Power up your Power-Point

Power up your PowerPoint

Power up your PowerPoint

Seven research-backed tips for effective shows.
You knew it'd be a nasty presentation the instant a cartoon Freud faucet danced across the presenter's 1stslide.
Whether it's animated .gifs, eye-straining charts or wild color mixtures, we've all suffered through some terrible PowerPoint shows. however does one skills to avoid creating similar mistakes yourself?

Mastering PowerPoint might not prime your hoo-hah list, however learning to use the popular presentation code skilfully will facilitate any your scientific discipline career, says Richard Saudargas, PhD, World Health Organization heads the department of psychology at the University of Tennessee. "You are going to begiving skilled talks at conferences furthermore as job talks, service talks so forth," says Saudargas. "Learning to allow a good presentation is crucial."

Research suggests that enriching your talks with graphs, charts and bulleted lists improves the quantity of data your audience retains, says Taimi Olsen, PhD, associate director of the Tennessee Teaching and Learning Center at the University of Tennessee. "PowerPoint is effective, unless you ruin the [presentation] with impertinent stuff," she says, inform to a 2003 literature review revealed in Computers & Education.

What will work? Here square measure some tips to form your slides as solid as your research:

Write Your Speech 1st
Write your speech 1st, and solely power up PowerPoint once you have written your speak, says David Levin, author of the 2009 book "Don't simply speak, Be Heard!" "It's a blunder to use PowerPoint to arrange the presentation within the 1st place," he says. that is as a result of your slides square measure there to decorate your points, not create them for you, Levin says.

Lead with a top level view

Decades of analysis show that giving your audience an outline of your speak at the beginning of your presentation improves learning. So, begin with a slide outlining your speak and your "take home" message. however do not come to your define till the tip of the presentation, say saint Pandiscio, a replacementJersey PR skilled. "An define may be a useful gizmo for creating certain the fabric is coherent and flows well, however it shouldn't be used as a placeholder to indicate the audience however so much they'rewithin the presentation," he says.

Use Sentence Fragments
Many presenters create the error of swing their entire speech on the slides, says Kelly R. Morton, PhD, a scientific discipline academician at Loma Linda University. Instead, use your slides to enhance your speak, she says. "If you cannot elaborate on what they're reading, then you'll not got to be gift," she says.

Be good with Fonts
Text ought to be large enough to scan, however not therefore massive that it overpowers the slide, says Pandiscio. If you wish to shrink the text to form it match, he points out, you most likely have too severalwords on the slide. Pandiscio conjointly recommends exploitation face fonts, like Arial, Calibri and Verdana. "They're easier to scan and appearance higher on pc screens or projectors than Times New Roman or Garamond," he says.

Use Graphs, Not Tables

To better have interaction your audience, convert words or numbers into diagrams and figures whenever potential, advises Moin Syed, PhD, a scientific discipline academician at the University of North Star State. "Tables don't seem to be amenable to quickly gleaning info, particularly the large image," he says.

Summarize

Be concise. as an example, if you wish to debate the clinical designation tips for Prader-Willi syndrome, do not list all the factors in an exceedingly single slide — either choose a couple of symptoms as examples or break the main and minor criteria into separate charts. "Too several words on a slide ... makes the audience members unable to listen to what you're spoken communication as a result of they're too busy reading the text," Jelly Roll Morton says. Also, stand back from animation or an excessive amount of use of transmission. However, photos or videos is a and, particularly if they illustrate a procedure that's easier to indicate than justify, she says.

Keep the Human bit

Dimmed lights and bright slides tend to diminish the private association between the speaker and therefore the audience. that will appear fascinating for back scientists, however you will be more practical if you create eye contact together with your audience. "Don't be afraid to return out from behind your presentation and move," says Erinn Timothy Francis Leary inexperienced, PhD, a coach assistant scientific discipline academician at the University of city.

After all, you — not the code — got to bring your subject to life. an excessive amount of dependence on slideshows will severely limiting, says Judy Primavera, PhD, a scientific discipline academician at Fairfield University. "If you're a decent teacher, PowerPoint will assist you create the organization of your thoughts additional clear and introduce some bells and whistles that create the lesson additional attention-grabbing," she says. "But if you're not a decent teacher, it is a crutch and tangency any likelihood you've gotof learning a way to connect together with your students."