Carter touched his backpack again, reassuring himself that it was still there. He was excited to give his presentation today about the importance of hunting. He had been hunting since he was old enough to stand, when his grandfather had taken him out to hunt deer. To be fair, he had slept in the deer stand most of the time, only waking up when his grandfather had gently shaken him awake and pointed at the young buck across the meadow. “We’ll leave him alone today. Hopefully, he’ll grow up and be a good catch in a couple of years,” he remembered his grandfather saying. Who knows, maybe one of the bucks he had shot and brought home in the intervening years was that same one.

When it was Carter’s turn, he walked up to the front of the classroom, backpack in tow. “When many of you think about hunting deer, you might think about using a rifle, shotgun, bow, or crossbow. All of these ways of hunting are legal in Iowa as long as you follow certain guidelines. What many of you might not know is that hunting with a handgun is legal as well. According to Iowa law, you can hunt with a handgun as long as you use centerfire handguns .357 caliber or larger that shooting straight-walled ammunition with an expanding-type bullet. As my visual aid, I brought these with me to show you.” And, with that, Carter pulls out a medium sized box. He takes his keys out and uses one to open the box, where he removes a large handgun and several ammunition cartridges.

“This is a .357 Magnum, which you might associate with a Wild West six-shooter, although most of those that you see in the movies are probably .36 caliber 1851 Navy Revolvers.” Carter said, holding up the weapon, making sure to always point the barrel toward the ceiling.

“The .357 was used for a long time in police forces around the U.S. and is still used for home defense. But it can also be used for hunting deer and other animals with the proper ammo. Like this,” he said, holding up one of the spent cartridges. “This is a 180 grain–that’s how heavy the bullet is–hard cast ammo cartridge. You can see I’ve already shot these, so the ammo isn’t live. But it gives you a sense of what you should use because lighter ammo may not kill the deer. In that case, you may only wound the deer and then it suffers.” Carter gives the rest of the presentation to the audience, many of whom seem interested in what he has to say. He finishes and puts the items back in their box, locks the box, and then puts it back in his backpack.

After class is over, he grabs his things and walks out of the room and into the hallway. There, two campus police officers are waiting. “Sir, do you mind opening your bag for us please?” One says, pleasantly.

“Sure,” Carter gets a sinking feeling in his stomach. “The police?” He thinks. What do they want?”

“Sir, do you have a weapon in your bag?”

“I mean, I have my gun for my presentation.”

“A gun? Sir, put the bag on the ground and back away slowly from it.”

“I mean, yeah, but it’s in a lock box,” Carter says, flushing with embarrassment, “See, I can show you.” He began to reach into his backpack so he can bring the lockbox out and show the officer that this has all been a huge misunderstanding.

“Sir, back away from the bag now!” The officer’s voice is suddenly very firm, and both he and his partner reach their hands to rest on their service guns.

“Oh man,” Carter thinks as he drops the bag. “Is this going to count against my grade?”

Presentational aids include any object, item, or video/audio recording that is used to effectively clarify, support, or enhance a specific point in the presentation. For Carter, although he brought an item in the hope that it would help his audience understand his argument, it caused more problems than it solved. Regardless of your intentions, some presentational aids may detract from your presentation because they are shocking, disgusting, threatening, or (in Carter’s case) illegal to bring. It’s important to remember that a presentational aid is used to do exactly what its name says: It “aids” you in making a point to your audience. In Carter’s case, there were other choices he could have made (e.g., bringing in a model gun, using an image of a gun, or showing a video clip of shooting) which would have had all the benefits and none of the downsides of bringing a weapon on campus. Choosing and effectively using your presentational aids is a skill that must be developed: choosing poor items or using them poorly can detract from your presentation but having ones that are too provoking can also harm your presentation. Being able to provoke the right amount of interest and engaging is the hallmark of a master public speaker.

Presentational aids should highlight important parts of your presentation. As such, you should learn when to reveal and conceal your aids, so they are maximally effective to your audience. Properly done, a presentational aid is not a substitute for good speaking practice. That is, you should not read off notes or outlines (e.g., PowerPoint/Prezi) nor should you play, fiddle, or otherwise be engrossed in your presentational aid to the exclusion of maintaining good eye contact with your audience. Make sure that your presentational aids are culturally inclusive to your audience. Showing pictures or other visual aids may be helpful for an audience of who doesn’t share your language as their first language (e.g., giving a presentation to an international business). Conversely, using aids that alienate others’ culture can alienate your audience (e.g., showing pictures that contain women without covering for a Muslim audience). In this chapter, we’ll discuss why, when, and how to use presentation aids to ensure your presentations always use aids that enhance your purpose.

Before picking out the type of presentation aid you want to use, it is important to understand the situation, room, and purpose of the presentation. For example, it would do little good to have a well-choreographed multimedia presentation if you have to give it in a room with no projector or poor Internet. Similarly, using aids may be influenced by factors such as audience size. If your audience is large, then holding a small item or using a dry-erase board may be inappropriate. Unless your audience is very small, we discourage passing items around the room as this becomes distracting for audience members and can result in you not getting your items back at the end of the presentation. Finally, recognize that some presentation aids may be more appropriate based on how they are used in a context. Having a scrolling set of photos may be fine if people are walking through an area and can freely engage with you but may be tedious or boring if an audience feels like they are held captive for an extremely long list of images. Remember, if a presentation aid fails it is because you chose to use an aid that was ill-suited to context. you should always check the room beforehand to ensure that it has the capability to handle whatever type of aids you wish to use.

Most importantly, make sure your presentational aid has a purpose. Many speaking situations can be enhanced by using an aid, but only if you have clearly thought through how to incorporate it into your presentation. It should neither detract nor overshadow your presentation; rather it should build and extend upon the firm foundation of your presentation. A key indicator of whether your presentational aid is appropriate or not is this: can you give the presentation without the presentational aid and the audience will get approximately the same quality of message? If yes, then you have incorporated an appropriate level of presentational aids. If not, then it is possible you are over-relying on your aids and may be unable to give your presentation in the event of a presentational aid failure (an all-too-common occurrence in our experience!).

Below is a list of often-used presentational aids and their advantages and disadvantages to their use.

Actual Item

Sometimes the most effective presentational aid is an example of the actual item in question. For example, in presentations about contraceptives, it might be important to bring items such as condoms, diaphragms, or birth control pills. These items can be simple to add to a presentation and are recognized as having an immediate applicability to the presentation topic. However, using actual items may not be appropriate if the presentation topic is on something dangerous or taboo or if the audience is too large to properly see the item. If audience size is a problem, it might be appropriate to film the presentation while giving it and having it projected on a large screen while you are giving the presentation.

Replicas

For items that are expensive, fragile, or dangerous, we recommend using a replica for your presentation. For example, actor Charlton Heston, in his presentation to the National Rifle Association when he was its president, held a replica of a flint-lock rifle when he gave his famous “From my cold, dead hands” presentation. Replicas can be effective if they look indistinguishable from the real item and provide a way of showing items that may otherwise be inaccessible due to your budget or context. However, because they look real it is important to remember that they may be mistaken for something that is dangerous and you should check with the venue before bringing it.

Models

To show items that are either too large to bring to a venue (e.g., a plane) or too small to be seen without special equipment (e.g., a virus) a model can be a great way to help your audience visualize your topic. Depending on the size and detail of the model, they can be prohibitively expensive or delicate. However, a model can also provide audiences with access to ideas or concepts that they wouldn’t be able to comprehend completely otherwise.

Charts, Tables, Graphs

Charts, tables, and graphs can help your audience quickly process a great deal of information by simplifying it into an easy-to-understand format. Common types include Bar Graphs, Line Graphs, Dual Axis Charts, Area Charts, and Pie Charts. Sometimes data needs to be put in columns and rows and displayed as a Table. The most common way this is generated is through Microsoft Excel.

Photography/Images

They say that pictures are worth a thousand words, and that can be true when using one as a presentational aid for your presentation. Whether showing a photograph of an example or an image that is meant to provoke a response from your audience, these presentational aids can help your audience connect with your presentation. Make sure the photos/images you use are large enough that everyone in the audience can see them and that they are appropriate for the presentation’s context.

Digital Slides

Perhaps the most common type of presentational aid is the digital slide. Most speakers will use either PowerPoint or Prezi to create a dynamic set of slides. The most common mistake speakers make is to read off their slides. Don’t do this! It is insulting to your audience (who can read) and indicates that you have not practiced and memorized your presentation. Choose colors that are appropriate and readable to color-blind audience members and use engaging design principles. Although you should not overdo animations in your slides, having some movement to your slides (especially having reading revealed as you make your points) can be an effective way to ensure that your audience remains engaged. Finally, you should try to follow the 5/5/5 rule: no more than five words per line of text, five lines of text per slide, or five text-heavy slides in a row. Too much text may make the audience disengage or make them want to read your text to the exclusion of hearing your presentation–neither is good!

Multimedia

For some presentations, it might be appropriate to have a choreographed collection of presentational aids. The multimedia approach to presentational aids can be time and resource consuming, but incredibly effective. Your audience will not only benefit from the various types of media you use but will also be impressed by your effort. If you are using a multimedia presentation, it is vital that you practice it before giving your presentation. Bad timing, glitches, and technological failures can plague even a well created multimedia presentation.

As we addressed in Chapter 8, you will need to appropriately observe citational and copyright rules/laws when using visual materials in addition to any text-based materials you use in your presentation. This may include limiting the amount of a video or film you show without contacting the copyright holder for permission. For example, The Door McAllen, a church in south Texas, had to pay damages for staging an unauthorized rendition of Hamilton–not only did they not have permission to perform the musical, but they also made changes to the script/music without permission. Whether a photo, image, video, song, performance, or some other form of work, it is likely that you will need to get permissions if you are using it outside of an educational setting (i.e., making a pitch to investors). Making sure you don’t run afoul of copyright laws and properly attribute content creators is not only the correct ethical choice, but it will also make sure you don’t end up in trouble!

Regardless of which presentation aid(s) you use, you must convey confidence and competence in using them. Over-relying on them to make your presentation work or having repeated failures in getting your aids to work will undermine your credibility and make your presentation ineffective. Make sure to give yourself enough time to create, test, practice, and perfect your presentational aids. You should storyboard your ideas; that is, you should outline your presentation, sequencing it to 10-15 seconds; 15-30 seconds; and/or 30-60 seconds. Develop your presentational aids to fit within these time sequences, so you know you can fit your presentation to your speaking time limit and that your aids are highlighting the key parts of your presentation. Storyboarding is especially easy if you are using a digital slide program since you should typically use not more than 2 slides per minute of your presentation. Planning out your presentation in blocks like this can be helpful when making sure you are using your time effectively. It can also be helpful in identifying points in the presentation that are not flowing smoothly or connecting well and focusing on that specific point.

Using presentational aids in your presentation can elevate it from a boring lecture to a dynamic and engaging multimedia performance. Central to this goal will be planning your steps, being intentional about your presentational aid use, and practicing your presentation before giving it to your audience. Always have a backup plan in case your presentational aid fails to work properly or if the context changes and doesn’t allow for its use (e.g., a weather change). If you follow these tips, your presentational aids will enhance your presentation’s effectives and make you stand out in the classroom, community center, or boardroom.