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Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
Powerful Presentations will help all speakers improve their oral
language skills — their ability to plan and deliver presentations
with efficiency, confidence, and influence. To show you the best
way to become a more accomplished speaker, the book focuses
on specific strategies used by successful presenters and
challenges you to choose helpful strategies before, during, and
after your presentation.
7
SETTING FUTURE
GOALS
1
WHY
PRESENTATIONS?
2
SELECTING
CONTENT
3
CONSIDERING VOICE
AND ILLUSTRATIONS
4
COMMANDING

7. Setting Future Goals 22
Using What You’ve Learned 21
SUPPORTING STUDENT PRESENTERS 24
REPRODUCIBLE PAGES 25
INDEX 30
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
Purpose, Audience, and Environment
More than one comedian has observed that many of us would
rather die than speak in public. You will be increasingly
confident in your presentations if you implement strategies
used by effective speakers. Effective presentations are planned
presentations. By thinking about why you are presenting, you
have begun the process of presenting successfully.
All oral presentations have content. Obviously, you are
planning to talk about something. However, content is not
enough. If you simply present information on a topic such as
nutrition, climate change, vacations, or a favorite book or
movie, you may enhance your audience’s understanding, but
will you change their behavior?
Effective oral presentations focus on a clearly defined purpose.
The speaker intends that the audience will do something with
the information. For topics listed above, purposes might be to eat
a balanced diet, to recycle and take public transit more
frequently, to travel to Morocco, to read Bridge to Terabithia by
Katherine Paterson, and to stay away from an inferior film. In
employment settings, speakers often challenge colleagues to work
together toward shared goals or outcomes. For instance, a
supervisor wants sales staff to greet customers when they enter
the store. In all of these examples, the speaker should not settle
on having the audience do no more than listen; the speaker

speaking environment that will help you achieve your purpose
with your target audience:
●
How long should your presentation be? (Use no more time
than required.)
●
How large is your audience?
●
Will more than one presentation be required?
●
If you are part of a team planning the presentation, who will
present what?
●
Where will the presentation be held? Can you influence
seating arrangements?
●
What time of day will the presentation occur?
●
What is your relationship to the audience — peer, colleague,
supervisor, expert?
What options do you have about the speaking environment of
your presentation? What are the givens? What decisions will
you make about environment so that your audience will be
more receptive to the action that you will advocate?
1. WHY PRESENTATIONS
VOLUNTEERING SURVEY
1. In the past year, on average, how many hours per week did
you donate to volunteering? _______________________
2. Why is it important for young people to volunteer?
______________________________________________

audience members and therefore more likely to achieve your
purpose. Note details related to each question. If you are short
on details, you need to do additional research.
Speakers should remember that planning begins with the
body of the presentation rather than the introduction. The
chart helps you to ensure that you have key questions and
adequate details related to your topic, purpose, and audience.
Once you are clear about content, your introduction will be
much easier to compose. The chart illustrates content related to
the Volunteering Survey included earlier in the book.
6
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
2. SELECTING CONTENT
QUESTION: What does it mean to
be a volunteer?
●
Volunteers think about needs in
their community.
●
Volunteers contribute their time
and talent without monetary
compensation.
●
Many organizations depend on
volunteers and could not operate
without them.
PLANNING CONTENT FOR A PRESENTATION
QUESTION: What are the benefits
of young people’s volunteering?
●

AUDIENCE’S CONCERNS —
Lack of time and understanding of
how to volunteer.
QUESTION: How do young people
find the best volunteering options?
●
Complete a web search of
volunteering needs in your
community.
●
Identify your area of interest such
as hospitals, immigrants, the
environment.
●
Talk to friends who volunteer.
●
Learn about time commitments,
support, and benefits offered by
the organization.
7
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
Emotion and Humor
An effective presentation conveys the speaker’s honest
emotional response to the content. Often the key is to include
anecdotes, stories, and personal observations to illustrate key
points that you want to make. It is even better when the stories
emerge from your own experience rather than being repeated
from other sources. Audiences usually respond positively when
you are willing to risk inclusion of stories that illustrate your
own struggles, uncertainties, doubts, and mistakes. Since you

the form Planning Content for a Presentation (page 7). Where
can you add effective visual or dramatic illustrations?
Remember that you should always explain how your visual
dramatization relates to key points.
8
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
Unique Expression
Effective presentations are strong in voice. You achieve voice as
a presenter by including details and language that are unique
and that put your own imprint on the presentation. Clichés are
the enemy of voice. The word cliché is derived from the French
word meaning “to stereotype”. Through over-use, clichés have
lost their vitality. Examples of clichés include “see red”, “apple
of my eye”, “took to the cleaners”, “run like the wind”, and “in a
nutshell”. As you avoid clichés in your presentation, consider
fresh comparisons that will add originality to your language
and voice to your presentation. Look at the points on your
planning form. Try to locate one or two points to think about
an original comparison. For example, in the volunteering
planning form presented on page 7, the speaker transformed
the point about the volunteer’s personal satisfaction as follows:
“In the satisfaction they received from helping others,
volunteers find technicolor moments in their black and white
days.” The expression adds voice to the presentation.
Sticky-Note Strategy
So that all of this advice is not overwhelming, use a systematic
approach with the form Planning Content for a Presentation,
on page 7. Read your notes on the form four times with a
specific purpose for each reading. Attach sticky notes by related
points as you complete each thoughtful reading:

some audience members are preoccupied with their own
deadlines, problems, and challenges. No doubt some are
wishing that they were doing something other than listening to
you. Your job is to command their attention in your
introduction. What do you know about the audience so that
your introduction will interest them and focus them for the
points that will follow?
Let’s begin with a few warnings about what not to do. Never
begin by telling the audience how nervous you are. Never begin
by telling them that you feel unprepared or that you are
unaccustomed to public speaking. Your systematic preparation
of critical main ideas and important details as well as of
relevant anecdotes, humor, and visual illustrations should build
your confidence. If you are still nervous, remember that the
audience wants you to succeed. Even though they have other
items on their day’s agenda, they know that they are your
audience for an assigned period of time. They would rather be
interested than bored. Therefore, they hope that you are
interesting. Apologetic introductions are dull and defeatist.
Avoid them.
With examples related to the volunteering topic used earlier
in this book, the following chart presents techniques to spark
interest. Consider how one or more of these techniques would
work with your content.
10
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.
POWERFUL INTRODUCTIONS
Technique
●
Tell a brief story that indicates the importance of your

with what you have shared. Consider how one or more of the
following techniques would enhance your conclusion:
POWERFUL CONCLUSIONS
Technique
●
Tell a story or offer an illustration about an
implementation of the action proposed.
●
Warn about consequences of not implementing your
proposed action.
●
Stress a final powerful point.
Example
“After two months of volunteering in the hospital’s visiting
program, Marsha reports that she no longer feels nervous
about conversing with strangers. She is glad to have made
older friends. She looks forward to her weekly two-hour
shift.”
“Without increased volunteering, many important needs in
our community will not be met. The loss to people who are
not volunteering is worse. They lose the chance to make
friends, develop skills, and feel the satisfaction of helping
someone else.”
“Young people volunteer for different reasons — the need to
serve, the need to improve job prospects. Yet all young
volunteers stress that volunteering has helped them learn
about themselves. Can you think of a better use of your
time?”
12
Powerful Presentations: Seven steps to successful Speaking. Graham foster. Copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.