HowtoMakeaGoodPresentation2007 How to Make a Good Presentation Adapted from the original slideshow ©2001 David Tallach Miller Presentations play an important role in communicating ideas and information. Keep it Slick and Simple. Vision Statement The Vision Statement (or Thesis or Hypothesis) should be clear and simple. Explain what your presentation is about. Goal and Objectives Goal and Objectives: What will the audience learn? What do you hope will be the end result of this presentation? What are the means to obtaining your goal? Misconceptions Many people try to put all information on a slide. Don’t, KISS, only show key terms or ideas that will lead you, and your audience, to your goal. From slide to slide change what needs to be changed. Changing the background, fonts, etc. only draws attention away from you ideas. Don’t crowd your slide. Be sure to have “white space” -areas that have no text or graphics- so that the slide does not cluttered. If too many graphics and/or sounds are used the presentation can become confusing. What should the audience look at? What should they listen too? How were these misconceptions developed? In grade school you were told to make your drawing fill the paper. In essays and report you must supply all the information--text and diagrams. You can’t stop and explain fuller to the reader. Media such as TV, movies and music videos tend to go for sensory overkill. These media do this because they have no real content to offer. Since they have nothing of importance to say they must stimulate your mind be stimulating your senses. Key Ideas Each slide should only display the key points… not explanations or background material. From slide to slide the difference should be limited to ideas, terms, concepts. Keep It Slick and Simple. Fill in the Presenter Notes for your audience. This is where you can go into detail. Recommendations I Plan out how you will develop your thesis. Dynamic graphics can be used, initially, to draw attention to your slide but turn them off during your discussion. Be sure that all graphics reinforce screen text and presentation. Allow the audience to ask questions and ask questions of the audience. Develop your ideas through your lecture not on the slide. Do not use full sentences or paragraphs. Keep you slide simple by developing a maximum of 6 ideas (bullets) per slide. Recommendations II The main purpose of formatting is to increase readability and legibility. Readability: How easy is it to read the text especially in long sentences and paragraph form? You should use a serif font, such as Times New Roman, to increase readability. Remember, for a presentation you should not use sentences and hence readability is not as important. Legibility: How easy is to distinguish letters? E.g. a STOP sign. For presentations this is the most important formatting consideration. All CAPS decreases readability but increases legibility. Street signs are normally in ALL CAPS. It is easier to read giraffe than GIRAFFE. Underlining decreases readability and Legibility…. So don’t use underlining. Effective Graphical Communication Formatting a presentation: Contrast between and background (dark) and foreground (light). Contrast between main ideas (big bold font) and supporting ideas (small font). Repeat glyphs (graphic elements) to increase continuity. Align presentation elements: left align, right align or centre. Try not to use centering since it is overused and abused. Never centre sentences and paragraphs. Proximity: put ideas/terms together that belong together. Keep ideas apart that don’t go together. This is similar to paragraph vs. line spacing. General Be sure to have a thesis… a point. There is no rush. If you must speed up do not go into detail. Let your handouts/notes complete your presentation. Look at your audience. If you find this difficult try focusing on two or three people in different areas of the audience. Use cue cards to help you through. Do not read your notes. Know your stuff and talk about it. At the end of your presentation summarize your main ideas and restate your goal/thesis. Fill in the Presenter Notes for your audience. Conclusion Components of a good presentation are an introduction, which includes the goal/thesis and objectives, development of the goal/thesis and summary, which puts it all together. Clear formatting allows you get your ideas across quickly and easily. Now you can use these ideas to make your own incredible presentation.