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Organize it, then write the script



Arrangement

When you wrote papers in high school, you knew you had to follow a logical flow from one point to the next or your paper would appear disjointed. When giving a presentation, there is a great added benefit to having a strong logical flow from one concept to the next: it makes it easier for you to remember what you have to say. Classical rhetoric teachers used to advise their students to think of their speech as a house, and each part of the speech was a room in that house. You would enter through the foyer, which was the introduction, then move into the kitchen (you will get to eat breakfast), the living room (you will be in a better mood) and the bedroom (you grow more when you sleep more).

You can make whatever kinds of mental associations you like between arguments and rooms of the house; it's just a mental image to help you remember where you are and what you still have to say so that you can be less dependent on your crutches: note cards, PowerPoints, and written notes. You will also feel more comfortable allowing audience participation and free flow of ideas, if you are confident you'll be able to pick back up right where you left off.

Transitions

Another technique that can help you structure your presentation so that it is both more logical for the listener and easier for you to follow is to construct strong transitions from one segment to the next. To do this, look through your argument grid and see how one idea relates to the next. Unless you are giving a presentation about completely random ideas, chances are good you'll be able to connect the dots. In the example of my son's bedtime argument, flowing from being able to eat breakfast in the morning into growing more allows a transition like, "another effect of being well-fed is that your body is able to take all those nutrients and put them to work helping you grow--but in order to make that happen, you need quality sleep time."

Sometimes transitions can be hard to make. You might feel like you are stretching your speech like a Slinky to connect one idea to another. If you feel like it's too much of a leap, chances are your audience will, too. In that case, just go ahead and use the verbal equivalent of a chapter break: Take a breath. Sip some water. Allow some silence, and then address the fact that you are moving to something completely different. Example: "Now that we have finished with the employee of the quarter awards, let's move on to talking about ideas for the company picnic."

These clean breaks can also be useful when you are switching from a segment of your presentation where you have been talking a lot into one where you want the audience to start participating more. A pause and break helps let them know that something different is about to happen.

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