Presentation Tips
Presentations are unique opportunities to educate your
community about victims’ rights and services during
NCVRW. Civic groups, schools, or businesses may
ask you to speak to their members or other audiences
about challenges faced by victims and what individuals
in the community can do to help. Appeal to your
audience by choosing issues that directly aect their
local community or by focusing on special services
that are available to crime victims in their area.
Getting started on a presentation can be daunting. You
may find it helpful to break down the project into smaller
tasks, and dive in wherever you’re most motivated. Or
start by speaking with your colleagues and researching
nearby media outlets for local crime trends. You can
also check the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Crimes
in the United States reports at www.fi.gov/services/
cjis/ucr to see if your local area is included; or refer to
the Statistical Analysis Center map at www.jrsa.org/
sac to review any state or local data that may have
been published. The Bureau of Justice Statistics’
reports, Criminal Victimization, 2020 and Services
for Crime Victims, 2019, also provide crime victim
data that can inspire the focus of your presentation.
The following presentation tips can help you clarify
your goals, tailor your message to your audience, and
choose the best approach. This section also includes
a PowerPoint template featuring the 2023 NCVRW
theme and artwork for you to customize. Before you
know it, you’ll have crafted an inspiring presentation
that will educate and motivate your audience.
Preparing for Your Presentation
Audience
The success of your presentation depends on
your ability to engage your audience. When
you are invited to speak, find out—
1. Why have you been asked to speak, and
what is the goal of your presentation?
2. Who is your audience?
3. What do they want or need to know about crime and
victimization? Which issues concern them the most?
4. How can you help them be more responsive and
better support victims in their community?
Appeal to your audience by choosing issues that
directly aect their local community or by focusing
on special services that are available to crime victims
in their area. For a student audience, think about the
dierent crimes that might aect their lives, such as
dating violence, bullying, or gun violence. For healthcare
providers, think of crime-related injuries or signs of
domestic violence or elder abuse that patients may
present with at their clinic or hospital. For the business
community, think about crimes that can impact business
operations, such as fraud, identity theft, human tracking,
or the intersection of workplace violence with intimate
partner violence and stalking. Consider the gaps in
services and what your community can do to improve
its response to victims. Demonstrate to your audience
why crime victims’ rights should matter to them.
Message
Determine the overall message of your presentation
based on your audience and the topics you’ve been asked
to address. What do you want your audience to take away
from the presentation? Decide on your theme before
you begin outlining, writing, or preparing. Think about
how your theme relates to this year’s theme for NCVRW—
Survivor voices. Elevate. Engage. Eect Change.—as well
as the invitation to speak. Choose a presentation title
that captures your main idea, and refer to your theme
in the beginning, body, and conclusion of your talk.
Presentation Roadmap
Plan how you will organize the overall structure of
the presentation. How will you start and end your
remarks? Focus your message and weave these ideas
into a narrative that is meaningful to your audience.
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1. Opening: Grab your audience’s attention.
• Tell a short, compelling story about a crime in your
community, emphasizing the victim’s experience.
» Cite a surprising and impactful statistic.
» Ask your audience to guess the facts
about a specific crime (e.g., the number
of times a particular crime happens
annually in the community).
» Relate your story or statistics back to your
main message (e.g., some crime victim
populations face additional barriers to
reporting, or nontraditional partners are
essential to the crime victims’ movement).
2. Body: Build your presentation around three supporting
ideas, placed in a logical pattern that leads to a clear
conclusion. Your topic will determine your pattern. The
following are some typical idea development structures:
1
• Chronological (past, present, future)
• Sequential (a step-by-step process,
e.g., for project rollout)
• Climactic (least to most important)
• Problem/solution (problem, solution, and benefits)
• Compare/contrast (similarities and
dierences of specific factors)
• Cause and efect (causes and
results of specific situations)
• Advantage/disadvantage (good
or bad sides of an issue)
Once you have decided how to structure your
presentation, write down supporting ideas and evidence,
illustrations, or stories to support your main message.
3. Conclusion: Re-state your theme and main
points. Ask the audience to take specific action
such as liking your organization’s Facebook page,
signing up for communications, or donating to
a fundraising event or campaign for victims of a
specific crime, such as a mass casualty event.
1
Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences,
(Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010), 129.
Method
Regardless of how you share your information (e.g.,
PowerPoint, poster, webinar, interactive activity),
remember to engage your audience by periodically
asking them to break into small discussion groups and
allowing time for questions throughout the presentation
or at the end. Practice your presentation until you feel
comfortable. Know how long it takes to deliver and adjust
your talking points to meet the time requirements of
the presentation. If you choose PowerPoint or another
similar software, public speaking experts suggest the
following guidelines for preparing eective slides:
• Design: Choose a simple, uncluttered design
and solid colors. Use the same design on every
slide. Use dark text on light backgrounds.
» Bullets: Limit yourself to six bullets per slide,
and no more than eight words per bullet.
» Font: Use sans-serif fonts (e.g., Arial, Verdana)
for readability. Avoid using all uppercase letters,
except for titles, and use italics sparingly.
» Font size: Use at least 24-point type.
» Graphics, charts, and photos: Use simple
graphics and photos that are visible to
the audience. (The 2023 NCVRW theme
artwork is available to use, as well as the
2023 NCVRW PowerPoint template.)
• Animation: Limit the use of
animation and sound effects.
• Video: Use video sparingly, and only to
support the theme; embed your videos into
PowerPoint rather than stream them from the
Internet.
• Spelling and grammar: Use spell-check and
proofread your slides several times.
• Preview: Preview the presentation in
its entirety before delivering.
Never read your slides verbatim but use them as a
guide. As you rehearse, track how long it takes you to go
through all the slides, and then edit them accordingly.
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Communicating Eectively
Public speaking makes everyone a bit nervous. Practice
lessening your anxieties by preparing carefully and
concentrating on the audience when you speak. Your goal
is to tell a story about a problem and let your audience
know how they can help solve it. Remember, you are
an expert in what you are presenting. The following
suggestions will help your presentation go smoothly:
1. Speak in a positive, warm tone.
2. Smile and make eye contact with the audience.
3. Avoid repetitive or distracting physical
mannerisms and gestures.
4. Set expectations by telling the audience whether
you would like them to ask questions throughout the
presentation or at the end. Let them know if they may
share details of the presentation on social media.
5. Practice, practice, practice.
Prepare the Room
On the day of your presentation, arrive 30 to 45
minutes early to check in with the host, test the
equipment, and arrange the room to suit your needs.
It may be helpful to ask someone to help you test
the volume of your voice. Always have two ways
to access your presentation, such as an accessible
email account, removable drive, or hardcopy.
Sample PowerPoint Template
Accompanying this section is a sample PowerPoint
template featuring the 2023 NCVRW theme and
design. Use the template to prepare and customize
your own NCVRW PowerPoint presentations. Images
of the master title and content slides appear on this
page. The PowerPoint file is available for download on
the NCVRW website, www.ovc.ojp.gov/ncvrw2023,
along with a range of other theme artwork files.
Presentation
Title
Presentation Subtitle
Your Name
Your Organization
Name of Event
Date
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