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Describing Visual Aids
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Visual aids may include graphs, tables, models, diagrams, flow charts, photographs, illustrations, or simple blackboard drawings. They help to encourage student interest and increase understanding of many concepts. To be effective, visuals should be chosen carefully, be well-organized, and legible.
The following are general strategies for explaining a visual aid. Of course, you may need to adapt these strategies to suit the particular visual you are using.
1. Specify what the visual represents, its subject.This is a graph of...2. Give the students an idea of the general layout of the visual.
This diagram represents...
The table shows the relationship between...____________ and ____________
The illustration is a cross-section of an apple, showing the stem end on the left and...3. Explain the order in which you will discuss the parts of the visual.
On this graph, the horizontal axis represents... ____ and the vertical axis represents... ____
The data on this table are presented in descending order...
Working from left to right, I will discuss the parts of the cell...4. Working in the order you have just discussed, point out the important components and specify their location.
We’ll look at this from the center and work our way to the outside...
In the upper left-hand corner of the page we can see...5. Provide conclusions, implications, predictions.
As the illustration shows, in the center of the figure is...
Let’s look at the first column of this table, which shows...
This graph shows clearly that the population ceases...
If this trend continues, we can expect...
Looking at this table, we can conclude that...
6. Provide a transition to the next part of your presentation.
Adapted from:Now that you have seen the structure of this cell, let’s talk about...
This table has shown us that.... Let’s move on now to discuss the implications of this finding...
Kayfetz, J.L., & Smith, M.E.F. (1992). Speaking effectively: Strategies for academic interaction, pp. 63-66. Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Kayfetz, J.L., & Stice, R.L. (1987). Academically speaking, pp. 16-22. Boston: Heinle and Heinle. Used with permission from the University of Connecticut.