Making PowerPoint Slides

Avoiding the Pitfalls

of Bad Slides
Prepare & Edith by Farshid Karpasand
Context

• Outlines
• Opening the Presentation
• Slide Structure
• Body Language
• Fonts
• Colour
• Background
• Graphs
• Spelling and Grammar
• Conclusions
• Questions
Outline

• Make your 1st or 2nd slide an outline of your presentation

• Ex: previous slide
• Follow the order of your outline for the rest of the presentation
• Only place main points on the outline slide
• Ex: Use the titles of each slide as main points
Opening the Presentation
• Welcoming the audience • Introducing yourself
- Good morning/ afternoon, ladies and - Let me introduce myself. I am… from….
gentlemen. - For those of you who don’t know me, my
- Hello/Hi everyone. name is ….
- First of all, let me thank you all for - I’m here in my function as the …
coming here today. - I’m head of the research….
- I’m happy/ delighted that so many of you - As you probably know, I’m…..
could make it today.
Formal Language in Opening
• Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
• Today I would like to…
• Let me just start by introducing my self. My name is…
• It’s a pleasure to welcome you today.
• In my presentation, I would like to report on…
• The topic of today’s presentation is...
• I suggest that we begin know.
• I’m aware that you all have very tight schedules.
Getting The Audience’s Attention
• Start with an interesting fact
-Ex: According to an article I read recently,….
-Ex: Did you know that….

• Give them a problem think about

-Ex: Suppose you wanted to ….
-Ex: How would you go about it?
Body Language
• How should you stand?
-arms crossed on chest.
-straight but relaxed.
-knees unlocked.
• what should you do with your hands?
-put hands on hips.
-put one hand in a pocket.
-keep hands by your side.
• How can you emphasize something?
-point finger at the audience.
-move or lean forward to show that something is important.
-use a pointer to draw attention to important facts.
Signposting
• Referring back
-As I mentioned before, …
-Let’s go back to what we were discussing earlier.
• Summarizing a point
-I’d like to sum up the main points.
-Let me briefly summarize what I’ve said so far.
• Indicating the end of a section
-This brings me to the end of my second point
Signposting
• This brings us directly to my next question.
• This leads to the next point, which is price.
• Let’s turn now to the issue of customer service.
• As I mentioned before, I’d like to give you a brief overview of our
activities.
• Let’s go back to what we were discussing earlier.
Sentences Used To Refer To Media
• On the next page you will see a photo of the new business model
• My next slide shows how much the market has changed.
• As you can see from this picture, the design is absolutely new.
• Let me just show you some interesting details.
• To illustrate this, I’ll show you our latest poster
Slide Structure – Good

• Use 1-2 slides per minute of your presentation

• Write in point form, not complete sentences
• Include 4-5 points per slide
• Avoid wordiness: use key words and phrases only
Slide Structure - Bad

• This page contains too many words for a presentation

slide. It is not written in point form, making it difficult
both for your audience to read and for you to present each
point. Although there are exactly the same number of
points on this slide as the previous slide, it looks much
more complicated.
Slide Structure – Good

• Show one point at a time:

- Will help audience concentrate on what you are saying
- Will prevent audience from reading ahead
- Will help you keep your presentation focused
Slide Structure - Bad

• Do not use distracting animation

• Do not go overboard with the animation

• Be consistent with the animation that you use

Fonts - Good

• Use at least an 18-point font

• Use different size fonts for main points and secondary
points
– This font is 24-point, the main point font is 28-point, and the title font is 36-point
• Use a standard font like Times New Roman or Arial
Fonts - Bad

• If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written

• CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT IS

DIFFICULT TO READ

• Don’t use a complicated font

Colour - Good

• Use a colour of font that contrasts sharply with

the background
- Ex: blue font on white background
• Use colour to reinforce the logic of
your structure
- Ex: light blue title and dark blue text
• Use colour to emphasize a point
- But only use this occasionally
Colour - Bad

• Using a font colour that does not contrast with the

background colour is hard to read
• Using colour for decoration is distracting and annoying.
• Using a different colour for each point is
unnecessary
• – Usinga different colour for secondary points is also
unnecessary
• Trying to be creative can also be bad
Background - Good

• Use backgrounds such as this one that are attractive but

simple

• Use backgrounds which are light

• Use the same background consistently throughout

your presentation
Background – Bad

• Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult

to read from
• Always be consistent with the background that you use
Graphs - Good

• Use graphs rather than just charts and words

- Data in graphs is easier to comprehend & retain than is raw data
- Trends are easier to visualize in graph form

• Always title your graphs

Graphs - Bad

January February March April

Blue Balls 20.4 27.4 90 20.4

Red Balls 30.6 38.6 34.6 31.6

Talking About Visuals
• Explaining a visual • Highlighting information
-Let’s now look at the next slide which -I’d like to start by drawing your
shows… attention to …
-First, let me quickly explain the graph. -What I’d like to point out here is …
-You can see that different colors have -I think you’ll be surprised to see …
been used to indicate… -I’d like you to focus your attention on
-The key in the bottom left-hand corner …
shows you -Let’s look more closely at …
Graphs - Good

Items Sold in First Quarter of 2022

100
90
80
70
60
Blue Balls
50
Red Balls
40
30
20
10
0
January February March April
Graphs - Bad

100

90
90

80

70

60

Blue Balls
50
Red Balls

38.6
40
34.6
30.6 31.6
30 27.4

20.4 20.4
20

10

0
January February March April
Graphs - Bad

• Minor gridlines are unnecessary

• Font is too small
• Colours are illogical
• Title is missing
• Shading is distracting
Spelling and Grammar

• Proof your slides for:

- spelling mistakes
- the use of of repeated words
- grammatical errors you might have make

• If English is not your first language, please have someone

else check your presentation!
Structuring a presentation
• Will + infinitive
- Ex: I’ll start off by reviewing our progress.

• Going to + infinitive
-Ex: I’m going to talk to you today about new.

• Will be + verb – ing (future progressive)

-Ex: During the next hour we’ll be looking at the advantages of this system.
Useful Structures in presentation
• I’ve divided my presentation into three (main) parts: x, y, and z.
• In my presentation I’ll focus on three major issues.
• First of all, I’ll be looking at…, second, and third.
• I’ll begin/ start off by explaining.
• Then/ Next/ After that, I’ll go on to …
• Finally, I’ll offer some solutions.
Talking About Difficult Issues
• I think we first need to identify the problem.
• Of course we’ll have to clarify a few points before we start.
• We will have to deal with the problem of increasing prices.
• How shall we cope with unfair business practices?
• The question is: why don’t we tackle the distribution problems?
• If we don’t solve this problem now, we’ll get into serious trouble soon.
• We will have to take care of this problem now.
Referring To Other Points
• I’d like to mention some critical points in connection with/ concerning
payment.
• There are few problems regarding the quality.
• With respect/regard to prices, we need more details.
• According to the survey, our customers are unhappy with this product.
Adding Ideas
• In addition to this, I’d like to say that our IT business is going very
well.
• Moreover/Furthermore, there are other interesting facts we should take
a look at.
• As well as that, we can offer excellent conditions.
• Apart from being too expensive, this model is also too big.
• To increase sales we need a new strategy plus more people
Words And Expressions For Making
Contrasts Or Describing The Results
• Online banking is mainly used by our younger customers. Many of our
older customers consequently/ however,/therefore find it difficult to
handle modern computer technology.
• However/ Whereas/ Although the euro is quite strong, we managed to
increase our exports to the US.
• On the other hand/ Despite/ Although the growing demand, we didn’t
sell more cars than the year before.
• Poster campaigns are extremely important. Thus/ On the other hand/
As a result we also need advertisements in daily newspapers.
Talking About Trends (Adjectives and Adverbs)
• Adjectives + nouns
-In August, we notice there was a sudden increase in prices.
- a moderate fall.
-This was followed by gradual decline.
•Adverbs + verbs
-Sales increased slightly in summer.
-Over the past two years the number has dropped significantly.
-Last month the rates rose sharply.
Conclusion

• Use an effective and strong closing

-Your audience is likely to remember your last words

• Use a conclusion slide to:

- Summarize the main points of your presentation
- Suggest future avenues of research
Signaling the end of the presentation

• Well, this brings me to the end of my presentation.

• Thank you all for listening.
• OK, I think that’s everything I wanted to say…
• As a final point, I’d like to…
• I’m now nearing the end of my talk…
Summarizing the main points

• I’ll just run through the three different options.

• Before I stop let me go through my main points again.
• To sum up then, we…
• I’d like to run through my main points again…
• Just to summarize the main points of my talk…
• End your presentation with a simple question slide to:
- Invite your audience to ask questions
- Provide a visual aid during question period
- Avoid ending a presentation abruptly
Conclusion Of A Presentation
• Signal the end of your talk Summarize the key points Highlight one
important point Explain significance Make your final statement Invite
questions.
Final Tips

• Talk, don’t read!

• Don’t lose your audience
• Dealing with nervousness