You know the feeling. You're sitting in the audience of an airless,
dimly lit room and the speaker is running an endless series of
PowerPoint slides and reading them out word for word. You are making an
agonising effort to stay awake but your head keeps jolting forward on to
your chest. When the lights go on, you discover, to your horror, that
you have been dribbling and you can't be certain you didn't snore.
The speaker hands out the PowerPoints at the end and you plan to study
them carefully later on but, somehow, you can never make yourself read
them. They rot away perpetually in that compost heap on the bottom of
your in-tray.
If you are that speaker, you may have good excuses for presenting a
speech like this - fear and time shortage are the most common. But
remember, it would usually be better for your cause if you didn't speak
at all than if you gave a talk like that.
When you speak, you are the star. PowerPoints should not distract
attention from you. They should support and highlight what you say.
Otherwise why not just send an email?
Here are some tips for writing PowerPoint slides that will make your
audience want to live:
-
Start by writing your speech in Word or in handwriting or by recording yourself speaking - not by preparing PowerPoints. That will
make sure you focus on what you want to say, not on formatting. And you'll think more deeply about the subject, which means you know more than is written on the slides.
-
Start, as with all writing, by thinking of what central message
you want to deliver and what your audience wants to know. What are the
three or four points you want to make?
-
Write your speech quickly and then organise the order so you
have introduction, body and conclusion. Make sure you have a really
interesting, lively introduction and you have some interesting stories
to tell.
-
Now put it on PowerPoint. Start with a title slide, then an
outline of what you're going to talk about.
-
Each slide should have a bold, one or two-line heading and then
a point. You might only have a single word or phrase on the slides,
like: 'Our conclusions' or 'Questions'.
-
Keep visuals simple and logical and avoid a lot of meaningless motion or clip art. Make the visuals tell a story.
-
Rehearse your speech as often as possible so you're comfortable
speaking with the slides. You'll probably need to edit the slides when
you've rehearsed and found some things don't work. Your goal will be to
present without looking at your notes - and certainly without reading
the PowerPoint slides.
Is this a lot more work than throwing down a speech on to PowerPoints
and reading it off? Of course it is. But unless your purpose is to
deliberately bore people rigid, you will find this way of speaking will
get you results - and you may even be invited to do it again.
Sandra Hogan is a writer and editor, with a strong background in journalism and government communications. She is the director of WriteBusiness, which offers training, coaching and mentoring to people in business and government who want to improve their writing skills.
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