Editing oral presentations

Reading quiz  Why does Tufte think PowerPoint is evil?

Annot bib assignments AuthorEditor 1Editor 2 Emily CunninghamLauren ThompsonToni Manfredi Melissa CurraLyndsey StuchelBrittany Proctor Brian HavensJason WallaceLeigh Simpson Rachel JackEmily CunninghamChris Snipes Anousone KettisackMelissa CurraLauren Thompson Toni ManfrediBrian HavensLyndsey Stuchel Brittany ProctorRachel JackJason Wallace Leigh SimpsonAnousone KettisackEmily Cunningham Chris SnipesToni ManfrediMelissa Curra Lauren ThompsonBrittany ProctorBrian Havens Lyndsey StuchelLeigh SimpsonRachel Jack Jason WallaceChris SnipesAnousone Kettisack

Helpdesk video  6hzZek

Presentation content  “Presentations do not have a problem with lack of information. Most of the time there is too much. The biggest issue is the way you present your PowerPoint presentation.”  Many presenters think, "If it's new and dynamic; it will make my PowerPoint presentation much better."

Problem of slides & phrases  “When information is stacked in time, it is difficult to understand context and evaluate relationships.”  People learn and gain understanding by forming relationships, not by memorizing stuff

Proper slide design  Audience centered design is key  Ensure text is for the audience, not the speaker  Ensure that the audience can understand the text without the speaker being there.

 A consistent theme is that presenters acknowledge the importance of audience, but don't bother to don't consciously apply it. You should have heard repeatedly how rhetoric is all about understanding the audience. What have you learned in concrete terms about how to understand and design for an audience? (I'm thinking here of going beyond statements like "I'm always concerned that I use words the audience knows." Duh, but how do you know what words the audience knows?). How much of communication failure stems from failing to understand the audience needs? And for that matter, much superficial audience analysis tends to be demographics (ages 25-30, most of college education, etc).

PowerPoint is evil  Turns everything into bullet points  Everything becomes phrase  Format over content  “PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a substitute for it.”

 Is Tufte right that PowerPoint is evil? Is the the software designed such that it almost ensures a bad presentation? Is it a great example of giving an untrained person a powerful tool is ensuring disaster? So what is the fundamental problem with why PowerPoint is getting a bad rap? People used overheads for many years and they never got the same reputation. How did the move to computer cause such problems?

Making the slides  Design for the audience, not the speaker  Highlight the essence of the talk.  Give enough information so the slide can be understood without the reader having heard the talk

Making the slides  Don’t use transitions. And, if you do, use only 1 transition type  Match the background to the talk. Beach scenes don’t fit your communication topic  Watch the use of colors or the text might be hard to read

Making the slides  Clip art does not make a good slide.  Make the graphics contribute to the presentation.  One topic per slide. You don’t have to put fill the slide with bullets.

Making slides  Most Internet ‘how sources’ are wrong –Use short sentences, not short phrases.

Making the slides  Keep audience oriented  The presentation should have –title slide (includes your name) –overview slide –body slides –summary slide

Information slides  Support for your talk; the slide is not the entire thing  Highlight the important points that the listener should take away  Giving a real long phrase or sentence is very hard for the listener to process and also interferes with the talk

Not speaker notes  Include important points that the listener should take away  Often slides are notes to the speaker that are not relevant to the audience  Slides should make sense to a person who has not attended the talk.

Typical speaker note slide  Ethnography  Initial interviews  Building scenarios  Group discussions  Verification Does this make sense to anyone but the speaker?

Watch transitions  Slide transitions are often distracting.  Never use more than one for the entire presentation. Definitely not a different one between each slide.  Avoid adding each bullet one at a time. This is very distracting to the audience.

Short sample presentation What not to do

Journal overview

Design  Fonts  White space  Headings

Fonts  Fonts –Give interest –Readable  White space  Heading –Larger than text –Orient reader

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