Page 370 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Chapter 12 Using Media in Your Speech 337

go as planned. It’s always “the computer’s fault.” Once they graduate and go
to work in a business or other organization, that excuse won’t fl y, and so it
doesn’t work for us either. We always back up our fi les. We put them on a fl ash
drive, a CD and also e-mail them to ourselves. We make paper copies of our
slides and are ready to turn those into overheads if necessary. And, of course,
because our presentation philosophy is that slides are supplementary and not
a replacement for the speech, therefore, should everything else fail, we are
prepared to speak from our notes with no slides or visuals at all.

Rules for the Road

Handed a script, fi lmmakers don’t simply pick up a 35 mm camera and be-
gin shooting. They start with a series of storyboards on which they begin to
sketch out individual shots and scenes. Important as presentational media
can be to a speech, it’s even more important that we fi rst learn to use a me-
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dium that will teach us easily learned principles of basic graphic design. As
a result, we encourage our own students to learn how to construct and use a
well-put-together poster board before working with overheads or PowerPoint.
What’s good for poster boards, we point out to them, tends to be good for
overheads and PowerPoint as well. With that in mind, remember these seven
basic principles when creating everything from a fl ip chart to a PowerPoint
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slide:
• Check out media prep services.
• Keep it simple.
• Make it visible.
• Lay it out sensibly.
• Use color.
• When in doubt . . . Leave it out.
• Plan ahead.

Check Out Media Prep Services

Our campus features a media prep center where students can get help in pre-
paring professional looking media, including the diverse types we’ve discussed
here. Students majoring in graphic design, instructional technology, and media
arts staff the center and share their creative skills with students who need help
preparing posters, overheads, PowerPoint presentations, and audio or video ed-
iting. We encourage our students to take advantage of this helpful and educa-
tional service.
If similar services are available on your campus, consider using them
for your media needs. If not, look to local businesses that can help you pro-
duce professional looking media at minimal costs. Most of the people work-
ing in the design business, moreover, will give you valuable tips and provide
you with examples of overheads and the like even if you do not use their
services.