Writer as Speaker:
ABCs of Effective Handouts
by Jean Wise

An effective handout enhances presentations by creating a win-win situation for both the speaker and the audience.

For the speaker, this tool helps organize a talk, and reinforces and expands key points. Most importantly, handouts serve as a tangible connecting point with the audience.

For the audience, an effective handout helps keep listeners focused to your presentation. It enables listeners to recognize key points, while providing a place to record additional notes without having to write down complete details. Generally people forget much of what they hear and handouts help listeners recall and apply what they have learned. Audiences love the feeling that they won something or gained something for free—handouts contribute to this feeling.

Acing the ABCs

Handouts are also inexpensive, and easily produced using your home computer and printer. But, obviously as noted above, not every speaker utilizes well-developed handouts. What are the essentials of developing an effective handout? The answer is as easy as ABC: Appearance, Bonus and Contact.

Appearance

Have you ever received a handout that is so busy you cannot follow the information or so void of content that you wonder why the speaker wasted the paper? If so, then you know first hand how important is a handout’s appearance.

After drafting handouts, review their overall appearance. Utilizing the following questions , analyze them to for effectiveness.

1. Information

• Does the handout have a strong, attention-getting title and the appropriate date?
   
• Are short, active sentences used?
   
• Is information legible and checked for misspellings?

2. Organization

• Does the information flow?
   
• Would adding bullets and/or numbers give an improved sense of order?
   
• Could graphs replace text? (People may skim over detailed explanation or statistics, but can quickly absorb the main points presented through a graph or chart.)

3. Design Elements

• Is there enough white space or does the handout look overcrowded and confusing?
   
• What do you immediately focus on? Is that the most important item? If not, which information should you emphasize more?
   
• Would it look better if key points were bolded, underlined or capitalized?
   
• Would a splash of color enhance the appearance? ( Be careful that font and paper colors are eye friendly. For example, avoid neon yellow font/ink on bright green paper – the print will never been seen.)
   
• Does too much clutter from fancy fonts, wild borders, and/or distracting colors take away from the key points? (While font features and color enhance handouts, they are distracting when overdone.)
   
• Is there space for note taking? (Keep the listeners actively involved by leaving blanks in the handouts for the audience to fill in as they listen.)

Bonus

Surprise your audience with something they did not expect. Unanticipated bonuses include items such as:

• Additional resources that you may not have time to share.
   
• Inspiration quotations.
   
• Cartoons or clip art. (Select ones that enhance, not distract from, your topic.)
   
• Organizational freebies, such as a to do list or prayer list.
   
• Web page references. (Spread your references throughout the handout so attendees aren’t tempted to only keep the last bibliographic page).
   
• Expertise-based information. (For audiences of varying expertise levels, provide in-depth material appropriate for multiple levels.)
   
• Special binding. (Use spiral or other special binding to compile multiple handouts in an organized and more permanent manner.)

Contact Information

Word of mouth is one of the best ways of marketing a speaker. After the presentation is over, participants, hopefully, will want to contact you for additional speaking appearances. Make it easy for them to do so.

Ensure each page of your handouts include vital contact information. The method of contact, however, may change based on presentation and audience. For example, if it is a business type presentation, using a business phone number and/or email is appropriate. If it is church related and you’re a church leader, providing church contact information may be best. In this age of safety issues and personal identity theft, be wary of how much personal/home information is disseminated. Nonetheless, always include at least your name, and an appropriate business telephone number—or email address—where conference planners can reach you to discuss possible engagements.

Obviously, another contact point is a website where attendees can reach you. To encourage them to visit, post handouts and/or special bonus sheets on your website. Other ideas? Consider posting a quiz, suggested reading list, or article. Some people convert speaking handouts for download as PDF file using a free PDF conversion tool called PDF Online. For more information or to convert a file, visit pdfonline.com.

Make it Happen

Effective handouts connect the speaker with the audience. They enhance and establish credibility for the speaker while serving as visual clues that reinforce key points and help audience members apply concepts to their work and lives. Additional material, such as references and web sites, expands the message long after the presentation has finished.

Developing effective handouts is essential for writers who embrace speaking engagements to further promote God-given messages. Assure your handouts adhere to a simple plan, such as the ABCs discussed above. Doing so will benefit you—and your audiences.