Do’s and Don’ts of PowerPoint Presentations English 105 Northern Arizona University

Overview DO provide an overview page Slide Content Slide Design Presentation Strategies

Slide Content Don’t put too much text on one slide. It’s overwhelming for your audience, and can lead to you reading the slides instead of presenting information and using the slide only as an aid. In general avoid using complete sentences. If there’s too much text, the audience will concentrate on reading the text rather than listening to you speak. And, they probably won’t even be able to read everything before you get done with that slide and move on to the next one.

Slide Content Too much text Too little text DO focus on one topic per slide

Slide Design Consistency is the key! DON’T use multiple slide designs in one presentation Why?

Slide Design DO consider your audience Choose an appropriate design Choose appropriate colors Choose appropriate visuals

Slide Design Use animations Sparingly Only when you want your audience To focus On 1 point at a time And you’re going to expand on each point Before moving on to the next

Slide Design DO choose appropriate fonts & colors Tone of font Size & weight Colors are readable Be consistent Within one slide Across slides

Presentation Strategies DON’T Read from slides Stare at screen DO Use slides only as an aid Make eye contact with the audience

Presentation Strategies DO have a concluding slide Thank you. Are there any questions?