1. Making Powerful Presentations
Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides

2. Tips to be Covered Presentation Structure Slide Structure Graphs
Fonts
Colour
Background
Graphs
Spelling and Grammar
Conclusions
Questions

3. Presentation Structure
Our brains want structure and routine. They help us make sense of the world, and help us feel comfortable.
What’s the best way to put structure in your presentation? You could take Lewis Caroll’s advice from Alice in Wonderland:
“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
The same is true when you’re building presentations. We’re unconsciously familiar with structure. That’s why it works. Without it, we’re thinking, “what the hell’s happening?” or “when is this going to end?” In a business setting, no structure means no credibility. It wastes the audience’s time, and your time

4. Aristotle’s 3-Act Structure
Aristotle left us the first guide to the underlying structure of story. Just like Lewis Carol’s King from Alice in Wonderland, we need a beginning, a middle, and an end. So far, so familiar.

5. Duarte’s Sparkline
Your story can’t be a straight line connecting A to B. That would lack the emotional and logical jolt essential for connecting to people. Nancy Duarte uses a sparkline structure to analyze and build presentations¨.
(¨DUARTE, NANCY. “2 LESSONS FROM MYTHS AND MOVIES.” RESONATE: PRESENT VISUAL STORIES THAT TRANSFORM AUDIENCES . HOBOKEN, NJ: WILEY,  PRINT.)
That structure gives your presentation power by adding the concept of tension and release.
Duarte suggests switching the audience back and forth between a state of what is, and what could be. Think of it as alternating between challenge and solution, between pain and pleasure. For example – ‘competition is becoming more ferocious’..but.. ‘we can disrupt that competition with a whole new product offering’.

6. Nancy Duarte: Secret Structure of Great Talks

7. Campbell’s Heros’ Journey
American scholar Joseph Campbell wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces˜.
(˜CAMPBELL, JOSEPH. THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES . PRINCETON, NJ: PRINCETON UP, PRINT.)
In it, he proposed the hero’s journey. His work influenced the structure behind everything from Star Wars to Shrek.
Every good presenter should ask, who is the hero of my story?
Well, it isn’t you!
Imagine making up a bedtime story for a small child. Who do we put at the center of the action? The child. In their imagination, they become a princess, warrior or wizard. This lets them sit at the center of the world you’re describing. When telling stories to adults, it’s no different.
The hero’s journey starts with an ordinary world. That world contains an ordinary character, going about an ordinary life. Something calls them away from that world – a threat or a quest. Although reluctant, circumstances compel the hero to take on the quest. They face hazards and threats. Helpers appear along the way to guide and assist. Through a series of trials, the hero triumphs. They return back to their old world and see it through new eyes.
You can be present in the story, but only as that ally or helper. What Campbell prods us to remember is that it’s always the audience who play the hero.

8. Booker’s 7 Basic Plots
In 2004, journalist Christopher Booker published The Seven Basic Plots , his treatise on why we tell stories. 3 He argues that every myth, movie, novel and TV show follows the same structures, and proposed seven of them.
In Overcoming the Monster the hero sets out to defeat evil, which threatens peace and prosperity in his world. Jaws , James Bond, and The Magnificent Seven are all archetypal examples of this.

15. Vonnegut’s Shapes of Stories
Before Kurt Vonnegut – great American novelist, there was Kurt Vonnegut – University of Chicago anthropology student. There, he pitched a Master’s thesis on the shapes of stories. It was rejected however, because it “looked like too much fun.”˜
(˜VONNEGUT, KURT. PALM SUNDAY: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL COLLAGE . NEW YORK: DELACORTE, 1981.   PRINT.)
Vonnegut aimed to plot the structure of all mankind’s stories onto a simple graph — the vertical axis descending from good fortune to ill fortune, and the horizontal axis moving from beginning to end.
With that, he described shapes of story: Man in Hole, Boy Gets Girl, From Bad to Worse, Creation Story, Old Testament and Cinderella. This video gem shows Vonnegut humorously describing some of the shapes, Man in Hole, “Somebody gets into trouble, and out of it again.”

16. Roam’s 4 Storylines ROAM’S FOUR STORYLINES
Dan Roam proposed four structures˜ for extraordinary presentations.
(˜ROAM, DAN. SHOW & TELL: HOW EVERYBODY CAN MAKE EXTRAORDINARY PRESENTATIONS . NEW YORK: PORTFOLIO PENGUIN,  PRINT.)
He argued that, “clear storylines are our best defense against confusion.” For Roam, which storyline you pick depends on what you are trying to do. Are you changing the audience’s information, abilities, actions, or beliefs?

20. Situation-Complication-Resolution
In the consulting world, or in Business-to-Business sales, Situation-Complication-Resolution is a common presentation structure. Like so many others, it can trace its roots back to myth˜.
(˜BURRIDGE, KENELM. LÉVISTRAUSS AND MYTH. TAVISTOCK, 1968.)
It’s essentially a three-act structure, linked by two magic words, “but” and “therefore.”

22. Hook, Meat & Payoff
Most presentations work really well with a really simple formula — Hook-Meat-Payoff.
The Hook should get your audience on the edge 7 of their seat, leaning forward, and give them a sense of what’s coming. It could be a rhetorical question. It could be a personal story. It could be a bold statement.
It isn’t an agenda slide. That’s an anti-hook. Yes, it tells people what’s coming, but it’s a recipe for settle back, relax and take a snooze.
The Meat is how you organize your content. It has to organize what you say in a way that engages and makes sense to your audience. It could be a list, “7 things you need to know about our new brand positioning”. It could be a timeline. You could adapt one of the structure formulae above. Whatever you do, chunk the meat of your presentation into chewable, tasty bites.
The Payoff serves a number of roles. It’s more artful than staggering to the end with a, “… er, that’s it.” The Payoff concludes your presentation, allowing you to summarize and wrap-up. The best way to do that is to connect back to your Hook in some way. Remember, you want someone to buy into your idea, or buy your product. Now all you have to do is close.
You do that by asking the audience to commit to the next action that you want from them. It’s amazing how many presenters forget to do this. Presentations without action just add to the noise.

23. Slide Structure – Good Use 1-2 slides per minute of your presentation
Write in point form, not complete sentences
Include 4-5 points per slide (limit yourself to 6 lines of text per slide max)
Avoid wordiness: use key words and phrases only

24. Slide Structure - Bad
This page contains too many words for a presentation slide. It is not written in point form, making it difficult both for your audience to read and for you to present each point. Although there are exactly the same number of points on this slide as the previous slide, it looks much more complicated. In short, your audience will spend too much time trying to read this paragraph instead of listening to you.

25. Slide Structure - Good Show one point at a time:
Will help audience concentrate on what you are saying 
Will prevent audience from reading ahead 
Will help you keep your presentation focused

26. Slide Structure - Bad Do not use distracting animation
Do not go overboard with the animation
Be consistent with the animation that you use

27. Fonts - Good
Use at least an 18-point font (this is 18)
Use different size fonts for main points and secondary points
this font is 24-point, the main point font is 28-point, and the title font is 36-point
Use no more than three font sizes per slide.
Use a standard font like Times New Roman or Arial

28. Fonts - Bad
If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written
CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY.  IT IS DIFFICULT TO READ
Don’t use a complicated font – see next slide

29. More About Fonts Weird but interesting fonts, like Algerian,
Old English,
Curtz MT, or
Chiller,
are not only hard to read but also will not always be compatible with whatever computer you might use to show your presentation.
More About Fonts

30. More About Fonts Script fonts, like Blackadder, Vivaldi,
Lucida Handwriting, or
Edwardian Script,
are almost totally unreadable in PowerPoint.
More About Fonts

31. Colour - Good
Use a colour of font that contrasts sharply with the background 
Ex: blue font on white background 
Use colour to reinforce the logic of your structure 
Ex: light blue title and dark blue text 
Use colour to emphasize a point 
But only use this occasionally

32. For example, white and yellow letters look great on a blue background

33. Colour - Bad
Using a font colour that does not contrast with the background colour is hard to read 
Using colour for decoration is distracting and annoying.
Using a different colour for each point is unnecessary
Using a different colour for secondary points is also unnecessary
Trying to be creative can also be bad

34. Background - Good
Use backgrounds such as this one that are attractive but simple
Use backgrounds which are light
Use the same background consistently throughout your presentation

35. Background – Bad
Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult to read from
Always be consistent with the background that you use

36. Graphs - Good Use graphs rather than just charts and words
Data in graphs is easier to comprehend & retain than is raw data
Trends are easier to visualize in graph form
Always title your graphs

37. Graphs - Bad

38. Graphs - Good

39. Graphs - Bad

40. Graphs - Bad Minor gridlines are unnecessary Font is too small
Colours are illogical
Title is missing
Shading is distracting

41. Spelling and Grammar Proof your slides for: speling mistakes
the use of of repeated words
grammatical errors you might have make
If English is not your first language, please have someone else check your presentation!
Spelling and Grammar

42. Conclusion Use an effective and strong closing
Your audience is likely to remember your last words
Use a conclusion slide to:
Summarize the main points of your presentation
Suggest future avenues of research

43. Questions?? End your presentation with a simple question slide to:
Invite your audience to ask questions
Provide a visual aid during question period
Avoid ending a presentation abruptly