Essay and narrated presentation
Trends in My Profession Presentation
Wow! Your boss is very impressed with the research you’ve done, and she wants you to present this information at the next all-hands meeting. Unfortunately, you’re going to be across the country at a conference for that meeting, so you won’t be able to give this presentation live. But no one can deliver this message as well as you, so you’ll need to create a narrated PowerPoint to convey your message in your absence.
Create a 5-minute narrated PowerPoint presentation of the information you discovered for your previous Trends in My Profession assignment.
Steps to completion:
1. Learn about designing an effective presentation from the material below.
2. Organize your thoughts and create the outline you’ll follow as you present. Your presentation should NOT consist of you simply reading your paper out loud – that is a sure way to death by PowerPoint.
3. Create your slides, using the design tips below.
4. Practice your narration. Make your speech as natural as you can, changing your vocal inflections to convey as much meaning as possible.
5. If you haven’t created a narrated PowerPoint before, you will want to check the directions: How to narrate a PPT.html
You have been subjected to your share of stultifying presentations, and you want to make sure your presentation keeps your audience’s attention and conveys your message in a way that people will remember. Perhaps you’ve heard of “death by PowerPoint” – that’s a term coined in 2001 to describe what happens when presenters don’t use the PowerPoint program effectively. David JP Phillips, author of How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint (2011), has written and presented about many different techniques to improve presentations. Some of his tips include the following:
Stick to one idea per slide. People can’t focus on more than one thing at a time.
Use key words instead of whole sentences. When people are given sentences to read while someone is talking, they choose to read instead of listen.
Each slide needs fewer than six objects. Putting too many objects on the screen simultaneous slows down the viewer’s comprehension.
Use images, preferably with color and emotion. Colorful, emotional images increase retention.
Use animation sparingly. Phillips suggests only using “appear” animation, to show what you’re saying as you say it. Making words swoosh across the screen is a waste of time.
Do not be afraid of using too many slides. They’re free! And using more slides with fewer ideas on each one will help your audience understand and retain the ideas you present.
You may watch David JP Phillips’ entertaining (and educational) TED talk below. In it, he discusses how to deliver a presentation (which will be useful elsewhere, even if not on this assignment) and how to design one (which will be useful for this assignment as well as in the future). He goes in depth on the points listed above, with visual examples and the rationales behind the tips.
https://youtu.be/bOrHxRB3JrQ
Some people love public speaking, but most people dread it. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld said,
“According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
Where do you fall on the love it-hate it continuum? Why? And what do you do when it's time to present?
If you are one of the hate-it people, you might want to give this video a look:
https://youtu.be/K93fMnFKwfI
