What is the purpose of a presentation?
Before you begin writing a presentation, it’s important to know what kind of message and impact you would like to get across.
Generally speaking, there are five: persuasive, informative, entertaining, impromptu and special occasion.
You may think that you have two or more purposes when writing your presentation, but it’s important to state one and only one purpose, otherwise the message of your presentation can easily get lost.
Persuasive presentation
Persuasive presentation is one of the most common purpose. Typically there is a call-to-action at the end of the presentation to ask the audience to do something. For example, to buy a book or to watch a movie. Even presentation that softly motivate the audience to do something is also a persuasive one. Several examples under this category:
- Presentation with a call-to-action
- Pitch/advertising
- Motivational presentation
- Inspirational presentation
Informative presentation
The purpose of an informative presentation is to educate your audience on your topic of choice. It can be used to talk about concepts, objects, processes and such. Several examples under this category:
- Demonstrative presentation
- Information dump
- Instruction how-to
- Training session
Entertaining presentation
A presentation delivered by a stand-up comedian has a purpose to entertain. Several examples under this category:
- Stand-up comedy
- Entertaining presentation (of course!)
Impromptu speaking
Although impromptu speaking is not usually considered a type of presentation, in Get Sandwich, you can record an impromptu speaking session in order to get further feedback. The purpose, in this case, is to be able to effectively respond to the question. It means that the answer should relate directly to the given question or topic.
Special occasion presentation
A special occasion presentation usually celebrates or commemorate a special event such as a wedding or an anniversary.
- Toast
- Competition speech
- Tribute/eulogy
- Wedding speech