Prepared by: Jorge Sosa, Jaime Puente and Esau Ruiz

To:
Jose Luis Gomez
From: J. Sosa, J. Puente, E. Ruiz
Subject: Usability of Prezi presentation
Date: January 27, 2015
The purpose of this memo is to give our feedback in the Prezi presentation about
Understanding the Role of Oral Presentations that you showed us in class on January
22, 2015. The goal of your presentation was to consider the elements of an effective oral
presentation.
Summary
Overall the presentation was very helpful, but in the following paragraphs, you did
mention all four elements of an effective oral presentation, however some elements of
oral presentation were omitted that would make it better. We highlight the missing
elements in each of the four steps of an effective oral presentation as follows:
Discussion
I.
Understanding the role of oral presentation
We noticed that when it comes to prepare and rehearse an oral presentation, you
should mention the time you should be lasting and for how long to rehearse, like in
our book it recommends every minute of one presentation should take 40 to 60
minutes of rehearsing and practicing (Markel, 2012). Also how long to take in the
introduction and remember to save time to encourage questions if any.
When it comes to getting to know your audience, a little side note could be to do
some research in the age range of the audience, are all people in the audience
listening to you for the same reason or specific topic. Also if possible try to know
where you will be presenting to prepare to walk around the room or to just be
standing behind a desk.
If you are preparing for a presentation, for example an informative one, make sure to
have all your reliable sources and know your material well in order to explain
sufficiently and clearly so that people grasp the information. If it is a persuasive
presentation, find a strong reason why you want to persuade, be confident about your
topic and be prepared for opposing viewpoints.
II.
Understanding the process of preparing
When analyzing the speaking situation, we would consider giving out more detail on
how to analyze the event, for example, stating if the audience know the topic from
background or not, the knowledge of the audience on the topic, that way we know
what technical words to use or not, and lastly, are there any nonnative speakers of
English, it might be time to slow down. When it comes to budgeting you time, it is
crucial to specify when the presentation has taken too long and the audience has just
stopped paying attention, so it is important to state how the presentation can be
developed into parts. It would be nice to clarify what graphics are audience-friendly.

This helps to avoid bombarding the audience with visuals that are hard to read or
understand, in other words, simple is better. What do you mean by effective
language? According to (Markel, 2012) it is important to state advanced organizers to
let the audience know about your following idea, give summaries about each topic
recently discussed to keep audience engaged, and transitions, make sure to close one
topic and let your audience know youre moving to the next one. And when it comes
to rehearsing the presentation , a little more tips can be given to stay comfortable
during the last presentation and its always crucial to stay confident and maintain your
nerves, and consider your voice , to slow or to fast?, to loud or to soft?, and dont go
off topic.
III.
Understanding the delivery of an oral presentation.
In this part of the presentation we have two Items to Highlight:
Self-confidence is not mention in the prezi presentation, this is an important element
to deliver good oral presentations, some authors also suggest to consider your
personal presentation (dressing) as a powerful element to deliver an oral presentation.
Also there is no difference between Maintain eye contact is repeated in the third
and fifth element.
IV.
Understanding the Process of Answering Questions after a presentation
In this part the prezi presentation includes all elements mentioned in the Technical
Communication book, we suggest that the presentation concludes emphasizing that
when we do not know the answer of a question, is better to say a sincere I dont
know instead of take the risk and give an incorrect answer.
Recommendation
As final comments, the Prezi presentation could be enriched with some Images in the
beginning of the slides, review for those elements that are repeated and complement
with the missing elements

Bibliography
Markel, M. (2012). Technical Communication . Boston, MA: Bedford/St.
Martin's.