Enhance The Impact Of Your Presentations Through Effective Visual Aids

Visual aids should never “replace” your presentation--- you must display your materials visually in such a manner that it does not distract your audience from your argument. Some of the visual aids are listed below:

Power Point Presentation

This is the most commonly used visual aid used in modern day presentations. Although many features are available in a power point, make sure you make the slides as simple and legible as possible. Small fonts, using dark or multi-colored backgrounds, font colors that clash with the background, too many pictures or images on a slide—all these make a slide illegible and difficult to understand. Fonts should be minimum 20 points in size and a dark color over a light background usually looks quite good, depending on the colors that you use.

             A complicated dark colored font on a dark background makes the slide unreadable.

Make sure that each slide adds to your presentation. Do not have slide after slide with bullet points of what you are going to say. Your visual aid does not then say anything extra and will get too boring. You can illustrate a point with a large picture or a drawing or a graph so that what you are describing becomes simple to understand. You could have a slide with just a sentence or a word in large font to emphasize your core argument or theme.

                                        A single sentence can create a huge impact 

Pictures and graphs

Be creative in your choice of pictures and graphs. Graphs are meant to present data in a simplified manner. Make sure your graphs are not crowded with too much information.Instead, present one idea per graph. Do not crowd the entire slide with too many pictures and captions. Your audience will get distracted from your presentation trying to make sense of the pictures.Also, make sure the colors used do not clash with the background and the images are visible to the audience.

                              Too much information on one slide distracts the audience

Flip Charts

Flip charts follow the same rules as power point slides. The drawings or writing on the sheets should be large and legible from a distance. Place the flip chart where everyone can see. You will have to create images according to the size of the audience. In a small group flip charts work very well since the distance between you and the audience is not too much. If you wish to write on the chart as you speak, make sure you use bright colored markers and write in large letters. It will be a good idea however, to prepare the flip chart before the presentation so that much time is not spent in writing.

White board

You can use a whiteboard to explain a concept. Do not turn your back to the audience while you write or draw. Use the whiteboard sparingly and keep looking at the audience every 10 seconds to make sure they are following you. Write legibly and use bright colored markers.

Video tapes

You may play a film your audience but make sure it is done only to illustrate your point. Do not use a video instead of a presentation –this will make your presence redundant. Playing a very long film might put your audience to sleep. It is a good idea to play your film after the presentation to highlight whatever you have presented. This way, your audience can use the information in the video to summarize what you have already said. Also, if they choose not to pay attention, you still would have made an impact before the film and your presentation would not have been wasted. You could also save your question and answer sessions until after the film to make sure that the audience does watch the film in its entirety.

OET and TOEFL—English tests to go abroad

The OET and TOEFL are English proficiency tests taken by various English speaking countries such as the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand for non-native speakers of the English language looking to migrate to these countries for studies or work.

The OET is restricted to students/jobseekers in the health care space and is accepted only in Australia, New Zealand and sometimes in Singapore. TOEFL is accepted mostly by the USA but may be accepted in many other countries.

The OET is administered by the OET Centre up to 10 times a year and in over 40 locations around the world. The Test measures the language capability of health practitioners who are seeking registration and the ability to practice in an English-speaking context.

In India, for most people, English is a foreign language. The medium of instruction right up to graduation or high school in a majority of areas in India is in the vernacular or the mother tongue of the region where you study. Therefore, it is important to know that if you are not very proficient in English, but have dreams of traveling abroad, brush up your English skills and prepare for these tests.

Before enrolling for any of the tests, please make sure which country/university you are applying to and how much is the score expectation.

The OET and TOEFL, all have four parts to the test—Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. You receive results for the four sub-tests that make up the OET as one of five grades – A to E. A is the highest grade, E is the lowest.

TOEFL score will range from 0 to 120 and is calculated by combining your TOEFL scores on each of the four sections.

LISTENING:

The listening test is important because the test takers want to understand if you can follow a conversation or a lecture .These conversations are usually in foreign accents—British, Scottish, American (TOEFL) and Australian or New Zealanders’ (OET).

If you want to practice, watch TV programs/films from English channels, to understand various expressions. Although English is an international language, it is spoken differently in various countries .Familiarize yourself with the way it is spoken in these countries.

READING:

All the tests give at least 2-3 reading passages; about 500-700 words in length and you have to find answers to the questions from the passage. Reading comprehension is an important part of these tests and the key questions will be based on your understanding of the vocabulary and your expertise in gleaning out information from the passages. 

The reading test will carry on for an hour or more, so it might get a bit tiring and difficult for you, even if your English is good.

Practice by reading English newspapers and magazines and books. You can start with simple English reading like small fiction stories and then gradually start reading non-fiction. The passages are taken from scientific, historical or even medical journals (in the case of OET); therefore the reading is pretty heavy and is not very interesting. Make a practice by reading quickly and skimming through information and taking down notes.

Improve your vocabulary by going through the meanings of words you do not know, using a dictionary.

WRITING:

The writing tests come in the form of composing a letter (OET) or an essay (TOEFL).The TOEFL has an integrated writing section where you have to listen to a speaker and read a passage and write an essay on how the listening and reading are related. This is a tough test since this tests your vocabulary, grammar and spellings. Even a good English speaker may not write well.

Since the writing tasks are timed –about half an hour to one hour, the key here is to structure and write down your thoughts in a limited time. Brush up your grammar; practice writing simple essay topics and write letters pertaining to your work or subject—place an order, complaint letter, introductory letter etc. For OET practice by reading case sheets and preparing reference letters on the case.

SPEAKING:

The TOEFL has six speaking tasks out which four are integrated tasks; the OET asks you to participate in a role play between a patient and yourself. The questions may be recordings (as in TOEFL) or asked by a live examiner (OET) .All your answers are taped and analyzed by test examiners later.

As long as you display that you can speak fluently, and understand the task, you will not fail the test.Many candidates do not do well on the test just because they get nervous or tongue-tied and lose time thinking.

Practice speaking with a friend or a person who knows good English. Speak on different topics for five minutes and ask your friend to converse with you on different topics.

Start practice months before the test

1. A mistake most candidates make is to register for the test close to the admission or visa deadline. The downside of this is that if you fail the test, your admission gets cancelled and you lose your registration money. It will be a good idea to take a test date three to six months in advance---that way you will have enough time to prepare and take care of your other course work or studies or office work.

2. Even if you are good in English, never go unprepared. Spend a few weeks, going through the test format and answering questions on your own. Score yourself and see if you are capable of passing the test in the first attempt. If not, give yourself more time. 

3. If you are not good in English, take at least three months to coach yourself. Get yourself a good English teacher to coach you or enroll in a coaching institute.

Once you have enrolled for the test, buy books and CDs---available in the market and practice from them. If your score is below average, enroll for a coaching class. It is not worth losing money over repeated registrations and facing numerous disappointments

Conversational Skills---How To Talk And How Much To Talk

    A conversation is a spontaneous interaction between two or more people. We all have conversations with family and friends.However, many of us, may be labeled as “boring” if we make long and meaningless conversations. How adept are we in our conversational skills ?

   A good conversationalist “goes with the theme”. If everyone is discussing movies, it would be a good idea, to stick to the topic. Do not go off on a tangent and introduce a topic of your own. Contribute your view points and go with the mood. If it is a fun topic, do not butt in and make it serious. For example, do not become serious and argumentative by theorizing and defending you own point of view. Laugh with the others and present your point of view without either getting offended or offending others.

    Do not interrupt a free flowing conversation between others .Wait for the conversation to end and see if the others are looking at you indicating that you can participate. Sometimes, they may be discussing something private and do not want you to participate. In that case, apologize that you perhaps came in at the wrong time and ask if you can sit around or if they want you to leave. If this is a conversation that you really want to join in, then seek permission. Again, give your point of view but do not get into a disagreement. If someone disagrees with you, you can back off smiling, saying that you beg to differ. You need not insist on your take on the subject, neither do you need to change your viewpoint to suit others.

    It is easier to have conversations within a group of people you know. Yours might be a talkative family, a loud group of friends or just the opposite. You would of course fit into your comfort zone. You may be a talkative person or a quiet one and your friend and family accept you as such. However, a good conversationalist knows how to hold a conversation in an unfamiliar zone. Also, a new friend or a new member of the family should be introduced to the rest of the crowd and gently initiated into the conversation. For example, you can tell them what the conversation is about and introduce the others to him or her. Also, you can tell the others to make the other person comfortable by not talking family secrets or cracking private jokes which only the group is familiar with.

    Does the thought of starting a conversation with a new person or a group worry you? It might be your first day in a classroom or at work; it could be at a party, workplace or even in a bus, train or plane. You might meet someone for the first time that you are forced to interact with. You could intitiate a conversation by introducing yourself or a topic. On the other hand if someone initiates a conversation, do not get frightened and shy away. You could respond in the same manner.

    Determine whether it is a personal interaction or an impersonal one. For example, if you have just met a person at a railway station it may be possible to have a good ten minute conversation. You may be surprised at the topics you can talk about-- train timings, comforts in the train, other trains, convenience at the railway stations or even the railway minister---without ever divulging your name! Too much information need never be exchanged---for example, you might mention that you live in Kolkota on Park Street but there is no need to mention the full address. There is no need either, to talk about your family, siblings, where they live, study etc.Remember, you are talking to a stranger and it is not a good idea to reveal too much. At the same time, do not ask too many questions out of curiosity. The other person may just shut you off.

    If you meet someone in a familiar zone and you need to maintain a long term relationship with him or her, you can introduce yourself and reveal your name, ask for their name and some other details. Again, do not reveal nor seek more information the first time. Take at least three to four conversations to get to know more about the other person. Do not ask all the questions at the same time. If you feel that the other person is shy draw him or her into your conversation by finding out their area of interest. Do not get put off if the other person seems to be too reserved. Let them be. When they realize that you are not pushing them, they might get more comfortable with you.

When in doubt, talk about the weather: you can never go wrong there!