The use of props to help you to illustrate your talks when speaking in public has long been commonplace and can be a highly effective way of getting across your point. Using slides to reinforce your message is probably the most common way of doing so, but the technology to put slide shows together has not always been there. So what did the best public speakers use before?

Well they regularly adopted the method of "Chalk and Talk". In other words they got hold of a flip-chart and a few colored pens and wrote or drew whatever they needed in order to emphasize their points and bring their speeches to life.

And even now, in the days of the "all-singing, all-dancing" computer-generated presentation, "Chalk and Talk" can be a most effective way of making your presentation.

Here are some of the reasons why:

• It helps to keep your audience focused on you. They are required to constantly switch their attention between you and the screen when slides are used. However if you are standing beside a flip-chart and writing upon it there is no problem for the audience to easily see both.

• In a one-to-one situation you will often grab a piece of paper and write or draw on it to illustrate something to the other person. For instance you might draw out the directions to somewhere on a freehand map or simply write down an address or phone number. So using a flipchart is just an extension of that and can give your talk a much more natural feel.

• It can build your audience's confidence in you in that as you write as you progress through your talk, it will appear that you are truly talking spontaneously and so must really know what you are talking about. That will ensure that those in attendance will be genuinely engaged. You, of course, will have prepared thoroughly, and what you put on the chart will in reality be well-rehearsed!

• It can help you to pace your talk and ensure that what you illustrate is always what you are talking about at that moment. It makes it easier for the audience to follow your talk and relate to the point you are putting across.

• You can more easily get your audience involved if you wish. For example you can ask them a question and write down their answers. You can then talk around their feedback, focusing on any aspects that you already know can be used to reinforce any point you want to make. This can be especially effective if you are at a business meeting or doing some form of training or coaching. If you make someone think that something that you wanted to put across anyway was in fact their idea, your esteem as a speaker will be greatly boosted.

• It is a low-tech method and so can boost your confidence as you don't have to worry about what can go wrong with computers and projectors you might otherwise use. Just make sure you have a good supply of spare pens in case one runs dry.

"Chalk and Talk" is a time-proven technique and one that you can easily practice to see how it will help your presentation. So why not give it a try and you will soon see just how well your audience reacts.