Chapter 17 — Oral Reports

Chapter 17 of Houp/Pearsall/Tebeaux's Reporting Technical Information, 9th ed. (New York: Allyn & Bacon, 1997) discusses preparing for and delivering oral reports. Accompanying the textbook, this chapter of the online instructor manual provides the following:

Chapter Objectives

Teaching Strategies

Workshop Activities
Discussion Questions
Journal Ideas
Topic Ideas
Oral-Report Projects
Cases

Chapter Point Summaries

Sample Assignments

Chapter Quiz

Return to the RTI Online Instructor Manual
table of contents.

Chapter Objectives

Know the different delivery techniques for oral reports and the conditions in which they are most appropriate.

Understand how to arrange the contents of an oral report, in particular, how to structure the introduction, body, and conclusion.

Understand the dynamics of oral presentation, in particular, the dynamics of movement, gesture, delivery rate, as well as volume and pitch.

Know the function of and criteria for good visual aids in oral reports.

Know which tools are available for visual presentation and how an oral reporter can make best use of each.

Teaching Strategies — Oral Reports

Most technical writing courses have an oral-report component, which students often wonder about. After all, this is a technical writing class—why the speech? The oral-presentation component is one of several good reasons why technical writing courses should be called technical communication courses. The other reason is that technical writers work in audio, video, and online information-delivery media, often going far afield from the traditional written document.
Students should know that employers are looking for evidence of training or education not only in writing skills but in oral-presentation skills as well. Employer surveys have repeatedly demonstrated this.
If you consider your technical communication course as structured to channel technical information through a variety of audiences, situations, purposes, document types and applications, then channeling technical information through an alternate delivery medium makes perfect sense. With the oral report, we explore the principles and techniques involved in reporting technical information over the oral-presentation channel. We practice writing memos, letters, articles, reports; oral reports are a natural follow-on. And all of the types of communication—oral reporting no less than written—are essential for success in the business and professional world.
As for the timing of the oral report during the semester, you can use it as a change of pace from intense written projects or as a lighter assignment at the end of the semester when your students are completing their final reports.

Workshop Activities — Oral Reports

Here are some ideas for in-class activities to help students learn about oral reporting:

Give the initial quiz. Give the quiz at the beginning of your unit on oral reports. It's a good way to lead into a discussion of key aspects of this chapter. When students have completed the quiz, you can go through the answers with the class as a whole.

Bring taped 5- to 8-minute oral presentations to class. See if you can get some audio or video tape of oral reports. School board and city council sessions, which are often shown on local cable channels, may be a good source. Consider taping your own classes and building a library of oral presentations. When you play these tapes, ask students to listen especially carefully for those key elements of the introduction, for effective use of repetition in the body of the report, for effective conclusions and use of visuals, and for other considerations discussed in the chapter. Consider having students fill out an evaluation form for each taped oral report they hear.

Discuss giving an oral presentation of a written report. For a group-brainstorming session, select one of the short reports in the book (for example, one of the ones in chapter 13) or one out of your own collection for re-presentation as an oral report. In the in-class planning session, apply the principles and techniques discussed in chapter 17.

Discussion Questions — Oral Reports

Here are some discussion questions related to this chapter:
Preparation (page 579)

What kinds of preparation are important for manuscript speeches? For extemporaneous speeches? For manuscript speeches?
What can careful preparation about the situation, the audience, and the subject do to help the speaker feel more at ease?

Arranging Content (pages 583-586)

Why is arrangement essential for an oral report?
What is the difference between the audience for an oral report and the audience for a written one?

Presentation (pages 586-592)

In what ways can speakers become more aware of their voices, bodies, and faces as means of communication?
What kinds of interaction with and reaction to audiences are appropriate in an informal and a formal situation?
What sorts of rehearsal techniques can help speakers become more aware of their voices, habits, and mannerisms?

Visual Aids (pages 592-605)

What kinds of visuals can help an audience follow a talk?
How can speakers plan, arrange, and organize visuals so that they are easy to use during a talk?
How can a speaker usefully prepare visual aids and arrange support in advance? What kinds of software and hardware are available?

Journal Ideas — Oral Reports

The following are some suggestions for journal entries related to this chapter:
Preparation (page 579)

What kinds of preparation can best help you plan, prepare, and present an oral report?
How can preparation reduce speaking anxiety?

Delivery Techniques (pages 580-583)

Which seems most effective to an audience, reading a manuscript or presenting a talk from notes?
What kinds of speaking risks does reading a manuscript present?

Arranging Content (pages 583-586)

Why is arrangement so important for both speakers and audiences?

Presentation (pages 586-592)

What do you consider the most successful and least successful oral report you have heard? In what situation?
How can practice help to reduce stage fright?
How personal and in what sense can an oral report be?

Visual Aids (pages 592-605)

What are the most effective visual aids you have seen used in oral reports? Why?
How can visual aids support the arrangement of oral reports?

Topic Ideas — Oral Reports

The following are topic ideas related to this chapter. Remember that for most of these ideas, you'll need to do some substantial narrowing before the topic will be usable:

Present your technical communication research report to your classmates, using visuals and a script plan.
Prepare, plan, and present an oral report on a team research project you have taken part in.
Prepare, plan, and present an oral report on your major to high school students considering university enrollment.
Prepare, plan, and present an orientation to new employees at a workplace where you are employed.

Oral-Report Projects

Many of the chapters in this instructor's manual suggest possibilities for oral reports. Schedule the oral report according to your sense of how your technical writing class is progressing, when students need a change of pace, or when they need some relief from intense written projects. Here are some ideas for oral-report projects, including ideas for collaborative oral-report projects:

Give an oral presentation of the final report. A common place in the semester for the oral report is during that time when students are working on their final reports. Have them present highlights or an overview of their written reports (which will still be in draft stage). They shouldn't have to gather any information to do this assignment.

Give an oral presentation of the progress report. Consider having your students give an oral presentation of their progress reports. Their progress report can be strictly oral or it can be both oral and written. Doing so will give everybody a chance to compare notes and vent a little and give you the instructor a chance to help or clarify things.

Write critiques and guidelines for oral reports. Another possibility is to take the analysis of oral presentations mentioned in the workshop section one step further. Have students imagine they've been hired by the school board or city council to determine the most common problems in citizens' oral presentations and to write a short set of guidelines for citizens who intend to present.
To turn this into a collaborative project, suggest that student teams organize themselves into these roles:

Speaker. Delivers an oral report to the group.

Reviewers. Listen, take notes, and write responses to the report.

Moderator. Leads the reviewers in a constructive discussion of the report, assures that the tone of the discussion remains courteous and helpful.

Re-present a short written document orally. Have your students select a written report or article to re-present orally—one that they have themselves written earlier in the semester, one they select from some published source, or one that you supply out of your files. Having students select from published sources can make for a lively oral-reports week if you can trust your students to pick interesting technical reports or articles in their fields. Challenge them to present the technical information in their articles in a way that educated but nonspecialist listeners can understand. You can bill the whole unit as a college-wide conference entitled "What's Hot in Science and Technology"—and charge an admission fee!

Present a product or process idea to senior management. As suggested by exercise 1 in the textbook, you can have your students assume they are head of a development team that is attempting to sell management on a new product idea. Or they can assume they are attempting to convince management to buy a new technology or adopt a new process.
To turn this into a collaborative project, suggest that student teams organize themselves into these roles:

Manager. Assigns roles, defines the product to be promoted, establishes a timeline.

Director. Outlines roles for each speaker in the presentation.

Researchers. Locate information to support the planned presentation.

Moderator. Moderates the presentation and the speakers.

Speakers. Plan and deliver segments to the presentation.

Case Studies in Technical Communication

The following cases draw upon the concepts and strategies presented in this chapter:

Big Talk
Negative Impressions

Chapter Point Summaries

The following point summaries focus on key points in this chapter of Houp/Pearsall/Tebeaux's Reporting Technical Information:

CHAPTER 17 — POINT SUMMARY
ORAL-REPORT DELIVERY TECHNIQUES

Impromptu.

Speaking from memory

Extemporaneous

Reading from a manuscript

CHAPTER 17 — POINT SUMMARY
ORAL-REPORT INTRODUCTIONS

Audience awareness — Before your oral report, be alert to local color or something about the previous speech to use in establishing common ground with the audience.
Interest-building — Gain attention for your subject by mentioning some interesting fact or bit of illustrative material.
Subject — Indicate the subject matter of your oral report early on.
Purpose — Ensure that your audience understands what you are attempting to accomplish in your oral report.
Scope — Indicate what you are not going to cover, the extent or depth of your coverage.
Plan of development — Sketch out the sequence of subtopics you intend to cover.

CHAPTER 17 — POINT SUMMARY
ORAL REPORTS: BODY

Cover only a few main points.
Use concrete information—examples, illustrations, narratives, analogies—to support those few main points.
Use repetition to ensure that your audience hears your main points.
Build suspense by moving inductively from examples to generalizations.
Relate your subject matter to vital interests of your audience.
Use visual aids to emphasize key points and to keep your audience interested.

CHAPTER 17 — POINT SUMMARY
CRITERIA FOR EFFECTIVE VISUAL AIDS

Visibility

Clarity

Simplicity

Control

CHAPTER 17 — POINT SUMMARY
VISUAL CONTENT FOR VISUAL AIDS

Graphs

Tables

Representation art (such as line drawings)

Photographs

Words and phrases

Cartoons

Hardware

Sample Assignments

The following provides ideas for writing assignments related to this chapter of Houp/Pearsall/Tebeaux's Reporting Technical Information:

Oral Report — Sample Assignment 1

After you've studied the oral-reports unit in the textbook, prepare an oral report of your own, using the guidelines and criteria discussed below:

Prepare a script for a 7-minute oral report to present in person to the class on some aspect of the topic on which you are writing your technical report.
Do not try to summarize your report—just hit the highlights, the interesting or key points, and direct listeners to the written report. Give them a sense of what the report covers, but don't try to provide all the detail.
Identify a realistic audience, purpose, and situation for your oral report, and explain this briefly before your talk. (This explanation does not count as part of the 7 minutes but should not last more than 1 minute.)
Find a reliable way to rehearse your presentation, either by writing out a script or practicing into a tape recorder. Find a reliable way to refer to your notes, outline, or script during your talk. Avoid heads-down reading of a script. No points off for nervousness!
Use at least one visual in your presentation; plan to discuss it in your talk. (Your instructor can help you prepare transparencies.) Standards of clarity, appropriateness to audience, grammar, usage, punctuation, and spelling apply to these visuals just as they do to your other written work.
Work on the substance and clarity of your technical discussion: make sure you present detailed information and that your explanations of technical aspects of the report are understandable to nonspecialists.
Plan your introduction and conclusion carefully. Include a purpose statement and overview in your introduction; attempt to gain some interest. Don't just trail off into a mumble at the end.
Use verbal headings during the oral report to signal listeners when you are moving from one section of your talk to the next. Make sure your presentation is well-organized and doesn't seem to ramble. Make sure your presentation style is clear, audible, understandable and that gestures and posture are under control.
As you listen to other students' oral reports, evaluate them using a special form that will be handed out. (You get a letter grade added to your oral report grade for listening to and evaluating all the other oral reports.)

Speech Assignment — Sample Assignment 2

Read the chapter in Reporting Technical Information on oral reports; and then prepare a speech that will be a well-organized, well-prepared, and carefully delivered presentation on a serious, informative topic of your choice. Your speech should be no shorter than 4 minutes and no longer than 7 minutes.

Put your name and the title of your speech on the board before the beginning of your speech. Other visuals can highlight key words, diagrams, and other aspects of your speech; but be sure to refer to your visuals as you give your speech.

For diagrams, use overhead transparencies, drawings, or posters. You may use 3 x 5 card notes as you deliver your speech.

Avoid handing out materials to the audience or reading a written manuscript. Speeches read from manuscripts will not be acceptable.

Your speech will be judged by these criteria:

Its delivery time is between 4 and 7 minutes.
The speech is well prepared and well organized.
The speaker performs but does not read the text.
The speaker's delivery is clear and audible.
The speech has a careful introduction to its topic and purpose and a careful summary and conclusion at its end.
Careful preparation and practice at home will increase your chances of an excellent grade.

Helpful things to do:

Use overhead projections and illustrations if they will make your topic clearer.
Refer to illustrations when you discuss them.
Use your notes as reminders, not as something to read.

Things not do to:

Never turn your back on an audience.
Never draw on the board during a speech. (Prepare your visuals ahead of time.)
Don't give your audience handouts before your speech. (They will read them.)
Never try to speak on a topic you have not prepared carefully.

Class members will evaluate speeches on a special evaluation form. Each speaker will receive all of the forms about her or his speech. Be close observers and specific but tactful critics. Your comments will help speakers improve on future speech performances.

When you listen to the speech presentations, listen for the following:

Content. A good speech must have a well-defined and limited topic, a stated purpose, and clear development. The focus of the presentation should be the topic of the speech, not the personality, wit, or role of the speaker. Remember, a good speaker always puts the audience's understanding of the topic first.
Organization. Good speeches stress organization. It's much harder to follow a speech than a piece of written communication. As a result, carefully drawn introductions and closings, transitions, and brief reviews are especially helpful for listeners.
Performance. An effective public speaker talks to an audience, not at an audience. Look for eye contact; a steady, slow pace of speaking; an audible, relaxed voice; and the ability to avoid nervous mannerisms, awkward gestures, and an unsteady posture. Speakers should never turn their back on an audience during a speech presentation.
Visual Aids. Large, easy-to-read visual aids and well-planned demonstrations can make a speech much more interesting and understandable to an audience.

Evaluation Form: Oral Reports
Name
Topic	Date

Introduction
Connected with the audience; built interest.	yes	no
Indicated scope and purpose.	yes	no
Stated plan of development.	yes	no
Body and conclusion
Used good repetition of key points.	yes	no
Covered a reasonable number of points.	yes	no
Ended with an effective conclusion.	yes	no
Delivery
Speaking style (volume, pitch, rate) was effective.	yes	no
Movement and gestures were effective.	yes	no
Used impromptu, extemporaneous, or manuscript method (circle one) effectively.	yes	no
Visual aids
Provided effective support and focus.	yes	no
Were visible, clear, simple, and controlled.	yes	no
Introduced and then discussed the visual aids.	yes	no
Presentation tools
Made effective use of overhead projector, flip charts, chalkboard, charts, slides, movies or videos, computer technology (circle one or more).	yes	no

Chapter 17 — Quiz

List at least three questions you should ask your sponsoring group before you deliver an oral report.

Give two reasons why extemporaneous oral reports, delivered from an outline, must be carefully rehearsed.

Explain the advantages of an extemporaneous oral report over a manuscript oral report.

Explain how you can achieve a conversational tone when reading a manuscript for an oral report.

Why is it necessary to rehearse a manuscript oral report?

Name some ways you can establish common ground with an audience.

Name the four essential things you should accomplish in the introductory part of an oral report.

Explain why repetition is useful in an oral report.

Name at least three reasons why movements and gestures are important in an oral report.

Name the four criteria for good visual aids.