Advice for Using PowerPoint in English Presentations

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It can be fun to set up a PowerPoint presentation. But be careful! The preparation of PowerPoint slides should only begin after all the other work on the presentation has been completed. In other words, you must know what you want to say in the introduction, body and conclusion before you start on PowerPoint.

PowerPoint is only a tool. Your PowerPoint techniques should help you to make your points effectively. They should not be so dramatic or fussy that they distract the audience. Moreover, however skillfully you use PowerPoint, it will not be able to make a bad presentation into a good one. It will not disguise poor logic or a lack of evidence.

Here are some basic "do's and don'ts".

Preparation of the slides:
1. Do not put too much text on your slides. Write the key points only (as headings rather than as whole sentences).
2. Wherever possible, arrange your ideas visually, for example as flowcharts.
3. When you display graphs and complex images, such as maps, make sure that they will be visible to the audience. If you need to use a very detailed graph or map, you may need to make a handout.
4. The basic design of your slides should be appropriate to your subject matter and audience. For example, cute pictures of cartoon animals would be a sensible choice for a talk to small children, but not for a presentation to university students. A background showing a traditional Japanese garden would enhance a speech about Japanese attitudes to nature but would seem strange if the speaker was talking about industrial pollution.
5. A certain amount of animation can keep the audience alert and interested and even help to show the relationship between the points you are making. However, the animation should not be so elaborate that it draws attention away from your message.
6. Check your spelling and grammar carefully.

Preparation for the actual presentation

1. Practice the slide show several times to make sure that it works smoothly. Then practice speaking as you show the slides. During the actual presentation, you must look at the computer (or possibly the screen) in order to coordinate what you are saying with the slides that the audience is watching, but your main attention should be on the audience. You should only need brief notes in addition to the information on the slides themselves.
2. Although you should check what is actually appearing on the screen during the talk, it is possible to print the PowerPoint slides and refer to them as you speak. If you do this, you need to make sure that they are printed clearly enough for you to read them easily. If you want to write additional notes, make sure that it is easy to see where they belong, and that you use a font that is big enough for you to see easily. (An alternative is to transfer the key points of the slides to MSWord or a similar software, and use this as the basis of your notes.)
3. If possible, find out the location of the computer and the screen in advance. Work out whether you should look at the slides as they appear on the computer or at the screen itself. Make sure that you do not stand in front of the screen as that will make it difficult for the audience to see the whole of the slide.
4. Your final slide should show your sources. Make sure that the audience has time to look at these.
4. If there is time for questions, do not switch PowerPoint off but return to your title slide. You may need to show a particular slide again when answering.