Presentations and PowerPoints

This is Michael's blog on Presentations and PowerPoints. From Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic, I took away that if you want to make a good presentation, it should involve simplicity. Simplicity is vital in the sense that all unnecessary information is eliminated and therefore the speech is more controlled more relaxed. Another hugely important part of making a good presentation is to take all of your words from your heart. This means that what you are saying to your audience is genuine and what you believe in. After seeing Don Macmillan's "How Not to use PowerPoint", I understood that some common problems could ruin a presentation. Problems include:

Writing everything that you say on the slides: This makes slides 'crowded, wordy and boring', thus losing the audience's attention.

Not running spell check: This makes the orator seem like a fool, as he cannot even spell correctly.

Bullet-pointing every point: Too many bullet points will dwarf the main message. Only bullet-point important/main statements.

Usage of bad colour schemes: Bad colour schemes can confuse, nauseate and distract the audience. Sometimes they make the text unreadable.

Over-inclusion of data: Some people think that the more data present, the better a presentation is. If there is more data, there is more confusion, and slides are harder to read.

Over-animation of slides: If members of the audience are visual learners it can be good, but on the whole pointless motion distracts the audience more than it helps them.

Usage of boring fonts: Once in a while, interesting fonts can liven the presentation. However, elaborate fonts should be used in moderation, as they can distract, render the text illegible or make the presentation seem ridicule.