Week 8: Informative and Persuasive Presentations

This week, I picked up some exteremely useful tips for getting the most out of communicating by means of presentation. Both informative presentations and persuasive presentations were covered. I'd like to touch on my most important takeways from each in today's blog post.

The purpose of informative presentations, as the title suggests, is to transfer information from the speaker to the listener, which is typically an audience much larger in number than the individual speaker. Techniques for mass transferral of information are therefore relevant. The presentation may or may not involve direct feedback from the audience, but either way, techniques for effective group communication (covered earlier in this blog) are a good starting point for finding what will work in an informative presentation.

Informative presentations are primarily for sharing information and ideas, shaping perceptions, or setting agendas and goals. They require the most organization and logical description of ideas (this can be done topically, chronologically, or in other novel fashion). They can also answer "why" questions, by way of demonstration and explanation.

Planning and preparing well in advance is the best way to ensure success. Since accurate information is the most important part of this sort of presentation, research should be conducted seriously and facts should be memorized and internalized before public presentation. Paying proper respect to your listeners by sharing perspective and adapting to the needs of the audience ensure the best information absorption. Paying mind to appearance and environmental factors minimizes distraction and noise that can distract from the transferrance of information.

Persuasive presentations are about promoting ideas and opinions in an attempt to guide a course of action. They are generally less formal and so occur more frequently, even without notice. Functions of persuasive presentations include reinforcement of already existing ideas, refutation of others' ideas, attempts to change the beliefs of those in the audience, and calling the audience to action on a particular choice of course. Perspectives on which method(s) are being employed, interestingly, can differ amongst audience members and the speaker themselves.

It is useful as the speaker to take the perspective of the listener into account in anticipation of the presentation. Most people are not easily persuaded, so a "scouting" of general sentiment can help to inform the things that need to be said to successfully persuade. It's important to be sympathetic, minimize differences, emphasize shared perspectives, and so on to sway an audience (or reinforce your perspective). Whatever the purpose of the presentation, cohesiveness and ultimately unity are the goals that should be promoted, and knowing how to be persuasuive is the best way to rally for a cause.

References

O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G. & Dixon, L. (2011). Strategic communication in business and the            professions (7th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.