Part of our Research Support Workshop series, this presentation covers basic presentation how-tos and style tips that will help you take your presentation from 'okay' to 'fantastic.'
Check out the Research Support Workshops archive to view a live recording of this presentation and others: http://lib.fit.edu/instruction/workshops-archive.php
7. Captions have a place
Table 1: I’m a table caption,
and I go above the table.
Squirrels Raccoons Students
Monday
50 75 50
Tuesday
47 60 72
Wednesday
50 61 81
Thursday
25 200 250
Friday
10 150 85
Figure 1: I’m a figure caption,
and I go below the figure.
17. Title Text
• ACCENT COLOR dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipiscing elit.
• Duis ac odio nec ACCENT COLOR.
• Curabitur et risus ornare, vehicula ipsum vel,
maximus metus.
39. Where size, color, and readability
collide
• Be mindful of text size and lighting conditions.
• Sometimes you do want your audience to pay attention to your
slides, especially when you’re describing figures, data, or
definitions.
• But, most of the time, you don’t want your audience reading
your slides.
• They’ll be so busy reading your slides that they won’t hear any
of your witty, intelligent remarks.
• I mean, do you like reading slides like this?
• An entire presentation of bullet points?
• Don’t subject your audience to that.
40. But, I only have four bullet points...
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49. ….can stop bad presentations from
happening.
Image: US Forestry Service
Editor's Notes
We could easily spend 3 hours here talking about presentations: we could talk about avoiding text, about creating graphics, proper image placement and use…but we don’t have 3 hours, we have 30 minutes. So, instead, I’m going to start with the foundation of the presentation (your information) and then move on to some very simple color theory, text use, and font choices. We’ll also talk about images and where to find them, as well as two other presentation options besides powerpoint.
Before we can get into the part where we make your presentation look nice, we need to talk about the foundation: the information you’re presenting, and how you’re presenting it.
Before we begin thinking about our content, we should begin by thinking about our audience.
http://blogs.haverford.edu/haverblog/2013/12/12/being-a-haverford-house-fellow/
Contrary to what you’re probably thinking, the first thing you should consider is your audience. What do they know? What do they need to know? Are you presenting to peers? Advisors?
Consider the atmosphere and level of understanding in the room.
When a knowledge gap is present, try to view your presentation as a teaching moment. This will help you frame your content in a context that everyone in your audience can understand.
Start thinking about the material that you need or want to present. If you’re presenting a paper, then most of this has already been done, and your presentation will be a summary of your paper.
Make sure you’re summarizing your paper, or report if it’s already written. You’re not writing another report within your presentation. If you’re having trouble doing this, take a look at the background information in your abstract.
CITE YOU SOURCES.
Caption your figures and tables, and do it correctly.
This is one time when your audience should be reading the screen- make your captions descriptive, and make sure your graphics are easy to decipher.
Use bright and bold colors carefully. Limit them to accents, and avoid using colors like red, yellow, and orange as backgrounds.
Use bright and bold colors carefully. Limit them to accents, and avoid using colors like red, yellow, and orange as backgrounds. Do you really want to stare at this color for the next 15 minutes?
Using a bright, bold color in a gradient lets you keep the color, but doesn’t hurt your audience’s eyes.
The rule of 4 by 5: four bullet points with five words each.
The rule of 33: no more than 33 words per slide.
This is why powerpoint gets such a bad rap: too many words. Sometimes you’ll need to include a lot of text. If your rubric requires that you explicitly detail your entire methodology, DO THAT! It’s ok! Do what the assignment asks! But, if you can avoid it, don’t put your entire script onto your slides. It’s ok to have notes, or note cards, but your slides should not be your crutch. They should not be your script. You shouldn’t need to look at the screen every few seconds to see what you should say next.
You need to find a good balance between text, speaking, and images. Viewers shouldn’t feel like they have to take time to read your slides in order to understand your presentation.
Don’t use low quality photos.
Don’t overuse animations, and don’t use word art. If it looks cheesy, it is.
If you Google “bad presentation examples,” you will literally find thousands of bad examples, so much more than what I could cover here. Cheesy, bad, terrible, presentations.