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An excellent way to make your message more powerful and memorable is to use contrasts. Contrasts help you make a point by showing differences. Contrasts make audience members think, remember, pay attention, and assimilate better.

There are obvious ways that the very act of speaking creates contrasts. There is the physical act of speaking which is in contrast to the printed page. Oral style is a contrast to written style, using shorter sentences, more repetition, and less formality. Punctuation is indicated by the use of the voice instead of symbols on a page.

We are used to contrasts in life. Novels contrast the bad with the good. At dinner we have the main course and then dessert. We are awake and then we are asleep.

So when we use contrasts in speaking, we are tapping into the essence of being human. Think of ways to show contrast in your next presentation.

Visual aids contrast with your spoken word. There are several ways we show contrast in delivery. We speak loudly or softly. We speed up or slow down our rate of speech. We move from one side of the lectern to the other side. We gesture and then become very still.

We can show contrast in organizing our speeches. Point out a problem and then give the solution, or show a need and then provide ways to meet it. There is the contrast among the introduction, body, and conclusion. Make it clear when you are leaving one section to move to the next. You move from a main point to evidence or support for that point. You want to make sure that ideas are separated by evidence. Ask a question and then provide answers.

Show contrasts in the emotional tenor of the speech. Contrast the serious with the humorous. Seek to break up serious material every ten minutes with something light or funny. Appeal to the emotions and then move to content that is logical. Make the audience feel what you are talking about, and then make them think about your content.

Support is another part of the presentation that can be rich in contrasts. Use a few well-placed statistics and then tell a story to illustrate what the statistics mean. Include description after you have given a definition. If you are using visuals as support, show a chart followed by a picture, and then follow that with a bulleted slide. Don’t show chart after chart on your slides. Mix them up for contrasts. Use a historical example and then give a personal or hypothetical example.

Finally, show contrasts in your style of speaking. Include alliteration and metaphors as well as hard facts. Include internal summaries and also a summary at the end of your presentation. Use adjectives that describe and then verbs that show action. Include a short sentence and then a longer sentence.

In developing an effective presentation, mix both the content and delivery with contrasts. Monotone pitch, redundancy in types of support, and continued patterns in language and organization can put your audience to sleep. Contrasts will create memorable moments for the audience.

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A QUESTION I'M OFTEN ASKED:

How do you know if a joke or story will be funny to an audience? This is hard to determine but here are some guidelines. Make sure what you are going to tell is funny to you. If it is not funny to you it will not be funny to anyone else.

Practice telling it. Be able to tell it without notes and with an easy natural manner. When you are not comfortable telling it, the audience will probably sense that. Make sure you put emphasis on the right words and pause in the right manner.

Before you try it out on an audience, share it with several friends and associates individually. Watch their reactions. If most do not smile or laugh, an audience will probably not find it enjoyable either.

Don’t tell the audience, "This is a funny story." Then if you get no laughs or chuckles, you can just go on as though you meant it to be serious. Whatever you share, make sure it relates to the point being made.

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POLISHING THE PRESENTATION

A way to polish to your presentation is to punctuate your points with movement in delivery:

· When you change direction in your speech, move to the other side of the lectern.

· When you want to emphasize a point, take a step toward your audience.

· When relating dialogue, pick out members of the audience to be each character, gesturing toward that person and making eye contact with him/her when saying something from that person.

· Move toward the screen and point when you underscore a key fact from a slide.

· Use a sweeping gesture when stressing something large in size.

· Point toward a door or window when you are sharing a concept that demonstrates direction or movement from one place to another.

· Pause and take a step forward before delivering a punch line.

Remember, sometimes it is not the words that make the impact, but rather how you use movement to make the words come alive to your audience.

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