later learned just how inspirational, enjoyable and memorable the talk was-they later invited me to be their keynote presenter for their annual conference!
The point about understanding the audience’s needs is critical when preparing a presentation. I’ve prepared many presentations in the past without a care in the world about anyone’s perception of it but my own. I’ve gotten great grades on them, but it doesn’t mean they were deserved. In the business world, if you can’t speak at a level that’s understandable to your audience and specific to their needs, you won’t be in the business world very long.
Content is also key when preparing a presentation. I prepared a presentation for another class, and it had some content that was relevant but was known to most people. I learned the mistake of doing that the hard way. The professor literally said to the class “does anybody not know this” and when nobody said no, he said “Ok, on to the next slide” and did this several times. It angered me immensely, but I realized that if you want to make people care and have them take interest, you can’t feed them reruns of information that they already know. If we dig right into the new material and things unknown to our audience, and present it in an exciting and non-traditional manner, we are more likely to keep them awake and interested, and also make people want to know more about what we’re presenting about.
Familiar contents are necessary for presentations especially for students. However, the topics could be the ones that we are willing to learn about. For example, in my global marketing class I choice the topic about International Monetary Fund (IMF), because it is mentioned a lot in my country (Turkey) and I already wanted to research about it. It was a perfect opportunity for me and I made lots of research and learn many things. While giving my presentation I was so comfortable, because I was telling a topic that I know a lot.
Content should be considered as well by the presenter. In some of the conditions the presenter could not be able to attract the audience such as too many details, already known information, unrelated things at a presentation. At presentations given in professional life, the audience is paying money to learn some information about a specific topic and they are willing to get as much information as they can. On the other hand when a student is giving a presentation about something, they should consider attracting the audience more. It could be done by some creative ideas, but how could you do it? I guess the presenter should figure it out.