Business English: Murray’s Lesson 5 Spring 2015 Teacher: Murray Sherk

Explanation of Lesson Order Lu Wei was going to do today but had to go to Beijing suddenly You were expecting my Lesson 3 next week L3 is first day of court case, so many of you will not be prepared today! Solution? Do Lesson 5 now, Lesson 3 next week.

Principles for Computer Projection Slides What makes slides good? What makes them bad? PowerPoint and Prezi

PowerPoint Most business presentations use the Microsoft Office presentation software “PowerPoint” Many types of presentations: business, scientific, teaching, … Unfortunately, often badly done Everybody is so used to it… can be boring

Presentation Problems Logical fallacies & other bad arguments Ugly or unclear slides Poor organization Poor speaker skills e.g. boring, bad voice This course is about eliminating problems so that your presentations are effective and high-quality.

Good Slides and Bad Slides I’ll give examples in PPT but the ideas apply to other presentation software also

Background: not obtrusive, must relate to the topic. Good text/background contrast: –no light text on light background –no dark text on dark back Use color to emphasize –but not too much color (distracting) Background & Colors

Paragraphs & Sentences? Do NOT put complete paragraphs (>20 words in a block) on slides. Full sentences? –only for very important things –must be short: <15 words, hopefully <10 –Do not say exactly what is on the slide!

Paragraphs & Sentences? Do NOT put complete paragraphs (>20 words in a block) on slides. Full sentences? –must be short: <15 words, hopefully <10 Use point form: key words & phrases only –can be read at a glance –audience listens for how they fit together

Long blocks of text attract the attention of the audience, so people start reading the long sentence or paragraph. That means they are not listening to you as you speak, unless you are reading out loud the same paragraph, like a primary school teacher reading to students. Either way, it is bad for your presentation. Avoid long text blocks or sentences: –people read instead of listening –attention lost –Speaker reads out loud? NO!

PPT offers Transitions Visual transitions: –S–S–S–Simple is good – “appear” is the usual –T–T–T–This is “fly-in” – also OK –N–N–N–No fancy ones – too distracting Do not use audio transitions –t–t–t–too distracting –t–t–t–too funny

Spelling & Grammar No spelling mistakes on yor slides –chek with computer –triple-check by hand: “meet” ≠ “meat” No grammar / wording mistakes –Point form is more forgiving but… –Mistakes: still can happens

Consistent Formatting Formatting mistakes - be careful -points: should line up & be same “style” -points: should line up & be same “style” - spacing – regular - spacing – regular -Capitalization: items in list should have the same capitalization -Capitalization: items in list should have the same capitalization Formatting mistakes – be careful –points: should line up & be same “style” –spacing: regular –capitalization: items in list should have the same capitalization

How much text & time per slide? Text slides –usually one idea per slide, maybe two –except for summary slides Plan for seconds per slide –Maybe 90 seconds for complicated slide but not more

What size of text? Text size (except for unimportant labels) –at least 28 point like this –preferably 32 point (like PPT first level)

Figures/Tables/Diagrams Tables and diagrams from paper? –can be copied directly if labels big enough –Otherwise, re-label in a bigger font Delete long captions from figures –too much text is uselessly small –paragraphs distract

Avoid small figures and wasted space Diagrams, figures and tables: as big as possible (unless really simple) –Want: little or no wasted space around edges –Delete fancy edges, background, title, … to get more space for diagram

My Diagram, done badly (This is a bad background anyway – “cute” and unrelated to science) Sales of widgets in four quarters of 2008 by female agents working in metropolitan centers in three regions of the US. Vertical axis shows thousands of boxes sold. Third quarter spike in East region includes one 60,000-box sale.

My Diagram, done badly Sales of widgets in four quarters of 2008 by female agents working in metropolitan centers in three regions of the US. Vertical axis shows thousands of boxes sold. Third quarter spike in East region includes one 60,000-box sale.

My Diagram, still bad, but better label Widget Sales in US by women in cities

My Diagram, still some problems Widget Sales in US by women in cities

My Diagram, done badly Sales of widgets in four quarters of 2008 by female agents working in metropolitan centers in three regions of the US. Vertical axis shows thousands of boxes sold. Third quarter spike in East region includes one 60,000-box sale.

Widget Sales in US by women in cities

Use variety, not just text How many “just-text” slides in a row? –Aim for picture, table, diagram, chart… every 5 slides or less –(Many non-text slides in a row is fine since they are more interesting.) Video? –short (<30 seconds) is good if important –best with no audio so you comment as audience watches

Use variety in Titles! No more than 2 slides with the same title Bad: –Introduction- Method –…- … Good: –Method: Raw Materials –Method: Conditions –Method: Equipment

Use time efficiently Use Diagrams –explain ideas and experimental setups Show –tables of information –pictures –argument outlines –equation details –experiment details –summaries so you don’t have to say as much!

How many slides? Usually take seconds per slide –Exceptions: title slide (10-15s), quick summary slide, –complicated slide could be >60s but still must be 60s but still must be <90 s before some sort of significant change Slide switches capture attention –Too fast  annoys audience –Too slow  loses attention

Do not go backwards Never go backwards –duplicate slides you need to see twice Example for a big graph: –Show graph –Talk about one part on a different slide –Show copy of graph to talk about another part –Use copies of the graph (with the current part highlighted) –Prezi gives you an alternate way to do this.

PowerPoint Example Scientific paper, not a business presentation but you’ll get the idea Notice how I use the principles we talked about for slides.

That’s how to use PowerPoint Are there alternatives? Yes –various Windows PowerPoint clones such as that in the free LibreOffice suite –Apple presentation software: Keynote and Prezi –which uses a very different idea

Prezi = An Alternative to PowerPoint Not really well known yet, so has a lot of impact (e.g. 30% jump in sales) Much visual impact Usually gets away from the “bullet point” mentality Some like it; some do not. Your final course exam: = a presentation using Prezi

Prezi information and Examples Free accounts for public make all prezis public – i.e. everybody can see all your prezis Use free account for students –need to apply and give USTC address –gives you option to keep your prezi private

The Prezi Idea Your presentation is one large canvas –Think of it as a picture/diagram of your talk As you go through the presentation, you zoom in on different parts of the canvas

The Prezi Idea Your presentation is one large canvas –Think of it as a picture/diagram of your talk As you go through the presentation, you zoom in on different parts of the canvas Parts (“frames”) can be rotated for interest Prezi animates the traveling from one frame to the next.

Example Prezis

15 Fallacies Homework Should be graded and returned to you soon (Thursday?) Sorry for the delay

Homework for Lesson 3 Legal team members: Prepare your case –Your grade for this activity will depend on how good your presentation is in the court case. –Part of grade is for team, part for individual. Jury members: For each claimant, write about words saying what you think are the 3 best points in favor of that claim, and the 3 best points against that claim. to me before Lesson 3. –The English should be readable but most of the marks will be for the ideas. –Original ideas impress me, like good ideas of who the witnesses should be and what they could say.

Homework due one week after Lesson 4 [1] Register a student Prezi account for yourself. –(not the general free one – you want a student/teacher free account so you can keep your prezis private.) You may want to install the Prezi desktop… –(one-month free trial) … or you can work from the website (slow) [2] Create a presumé for yourself.