1. Preparing a PowerPoint Presentation

2. Development Process Begin by planning your presentation
Organize the content using your outline as a guide
Prepare the slides
Practice
SPEAK to the audience

3. Planning the Presentation
Who is the audience?
Make the level of the material appropriate to the audience
What is the message?
Have a clear point that you want to convey

4. Organize the Content
Use the outline developed for your paper as a guide for preparing the slides
Leave time for questions
Always
Tell the audience what you’re going to tell them
Tell them the information
Tell the audience what you’ve told them

5. An Introduction vs an Outline
presents a list of topics that the presentation will cover
does not give the audience a reason to listen to you.
An Introduction
tells who has done this work, what work preceded this, when the work was done, and why this work is important.
gives the audience a reason to listen

6. Prepare the Slides
A presentation is effective when it uses the visual impact to
Convey the message
Keep the audience’s attention
Use no more than 5-6 bullets per slide
Avoid clutter but emphasize the points you want to make
Present ideas not details

7. Slide Design Use an appropriate size font
Light colors on a dark background are best
Avoid including sounds with the presentation prepared for professional use
Limit the use of animation – use subtle movements that do not detract from the message

8. Avoid cluttered and confusing slides
Avoid cluttered and confusing slides. The following slides are good examples of what NOT to do.

9. This is a Bad Slide It’s ugly Hard to read
Contains WAY to many bullet points
Takes too long to get through
Looks unprofessional
Will make you look like an idiot
Centering with bullet points looks goofy
Better yet…don’t use bullet points.
Tired of this yet?
And demonstrates you have little good taste
Finally…for the aforementioned reasons…you’ll look like a dummy.

11. Keep it Simple
A presentation is not effective when slides are verbose and filled with lots of text for the viewer to read.

12. Things to Remember when Including Graphs:
Label Axes, including units
Use color and symbol to differentiate plots
Include a legend
Each graph should be as complete and self-explanatory as possible. An example of a good slide using a graph follows.

14. Natural Response of a Parallel RLC Circuit
Node Voltage (Volts)
Time (0.1 msec)

15. PRACTICE SO THAT YOU DO NOT READ THE SLIDES!!!
Practice so that you are comfortable with the equipment
Practice so that the timing is correct
The first time you try something is never your best performance
Practice aloud, standing, with the equipment, before a friend or colleague
PRACTICE SO THAT YOU DO NOT READ THE SLIDES!!!

16. SPEAK to the Audience Three rules Speak to the audience Speak audibly
Speak intelligibly

17. For Your Presentation
First slide – research title, your name, mentor’s name
Second slide – problem to be studied and purpose of the study
Third slide – your interest in the topic, what you hoped to find
Clip art sucks

18. Fourth slide – beginning of literature review
Fourth slide – beginning of literature review. Include as many slides as necessary (keeping to the 15 minute limit)
Remember to include author’s name and date as you did in the paper text of any works you cite.
Next slide after the literature review (if you are completing a research study) – Methods section

19. Then slides explaining the Results of your research
Final slides include discussion, conclusions, implications, and recommendations
Still sucks
Remember to dress professionally for your presentation.