I’m sure you’ve heard that the fear of public speaking ranks highest for most people.  In the business setting, however, you may be asked to present your findings, reports, and other information via an oral presentation.  Why is this section in a technical writing text?  Because many times the written technical writing piece is accompanied by the oral presentation and also because effective business presentations follow principles that are used in written technical writing communication.

You will, for example, have to analyze your audience to see how you can best convey your message.  Design and format principles used in technical writing are also used in presentations.  See Appendix C for more information about design and visuals.

Oral Presentation

The format for the Instructional Oral Presentation will be familiar to you.  It includes the following:  Introduction, Body and Conclusion.

In the introduction, you must

• tell the audience how the presentation is meaningful to them,
• show openness
• tell how the presentation relates to past experiences of the audience
• tell your expertise regarding the topic/issue.

The presentation of these steps is referred to as the MORE (+E) principle: Meaningful to audience, Openness of speaker, Relates to past experiences, Expertise of the speaker on the subject, and the speaker Evaluated the audience (knows what the level of the audience’s knowledge of the topic/issue is).

First, the speaker must make the presentation meaningful to the audience, so they want to listen. If the presentation is not meaningful, there is no reason to listen. Second, the speaker must be open to show that he/she is willing to have the audience be a part of the presentation in order to win the confidence and support of the audience. Third, the speaker must make the subject relative to the audience’s experience, so the audience can draw parallels in order to create interest in the subject and a better understanding of the material. Fourth, the speaker must relay expert knowledge to make him/her credible. Expert knowledge can be personal experiences of the speaker and/or researched information. The speaker must provide the source of the expert information. Last, it is important that the speaker evaluate the audience to judge how much the audience may/may not know about the subject. It may be necessary to revise slightly the presentation, leaving out emphasis or adding emphasis, to keep the presentation relative to the audience’s understanding.

The body of the presentation begins with what you want the audience to know, and presents the instruction.

The conclusion of the presentation briefly summarizes the steps in the body.

An instructional report simply gives instruction. Do not add your opinion regarding benefits or consequences.  Just give the instructions on how to do something.

See the following example:  

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/oerfiles/technical+writing/Example+Informative+Oral+Presentation+Installing+a+hard+drive.doc