Some kind of visual aid (computer projection, overhead transparencies, handouts, the chalkboard) will likely support your efforts to get your ideas -- and perhaps the organization of your seminar -- across clearly. While you speak, your classmates will appreciate having something besides you to look at! Make sure, however, that the visual devices you use really do help and are integral to your presentation. Explain what it is you want your classmates to see in the examples, graphs, or charts you present. Do not assume that they will speak fully for themselves. They are there to help your oral presentation, not to replace it.
In deciding which visual aids to use, consider the following:
Computer presentation programs like Power Point are often used to display the main organizational points of a presentation. These help to keep an audience (and the presenter) on track with where the presentation is heading.
Overhead transparencies have the virtues of saving paper and of allowing you to mark on displays with a pen as you speak. If you are clever and careful, you can even layer transparencies.
For detailed visual displays, including analyzed musical examples and analytical graphs, you might find handouts best. Your classmates can then see small examples clearly and can write their own notes on your handouts.
On every page of your handout you should type a heading that gives your name, the title of your presentation, the place, and the date. People may wish to keep your handout. Not only will this information help them to remember what the handout is about; it will also help to mark it as your intellectual property.
Separate examples in your handout should each be labeled as they would be in an essay. You should type material on your handouts rather than writing it by hand.
Avoid trying to impress with long, multi-page handouts. Juggling many pieces of paper is only distracting and frustrating for your classmates.
If you intend to write material on the chalkboard, try to arrive early, to have the material already on the board before you begin your seminar. Avoid wasting valuable seminar time writing detailed material on the board.
You may wish to play recorded pieces of music or, more likely, excerpts in your seminar. You will probably find it best to have excerpts recorded ahead of time. Avoid having to fish around for the right spots on recordings while your classmates languish in "dead air" time. Have your excerpts arranged in the proper order of presentation.
Anything that can go wrong with technology probably will in your seminar! Arrive ahead of time to set up and check the overhead projector (Does the bulb work?), the computer (Can you find the presentation program? Are those internet sites bookmarked?), the stereo system (Are you getting sound from the CD player?).