Presentation skills entail delivering messages accurately and honestly; well presented information is readily understood by the target audience. This essay will analyze the visual, style and format inconsistencies found in presentation, as in Unit 1-4, and Unit 5 presentations, in the book “Guide to Presentations” (2001) by Mary Munter, Lynn Russell. The differences in background colors and formats are quite obvious. Furthermore, the first four units and the fifth unit differ very much in their tone of presentation, apart from the content difference.
The tone and treatment of the first four units of presentations, are uniformly instructive, aimed at addressing the audience almost individually, and using the term “you” more often, with a batch of FAQs addressing doubts of the reader, in the same simple and instructive tone, with examples to illustrate the relevance, for example, “The availability of technical and physical support should also influence your decision process. Additionally, your understanding of the normative expectations of your audience should be considered” (Munter & Russell, 2001) (Unit 2).
Whereas, Unit-5 presentation is more impersonal in tone, with the audience are hardly addressed directly. It is the tonal difference, as well as the stylistic difference (apart from the total discontinuity is subject matter), leads one to understand that the person who is presenting this unit is not the same as the ones who had presented the previous units. The style of presentation is also different; one can observe that the first four units had been systematically organized into various head and subheads, with important points delineated as bullet points or numbered as 1), 2) etc.
the concepts and ideas were clearly segmented and easy to follow, because of the vivid segmentation coupled by the headings. This style is not obvious in Unit-5, which clubs more information into one paragraph; it seems lesser organized, though its content actually demands segmentation, use of bullet points, numbers etc. For example, “The macro view of consistency goes beyond the scope of the situated text and presentation. Presentations are often constructed for corporations and organizations that have a vested interest in the style and tone of both the text and the visual display.
If giving a presentation for an organization follow the standards of corporate identity or construct a presentation consistent with the mission and image of the organization. ” (Munter & Russell, 2001), (unit 5) clubs too many things together. A format that does not use appropriate designing to highlight the important points, is apt to lose the message and makes poor presentation; which is why the presentation in Unit-5 appears less professionally designed than the first four.
Bibliography
Munter, Mary & Russell, Lynn. (2001). Guide to Presentations. Prentice Hall (2001). ISBN 0130351326.