Grade by Grade
Oral Communication · Oral Communication: Seminars, Speeches and Critical Listening

Evaluating Presentation Strategies: Repetition, Intonation, Emphasis, Staging and Organization

1.9About 65 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can evaluate presentation strategies using criteria based on purpose, audience and form.
  • I can explain the effect of repetition and intonation in an audio text such as a radio commercial.
  • I can evaluate an actor's emphasis and tone, and the use of costumes and props, in a dramatic performance.
  • I can evaluate a group presentation's organization and visual aids and suggest effective alternatives.

Words to know

presentation strategy
A choice a presenter makes to engage and influence the audience, such as repetition, emphasis or a visual aid.
criteria
The standards used to judge something.
intonation
The rise and fall of pitch in the voice.
emphasis
Stressing a word so it stands out; changing the stressed word can change the meaning.
jingle
A short, catchy tune used in advertising.
prop
An object used by a performer on stage.
staging
The choices about how a play is presented: set, costumes, props, lighting and movement.

Remember from Grade 10

In Grade 10 you evaluated presentations with S-E-E-S (Strategy, Evidence, Effectiveness, Suggestion), compared openings, and judged hooks and calls to action. Grade 11 asks you to evaluate a wider range of oral texts (radio commercials, dramatic performances, group presentations) and to focus on finer strategies: repetition, intonation, emphasis, costumes and props, organization and the choice of visual aids. Every evaluation still ends with a suggestion, but now your suggestion should be justified by the text's purpose and audience.

Let's start with a 30-second ad

A local radio station plays an ad for a (fictional) winter festival: a cheerful jingle, the festival name said four times, a question with rising intonation ("Looking for something to do this weekend?"), a quick list of events (snow sculptures, a maple taffy stand, skating) and an address read very fast at the end. Did it work? To answer, you need criteria, not just a feeling.

Criteria for evaluating any presentation strategy

A strategy is effective when it:

  1. Fits the purpose (inform, persuade, entertain, move to action).
  2. Fits the audience (their age, knowledge, situation: driving, sitting in a theatre, watching a screen).
  3. Fits the form and its limits (30 seconds of radio, a 10-minute class presentation, a stage).
  4. Supports the message rather than distracting from it.

A strategy can be clever and still ineffective if it fails one of these tests.

Strategies to evaluate in Grade 11

  • Repetition: repeating a name, phrase or idea makes it memorable, especially in audio, where listeners can't look back. Too much becomes irritating.
  • Intonation: the rise and fall of pitch. Rising intonation often signals a question or uncertainty; falling intonation signals a statement or confidence. Ads use rising questions to invite listeners in and falling statements to sound trustworthy.
  • Emphasis (stress): which word a speaker stresses changes meaning, especially in Shakespeare, where the actor must choose.
  • Tone of voice: warm, urgent, playful, solemn. Does it match the content?
  • Costumes and props: in drama, they signal time, place, status and character. A modern-dress production of Shakespeare makes a different argument about the play than a historical one.
  • Organization: in a group presentation, does the order of sections build the argument?
  • Visual aids: which aid best reinforces the key idea?
Intonation: the same words, rising or fallingRising: a question or doubtFalling: a statement, certainty"It's on sale?""It's on sale."
Rising intonation invites; falling intonation asserts. A radio ad often opens with a rising question and closes with a falling, confident statement.
Moving the stress changes the meaningI didn't say she took the book....someone else took it.I didn't say she took the book....but I may have hinted it.I didn't say she took the book....she took something else.I didn't say she took the book....someone else said it.
The words never change, only the stressed word. Actors performing Shakespeare make these choices constantly, and each choice is an interpretation you can evaluate.

Evaluating emphasis in a soliloquy

Hamlet's line "To be, or not to be: that is the question" can be stressed in different ways:

  • "...that is the question": Hamlet seems to discover the real issue.
  • "...that is the question": the one question that matters above all others.
  • A long pause after "To be", then "or not to be" quietly: hesitation and fear.

To evaluate an actor's choice, ask: Does this emphasis fit what Hamlet is thinking at this point in the play, and what the rest of the speech says?

Worked example

Let's evaluate a radio commercial

Evaluate the winter festival ad described above (cheerful jingle; festival name said four times; rising question to open; list of events; address read very fast at the end). The station's audience includes many people listening while driving. Suggest an improvement.

  1. Repetition of the name (4 times): effective. Radio listeners can't rewind, especially drivers, so repetition makes the name stick.
  2. Rising question opening: effective. It speaks directly to listeners and invites them in.
  3. Jingle: effective if short; melody is memorable. Risk: if it's long, it eats time from information.
  4. List of events: partly effective: concrete details (maple taffy, snow sculptures) create images, but a long list is hard to remember by ear.
  5. Fast address at the end: ineffective. The one piece of information listeners need for action is the hardest to catch, especially for drivers who can't write it down.
  6. Suggestion: replace the street address with something easy to remember ("at Riverside Park") and say it twice with falling, confident intonation; cut the list to the two most appealing events.

The ad uses repetition and a rising-question opening well for a radio audience, but fails at its most important moment: the location is rushed. Suggest a simple, repeated location and a shorter event list, justified by the audience (drivers) and form (30 seconds of audio).

Worked example

Let's evaluate a group presentation's organization and visuals

A group argues that the school should start a composting program. Their order: (1) a history of composting, (2) how compost is made, (3) a survey showing 70% of students would participate, (4) the cost, (5) their recommendation. Their visual aids: a slide of text about composting history; a photo of a compost bin; a bar graph of the survey results. Evaluate and suggest.

  1. Purpose: persuade the audience (probably students and staff) to support a program.
  2. Organization: the most persuasive evidence (70% would participate) is in the middle, after a long background section. Listeners may lose interest before reaching it. Partly effective.
  3. Suggested order: open with the survey result as a hook, state the recommendation, then explain how it would work and the cost, and end with a call to action. Background history can be cut to one sentence.
  4. Visual aids: the history slide is text-heavy and not essential. The photo shows what a bin looks like (useful but minor). The bar graph best reinforces the argument because it shows support visually and quickly.
  5. Suggestion: make the bar graph the first visual, with a headline title ("7 in 10 students would compost").

The group's evidence is strong but poorly placed. Reorder to lead with the survey and recommendation, cut the history, and feature the bar graph, the visual that best reinforces the claim.

Evaluate against purpose and audience

Instead of "I liked it" or "it was boring," say: "This strategy [worked / didn't work] for [this audience] because [reason]. A better choice would be [suggestion], because [reason]."

Hands-on activity

Ad lab

You need: a radio, a streaming service with ads, or a podcast with sponsor messages (ask a parent which are fine), paper and a pen.

  1. Listen to three audio ads. For each, tally how often the brand name is repeated and note whether the opening uses rising or falling intonation.
  2. Note when and how the key information (where, when, price) is given.
  3. Choose the least effective ad and evaluate it with the criteria from this lesson.
  4. Rewrite it as a 30-second script and perform it for a family member. Time it with a phone stopwatch.
  5. Ask your listener to repeat the brand name and key information one minute later. Could they?
Just for fun

A drama class performed Macbeth with a rubber dagger as a prop.

It bent during "Is this a dagger which I see before me?" The audience's answer was: "Not really."

Your turn

1

Name the four criteria for an effective presentation strategy.

2

Why is repetition especially useful in radio ads?

3

What does rising intonation usually signal?

4

Stress a different word in "I didn't say she took the book" to suggest she took something else.

5

How might costumes in a modern-dress production of Macbeth change the audience's experience?

6

Turn this feedback into an evaluation with a suggestion: "The slides were boring."

More practice: warm-up

1

What is intonation?

2

What is emphasis (stress) in speech?

3

Name one thing a prop can signal in a play.

4

Where should the most important call-to-action information go in a short ad, and how should it be said?

5

What does S-E-E-S stand for (from Grade 10)?

More practice: on your own

1

An actor says Macbeth's line "Is this a dagger which I see before me" very loudly and cheerfully. Evaluate the choice.

2

A presenter repeats the phrase "Every minute counts" eight times in a five-minute talk about emergency response. Evaluate the repetition.

3

Which visual would best reinforce a group's claim that cycling to school has tripled since a bike lane was built: a photo of a bike, a line graph of cyclists per year, or a paragraph of statistics? Explain.

4

Explain how the organization of a presentation can support or weaken a group's argument.

5

A podcast sponsor message reads its terms and conditions very fast. Evaluate this strategy from the listener's point of view and from the company's.

Challenge

1

Watch or listen to two performances of the same Shakespeare speech (or imagine two). Evaluate one strategy (emphasis, pace, a prop or a costume) in each, and say which better fits the text, with evidence from the lines.

2

Write criteria for a "strong group presentation" with four points, each linked to a reason. Then use them to evaluate a group presentation you have seen.

3

A director plans to stage Macbeth with the witches as characters in modern business suits. Evaluate this choice of costume: what argument does it make about the play, and what might it lose?

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which strategy is especially important in radio ads for listeners who are driving?

2.

Falling intonation at the end of a sentence usually signals:

3.

Which is a strong evaluation of a presentation strategy?

4.

Stressing "I didn't say she took the book" suggests:

5.

Costumes and props in a production mainly help to:

6.

In a persuasive group presentation, the strongest evidence should usually be:

For parents and teachers

Big idea: ENG3U expectation 1.9 asks students to evaluate the effectiveness of presentation strategies used in a variety of oral texts and suggest other strategies that could be used effectively. Curriculum examples include repetition and intonation in a radio commercial, tone and emphasis in a soliloquy, and costumes or props.

How to help at home:

  • Play "ad critic" in the car: after a radio ad, ask who it was for and what one change would make it better.
  • Try the stress game with a sentence like "I didn't say she took the book" and see how many meanings you can make.
  • If you see a play, film or concert together, talk about one costume or prop choice and what it suggested.

Common difficulties:

  • Evaluating with feelings only ("it was good"). Ask "for whom, and why?"
  • Suggestions without reasons. Every suggestion should be linked to purpose and audience.
  • Ignoring the form's limits (a 30-second ad can't do everything).