1. How to make a presentation
Hy D. Tran, ME260, Spring 2004

2. Outline Tell the audience what you’re going to say
Tell the audience your story
Tell your audience what you told them

3. What you’re saying All presentations should have an outline
Follow the outline!
Slides should serve as a mnemonic only!
Animations are cute, but almost always overdone

4. Contents Text is ok, graphics are better Don’t write too much!
Don’t write too small!
About 1-2 minute per viewgraph for timing

5. Dealing with nervousness
Practice
(Practice also helps with your timing)

6. Presentation skills Project your voice Eye contact with audience
Don’t stand in front of the projector
Don’t fidget

7. Powerpoint tricks Default sizes are just a bit big
Animations can help, but too many animations will drive your audience batty
Some powerpoint styles are impossible to read (e.g. light gray on dark gray)

8. Common mistakes Text too small to read
Color contrast bad (e.g. yellow text on white background)
Too much text, not enough graphics (e.g. this presentation)
Too many slides
Excessive use of special effects/animations

9. Conclusions
If you stick with Powerpoint defaults, your slides won’t be unreadable
Watch your graphics!
Practice your talk!