Friday 16 March 2012

The Power of Less, as applied to a PowerPoint presentation

My lovely students at INTO Manchester have been working on their research and presentation skills.  Today we focused on how to create an effective PowerPoint presentation to support our own spoken words.

If you search on the internet and elsewhere for tips on good presentations, you will find a huge amount of conflicting information about what makes a good or bad PowerPoint.  The only thing you can do with this conflicting information is to follow the ideas which make good sense to you and which seem to be in keeping with what your teachers are expecting you to produce.

I will now give you my own ideas, but I don't expect you to follow them to the letter, even if it is me who will be assessing your presentations in the future!  I recognise that there is more than one way to skin a cat...
  • LESS IS MORE - the less you put on each slide, the better.  Why?  Firstly, the small amount of content will be easier for your listeners to read, as you can make it big enough to be easily visible from all corners of the room.  Secondly, you can force your listeners to focus on each point in turn, in line with your own speaking - if there are three points on the slide, your listeners will be reading about the third point while you are still speaking about the first.
  • A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS - this is especially true if you are talking about things, people or places which are likely to be unfamiliar to your listeners.   
  • BE QUIET WHEN YOU SHOW A NEW SLIDE - the attention of your listeners will automatically be drawn to the new slide, so there is no point in talking until they have had a chance to look.  
  • DON'T READ OUT WHAT IS ON THE SLIDE - you know your listeners are able to read, otherwise you wouldn't be putting words on the slide.  Let them read the words for themselves, then explain, comment, add extra information as necessary. 
  • BE SPARING WITH THE SPECIAL EFFECTS AND FUNKY BACKGROUNDS - really, this is down to personal taste.  I don't like them at all myself, but don't let that stop you using them - I would never mark someone down for using a coloured background or having words fly in. However, be sparing - the backgrounds can make the words difficult to read and the special effects can be very distracting.
  • CHECK THE TECHNOLOGY IF POSSIBLE - in our classroom at INTO, what you see on the computer screen is not the same as what you actually see on the Interactive Whiteboard - what looks clear, bright and sharp on your laptop at home may not look as good when you actually do your presentation in class.  If you get the chance to try it out in advance, do so - and if that's not possible be cautious in your use of shading and pale fonts.  
I hope these tips are helpful, but feel free to challenge me - I'm always open to new ideas, and I recognise that a lot of it comes down to personal preference.

16 comments:

  1. This is very interesting. I work in a business environment and and I'm sure that some of the suggestions you've made will help me a great deal when I have to give a presentation

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    1. Thank you - actually, my INTO students are all planning to enter the world of business after they graduate, so it's really important that they become confident and effective presenters.

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  2. I find your ideas very sensible, Julia. There is obviously a great deal of psychology involved in teaching and it's obvious you are using this.

    Good luck with all your efforts in the future.

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    1. Thanks, Keith. I'm finding that the more I develop as a teacher, the simpler my advice and strategies!

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  3. Encuentro muy interesante tu metodo de trabajo, en estos tiempos se necesita llegar con la informacion de forma rapida y precisa.

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  4. The idea of keeping it simple, simply put. This will be really a helpful approach in the future when making presentations to my team, as they usually look quite bored!

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    1. Thank you, Kerry. I think most people think of listening to a presentation as a great opportunity for a little nap.... I hope it helps!

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  5. This idea is great. Simple and useful :) I believe all students should read this, even if they are not intending to do courses in business. Can I steal it and use it in my class?

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    1. Please do use it! I think that almost all university students have to give presentations as part of their undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, and cause themselves huge amounts of unnecessary stress by making it far too complicated.

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  6. A straight forward KISS approach to presentations that any tutor can follow. It's great.

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    1. Thanks for your positive feedback - we all need to KISS!

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  7. Thank you very much for all the positive comments - and yes, of course please feel free to tell your students, Yasmin! There are so few truly good presenters out there, and in my opinion 99% of the problem is trying to say too much, using language which is too complicated, with too many PowerPoint slides with too much on each slide!

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  8. I have suffered death by power point on far too many occasions over the last 20 years, not forgetting to say that I have been guilty of issuing the same death penalty!!
    Simple and straight forward guidelines.
    So often such a presentation is the only time that your are able to make a first impression, so it has to right.
    Excellent piece of advice.... Many Thanks
    Andy

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  9. As a student I had to give several PowerPoint presentations and I think you’ve produced the definitive guide here!
    I once did a group presentation with overseas students who were unsure exactly what the university lecturers in this country were looking for – I wish I could have shown this blog to them, I think that such clear and concise advice from an experienced teacher would have been invaluable.
    I hope it helps other students to give interesting and effective presentations and also get good grades.!

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  10. Ally - you're right that there is a general lack of knowledge about what is expected. I think it ought to be explained at the beginning of the course to all the students, but I think a lot of lecturers assume that someone else is dealing with it!

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