Reporting and Presentations

I214 Nov. 25, 2008

Prof. Van House

Report Formats"

Short, pithy written report Paper Online

Extensive written report Paper Online

Oral presentation Short (5-10 min) Long (Half an hour? Longer?)

The elevator summary

Potential Audiences

Your managers People in your organization, and/or client group Design team Higher ups, other units in the organization Your peers Outsiders? As part of a portfolio of your

(individual, collective) work.

Audience

Who is (are) your audience(s)? What do they want to/NEED to know?

To understand, evaluate your findings To act

What are they expecting to hear? What is your organization’s usual method,

format? What are your audience’s expectations about

reports and presentations?

Some examples

Adaptive Path BoltPeters BoltPeters 2

Tensions

Between Thoroughness and Conciseness Between Substance and Flash

Substance Detailed reporting Data and analysis substantiating your findings Carefully argued findings, conclusions,

recommendations Flash

The power of images Rising expectations about presentations Time and effort needed for flash

Some ways to address the tensions

Multiple reports, reporting media In a single report:

Executive summary Layout – sections, section headings, section

summaries Graphics Tables Appendices

Multimodal communication

The use of a multiplicity of modes, especially text and images.

Different modes have different representational potentials and different social practices and meanings. E.g., memo, powerpoint presentation

Goal is “aptness of mode”: fit between the mode and The message The audience

Report Basics: Edit, edit, edit! Conciseness

Syntax: “The rules whereby words or other elements of sentence structure are combined to form grammatical sentences.”

Usage: “The way in which words or phrases are actually used, spoken, or written in a speech community.”

Sense

Some basic Powerpoint guidelines

Proofread! Use native English speakers if you are not

Bahktin:

heteroglossia

addressivity

Some basic Powerpoint guidelines

Proofread! Use native English speakers if you are not

Use fewer words (graphics help)

Santa Monica

• has forbidden exercise in greenspace in the middle of the street

• only allows walking or jogging

Santa Monica

Only walking, jogging on medians

Some basic Powerpoint guidelines Proofread!

Use native English speakers if you are not

Use fewer words (graphics help) Make grammatically consistent

Santa Monica

• Forbids exercise in medians

• But people can walk or jog

Santa Monica

•  Forbids exercise on medians; but

• Allows walking, jogging

More basic guidelines

Visually highlight the most important elements Text size:

Know your room and what can be seen– how much text, how small

When in doubt, go for less and larger

Cute things Don’t Unless they help And even then, not too cute

Presentations"

mostly from Garr Reynolds, but not entirely http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/index.html

Organization and Preparation http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/prep.html 3 points The Edward R. Murrow rule Concrete and memorable:

anecdotes, examples, images, phrases

Presentations

mostly from Garr Reynolds, but not entirely http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/index.html

Delivery http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/index.html

Read slides? Never, never, never….(unless…)

Deliver energy (and volume) Rehearse! Check the room ahead of time Check your technology Watch (and respond to) your audience Respect time

http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html

How long ago did you read the line above?

Presentations

mostly from Garr Reynolds, but not entirely http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html

Slides: Styles differ

Does your company have a format/template?

Use images, video, audio Images: yours, stock photos, Google image search, Flickr/CC Videos: yours; YouTube

Make separate handouts?

VldepViVodep

Video