Unit 13: Oral Presentation

13. Oral Presentations[1]

A common assignment in technical writing courses is to prepare and deliver an oral presentation. You might wonder what an oral report is doing in a writing class. Employers look for coursework and experience in preparing written documents, but they look for some experience in oral presentation as well.

Before we look at a model presentation, let’s go over some background information to make it easier to follow.

Task 1: Answer the following discussion questions.

Do you have an air conditioner or refrigerator?

What brand is it?

What different types are there?

Which one is the best?

What benefits do air conditioners or refrigerators have?

Do you know how an air conditioner or refrigerator works?

Task 2: Now look at the following diagram, and label it with the items below.

Figure 20. Diagram of an Air-Conditioner.

Note. Brain, M. (2000). How Air Conditioners Works. Retrieved April 15, 2002 from the World Wide Web:

  1. Hot air to outside___
  2. Expansion valve___
  3. Cold air to inside___
  4. Fans___
  5. Compressor___

Organizing a Presentation

Task 3: Read the following transcript of an oral presentation about air conditioners, and put the different parts in the right order.

Introduction
Overview of Presentation
Body Part 1
Body Part 2
Body Part 3
Conclusion
Question 1
Question 2
A / And that’s the end of my presentation. I hope you now know something about the history of air conditioning, how air conditioners work, and why they are so useful. Thank you very much for listening. If you have any questions, I’d be glad to answer them. Yes, Ali?
B / Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Today, I’m going to be talking about an invention that has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people: Air conditioning. I wonder how many people in this room have an air conditioner…Yes, Mehmet – a Vestel – oh, a good one!
C / You explained how air conditioners make rooms cool, but how do they make rooms warm?
Thanks, Ali! Well, I’m not an expert, but I would think just by the opposite process; cold air is drawn in, heated, and then sent into the room again.
Yes, Fatma?
D / Now, my presentation will be divided into three parts. First, I’ll tell you a little bit about the history of air conditioning. Then I’ll try and explain how air conditioners work, and finally I’ll discuss some of the benefits of air-conditioning systems and technology.
E / You talked about kinds of equipment and how we can look after them. Can you give some examples?
Yes. When Carrier invented the first air conditioner it was for a printer. He couldn’t print good color images because temperature changes kept changing the print quality. But air conditioning is also used in space travel, medicine, product testing, and in many other fields.
No more questions? Okay, thank you very much once again.
F / So, it’s not a very complicated process. In fact, refrigeration systems work in a very similar way. But the benefits have been very great. We can now live and work comfortably in the hot summer months in our homes and offices. We can drive to work comfortably. And because we can control temperature, we can look after many kinds of equipment that can be damaged by temperature changes.
G / That’s enough on the history. Now, how do air conditioners actually work? Have a look at this diagram. I’ll just put it on OHT for you. I got this diagram from a really nice site called ‘How Stuff Works’.
Yes, now as you can see, air conditioners are actually quite simple machines. There are two sets of coils. Inside the coils on one side, there is a liquid refrigerant. One of the fans draws warm air from the room over these coils here, makes it cool and returns it to the room. Very basic. However, of course, this makes the refrigerant get warmer. And as a result, it starts to evaporate. So to solve this problem, the refrigerant then passes into the compressor down here and is pressurized. This pressurized gas, which is very hot, then enters the second set of coils. The second fan now draws cool air from the outside over these coils to reduce the heat. The refrigerant cools and turns into a liquid again. It then passes into the expansion valve up here. This reduces the pressure very quickly, and as a result the temperature drops. And that’s how the cycle works. As I said, it’s simple, but very effective.
H / The history of air-conditioning begins in 1902. In that year Willis Carrier realized that you could dry air with very cold water in order to produce condensation. In the same year he built the first air conditioner. This air conditioner had the cooling power of 108,000 pounds of ice a day.
Of course it took many years of scientific work and research to produce air conditioners suitable for the average person. The first air-conditioned automobile was produced in 1938. In the same year, the first window air conditioner was produced. After World War II, the prices of these window air conditioners came down.
By the end of the twentieth century, nearly 70% of Americans had air conditioners.

Making a Presentation Effective

Your oral presentation should be clear, understandable, well-organized, well-planned, and well-timed. You don't need to be fancy, just present what you have to say in a calm, organized, well-planned manner.

Task 4: Read the following statements about oral presentations and tick the correct statement.

Technical Report Writing1

Unit 13: Oral Presentation

  1. In our class, the oral presentation should be how long?
    approximately 10 minutes
    15 – 20 minutes
    As long as you want.
  2. In the introduction to the oral presentation, what should you do?
    Give a detailed summary of the presentation.
    Greet the audience and tell them what the topic of your report is.
    Define the key technical terms you'll use in the oral report.
  3. The overview of an oral presentation should do which of the following?
    Give a detailed summary of the body parts.
    Make recommendations to the audience.
    Indicate the purpose of the oral report, give a brief summary of its contents, and find some way to interest the audience.
  4. Concerning the delivery style of an oral presentation, you should plan to speak
    a bit faster than normal to ensure that you get through all of your material.
    a bit more slowly than normal to ensure that people understand you.
    in the same way that you normally speak.
  5. When you use visuals in an oral presentation, you should
    say a little bit about them to the audience.
    display them, but not comment on them.

  1. When you finish your discussion of one part of the presentation, you should
    take a break.
    move straight onto the next part.
    ask for questions
    make it clear that you are finishing one part and moving onto the next.
  2. For your presentation, you should not
    prepare cue cards and deliver your oral presentation using them.
    use an outline to deliver your oral presentation.
    write a script and read your script to the class.
    use any preparation method that suits you, as long as you can be organized, understandable, and within the time limit.
  3. What about conclusions in oral presentations?
    You should plan the conclusion carefully and then invite questions.
    There is no need for a conclusion in a short oral presentation.
  4. Which of the following would be the worst for an oral presentation:
    Being nervous during your oral report, although people could understand you and everything else about your oral report was fine.
    Forgetting to have a real introduction where you indicate the topic and provide an overview of what you're going to cover.
    Speaking unnaturally slowly to ensure that people in the audience can understand you.
  5. Which of the following is not essential in an oral presentation?
    Keeping eye contact with your audience.
    Standing up so that everyone can see Doing a powerpoint presentation.

Technical Report Writing1

Unit 13: Oral Presentation

Preparing an Outline

Now that you have a checklist showing you how to make your presentation more effective,you will need to prepare a presentation outline in note form only. Remember, you may not read a script; you have to speak to your audience from notes.

Task 5: Read the transcript about air conditioners once more, and underline what you think are the key words and phrases. Then complete the outline form below.

1.Introduction / Good morning etc. – Air conditioners – anyone have an air conditioner?
2.Overview
3.PART 1: History
4.PART 2: How air conditioners work
5.PART 3: Benefits of air conditioners
6.Conclusion
7.Thanks. Questions?

Delivering the Presentation

Task 6: In groups, practice delivering your presentation about air conditioners to each other. Take one part of the presentation each and deliver it. When you have finished, the listeners will give you feedback on the following:

Were you speaking:a) too fastb) about the right pacec) too slowly?

Were you speaking:a) too loudlyb) about the right volumec) too softly?

Did you keep eye

contact:a) most of the timeb) only some of timec) almost never?

Did you sound:a) interested/livelyb) bored/uninterestedc) too nervous?

Did you use gestures:a) too muchb) about the right amountc) not enough?

Technical Report Writing1

[1]Adapted from:McMurrey, D. A. (n.d) Online technical writing: Oral presentations. Retrieved December 31, 2002 from the World Wide Web: