Knowing Your Audience
- How big will the audience be?
- How familiar are they with your topic?
- How familiar are they with you? To what extent will you have to establish your expertise and credibility?
- What biases or preconceived notions are they likely to have?
- Are they attending voluntarily or involuntarily?
- Is the meeting formal or informal?
- What are your objectives for the meeting; what do you want the audience to do as a result of your speaking?
Structuring A Lay Presentation
Decide on a structure. Will you make x number of separate points, make one main point and several supporting points, or have several overlapping points (where prior points are referred to or reintroduced for emphasis)?
- Follow the proven model for speaker clarity: Tell them what you are going to tell them à Tell them à Tell them what you have told them.
- Use an organization structure such as the one offered by the University of Pennsylvania:
The introduction focuses the audience’s attention on you, outlines the thesis and creates a structure so the audience knows what to expect
- Use a hook (short anecdote, quotation or fact) that is topical and will interest the audience.
- State the significance of your topic to the audience.
- State the thesis or central idea in 1-2 sentences.
- Provide a preview of what is to come; use buzzwords or language that you can repeat throughout your talk to remind the audience of your structure.
The body of the presentation presents your claims and evidence to support your thesis, and is usually broken into several key points, each of which may of have subpoints.
- Use a topic sentence.
- Preview subpoints, if any.
- Present evidence and then explain your evidence.
- Transition to the next key point by explaining how the points relate or link to each other or to prior points.
- Repeat as necessary.
The conclusion ties your arguments together and allows the audience to pick up anything important they might have missed.
- Remind your audience of your main points.
- Restate your thesis.
- Close with a return to your original hook, or by posing questions or suggesting next steps.
