About Use of Visual Slides

How do you plan to use visuals in your speech presentation?

First of all, when you see use of visuals in a Toastmasters project, keep in mind that a visual can also be a handout that you give to members in audience, or something to show (for example your science project where you might have built something), or a prop appropriate for your speech topic, or presentation slides you can develop using Power Point, or Key Note, or Google Slides.

Visuals don’t necessarily have to be presentations slides only that you show on a TV or a projector. Other ideas here can serve your purpose as well.

About the use of presentation slides that go with your speech, yes, there is a value in learning and trying those. That is, particularly when your speech project description calls out for it. In other cases, be careful not to overdo visual slides, or use them overly in variety of speech topics.

Why is that?

  1. Visual slides complicate your speech preparation. It can add time to your preparation.
  2. It makes your speech presentation more complicated as well, as you have to balance and coordinate use of visual slides with your delivery of the message.
  3. It can get in your way for developing other skills such as effective eye contact, use of body movement and facial expressions, developing more vocal variety, etc. All these skills are very important to learn as well.

Visual slides shouldn’t be used as your speech notes. Might as well bring handwritten flash cards in that case.

So, again learning how to use visual slides is important, however only for a few select projects at toastmasters.

See more notes in the step # 3 of our speech preparation tool framework. This is a .PDF that opens in a new window. Go to STEP # 3 in that document, you will see notes on visuals in that section (click here).

Also, this blog post has a few other ideas about how to select what to show in your visual slides(click here).

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