BASIC PRINCIPLES 0F GOOD PRESENTATIONS

USING POWERPOINT VISUALS

Prepared by Dr. Joyce Swofford for the Department of Communicative Arts & Integrative Studies COMM courses

Preparing Your Speech

1 Know your audience and gear your comments and visual aids to their knowledge level, needs, and interests. This means you must try to determine how much your audience knows about your topic before you start planning your comments. Be sure to relate your central idea to your audience: give them a reason for listening. “See” the information from their point of view and include for them appropriate “What’s in it for me?” comments.

2 Keep your purpose in mind as you prepare your comments and your PowerPoint slides. If your purpose is to inform, be as clear as you can in your explanation; if your purpose is to persuade, give your audience well thought out reasons why they should agree with your central idea. You can use emotional as well as logical appeals.

3 Plan your introductory comments with these four functions in mind:

a. to get the listeners’ attention (be as specific as possible)

b. to set the topic and tone of the speech

c. to state your central idea

d. to give a preview of your main ideas that develop your central idea

4. Plan your concluding comments to relate to your central idea and to emphasize it. Leave the audience with something memorable or thought-provoking to think about.

5. Using Outline View, brainstorm for words, phrases, and sentences about what you want to say to support (clarify and justify) your central idea. These could be main ideas or details. All that matters is that you get your ideas down. You can “promote” and “demote” your text onto the actual slides once you have all your ideas down.

Planning Your Slides

1. Using the list in Outline View, arrange your text so that you have a main idea (title) and details (bulleted text) for each slide. This is the process of organizing your ideas and structuring your information into usable “body paragraphs.”

2. Add new blank slides for your title and closing slides, and for any additional slides where you will insert graphics or “textbox” information.

3. Edit your bulleted text so that you don’t have any complete sentences. Use words or phrases instead. Remember that you will be using your slides to help you remember key points and to emphasize significant information for your listeners. Not all information needs to have slide accompaniments, such as introductory or background information. The purpose of the slides is to provide dual coding for your listeners so that they can process (store and later retrieve) the information more effectively.

4. Select font styles, font colors, and background colors that are readable in the size room you will present in. (Size 28 seems to be the smallest you can use for comfortable viewing. Size 32 or 36 is preferable for bulleted text, 44 for “title”/main idea text.)

5. Be consistent in the entry style of your bulleted lists and graphics. A little variety is nice, but too much variety is distracting. Your transitions should also be the same from slide to slide. Use complementary and uniform colors for your font and background colors, but don’t be dull from repetition. Don’t be afraid to try something different, as long as it’s not distracting to your listeners. In long presentations with several slides, major groups of slides can have the same color scheme.

6. Unless you have your delivery very well timed, set your slides to advance manually, using either the space bar, the Enter key, a mouse click, or the right arrow key, rather than using automatic timing. You’ll be able to respond to feedback and won’t be worried about keeping a set pace. If you vary the method of advancement, you might forget which slides have automatic transitions and which do not. If you really want to use automatic timing, learn how to pause your presentation. (Press the S key to stop the automatic timing; press the S key again to resume the presentation.) It’s better not to put any timing on your first and last slides. This way, the first slide can be on the screen when your audience comes in and the last slide can stay there until you finish talking or exit slide show view. (As a precautionary measure against accidentally clicking your slides out of slide show view, make a blank screen at the very end, which has the same background color but no text. When you see this, you know for sure that your time is up and you need to give your closing comments if you haven’t already done so. Finish your oral comments before exiting slide show view.)

7. Learn how to operate all the hardware you will be using and how to move about from slide to slide. If you have a remote mouse, be sure to practice with it.

8. If you are not using your own computer, be sure that the correct version of PowerPoint is installed. Generally, slides prepared in a newer version of PowerPoint will not operate properly on an older version of PowerPoint. Be aware also that some projection monitors will operate only with specific computer models (Older monitors are likely to have trouble with newer computers, for instance.)

9. Proofread your text carefully for spelling errors, punctuation errors, and/or animation abnormalities. View the slide show several times so that you can make any needed adjustments.

Practicing Your Presentation

1. Practice your opening words over and over until you have practically memorized them, so that by the time you finish saying them during your actual speech, your stage fright will be under control. As with your first few sentences, practice your closing words over and over until you have practically memorized them, so that when you say them you can give a tone of finality to these comments and your audience will realize this is the end of your speech. (Accordingly, a good suggestion for the text of the final slide is to have a significant summary comment, your closing statement, or a part of your closing statement.)

2. Practice your speech with the PowerPoint slides at least twice before your actual presentation. You cannot rely on the slides to provide transitions between the main ideas of your speech. You should orally give the audience transitional sentences to connect the idea you just talked about with the upcoming idea. This is a common problem in organization among beginning PowerPoint users: they are letting the slides control the delivery rather than letting the speech control the visual aids.

3. If you want to show Internet sites and won’t have access to the Internet, download your sites and view Internet Explorer offline from your hard drive. If you do have Internet connections, access the URL site on your computer before your speech and then don’t shut off your computer. Though it won’t appear without a small interruption, the site will connect faster, having already been there recently.

4. Make overhead transparencies of your slides as a backup in case your PowerPoint program fails to respond appropriately.

5. Use the Set Up Show (under the Slide Show menu) command to let PowerPoint know how you are going to use the file in its actual setting. (When in slide sorter view select a slide and then right click on the slide to get the shortcut menu, or use the Slide Show menu at the top.)

Delivering the speech

1. Wear an outfit that looks professional or appropriate for your speech and in which you feel comfortable.

2. Check out the room and your equipment the day before or at least two hours before your presentation. (called pre-flighting your equipment)

3. Try to arrange with the multimedia technician to meet you before your presentation begins so that you can be sure you can operate the hardware provided for you.

4. Adjust the lighting so that your slides are easily visible. Make sure the room can be made dark enough but still have enough light for comfort.

5. Adjust the computer so that you can see the presentation on your screen while the audience sees it on the large screen. This prevents your having to turn around and look at the large screen and thus lose eye contact with the audience.

6. You can’t move too far away from the computer, but this doesn’t mean you have to be standing still the entire time. Gestures and facial expressions as well as varied inflections in your voice will keep the audience looking at you and just glancing at the slides. If you maintain eye contact with them, they are more likely to keep eye contact with you. There is little worse than speaking to an audience who is not looking at you.

7. View the slide show one last time during the hour before your speech (or the evening before) both as a caution that the slides are right and to remind you of what’s on each slide as a memory trigger for your comments.

8. If you need to use a note cared, place it near the computer in an easy to see spot; if you know your subject well enough, the slides should be enough of a cue for you so that you don’t need any notes. It’s better to not use note cards at all. You should know your information well enough.

9. Begin your speech with your well-practiced opening lines that will catch the listeners’ attention. Don’t begin with a self-introduction, as that should already have been done.

10. If something unplanned goes wrong during your presentation, stay in control and keep your composure. Don’t undermine your credibility. Be flexible and move on with your speech the best you can. If your comments get ahead of your slides, use the back arrow to move backwards in your entries. Use the space bar to advance.

11. Relax. This will put the audience at ease, and your body language will be much more natural. If you use a prop that you hold with your hands, put it down after talking about it, freeing your hands for spontaneous gestures to accompany your verbal message. This also means that your hands should be free from your keyboard. Don’t lean on the podium at all.

12. Sound interested in your subject, because if you’re not, you can be sure your audience won’t be interested either. Vary the inflection of words and the intonation of your voice to help give your voice some energy. This energy will help make you sound interested in your subject.

13. Your credibility is your “believability” by the audience that you know what you are talking about and that you are qualified to talk on this subject. They are more likely to listen if they perceive that you have credibility, so do whatever you can to give yourself credibility. This can be done through your content knowledge, the background information about you (usually given by the introducer of the speaker), your visual aids, how well you organize your information, your vocal delivery, your physical demeanor, and your language style (including using appropriate grammar).

14. How will you let your audience know you are delivering your final comments? Even though you have already created your final slide and hopefully memorized your closing comments, it’s still easy to get nervous and forget that you are at the end of your presentation. Your audience, however, needs a cue to know you are about to end. Your slide text can help, but you can also use your voice. Slow down your rate of delivery just a little on the closing words, and end with a lower pitch in your voice so that your audience can “hear” a closing vocal inflection. Avoid saying “That’s all I have” or “That’s it, any questions?” End professionally. Additionally, don’t end with “thank you,” as the audience should be thanking you for sharing your comments with them.

15. Remember that you are communicating to your audience, not putting on a show. You want them to relax, listen, understand, and follow your comments.