Presentation basics

Presentation Basics:
PowerPoint Presentations
Alen Amirkhanian
AUA Acopian Center for the Environment
AUA Center for Responsible Mining
American University of Armenia

It is different from:
•Books or reports
•Orations
•Radio broadcasts
•TV broadcasts/movies
Why do we do presentations?
But like all of the above, presentations try to make
points, tell a story, present facts and analyses.
Let’s review suggestions on how to do these
effectively.

I. BASIC FORMATTING
II. STRUCTURING YOUR PRESENTATION
III. EXPRESSING IDEAS (PPP is not a report or book)
IV. USE OF IMAGES AND ANIMATION
V. COPY/PASTE IS NOT SATISFACTORY
VI. REFERENCING THE SOURCES
General Rules of
PowerPoint Presentations (PPPs)

1. On the cover page include your
name(s), the course name,
project title, and date, etc.
General Rules of PowerPoint Presentations (PPPs)
EXAMPLE
Title: Renewable Energy: Wind
Names: Maro Maroyan and Gago Gagoyan
Project ID: Assignment #3
Course Name: IE351. Engineering Green Buildings
Date: Fall 2015
School: AUA College of Science & Engineering
2. Make all fonts bold; makes it easier to read when projected on a wall
3. Try to keep to the following font sizes: 24-32 for headlines on each page
and 18-20 on text
4. Do not use hard to read fonts. Stick to Ariel, Calibri, Times New Roman,
etc.
5. Put space between each bullet point
6. All bullet points must start with a capital letter (American style)
7. My preference is to keep background blank, preferably white
I. BASIC FORMAT
Formatting should help understanding not hinder it!

How do you organize your presentation?
• Beginning: Short, should set up the issue or
problem
• Middle: Main findings and ideas presented and
discussed
• End: Emphasize the main points you want the
audience to remember
You need to think about what goes into its
beginning, middle, and end.

• Know your audience (children, adults, experts, layperson, …)
• Identify the main goal of the presentation (problem-solution;
discovery; demonstration; opinion and persuasion; historical
account; telling a story; …)
• Identify the key points you need to make
• Have adequate facts, figures, and images to support your key
points
• DO NOT: give too much background, digress, add too much
information, have too little information, …
Keep in mind when organizing your presentation

II. EXPRESSING IDEAS (PPP is not a report or a book)
1. Use bullet points
2. Each bullet point should contain one idea
3. Express the idea in a basic form
4. Express idea in one sentence
5. Do not digress from your topic
6. Highlight key points + put them in a larger context or
provide comparatives
7. Include all the points that are critical; don’t assume that
it’s enough to cover it as a speaking point
8. Use color changes to highlight key points
General Rules of
PowerPoint Presentations (PPPs)

IntroductionIntroduction
Using wind is one of the cleanest, most sustainable waysUsing wind is one of the cleanest, most sustainable ways
to generate electricity. Wind power produces no toxicto generate electricity. Wind power produces no toxic
emissions and none of the heat trapping emissions thatemissions and none of the heat trapping emissions that
contribute to global warming. This, and the fact thatcontribute to global warming. This, and the fact that
wind power is one of the most abundant and increasinglywind power is one of the most abundant and increasingly
cost-competitive energy resources, makes it a viablecost-competitive energy resources, makes it a viable
alternative to the fossil fuels that harm our health andalternative to the fossil fuels that harm our health and
threaten the environment.threaten the environment.
You are not writing a book or a
report? You need to have your
points as bullets
SAMPLE: Use bullet points

Solar thermal and PV systems
• In the R.A. on a horizontal surface approximately 1000 W/m2
peak of free
energy is available.
• There are different ways to extract solar insolation to either electricity or
thermal energy.
• The first way is the extraction of solar insolation via photovoltaic (PV)
solar panels which convert solar energy to electrical. Construction of
these systems is related to the utilization of expensive materials like
Silicon or other semiconductors.
• PV panels available in the markets at present doesn’t exceed 20% which
means that maximum 20% of incident solar radiation is finally converted
to electrical current. And the cheapest known price for these types of
systems is approcimately $4 per watt or $4000 for 1kW electrical power.
• Solar thermal technologies utilize the heat from the sun to offset the
water heating demand of a building.
SAMPLE: Do Not Digress and Do Develop Ideas Effectively

Solar thermal
• The typical measure of exposure to the sun of a given area is called
“insolation.”
• The higher the insolation level of an area, the higher its potential to
harness solar energy to generate electricity or heat.
• In the R.A. on a horizontal surface, approximately 1000 W/m2
peak
of free energy is available.
• Solar thermal technologies use this free heat from the sun to meet
water heating demand of a building.
Example of how I would do this slide

Favorable natural resources
Solar insolation data for different regions of Armenia have been
collected from different sources.
The term solar insolation indicates the measure of solar radiation
energy received on a given surface area in a given time.
For demonstrating the solar energy potential in Armenia obviously
note that a square with a base equal to 6 km can provide all needed
power of the country.
An average irradiation energy in Yerevan is 1700kW/m2 which is 1.7
times larger than the irradiation in Germany the leader in solar energy
usage in the world.

Favorable natural resources
In Yerevan, the average annual insolation, the amount of solar
radiation received on a square meter, is:
1700kW/m2
This is 1.7 times larger than the insolation in Germany, the
leader in solar energy usage in the world.
SOLAR POTENTIAL IN
ARMENIA: A 6 km2
of land
in Armenia can provide all
the electrical power needs of
the country.

General Rules of
PowerPoint Presentations (PPP)
IMAGES
•Pictures and diagrams are there to help make a point. They are not
decoration.
•Too many pictures can be distracting. There is only so much time
you can spend on one slide.
•Avoid images with too much information.
•You need takeaways (i.e., text that highlights the key points) of a
graph, chart, or picture.

Duration of real seasonal and annual solar radiation (in hours)
Station Altitude (m) Winter Spring Summer Fall Year
Yerevan 942 330 643 1019 699 2690
Tashir 1505 467 514 589 489 2060
Gyumri 1556 440 605 918 652 2615
Sevan 1918 492 622 932 702 2748
Kapan 704 461 511 830 491 2293
Martuni 820 384 655 1157 772 2968
MAXMAX
2nd2nd
3rd3rd
COMPARISON
Germany = 1700
Italy = 2600
California= 3000
TOTAL NUMBER OF HOURS (DAY AND NIGHT) IN A YEAR = 8760
WHAT IS MISSING?
SAMPLE: Highlight key takeaways + help viewer
understand the facts in context or with comparatives
Data source
Date of data
Date of publication

General Rules of
ANIMATION
•Animation is used effectively when it
helps ease understanding and
emphasize points.
•Avoid too much animation. It is
annoying and distracting.
•To transition slides – my suggestion is
to be used only if absolutely necessary.

PLAGARISM |
Գրագողություն
General Rules of
• The sentence presented should be your understanding of
what you have read
• You should not simply copy and paste
V. COPY/PASTE IS NOT SATISFACTORY

1. Source your statements, facts, and figures
2. Follow standard referencing format to
avoid confusion
3. Make sure you data source is dated
General Rules of
VI. REFERENCING THE SOURCES

Note: (*) Recovered waste includes both recycled as well as
composted waste. In 2008, Americans recovered 82.9 million tons of
waste: ~61 million tons through recycling and ~22 million tons of
waste through composting.
Source: “Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and
Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2008” (US EPA;
2009)
US Municipal Solid Waste Recovered*, 1960-2008
recovered
recovered(milliontons)
recovery recovery

Note: (*) Recovered waste includes both recycled as well as composted waste. In 2008, Americans recovered 82.9 million
tons of waste: ~61 million tons through recycling and ~22 million tons of waste through composting.
Source: “Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2008” (US
EPA; 2009)
US Municipal Solid Waste Recovered*, 1960-2008
recovered
recovered(milliontons)
recovery recovery

INPUTWASTE
The Metabolism of City of London
(1995-96; Population 7 million)
Tonnes per year Tonnes per year
per capita
Fuel, oil equivalent 20,000,000 2.86
Oxygen 40,000,000 5.71
Water 1,002,000,000 143.14
Food 2,400,000 0.34
Timber 1,200,000 0.17
Paper 2,200,000 0.31
Plastics 2,100,000 0.30
Glass 360,000 0.05
Cement 1,940,000 0.28
Bricks, blocks, & tarmac 6,000,000 0.86
Metals 1,200,000 0.17
CO2 60,000,000 8.57
SO2 400,000 0.06
NO2 280,000 0.04
Wet, digested sewage sludge 7,500,000 1.07
Industrial and demolition waste 11,400,000 1.63
Households, civic, and commercial wastes 3,900,000 0.56
Source: Compiled by Herbert Girardet and printed in Creating Sustainable Cities (1999); per capita calc by Alen Amirkhanian

END
Thank you for your attention!
QUESTIONS?

Presentation basics

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Presentation basics

Similar to Presentation basics (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Presentation basics