How to Use PowerPoint Presentation Effectively

How to Use PowerPoint Presentation Effectively

Every now and then, students are made to report in front of their classes. For the sake of more effective reporting and conveyance of intended message and information, students are typically advised to use visual aids. For a couple of decades now, the Microsoft PowerPoint remains one of the most widely used graphic presentation tools employed as visual aids during reports, lectures or seminars.

Knowing how to use a PowerPoint presentation does not necessarily equate to being able to effectively convey the intended message to the target audience. There is a need to know on how a student could make PowerPoint presentations more effective, both before and during a report.

Here are some pointers on how you can make an effective PowerPoint presentation.

• PowerPoint presentations could be sometimes, distracting instead of engaging. This happens when your slides have more text than it should have. More text could distract the audience into reading it instead of listening to the reporter, who should be the center of attention during any report. Likewise, too much text will tempt the reporter to the text verbatim.
  
  Thus, the content of a PowerPoint slide should be as much as possible contain condensed text in bullet form, as they also serve as reminders for the reporter not as text to be read.
• When using bullets to form the content of a slide, it is best to set a certain limit, or else the slide will become too crowded and too disengaging. Try to set the number of bullets to around five, making sure that a slide has enough content that could be presented in a max of one-and-a-half minute.
• The text content of a PowerPoint presentation is only as effective as far as it can reach the audience. If the audience sitting at the back of the room or hall cannot see clearly the content of a slide, then the effectiveness of a report on them is dropped by half. So when making a PowerPoint presentation, a reporter must make sure that the font type and size is large enough for the people at the farthest part of the room to clearly see. He should take into account the size of the presentation monitor,
• Visual aids typically aids in livening an audience because they help get rid of any boring moment during a presentation or a report. Diagrams and graphics – particularly those that are timely and relevant -- could help the audience better understand what the report is trying to say or convey. However, some students fall into the trap of putting too much pictures -- especially those funny or moving ones -- that the audience may focus only on the graphics, and may lose sight of real message.
• When a reporter is finally making a presentation, it is best if he try his best not to turn his back on the audience. If a reporter turns his back to look at the slide, the audience engagement is likely to fall over 50 percent. The audience would think that the report is not really keen on engaging with them and thus would reciprocate the action. A few glances may be tolerable but the reporter should not look at the slide as if he is talking to it. Remember, the reporter is tasked with engaging the audience, not the PowerPoint presentation slides.
• During or before the report or presentation, make it a big taboo to provide handouts to the audience. This because the handout would steal the attention of the audience away from the reporter. Instead of listening to the reporter and taking some good notes, the audience will lose focus since they already have what they need on the handouts.

About the Author

A 31-year old wife with a real passion for reading and writing, Manuela Theissen has dedicated her life to taking good care of her family while refining her knowledge. She is into diverse topics like usage of English for college students as well as benefits of education to young people.