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Journalism, representation and the public sphere | |||
| Title chapter: | A practical guide to using visuals to enhance oral presentations in an academic context | ||
| Author: | Francois Heinderyckx | ||
| Keywords: | oral presentation; visuals; visual aids; slide show; bulleted list | ||
| Abstract: | An oral presentation in front of an audience remains the most common way to share ideas, arguments and research results. Recent technological developments offer a range of exciting possibilities to enhance one's oral presentation with visuals. Lately, audiences have grown so used to speakers using visuals aids that it has become almost a requirement. This chapter offers guidance in deciding whether or not a presentation should be accompanied by visual aids before detailing strategies to design effective visuals that will serve and enhance a talk while avoiding to divert the attention of the audience. The chapter also argues against the tyranny of the bulleted lists that have come to dominate visuals as a result of docile submission to poorly designed templates that almost impose these lists as the standard format. Cognitive and technical considerations are discussed. The chapter recommends caution when sharing visuals after a presentation as they usually don't constitute an autonomous narration and could therefore be misunderstood when considered by themselves, without the accompanying talk that it merely illustrates. | ||
| >Click here to download full chapter [pdf] | |||
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