by Annette Hatton

Created on: September 25, 2009   Last Updated: September 28, 2009

Making visual aids

When you are asked to stand up and speak to an audience do you look for a trap door to appear and open so you can us fall through and disappear? Suppose you had the power to make your audience disappear instead. Not possible? Of course it is.

Twenty-five years ago, frustrated with a public speaking student's lack of eye contact because she could not speak without her script, which she read, rather she mumbled, I suggested she make her notes large enough for everyone in the audience to see. She converted her entire script to overhead transparencies, which allowed her to turn off the lights. Presto, her audience disappeared.

There is something magical about making audiences disappear that brings out the best in many otherwise nervous speakers. You too can make your audience disappear. Make your notes, not your script, into projected images that require the lights turned off or dimmed.

There are two main types of visuals. One is includes props, pictures and slide picture presentations, which work well for storytelling, documentaries and travelogues. The other includes all types of word visuals, flip charts, poster presentations, overhead transparencies, power point pages and handouts used most often by practiced speakers, those who teach, storytellers or for oral reports.

When making visual aids keep in mind they are distractions. Used improperly they can hinder by taking attention away from you. The longer attention is off you the more of what you are saying is lost. The longer the attention is off you the longer it takes to reestablish the connection. Used properly they can help you keep the connection, keep everyone awake, active, attentive and on the same page. They can encourage discussion and encourage active listening.

Regardless of which type of presentation you choose, guidelines on how to make word visuals professional looking, better received, more effective and less distractive are generally the same.

The audience needs to be able to read the visual in five seconds so when you move from one transparency to the next remain silent for those five seconds. This one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, one thousand four, one thousand five count allows the audience time to read the new projection, which emphasizes the new information. This five-second dramatic pause when broken by the sound of your voice immediately refocuses audience attention back to you.

How do you make a five-second-word visual? There are a

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