Content and Organization

Selecting Content

ONE THEME SHOULD DOMINATE YOUR ENTIRE PRESENTATION

This theme is not your thesis but rather an overarching emotional idea associated with the subject that keeps both you and your audience connected to the speech. Everything else, even your visuals and jokes, should revolve around this theme. For example, if you’re giving a presentation on solar power, you might want to make your presentation in a room that has a lot of natural light.

MAKE NO MORE THAN FIVE MAIN POINTS

Assume that your audience won’t be able to remember more than five points. Use short, powerful, memorable statements to introduce these main points.

PRESENT ONLY A FRACTION OF WHAT YOU KNOW

You should know more than your audience. Include only those details that people absolutely need to know.

Presenting Content

EPISODES

Present your content in five- to six-minute chunks, like news stories or music videos. Use each chunk to highlight a specific point and then move on.

TRANSITIONS

Make powerful and seamless transitions with strong leading words that re-engage your audience for each new point.

WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR CONTENT

1. Facts, Figures, and Statistics: Select useful facts and figures carefully, but don’t use too many.

2. Authoritative Sources: Use their credibility to bolster yours.

3. Quotations: Use famous or lesser-known quotations to support your theme.

4. Narratives: An audience usually will listen to a story.

5. Definitions: From the dictionary, or etymologies.

6. Humor: Builds affinity, wakes an audience up, grabs attention. Be careful, though, because nothing can backfire more than humor. Things to avoid with jokes: making fun of your audience, off-color jokes, laughing at yourself. Keep it simple, straightforward, and based on your skills. If you can’t tell a good story or appropriate joke, don’t!

7. Current Events: Help your audience identify with your material,

8. Humanize the information with personal stories and opinions.

9. A short brainstorm with your listeners using nonthreatening yes-or-no questions will connect them to the content.