Present claims and findings with salient points, pertinent details, eye contact, volume and clear pronunciation; add visual displays; adapt speech to the context

Learning goal: Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions, facts, details and examples, and use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume and clear pronunciation. Include multimedia components and visual displays that clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when it is indicated or appropriate. The grade 7 Language standards on grammar and on precise, concise language state what that command looks like in sentences.

The findings to present. The scenario continues the invented Birch Lane rooftop garden question. A student group has finished its work and must present its findings twice: to the school's building committee in the library, and to a partner in class. The findings are hypothetical: 187 of 310 surveyed students wanted a rooftop garden, 74 did not and 49 were undecided; the roof estimate is 42,000 dollars without a staircase; a required load check costs 3,500 dollars and takes six weeks; a courtyard garden with six raised beds would cost about 9,000 dollars; and the group recommends the courtyard this year with the roof as a later goal.

Salient points, and why focus and coherence depend on them. A salient point is one the listener must carry away for the presentation to have done its job. Everything else is support. The group has three: the survey shows a garden is wanted; the roof costs at least 42,000 dollars plus an unknown staircase and cannot start for six weeks; the courtyard costs about 9,000 dollars and can start now. A focused presentation keeps to those three and does not add the history of the student council or a description of the custodian's ladder. A coherent presentation puts them in an order a listener can follow, here from what is wanted to what it costs to what is recommended, and connects them with signposts: "That is what students want. Here is what the two options cost." The misconception is that more findings make a stronger presentation. They do not; a listener who hears twelve points of equal weight is likely to remember few of them, while a listener who hears three points, each emphasized, is likely to remember all three.

Pertinent descriptions, facts, details and examples. Pertinent means bearing on the point being made. For the survey point, the pertinent facts are the three numbers and the sample size. For the cost point, the pertinent detail is that the staircase is missing from the estimate, because that is what makes 42,000 a floor rather than a total. A pertinent description of the courtyard, "a sunny space beside the library about a third of the roof's area, room for six beds," gives the committee a picture without wandering. An example is pertinent when it shows a general point concretely: "one of the four science lessons is on pollination, and six beds of flowering plants would serve it." A description of the group's favorite vegetables is not pertinent and is cut.

Eye contact, volume and pronunciation. These are physical skills and they are practiced, not assumed. Appropriate eye contact means looking at listeners, moving your gaze across the room rather than fixing on one face or on your notes; a useful rule is to finish each sentence looking at someone. Adequate volume means the listener farthest away hears every word without straining; test it by having a partner stand at the back of the room and raise a hand whenever a word is lost. Clear pronunciation means every syllable of every word is formed, especially in the words that carry the salient points: "structural," "estimate," "recommend" and every number. Numbers are where pronunciation fails most often, because speakers rush them; say "forty-two thousand dollars" at half the speed of the words around it. Practice the words you find hard aloud, five times, before the day.

Clear speech at an understandable pace. Pace is the speed of speech together with the placement of its pauses, and an understandable pace is one at which listeners can take in each point before the next one arrives. It is not one fixed speed for the whole presentation. Slow down where the load is heavy: numbers, names, new terms and the sentence that states each salient point. Speak at an ordinary conversational speed through familiar connecting words. Pause in three places: after each salient point, before and after a signpost such as "Here is what the two options cost," and while listeners look at a new display. Nervous speakers usually speed up, drop their pauses and run the last words of one sentence into the next; a few speakers go so slowly that listeners lose the thread between words. Both are problems of pace, and both are found the same way. Rehearse aloud to a partner, then ask the partner to repeat your three salient points and your key numbers. If the partner cannot, find the place where they lost you and slow down or add a pause there. Timing the rehearsal also helps, but compare only your own versions: if the version with pauses runs a little longer and the partner can now repeat the points, the extra seconds were worth it. If the paused version no longer fits the time you have, cut a detail rather than speed up. Clear speech and pace work together: slowing down gives you time to finish every syllable, and pausing gives the listener time to hear it.

Multimedia components and visual displays that clarify and emphasize. A visual display earns its place by doing one of two jobs: clarifying a claim or finding that words alone leave fuzzy, or emphasizing a salient point so the listener cannot miss it. The group uses three. A bar chart of the survey, three bars labeled 187, 74 and 49, clarifies the split at a glance and emphasizes that supporters outnumber opponents by more than two to one. A two-column table of the estimates, with the staircase row in the roof column marked "not included," clarifies the cost comparison and emphasizes the missing figure. A short video clip of the courtyard, twenty seconds at 10 a.m. and twenty seconds at 2 p.m., is a multimedia component that clarifies the description "sunny for most of the day" better than the phrase can. Each display is introduced in words ("this chart shows the survey"), read aloud in part ("187 in favor"), and then the speaker looks back at the audience. A display that does neither job, such as a slide of garden clip art or a background of leaves, is cut, because it competes with the salient points instead of serving them.

Adapting speech to context and task, and formal English. The same findings are delivered differently to the building committee and to a partner, and both versions are correct for their setting. Adapting means changing register, sentence structure, vocabulary and pace to fit the listeners, the purpose and the place, without changing the facts. To the committee, formal English is indicated: complete sentences, no filler such as "like" or "you know," standard grammar, precise vocabulary, and displays introduced by name. To a partner, informal speech is appropriate: shorter sentences, shared context assumed, the chart pointed at rather than introduced. Formal English does not mean long words or a stiff voice; it means the conventions of standard grammar and usage, sentence types chosen to signal relationships among ideas, and language that is precise and concise, which are the grade 7 Language expectations. A speaker who says "the roof one is way more expensive and stuff" to a committee has not misjudged the facts but has misjudged the context.

A worked model in prose. The committee version of the cost point runs: "Two estimates are before you. The landscaping company priced the rooftop garden at 42,000 dollars; that figure does not include the staircase the custodian says is required, so the true cost is higher and not yet known. The district engineer requires a load check first, at 3,500 dollars and about six weeks. The courtyard garden, six raised beds beside the library, is estimated at 9,000 dollars, needs no check and could begin this spring." The speaker says "forty-two thousand" slowly, points to the table, looks at the committee chair on the word "known," and pauses. The partner version runs: "So the roof is 42,000 and that does not even count the stairs. Plus a six-week check. The courtyard is about 9,000 and we could start now." Same facts, same salient point, two contexts.

Worked example 1 — choosing the three salient points from eleven findings. The group's notes hold eleven findings, including the survey, the two estimates, the load check, the missing staircase, the science teacher's four lessons, the ladder, the council's history, a classmate's raccoon story, the March 15 deadline and the courtyard's area. Test each against the recommendation: does the committee need it to understand why the courtyard is recommended this year? The survey, the roof cost with its gaps, and the courtyard cost pass. The deadline is mentioned once as context. The rest are cut or held for questions. Three salient points, each with its pertinent facts, is the focused, coherent shape.

Worked example 2 — designing a display that clarifies rather than decorates. Draft slide: a photograph of tomatoes with the words "Gardens are great!" It clarifies nothing and emphasizes no finding. Revised slide: a bar chart with three bars labeled Support 187, Oppose 74, Undecided 49, title "Student survey, 310 responses." Introduced aloud as "This chart shows the survey," with the speaker reading the first bar and then returning eye contact to the room. The revised display clarifies the split and emphasizes the salient point that supporters outnumber opponents by more than two to one, since 187 divided by 74 is about 2.5.

Worked example 3 — one sentence adapted to three contexts. Finding: the roof estimate omits the staircase. To the building committee, in formal English: "The 42,000-dollar estimate does not include a staircase, which the head custodian has stated is required for student access." To the class, semi-formal: "The 42,000 does not include the staircase, and the custodian says we need one." To a partner in the hall: "That 42,000? No stairs in it." All three are accurate, and they differ by degree, not as right and wrong. The first is the safest choice for the committee, because that context indicates formal English and the listeners may not yet know which figure "the 42,000" is. The second, a complete and standard sentence, would also be acceptable there once the estimate is on the screen; formal does not mean longest. The third leaves out too much for a committee and is the most likely to sound natural in the hall, though a complete sentence can be natural there too.

Worked example 4 — marking a script for pace. Take the committee version of the cost point from the model above and mark it: one slash for a short pause, two for a longer one, and capitals for words said more slowly. "Two estimates are before you. // The landscaping company priced the rooftop garden at / FORTY-TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS; / that figure does not include the staircase the custodian says is required, / so the true cost is higher / and not yet known. // The district engineer requires a load check first, / at THIRTY-FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS / and about SIX WEEKS. // The courtyard garden, / six raised beds beside the library, / is estimated at NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS, / needs no check / and could begin this spring. //" The long pauses fall after each complete finding, so each has a moment to land. The slow words are the numbers the committee must remember. The short pauses fall at the commas and before "and not yet known," which is the phrase the whole point turns on. A partner who hears this version should be able to repeat all three figures and the missing staircase; if not, the marks move.

Presentation plan: Write a one-page plan with four parts: your claim or recommendation in one sentence; three salient points, each with its pertinent facts, details, descriptions or examples listed beneath; a display or multimedia component for each point, with one sentence saying what it clarifies or emphasizes; and the register you will use, with two sentences of your script written in formal English and the same two rewritten for a partner. A strong plan has no point without a pertinent fact and no display without a stated job.

Independent performance: Deliver a three-to-four-minute presentation of claims and findings on an issue you have researched, once to a formal audience such as a panel of classmates acting as a committee, and once informally to a partner. An observer records: whether the three salient points were stated and emphasized; whether each was supported by pertinent facts, details or examples; whether eye contact moved across the audience and left the notes at the end of sentences; whether the listener farthest away heard every word; whether the numbers and the hard words were pronounced clearly; whether each display was introduced, used and served a claim; and whether the formal version used complete sentences, no filler and standard grammar while the partner version was appropriately relaxed. Success means every item is observed in the formal delivery and the register genuinely differs between the two. The written questions below check understanding; they do not replace the observed presentation.

Pace item, with a model answer: Mark this sentence from the findings for an understandable pace and explain each mark: "187 of 310 surveyed students wanted a rooftop garden, 74 did not and 49 were undecided." Model answer: "ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-SEVEN / of THREE HUNDRED TEN surveyed students / wanted a rooftop garden, // SEVENTY-FOUR did not / and FORTY-NINE were undecided. //" Each number is said slowly because four numbers in one sentence blur when rushed. The short pause after "187" separates the part from the whole, so listeners do not hear one long number. The long pause after "rooftop garden" lets the main finding land before the smaller groups follow, and the final pause gives listeners time to look at the survey chart. The check is the same as always: a partner should be able to repeat the four numbers after one hearing.