Presenting in Prof. Eckert’s Classes Please make sure your presentation gives an opinion or argument on some idea: for example, evaluate the book, or solve a problem in understanding it A short introduction is fine; but a presentation which only describes the characters is boring Assume that the audience has read the book

Better Presenting: The Main Principles My experience: Korean students focus too much on what they will say and too little on how they will say it The audience must hear and see you Good presentations are two-way; they involve and interact with the audience

Problem Students hide behind the podium and read off sheets of paper Result Audience becomes bored and their attention wanders

Better Non-Verbal Communication Control the ‘video channel’ of your presentation Make eye contact; smile Use notes rather than scripts Control fidgeting and movement Do not display hostility to questions with your body language

Better Presenting: Stage Fright Prepare your speech Use positive visualization Take advantage of adrenaline! Learn your body; do you need exercise, rest, food? Coffee/no coffee, alcohol? Avoid dairy products

PowerPoint Tutorial Most of you know how to use Powerpoint The skill we need to discuss is making good PowerPoints

Problem Students divide tasks and their slides to one editor Result Slide sections discuss the same topic Slide sections have no logical connection Slide graphics have no consistency

Better Group Work Meet repeatedly, before and after assembling the PowerPoint Be clear on how tasks will be divided Be able to explain the reason why tasks are divided as they are, and how they connect to each other

Suggestion 1: Less is More One thing you will notice as you watch Al Gore’s or Steve Jobs’ presentations is that most of the slides have no text on them; they are visuals. There is a mix of photographs, graphs, and added video clips. When they do use a slide with text on it, there is very little text.

Suggestion 2: Tell People the Structure If your material is complex and covers various sub-subjects, consider having a table of contents at the beginning of your presentation so that the audience knows exactly what the sequence of topics is, and remind your audience throughout the presentation of where they are in the sequence.

Suggestion 3: High Contrast If you want your audience to be able to see what you have on the slide, there needs to be a lot of contrast between the text color and the background color. Most projectors make colors duller than they appear on a screen.

Suggestion 4: Use Big Fonts The most important thing in choosing fonts is readability Avoid strange fonts which are hard to read Avoid tiny fonts

Suggestion 5: Do Not Put References on the Last Slide! Don’t show a useless “List of references” slide at the end for one second just to show that you have one. This is bad practice for two reasons: 1) Your audience has no time to read them, and 2) The print will be too small. If you must include references, put them on the same slide as the information they refer to. Example

Movie Versions of Shakespeare Source: “Shakespeare in Film,” Wikipedia

Bad slide making 1

Bad slide making 2

Making better Power points Visuals rule One thing you will notice as you watch Al Gore’s or Steve Jobs’ presentations is that most of the slides have no text on them, they are visuals. There is a mix of photographs, diagrams, data graphs and added video clips. When they do use a slide with text on it, there is very little text compared to the typical text-overloaded corporate presentation slide. Use contrasting colors If you want your audience to be able to see what you have on the slide, there needs to be a lot of contrast between the text color and the background color. Don’t think that just because the text looks fine on your computer screen that it will look fine when projected. Most projectors make colors duller than they appear on a screen, and you should check how your colors look when projected to make sure there is still enough contrast. Use a big enough font When deciding what font size to use in your presentation, make sure it is big enough so that the audience can read it. I usually find that any font size less than 24 point is too small to be reasonably read in most presentation situations. I would prefer to see most text at a 28 or 32 point size, with titles being 36 to 44 point size. The only reason I would use a font less than 24 point is when adding explanatory text to a graph or diagram, where you could use a 20 point font size.

Visuals rule One thing you will notice with Al Gore’s or Steve Jobs’ presentations is that most of the slides have little or no text; they are visuals.

Visuals rule One thing you will notice as you watch Al Gore’s or Steve Jobs’ presentations is that most of the slides have no text on them, they are visuals.

Good slide making 1

Good slide making 2

Good slide making 3

Good slide making 4

Good slide making 5

And remember: Don’t stand in front of the screen! The price of our product is $10000