How to Give a Great Presentation

Common mistakes you can avoid

Too much text

• 😁  BEST no text or single word slides

• 🙂  GOOD simple sentence

• 😐  OK simple bullet points

• 😬  BAD complex bullet points

• 😭  WORST full paragraphs

Information overload

• Keep it simple—1 concept per slide.

• Use quality graphics—never show a graph you don’t expect the audience to fully understand!

• Shorten text. Avoid filler words like is/are, have/has.

Fancy animations

Animating text can direct audience focus to each point as you speak. But, fancy animations and sounds are distracting. Choose one of the simple animation options, like “appear” or “font color." 

Poor alignment of slide elements

Poor alignment can make your presentation look messy. Worse, it takes more time for your audience to digest your material. 

• Align photos and text. Place items purposefully, not scattered randomly on the slide.

• When possible, left-justify text. Centered text is hard to read.

• Don’t overlap photos or graphs.

Distracting colors and fonts

• Limit the number of colors you use (ideally 2). Choose contrasting colors from the IARC color palette.

• Use a sans-serif font such as Calibri, or Helvetica.

• Avoid all caps unless used for a heading with < 3 words.

• Don't capitalize the first letter of every word, it is difficult to read quickly.