Name : Emilia Permaasari (14250034)

Class : PBI B

Subject : Speech

Chapter 3

Selecting, planning and arranging the material

Be prepared

If we asked to give a one word explanation of the sort of confident, organized

presentation we all envy, it would be preparation. The confidence comes from the
speaker's knowledge that he or he has everything ready, ha thought through the whole
subject, and has enough of the right of the right material to support the presentation.
Good speakers are prepared.

There are two two simple pieces of advice which start this process of preparation in the
right way. Firstly, ask yourself what the aim of the talk is rather than what the subject of
the talk is. The first is much more specific than the second. A complete catalogue of
every aspect will merely bore them and will achieve exactly the opposite result.

The advantage of thinking about the aim is also that then the decision include the
audience, and the audience's perceptions and needs, not just the speaker's ideas and
knowledge. The second piece of simple advice is to prepare more material than you
need. The idea of praparing 'just the right amount' is foolish. Until you start talking, you
won't really know how much material you are going to get through. Talking should
never be a dutiful forced march, it should always be an exploration, a discussion, a
fascinating glimpse of the subject.

The talk is also more interesting if the audience feel you are stepping smartly through
the topic, summarizing far deeper knowledge and just mentioning the more interesting
aspects. The habit of having extra material also allows you flexibility in timing when
giving the talk, and helps you to answer questions at the end.

Thoughtful selection

The first important decision in making a selection of material is what you share going to
leave out, not wat you are going to put in. That job is better done by paper. If you are
already expert in a subject, you must now decide what the audience don't need to know.
If you have to work on a new subject, as soon as you have understood it, you will have
to make decisions about what is not needed in the talk.
It is a mistake to try to pad the talk out with masses of information and detail, in the
belief that the audience will be impressed by your knowledge. Factual information can
only be used as illustration, or example, nerver as the substance of the talk. To try to
battle against this natural situation will only alienate the audience, and reduce, not
increase, the amount of information that is remembered.

If you need to transfer a mass of solid figures, it is best to given a handout, with the
figures tabulatedfor reference. Detailed learning ha to b done with paper at a desk talks
are for interest and general information, not the transfer of a dense mass of information.

The first task, then, is to select the material, and reduce the bulk of detail to manageable
proportions. Selection, however, requires an aim and this aim must be specific, not
vague. It is impossible to make decisions about whether to reject, or leave in, a
particular fact unless there is a very definite image of the audience and its aims in mind.
A general purpose all will probably result in a vague presentation which will satisfy
none of audiences.

Another factor which must be considered when selecting information is the unloading
rate, and the digestibility of what you are saying. People who are experts in a subject
often fail to remember that it has taken them many years to get their minds around it all,
and that wat seems second nature to them now, may be confusing and alarming to a
newcomer. There are many techniques available to modify the rate at which new
information is provided. For example, modify the rate by repetition, example and
anecdote.

One technique to ease the shock of new information is like getting into cold water by
taking a wild plunge. It is worth spending rather longer on the first point, giving lots of
example and supporting information, because if the audience an be made to understand
the first point, they will approach the rest with more confidence.

Mix old and new

Another way of reducing the unloading rate is to ensure that there is a mixture of old
and new inormation. The old facts are the foundations on which the new facts must be
built. These foundations will b buried under all the other daily information the audience
must cope with. A mixture of familiar facts amongst the new reduces the total strain on
memory and comprehension. The feeling of smugness, in the unspoken reaction 'we
know that', will transfer to a feeling of interest and respect if it is followed by the
reaction, 'but we didn't know that'. By alternating familiar and strange, new and old, the
audience's comprehension is kept flexible and alert.

The technique of mixing familiar and new is supported by theorists of communication.

The content of a presentation cannot be all new, some of it must be familiar, even
repetitious, in order to orientate, and rest, the listener's mind.
Judging the selection of the material I more a matter of conscious awareness, than or
perfect correctness. The only rules at to remain aware of audience reaction as you talk,
and be prepared to modify what you are saying if blank incomprehension, or glazed
stares of boredom, meet what you av said so far.

Vivid and entertaining examples are often the best way to engage the audience's
attention, and to ease the passage of new information. The examples and analogies you
do use must be brief, familiar and concrete. It is often difficult to think of too examples
and one writer on the subject, Donald Bligh, admits that, 'Personally I find that I can
never think of good examples at the time lecturing. They therefore have to be prepared
in advance. In fact I is quite a good idea to collect example at all times.

A coherent pattern

An early decision you must make when preparing a talk, is how are you going to
organize the material. Research shows quite clearly that the listeners remember better,
and remember more, if they have a sense of the shape of the talk. Even if your talk is
about one chemical reaction, say, you can break it down into an overview, the raw
materials, the theory of the process, the construction of the reactor vessels, the control
and supervision of the reaction, the discharge and customer delivery problems, and a
general summary of the process. The listeners must be able to grasp the structure of the
talk, make sure that you make the overall pattern of your presentation plain to the
audience. Since a grasp of the pattern is so important to a satisfactory sense of
understanding, the best technique is to make each individual section, as well as the
overall pattern, simple, logical and clear.

The choice of pattern is the next important decision to be made in preparing the talk.
Ask yourself whether the arrangement o information you have chosen has a discernible
pattern. If so, I that pattern suitable for the type of audience, the type of talk, and the
subject matter (in that order)?.

If the audience become disoriented-they will neither undersandnor remember. If you can
give the talk a physical shape-for example by going through a process from the factory
gates, then the processing plants, to the loading bay-it will be easier to grasp.

Mental orientation

The physical shape of the environment is usually the first thing we grasp. Many people
buy a map soon after arriving in a new town, so they can satisfy this need to locate
themselves.

The magic number

There are various principles of organization, and the disadvantages and advantages of
each one depend so much on the subject, and the aim of the talk. The evidence for the
case you are making can be arranged hierarchically, by classifications and groupings, by
a chaining technique, by comparisons or by networks.

Chunking

Chunking is the way the mind collects complex objects into groups, so that it can grasp
a large amount detail, via a few more general divisions. There are thus four different
kinds of physiological evidence, which give the speaker insight into the best way o
structure the talk, and the ways the audience will perceive a pattern in what he or she
says. Firstly, the powerful pattern making and pattern seeking abilities of the mind.
Secondly, the spatial orientation abilities of the mind can be used to give a shape to the
talk, by structuring I around locations. Thirdly, around seven is the right number o
sections to use, and fourthly, chunking details helps the all too human listener to grasp
and remember what you are trying to tell him.

The structure of reasoning

The way in this case is argued, the way the details are marshalled as evidence for the
points being made, is an important part of the planning. The aim should be to give
strong, simple arguments, which offer clear, uncomplicated reasons, not elaborate and
indicate analyses.

Chaining

Sometimes there is no argument, simply a storyto be told, or a sequence of generally

interesting facts to be repeated. A popular from of organization for this kind of talk is
called chaining.

The evidence is that which structure is chosen does not matter, so long as there is some
perceivable structure. Which of several different possible structures is chosen is less
important. It is better to spend preparation time deciding how to emphasize the
structure, than in agonizing over which particular structure to use. Clarity and simplicity
of structure will triumph the fine print of scientific evidence is for writing.

In search of being well remembered

Research on memory has shown tat there are two different kinds of memory, the short-
term, and the long-term memories. The short-term memory typically stores the
individual words and phrases used. The long-term memory is semantic, and remembers
ideas and facts, not words and phrases. The long-term memory is permanent an remains
despite interference from other sources. Short-term memory as one minute, although
anything up to 20 minutes may be erased by powerful events.

New theories
The protein theory suggests that memory works by encoding short-term electrical
changes into long-term chemical changes in the brain. The holographic theory
hypothesises that memory patterns are distributed throughout the brain in the same way
that the wave forms of light are distributed throughout a holograph.

Memory research

There are three major lessons to b applied to the preparation of talks. Firstly, that most
of what you say will be forgotten, and therefore you should choose carefully the points
you want to be remembered. Secondly, that clear organization, a recognizable structure,
is a powerful prop for memory. The third lesson is that the period between an event, and
the memory, is significant.

There are three well-recognized effects on memory: the 'Von Restorff effect', the
'primacy effect', and the 'recency effect'.

Preparation is half the battle

The collection of the data, the facts, figures, and general information to be reported in
the presentation, is only the first stage of preparation. And the main reason for this is
ignorance about what needs to be done, and lack of preparation.