What is the impact of handouts in a presentation?
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Simulation & Gaming: +++ Handouts http://www.rethinkpresentations.com/presentation-handout-sample/ from http://www.presentation-pointers.com/showarticle/articleid/20/ Handy Tips For
Effective Handouts: Great Materials Make Audience Members Remember Your Message When the presentation or training session ends, does the learning also have to end? Absolutely not. Yet often, that can happen. It is critical that presenters use as many of the following five types of materials for audience members to take home. These items not only help to remember the speaker and his or her message, but more importantly aid the participants in continuing their learning. Studies show that people only remember 10% of what they've heard after several days. An effective handout can increase this percentage. What types of materials can be used? 1) Handouts (or workbooks) Using handouts that allow the audience members to take notes during the presentation is a great way for them to capture key ideas. When they take notes in their own words it's more meaningful. Handouts need to be visually interesting, but have lots of white space for writing. According to an article in the February 1999 issue of Presentations magazine, there are five steps to follow for improving your handouts:
These book marks or cards can have key ideas from the program as a reminder for participants. Be sure to include your name, phone number and other contact information. Recently I used a series of five small brightly colored cards. Each had a letter of the alphabet on them -- A through E. On the back of each was "quick tip" information and bulleted points. On one card I listed my e-mail and web site addresses. 3) Small gifts or trinkets that are somehow a reminder of the topic. Giving away a ruler, for example, can remind you of personal growth. A packet of seeds can be used to convey the thought of seeds for success. I give people a small candle to remind them of their own star power so they will let their light shine. Be careful, however, you don't want to go overboard with this sort of reminder. Any small gifts that you do use should have all your information listed -- name, phone numbers, address, 4) Books, booklets, audio and videotapes, and software packages are excellent learning tools. These learning tools can be a reminder of the information given in your presentation -- especially if you authored them! Obviously these books, tapes, etc., can also help promote your services and product sales. Another idea is to mail these types of learning tools out regularly -- perhaps once a month -- to audience members so there's continued learning. 5) Newsletters, reminder letters and more tip sheets Each participant of a Brody Communications Ltd. training program gets our quarterly newsletter inserted into their manual. Each issue contains an article written by me that has practical application in the workplace. Presenters also can use these types of materials by having audience members sign up for a mailing list and then regularly mailing letters and newsletters to participants Article copyright� Brody Communications Ltd. 1999 ++++++++++++++++++++++ from http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/bucholtz/sociocultural/handouttips.html Presentation Handouts copyright � 2004-2007 by Mary Bucholtz, University of California, Santa Barbara Handouts are crucial in linguistic research, so it's important that you master this discourse genre. Here are some basic guidelines for creating an effective handout for sociocultural linguistics. Make people pay attention to the content of the handout, not its appearance
Make the handout easy to navigate.
Elements of the handoutTitle sectionThis occurs at the top of page 1 (and nowhere else; don't have a header with the title on every page). This section includes more than the title. You should have the following information, typically in this order, typically centered (i.e., model it on the manuscript of the article that this presentation will eventually become): title of paper, your name, (your university affiliation and perhaps department: for conferences, job talks, etc.), your email address. It's a marker of a newbie to put too much information in the title section; if you want to include the presentation location (e.g., the conference acronym, such as AAA or LSA) and date, you can add it in the first page header or below your email address, but don't list the session title, organizer, etc. BodyThis can vary quite a bit, depending on the nature of your presentation. You can structure the body using headings and/or an outline format, or if your presentation is primarily data-driven, you can simply allow readers to follow along using the example numbers. Don't overstructure your handout; one or two heading levels is the most you should use. QuotesYou can include quotes from other researchers if relevant, but you should not number them. Cite the author, date, and page number parenthetically, and then add the full reference in your reference section at the end of the handout. ExamplesAll data examples should be numbered. Tables and figures should be numbered separately from data examples. That is, if you have a table that occurs after data example (4), call it Table 1 and follow it with data example (5). Number all examples, tables, and figures using Arabic numbers only. By convention, data examples are usually numbered in parentheses above the data: (1), (2). Don't write "example" before the example number. TablesKeep their design simple, and use them only for the presentation of material that won't work better in a data example or a graphic of some kind (e.g., lists of discourse markers and their function in the discourse work well in a table; simple statistics may be best presented in a table, but often a graphic is better for this purpose). Transcripts should almost never be in tables. All tables should have clear and informative captions: not "Table 1: Codeswitching" but "Table 1: Percentage of codeswitching in narrative, by gender." Look at examples of published tables to find an effective format. Tables are harder to design than you might think. FiguresFigures include charts and graphics. If you have graphics, make sure they're clearly visible on the handout. Color graphics are pretty but expensive; a clear black and white photocopy is usually fine. Like tables, figures should also have informative captions. TranscriptsProvide line numbers for transcripts of more than a few lines (typically 5 or so). Line numbers should be Arabic numbers with no parentheses or periods. Try to format your numbering so that long lines don't run into the numbering column or the speaker name column. Don't: 1 A: blahblahblahblah blahblahblahblah blahblahblahblah Do: 1 A: blahblahblahblah blahblahblahblah blahblahblahblah Include only the text that you absolutely need to make your argument and use ellipses to mark omitted text; if you need to use a long transcript, highlight the material under discussion (e.g., underline or boldface, arrow in the margin). Transcription conventionsYou should list all the transcription conventions you use in the handout, and only those. To save space, you can simply cite your source for transcription conventions, if you're using a widely known system like Jefferson's or Du Bois's. ReferencesList only the references mentioned in the presentation (orally or on the handout). These are usually no more than five or ten for a short talk, or a page for a longer talk.
from http://speakingaboutpresenting.com/delivery/presentation-handouts/ Your presentation handout is the lasting concrete manifestation of your presentation. It�s an important part of the total experience for the audience:
But most of us focus on preparing what happens during the presentation, not what happens afterwards. Here are the benefits of having handouts: Benefits for the presenter
Benefits for audience members
Tips for Presentation Handouts1. Prepare your handouts in plenty of timeDon�t leave it till the last moment to create your handout. I�ve been guilty of this. We�re most concerned about the actual presentation and not making a fool of ourselves up on the stage so you work on what you�re going to say and the slides, and then 30 mins before your presentation you realise you should have a handout and hurriedly put something together. Handouts are much too important to be relegated to an afterthought. 2. Don�t just print out your slidesThis is lazy and not effective. If your slides are bullet-point slides (not recommended) then they will often be cut-down sentences which will no longer make sense to the reader a week later. And if they are visual slides (recommended) then they�re also unlikely to make sense without additional text. If you�re presenting with visual PowerPoint slides, one of the easiest ways of creating a handout is to type the text of the handout in the �Notes� pane of the PowerPoint edit screen. Then print your slides as �Notes�. You�ll have an effective handout. 3. Ensure your handout reflects your presentationAn audience member should be able to relate the handout to the presentation they�ve just attended. If you use the Notes pane of PowerPoint as I�ve suggested above this will happen naturally as you�ll be guided by the visuals you�re using in the presentation. You handout should have the same title as your presentation and should follow the samestructure so that audience members can easily find the information they want. 4. Add more informationPresentations are not a good format for transferring a lot of information. However, they are good for inspiring people to find out more about a topic. That extra information can be in the handout. And if you�re the sort of person who wants to tell the audience everything you know about the topic� you can put it in the handout. 5. Include referencesIf you�re citing research do include the references in the handout. For most presentations (scientific presentations to a scientific audience would be an exception), don�t clutter up your presentation or your slides with references. But do be able to say: �The reference for this research is in your handout.� Let your audience know where they can find out more: books, websites, blogs etc. 6. Consider creating an action sheetHandouts are a great place to help people put ideas from your presentation into action. You could either list a series of actions that people can take, or provide a worksheet that people fill in on what actions they will take as a result of your presentation. Have people fill in the action sheet near the end of your presentation. 7. Make your handout stand-aloneThe handout may be passed onto people who were not at your presentation. Or an audience member may look at it a year from now when they�ve forgotten most of your presentation. Make sure that it will make sense to them. For people who weren�t present include brief credibility-establishing information about you. 8. Provide white spaceSome people like to take notes during a presentation. Provide plenty of white space (or even some blank pages at the back) so that they can take notes on the handout and so keep all the information related to your presentation in one place. 9. Make your handout look professionalThe handout is the concrete reminder of your presentation. It may also get passed onto other people who were not at your presentation. So it should enhance the perception people have of you:
10. Consider what additional resources you can provide for your audienceYou�re not limited to paper. My bioethics teacher friend who presents at bioethics and education conferences across the globe provides each of her attendees with a DVD with lesson plans and resources. 11. Consider creating a webpageCliff Atkinson suggests creating a �home page� for your presentation in his book The Backchannel. If you don�t have a website, you could create a squidoo lens or a Facebook Fan page. Or if you�d like to do more than that, create a wiki website (try pbworks orwikispaces) or use blog software. Both of these can be done for free and just a little technical courage (techphobics shouldn�t try this). All of these options allow readers to comment on what you�ve written, so it�s a great way of continuing the conversation with audience members. For instance, audience members can ask you questions they weren�t able to ask at the time. If you decide to go the web way, you can cut down the hard copy handout to one page with the most important points from your presentation, your contact details and the web address. 12. Distribute the handout at the beginning of your presentationThis is a perennial topic of debate amongst presenters. Some people are concerned that if they distribute the handout first, people will stop listening and start leafing through it. The problem here is not the handout, it�s that your presentation is not engaging enough. Not distributing it till after the presentation suggests that you think you know best how people should pay attention to your information. Let your audience decide for themselves. Recent research suggests that providing handouts to university students before the lecture does not harm their learning. Update: In the comments to this post, Cathy Moore, Mike Slater and Adam Lawrencehave identified three good reasons for distributing your handout after your presentation. I�ve highlighted these reasons in a new post: Three good reasons to distribute your handout after your presentation. 13. Do tell people if it�s not in the handoutFinally, if you go off on a tangent in reply to a question, do let them know that the answer is not in the handout. Why are handouts important in presentations?A handout not only means that you can create a clean and uncluttered presentation, but allows your audience to understand your points better and remember them afterwards. It's also very useful for conveying your arguments to anyone who may have missed the actual presentation.
What is the impact of the visual aid handouts?Lesson Summary. A visual aid supplements words with pictures, charts, graphs, or other visual information. They are important because they help the audience understand and remember, increase audience interest, and act as notes or reminders for the speaker.
What makes an effective handout?The key to effective handouts is SIMPLICITY.
Distill each point into a clear summary. Avoid unnecessary details. You want people to glance at your handout as you speak, not to get so absorbed in it that they tune you out. Use illustrations or graphics, if appropriate.
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