BUSINESS CASE, SLP and TD
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module_4-_background.docx
Module 4 - Background
Presentations
Required Material
Rogers, P. TeknoSport: Communicating to Prevent Change.
Readings About Presentations and PowerPoint
The Cognitive Load of PowerPoint: Q&A with Richard E. Mayer
In this short article, Cliff Atkinson interviews University of California, Santa Barbara, Professor Richard Mayer about the conclusions one can draw from his extensive research on multimedia for PowerPoint presentations.
Atkinson, C., (2006). The Cognitive Load of PowerPoint: Q&A with Richard E. Mayer.
Atkinson, C., (2006). Five Experts Dispute Edward Tufte on PowerPoint.
Five Ways to Reduce PowerPoint Overload
This PDF download is the real stuff. This article is radical in its approach to PowerPoint. It is also the single best thing I've ever read on PowerPoint. It contradicts almost everything you've been told about PowerPoint, including much of what is in this module. Most of what is in this module will help you to do very good PowerPoint presentations—presentations much better than most that are given today. But if you want to go beyond that and make PowerPoint presentations that make your audience's socks roll up and down, then use this approach. It isn't easy, but the results are great. Personally, the hardest part of this approach for me is finding images that precisely convey what I'm trying to get across. Notice that the authors do what they say in the article. The headings and graphics in the articles are done in the style they recommend, and the text on the bottom is done using the "notes" function in PowerPoint.
Atkinson, C. & Mayer, R. E., (2004). Five Ways to Reduce PowerPoint Overload.
In addition to the Atkinson & Mayer article above the below readings are used in your Case Assignment.
Tufte, E., (2003). PowerPoint Is Evil. Power Corrupts. PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely. Wired. February 17, 2011, at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html.
Doumont, J. (2005). The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Slides Are Not All Evil. Technical Communication. Washington: Feb 2005. Vol. 52, Iss. 1; p.64, 7pgs.
In Defense of PowerPoint. Accessed from http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/in_defense_of_powerp.html
Presentation Skills. Accessed from http://homepages.wmich.edu/~bowman/c6dframe.html
Basic PowerPoint Guidelines
•Don't use small fonts. The bigger, the better. Small fonts are harder to read on screen.
•Use "sans serif" fonts like Verdana, which was specifically designed to be readable on computer screens.
•Don't use "serif" fonts like Times New Roman. The bits at the end of each letter tend to blur when projected.
•Don't write complete sentences on your slides. Write short phrases. You will be less tempted to read the slide word for word.
•Don't use more than two fonts per slide. More than two creates visual confusion.
•Keep your slides simple. Try to have an average of four lines per slide, one heading and three bullet points.
•Unless you plan to have a totally dark room (which is not a good idea by the way) use white or light-colored backgrounds with black or dark-colored letters. They are much easier to read than white or light letters on dark backgrounds.
•Create a completely black slide for the beginning and end of your presentation. That way while you are waiting to start, you don't have to show the first slide and at the end you can fade to black and it can stay black as long as you like.
•Don't use timed slides. Advance your slides manually with the mouse. You may not be able to keep up with the timed slides or an accident may happen that would throw off your timing.
•Talk to your audience, not the screen.
•Avoid walking in between the projector and the screen.
•If at all possible, practice at least once with the actual machine you will be using in your presentation. If you don't, you may encounter some unpleasant surprises. (At a presentation during my job interview at UOR, I discovered that the projector I had been assured would work with my Mac laptop didn't.)
•Don't assume that the data projector will work. Always make back up visual aids (such as black and white overhead projector slides, printed handouts, etc. At that same UOR job presentation, I had brought overhead slides as a backup and used them instead. I got the job.)
•Use "three slides per page" for printing audience handouts. That way your audience has a copy of each slide you have and has some room to the right of each slide to jot down notes.
