Delivery Notes

Would you try to cook a gourmet meal for the first time without a recipe? A recipe tells you how much of what to do when, much the same way notes add spice and flavor to any presentation. Yet the same presentation can be overdone or bland with notes prepared hastily or improperly. Presentation notes, if carefully planned, can improve a delivery many times over.

Generally speaking, the fewer notes, the better your delivery. The function of notes is merely to help the speaker in remembering to include activities and ideas already stored in the memory, and to organize and direct the procedure of the presentation. In reality, what you need more than notes is a script to function as your “stage director” to cue you your preplanned activities. The main idea is to be brief and direct. There are times when nervousness or similar factors will force you to use extensive notes; but you will never be a good presenter until you overcome this weakness. Surmount it by preparing and practicing often and forcing yourself into presentation situations in which you must rely upon your ability to think, instead of to read.

Deliveries: Before planning a presentation, any speaker needs to be familiar with the various types of deliveries:

• Impromptu: No particular preparation has been made for the occasion. Usually called on unexpectedly, the presenter relies solely upon skills and knowledge available on the spur of the moment.
• Memorized: Material is repeated or recited word for word.
• Manuscript: Material read to the audience word for word as printed.
• Extemporaneous: Everything is pre-thought and planned in detail except that the exact wording and phrasing of the main body are not committed to memory. The presentation is delivered from a written or memorized outline..