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Organized Communication

Author: Sophia

what's covered
In this lesson, you will focus on how an organized approach is a key to effective presentations. In your final assignment, it will be important to know how to organize your main ideas and evidence to support an argument and persuade an audience. Specifically, this lesson will cover:
  1. Organized Communication
    1. Start with an Outline
    2. Organize Your Information
    3. Cite Your Sources

before you start
How do you ensure that a presentation is clear and organized?

1. Organized Communication

In the last challenge, we discussed the importance of oral communication and how presentation technologies like PowerPoint help us share information. We also covered steps for creating effective presentations; one key step was to make sure your presentation is clear and organized. This week, we’ll examine that step in greater detail.

1a. Start with an Outline
You may be familiar with outlines for writing projects from your work in other courses. An outline helps you organize your main idea, your supporting points, and the evidence you’ll be using to inform or persuade your audience. It’s like a road map for your writing.

Similarly, when you’re planning a slide presentation, an outline can serve as a guide for your slides. It can also help you stay focused on your content and message throughout the process. Finally, you can let your audience know what sort of structure to expect by including an outline slide.

EXAMPLE

Presentation Outline

I. My Topic
II. The Industrial Revolution
III. The Great Migration
IV. Factory Work
V. WWII and the Economy
VI. Making Connections
VII. Sources

1b. Organize Your Information
Presentation programs like PowerPoint offer a wealth of tools for designing slides that engage and inform your audience. They also have plenty of straightforward features that can help you keep your presentation organized. Even something as simple as a numbered list of the slides in your presentation—i.e., your outline slide—can go a long way in orienting your audience to your presentation. Using a numbered list for your sources slide also helps keep that information clear.

1c. Cite Your Sources
Although an outline is important, creating an organized presentation doesn’t just mean planning out your slides. You also need to keep track of where your information comes from so you can cite your sources thoroughly. This is true no matter what format you’re using to communicate with your audience.

Your slides provide space for written evidence and impactful images. The spoken part of your presentation can be a great place to include slightly less formal information and anecdotes to connect with your audience and give examples that support your ideas. But regardless of how you’re providing information to your audience, it’s important to keep track of where you found it.

Including a slide with a list of your sources at the end of your presentation—and including credits below each image—will increase your credibility with your audience. It will also ensure that full citations are available to anyone who requests a copy of your presentation.

Now it’s time to dive back into history. In this challenge, we’re going to consider how technology has changed the healthcare system. We’ll also explore different ways people use an agile mindset to apply new technology to improving health and quality of life. Finally, you’ll consider how to organize your own presentation by building your outline and sources slides.

summary
In this lesson, you learned that effective communication and successful presentations are built on an organized foundation. Organized communication is more likely when you start with an outline, organize your information with a presentation tool like PowerPoint, and keep track of where your information comes from so that you can cite your sources.

Best of luck in your learning!

Source: Strategic Education, Inc. 2020. Learn from the Past, Prepare for the Future.