Types of Presentation Aids - Essay Example

The use of pictures and sound can be communicated and remembered more effectively and efficiently than a speech or presentation without presentation aids. Presentation aids help the important parts of a presentation stand out. The selection of a presentation aid is based on the type of audience, the speech content, and the occasion where the presentation is being given. There are many different types of presentation aids like, objects, models, pictures, graphs, audio clips, videos clips, handouts, and multimedia clips.

A presentation can include either one type of presentation aid or many different aids together. Using presentation aids can help make your presentation interesting and it also help you remember your key points easily. Pictures are a very effective presentation aid as it is easier to remember what you see than what you hear. Pictures are of different types such as, diagrams, maps, posters, graphs, pictograms, and the like. A picture can be a two-dimensional image of something or it can also be a schematic drawing that explains how something works.

Pictures are best used hen a presentation is lengthy. The audience often looses interest and attentiveness when a presentation in long. The use of pictures can keep the audience engaged and help them remember the key ideas of the presentation. Diagrams, graphs, pictograms help the audience understand the concept of the presentation better. . Statistical information can be presented much more effectively with the help of graphs, diagrams and charts than just through verbal communication. Pictures can brilliantly describe an event, scene, or object immediately.

Using pictures as a presentation aid can also have its own disadvantages. If your picture is not clear and does not completely represent your concept, it can mislead the audience. If the pictures used are too complex and have too much information it does not serve the purpose of keeping the audience engaged, as the audience tend to loose interest if the picture shown is too complex. Also, it is important to have knowledge of graphs and charts when preparing a presentation using graphs or charts as a presentation aid, as it is necessary to use the right kind of chart or graph to present certain kind of data or it can misinform the audience.

Another useful presentation aid is objects. Though the use if objects is not very common it is a very handy presentation aid. It is usually suitable for a science presentation or a presentation where the object is helpful in illustrating the actual subject of the speech or one of its main features. Objects can be inanimate or live things, for example, in a science presentation about the human body, a model of the human body can be used as a presentation aid to help the audience understand the presentation better.

The use of objects as presentation aids can be advantageous when the topic of the presentation is complex and is difficult to explain just verbally. When an object is used in a presentation the audience is more attentive and engaged in what the speaker is saying as they see and hear the explanation at the same time. Objects also give a