Tips for Planning a PresentationI. The cultural style o

Tips for Planning a Presentation
    American language expert Robert Kaplan studied different cultural thought patterns in the mid 1960s. He helped English language teachers understand the differences between English rhetoric and that of Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Russian.
    [1] English speakers prefer a linear style, which has one main idea. The speaker supports that idea with details or arguments, [2]and then closes the talk by restating the idea. In other cultures, however, speakers may bring in other ideas before returning to the main point.
    Professor Charles LeBeau says some of his students prepare a speech without thinking of the main idea "Sometimes the bigger problem is the point that they want to make is not clear. They are not thinking clearly about "What is the key point in my presentation? And how do I want to say that; where do I want to say it?" [3]For presentations in English, the best time to make that point is at the beginning. Speakers should make a plan to present their ideas in the order that is common in English rhetoric. When we write our ideas down without such a plan, they are not clear and our presentation will not be well organized. [4]"I think they prepare the presentation kind of as a stream of consciousness activity. Then finally at the end of this process they figure out, oh. what do I want to say, what is the key point in this? And it ends up being at the end of the presentation. In an English language presentation, what we try and do is to make it more linear. And by that, I mean, it’s more of a story—we use data, and we use evidence, we use numbers, but only to help us tell the story more clearly."
    Preparing the story message helps speakers give a successful presentation. [5] Professor LeBeau gives these five tips for academic presentations, such as those given at professional conferences.