AE 440 Oral Presentations Requirements and Tips

Oral Report Guidelines Length is only 5 minutes Slides need to be clearly legible Avoid overcrowding and small fonts In bottom right corner, put your last name and slide number

PowerPoint: Overview Purpose Text Images Color Design Tools

Purpose What PowerPoint is: –Organizational tool –Support structure –Visual aid What PowerPoint is not: –Repository for entire talk –Outline of talk

Text Use legible, large fonts –Sans serif fonts Arial Helvetica Verdana Use consistent font type Avoid “fancy” fonts No underlining –Use bold, color, or italics for emphasis

Images Images should be clear [1,2] Remember to cite images

Images Images should be pertinent to subject matter and section [4]

Color Use complementary colors Color schemes should use no more than 3 colors Be sure that foreground and background are contrasting

Readers’ Familiarity with Subject, Expectations, and Education ReadersFamiliarityExpectationsEducation Experts (Scientists/Engineers) Most know theories as well as practical applications, abbreviations, jargon, and complex abstractions in their own fields. Most prefer straight forward presentations; want to know purpose; do not want explanations of what they already know. Undergraduate or graduate degree, or equivalent experience in specialized fields. Professional Non-Experts (Executives/Managers) Most know general concepts of the field in which they are working. Most prefer definitions and explanations of concepts and procedures; prefer information that help make decisions. Undergraduate or graduate degrees, or equivalent experience, often in areas peripheral to the technical areas for which they are responsible. Technicians (Engineers) Most know specialized area in which they are working. Most prefer straight- forward definitions and explanations. 2 year or undergraduate degree. StudentsOften know generalizations in field. Most prefer information that helps them assess and/or learn in theory as well as practice. Specialized training from internships or course work. General ReadersOften know generalizations in a field. Most prefer information that helps them assess and do. May be highly educated.

Color Use complementary colors Color schemes should use no more than 3 colors Be sure that foreground and background are contrasting Some color don’ts

Black text on blue background. Bright yellow or green (except for emphasis). Multiple colors in one line.Multiple colors in one line.

Design: Proximity Similar items should be grouped together [3]

Design: Alignment Nothing should be placed on the page arbitrarily [3] –Line things up on x and y axis

Design: White Space Include “white space” on slides –Crowded slides are confusing and difficult to read

Medieval Rhetoric: Exploring the Visual “The struggle between icon and alphabet is not, to be sure, anything new, as the history of illuminated manuscripts attests. This complex interaction of word and image never actually vanished; it only fell out of fashion” (34). “Multimedia hypertext is closer in spirit to the medieval illuminated codex than it is either to the ancient speech or to the modern printed book. In an illuminated manuscript the decorated letters created a subtle space in which verbal text and image were perfectly merged”. “We can also point to much earlier examples of multiple-media displays, such as the medieval illuminated manuscripts that combine text, graphics, and representational images” (51).

Design: WYSIWYG Beware the WYSIWYGs in PowerPoint Animation –Animation can be used to solve over crowding issues

Medieval Rhetoric: Exploring the Visual “The struggle between icon and alphabet is not, to be sure, anything new, as the history of illuminated manuscripts attests. This complex interaction of word and image never actually vanished; it only fell out of fashion” (34). “Multimedia hypertext is closer in spirit to the medieval illuminated codex than it is either to the ancient speech or to the modern printed book. In an illuminated manuscript the decorated letters created a subtle space in which verbal text and image were perfectly merged” (110). “We can also point to much earlier examples of multiple-media displays, such as the medieval illuminated manuscripts that combine text, graphics, and representational images” (51).

Design: WYSIWYG Beware the WYSIWYGs in PowerPoint Animation –Animation can be used to solve over crowding issues –But too much is distracting

medieval rhetoric: exploring the visual “The struggle between icon and alphabet is not, to be sure, anything new, as the history of illuminated manuscripts attests. This complex interaction of word and image never actually vanished; it only fell out of fashion” (34). “Multimedia hypertext is closer in spirit to the medieval illuminated codex than it is either to the ancient speech or to the modern printed book. In an illuminated manuscript the decorated letters created a subtle space in which verbal text and image were perfectly merged” (110). “We can also point to much earlier examples of multiple-media displays, such as the medieval illuminated manuscripts that combine text, graphics, and representational images” (51).

Design: WYSIWYG Beware the WYSIWYGs in PowerPoint Animation –Animation can be used to solve over crowding issues –But too much is distracting Sound –Sound is cool, but does it serve a purpose?

Tools Speaker Notes

Works Cited 1 Space shuttle image. e-flame.gif Modified by D. Van Renen, 9/25/ e-flame.gif 2 Space shuttle image. e-flame.gif e-flame.gif 3 Williams, Robin. The Non-Designers Design Book. Peachpit Press, 1994.

Works Cited 4 Mission Operations image. Modified by D. Van Renen, 9/25/

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