Take the Visual Aid Good Idea/Bad Idea Questionnaire

Discussion Visual aids help make speeches fun, interesting, and informative. The text offers several suggestions for what you can use. Also, if you think you might want to use PowerPoint to create your visual aids, be sure to check out the PowerPoint tutorial included on this CD-ROM. It has lots of helpful tips for creating effective, professional-looking slides. Whatever your choice, make sure that you follow the guidelines for competent use, including: keep aids simple, make sure they're visible, make them neat and attractive, don't block the audience's view, put your aids away when not in use, don't pass them around and make sure you practice your speech while using them. So have at it, and remember that adding a visual aid is a great way to enhance your speech, show off your creativity and make a presentation that's fun to give.

Websites for consideration:

http://www.ku.edu/cwis/units/coms2/vpa/vpa7.htm - This site is from the Communications department at the University of Kansas and they tell you how to use visual aids effectively. There are also links to other pages that show you how to design visual aids, how to design posters in particular, as well as how to create effective visual aids for lectures.

http://www.creativekeys.net/PowerfulPresentations/article1011.html - This site discusses how to put together visual aids and pays particular attention to helping you avoid the pitfalls of PowerPoint.