10 Communicating with Words, Images, and Sound

Combining words and images is a powerful way to convey meaning. Whether you are giving a presentation, creating a digital story, or just sharing information, using both words and pictures helps make your message clear and interesting. Let’s explore how to do this effectively and why it’s important.

When Do We Combine Words and Images?

In everyday life, there are many situations where we need to combine words and images:

1. School Projects: Creating posters or slideshows to present your research.
2. Social Media: Sharing photos with captions to tell a story or explain an event.
3. Advertisements: Using images and text to promote a product or service.
4. Instructions: Providing step-by-step guides with pictures to make instructions easier to follow.
5. Digital Stories: Telling a personal story using a combination of video, pictures, and narration.

Why Is This Important?

Combining words and images while speaking in English has a lot of benefits. Here are a few:

• Communication Skills: Learning to express your ideas clearly and effectively
• Creativity: Finding interesting ways to show meaning and get the audience’s attention
• Technical Skills: Using software and tools to create digital content
• Organization: Organizing information and talking about it in a logical way
• Critical Thinking: Choosing the best ways to share your message using multiple types of communication

However, one of the most important parts of these assignments is to help you have more confidence when speaking in English. For example, if you are going into college classes or plan to take a job where you will need to speak to the public, you will need to have public speaking skills. This is a very difficult skill to be good at, especially in a second language! Having good presentation skills will also help you prepare for any time you need to speak in situations that can be scary, like interviews or speeches. It helps you organize your ideas, think about how to present them clearly and in a way that other people will want to listen to, and think about the way your voice and your body work together to show meaning.

Giving a Presentation

One of the most common ways we combine words and images is when we give a presentation. These are very common assignments at school and in many workplaces.

In a presentation, a speaker decides on a topic to explain clearly to the audience, and they speak about it while showing slides that have words or images to help the audience understand the topic better. For example, a presentation about a cultural event might have pictures or video of the event while the speaker explains what is happening.

It’s important to know that giving a good presentation takes more skills than just speaking in English correctly. A good presentation also catches and keeps the audience’s attention, explains the topic clearly, and requires the speaker to sound natural and confident while speaking in front of a group of people.

Creating a Strong Presentation

What makes a good presentation? There are a lot of ideas out there, but here are some of the best ones:

• Think about your audience. What do they already know about the subject? What is their connection to the subject? Why should they care about what you are saying? Try to create your presentation while thinking about these questions.
• Don’t put too much text on your slides. It’s easy to put too many words on the slides and then to just read those words. But that’s not a presentation! You can have notes, but you should not put everything you are going to say on the slides. People have trouble listening to what you are saying and reading what you write at the same time. Choose the most important information, and focus on that!
• Keep your topic organized. Start with something that will get your audience’s attention, and then think of a good way to present the information so that it doesn’t seem like you are talking about several different things all at once. Need help with this? Come talk to me!
• Keep it simple by remembering KISS: Key Ideas, Interesting, Simple, and Structured

Making a Good Slideshow

For many people, the most stressful part of giving a presentation is creating the slideshow. If you have never used a program like Google Slides, Microsoft PowerPoint, or Canva, you may need to spend some time learning the technology as you prepare.

The video below is a good introduction to how to create good slides. The speech is a little bit fast, so you may want to change the speed in the YouTube settings (click on the gear at the bottom right of the video), and use subtitles by clicking on the “CC” button.

What to Do While You Present

• Start by introducing yourself and your topic.
• Always keep eye contact with your audience. Don’t just read from your slides or notes.
• Create note cards to help you remember what you need to say, but don’t read from them. Only look at them when you need to, and then look back at the audience.
• Look at everyone, not just the instructor or a couple of people.
• Walk around a little bit while you speak.
• Use gestures and facial expressions to help show your meaning. Also, smile! It makes you seem more friendly and open.
• Try to keep the audience involved. Short questions, personal stories, and jokes (if they’re actually funny) can help.
• Try to sound as natural as possible. Speak with emotion and varied intonation. (See the chapter on emotion and intonation in this book for extra help.)
• When you finish, ask the audience if they have any questions, and be prepared to answer them.

Tips for Practicing

• Make a video of yourself while you practice presenting. What do you notice? What can you improve?
• At home, practice saying your part out loud. You can record your voice and listen to that too! Practice speaking in front of anyone who will listen–friends, family, and classmates are all great!
• Every time you rehearse, use your slides. It’s very easy to forget to use the slides if you only practice your speaking.
• Take a deep breath and stretch before you begin. It relaxes your body and opens your lungs so you sound better.

Practice with Classmates

Before the presentation day, practice giving your presentation in front of a small group of your classmates. As you and your classmates rehearse, give each other feedback on:

• timing
• pronunciation
• vocabulary
• grammar
• body language (gestures, eye contact)
• use of notes
• content
• anything else you notice

Tell your classmates what they are doing well and what they can improve.

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is another way you might combine words and images. Digital stories are like presentations because you need to have good organization, connection between your words and the images, and good delivery, with varied intonation and confident speech. However, they are different from presentations because you are not standing in front of a group. Instead, you record a digital story on a computer and then put the words and images together using a computer program. You basically create a small movie that tells your story.

This video from the University of Guelph Library explains what digital stories are and gives some steps for how to create one.

You can see some excellent examples of digital stories on the Story Center website. Choose a few that look interesting to you. As you watch them, pay close attention to how the images help add information to the stories that are being told.

Steps to Create a Digital Story

1. Choose Your Story

The first step in creating a digital story is deciding what you want to tell. Think about a story that you find interesting and that others will enjoy. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• A memorable trip or adventure
• A personal achievement or challenge
• A fictional story you’ve created
• An important lesson or message you want to share

2. Write Your Script

Your script is the the most important part of your digital story. It should be clear, well-organized, and engaging. Here are some tips for writing a great script:

• Start with a Hook: Grab your audience’s attention from the beginning. You can start with an interesting scene, a surprising fact, or a question that gets your audience thinking (for example: “Have you ever seen a shooting star on a summer night?”)
• Be Descriptive: Use descriptive language to create images in your audience’s mind. Try to describe the five senses so the audience feels like they are with you. For example, you can probably imagine this sentence: “The beach was quiet, with gentle waves lapping at the shore.” Visit the descriptive language section of this textbook for extra help.
• Keep It Simple: Use simple sentences and language that is easy for your audience to understand. Also, make sure your details help add important meaning to what you are saying. Don’t include a lot of unnecessary details that your audience doesn’t really need to know.
• End with a Strong Conclusion: Leave your audience with something to think about. This can be a lesson you learned, advice you want to share, or a question you want your audience to ask themselves. Here is one example: “And that day, I learned the true meaning of friendship.”

3. Collect Images, Videos, and Music

Next, collect the images, videos, and music you will use in your digital story. Make sure each piece supports your script and makes your story stronger. Here are some tips:

• Choose Relevant Images: Use images that are directly related to your story. For example, if you’re talking about a trip to the mountains, you can include photos of the mountains.
• Select Appropriate Music: Pick music that matches the mood of your story. For example, use fun, inspiring music for a happy story or soft music for a sad story.
• Use Short Video Clips: If you have videos, you can also choose short clips to highlight key parts of your story. Remember that the most important part of the digital story is what you are saying, though. This means that you shouldn’t have a lot of video with other people talking.

4. Organize Your Story

Now, organize everything to make a clear story. First, create a storyboard. This is a piece of paper or a poster that has notes about each part of your story and decide where each image, video, and piece of music will go. Use the storyboard to help you match words with images.

5. Use a Digital Storytelling Tool

There are many tools available for creating digital stories. Some popular options include Adobe Spark, Microsoft PowerPoint, VoiceThread, and Animoto. Your teacher might have other tools to help you too.

6. Add Narration

Record yourself reading the script. Remember to speak clearly and expressively so you sound natural and confident. This helps the audience understand you and makes your speech sound more interesting. Review this textbook’s chapters on intonation and emotion and telling your story in speaking for extra help.

7. Edit and Finalize

Review your digital story and make any necessary changes. Check for:

• Smooth Transitions: Make sure that images and videos go together smoothly with the narration.
• Clear Audio: Make sure your narration does not have background noise (e.g., television sounds, other people speaking or laughing, noise from public spaces).
• Overall Structure and Content: Ensure that your story makes sense and is interesting from start to finish.