Art of Making a Transparency as a Visual Aid

The Art of Making a Transparency as a Visual Aid

This was published in a primer produced by the Committee on Audio-visual Communication of the Department of Surgery of the Philippine General Hospital under the chairmanship of Dr. Antonio Limson (circa 1992).

The lecture was given also in the Philippine College of Surgeons Convention circa 1991.

Self-instructional Module (1992)

THE ART OF MAKING A TRANSPARENCY AS A VISUAL AID

REYNALDO O. JOSON, M.D.

July 12, 1992

CONTENTS

I. The Art of Making a Transparency As a Visual Aid - An Essay

II. The Art of Making a Transparency As a Visual Aid - An Illustration

III. Post-Test

IV. Recommended Follow-ups

V. About the Author

I. THE ART OF MAKING A TRANSPARENCY AS A VISUAL AID - AN ESSAY

By transparency is meant a transparent visual-aid material which is used in conjunction with an overhead projector. The transparent visual-aid material may be an ordinary plastic sheet, an acetate paper, or a clear X-ray plate. Because of their lowest cost and availability, ordinary plastic sheets are most commonly used.

Using an overhead projector and transparencies is now a very common form of visual-aid in all kinds of presentation. This method is being used in classrooms to facilitate teaching. It is being used by physicians in scientific conference. It is being used by administrators. It is being used by almost anybody and almost everywhere where there is a need to facilitate communication to a group of people.

There is an art in the making of a transparency. What will be emphasized here is the art of making a transparency using an ordinary plastic sheet and a transparency that contains manually printed letters. This is the most common method of making a transparency.

After buying a huge sheet of ordinary plastic, cut it into several pieces of short bond paper size.

Make a draft of what is going to be printed in each sheet of plastic. Plan out the message, the words, the colors, the size of letters, and other details that will be placed in a plastic sheet. The goal of a transparency is to facilitate communication through the use of clear words and clear message. A visually

appealing transparency, one that is clear, clean, beautiful and not jampacked, also facilitates communication.

To achieve the objectives of a transparency, the following tips are suggested:

1. Use permanent marker pens. This type of pens tend to produce clearer and sharper letters than water soluble marker pens.

2. The best color to use is black. Black marker pens produce clearest and the sharpest letters.

Other colors may be used for contrast and variation. However, they should be used sparingly and selectively because they do not stand out as much as the black color. They tend to produce faded letters which will contribute to a problem of clarity. In general, dark colors are better than light colors. The next best color after black is blue.

3. Avoid using marker pens that are running out of ink. They will produce letters of poor quality.

4. A ruled paper or a graphing paper should be placed at the back of the plastic sheet to facilitate the lettering. Using the ruled paper as a guide will more likely to produce a lettering in a clean straight line. A visually appealing transparency will result with the use of the ruled paper than without.

5. Print all letters. Do not use longhand writing. Printed letters are easier to read than longhand writing.

6. Print all letters in capitals. Use small letters sparingly, if need to be done. Capital letters are easier to read than small letters.

7. The size of the prints should be big enough to be clearly seen at a distance. It is better to err on too big a size than on too small a size of the prints. Small-sized letters are difficult to read.

8. Avoid jampacking a transparency. In other words, avoid a crowded transparency which may be difficult to read especially if it contains letters of small sizes. Use key words. Avoid unnecessary articles and propositions. Use few lines, maximum of 10 per transparency. Use few words per line, maximum of 5 per line.

9. As much as possible, place only one message or idea into one transparency. Several ideas in one transparency tend to produce a crowded transparency. A crowded transparency is a cause for distraction. The audience tends to read all that are projected on the screen. The audience reading the part of the transparency not in discussion but projected on the screen is the kind of distraction that a jampacked transparency will produce. Covering a part of a long transparency is often used. However, this only minimizes and does not avoid distraction.

10. After a transparency is completed, protect it from dirt, folding of corners, and blotting. Always place white paper in between completed transparencies.

With the above guidelines, anybody can easily produce a transparency that is clear, clean and not jampacked. A transparency that possesses these qualities and one that is visually appealing to the audience will certainly help the presentor achieve his goal of communication.

Below are some more pointers on the do's and dont's in the making of a transparency of whatever method:

1. Don't use ordinary portable typewriter as these produce small unclear letters. Use special typewriters or printers that can produce letters of proper size and letters that are clear.

2. Do not use recycled plastic papers, acetate papers, or clear X-ray plates unless they are perfectly clean.

3. For those who want to save on the papers, two messages may be allowed into one transparency as long as these messages are widely separated from each other and each message is covered by a flip-over paper. The flip-over paper will be used in such a way that only one message is projected and discussed at one time. Such a procedure will prevent audience distraction.

4. Drawings and illustrations can be placed on an overhead transparency. The rules on a transparency containing manually printed letters apply also to that containing drawings and illustrations.

To conclude, a good transparency is one that is clear and one that is visually appealing to the audience. A clear transparency is one that contains clear letters and a clear message. A visually-appealing transparency is one that is clear, clean, beautiful, and not jampacked. A clear and visually appealing transparency promotes better understanding of the presentation and is, therefore, a proper visual aid.

II. THE ART OF MAKING A TRANSPARENCY AS A VISUAL AID - AN ILLUSTRATION

The next ten pages after this essay on the art of making an overhead transparency contain illustrations of proper and improper transparencies. The illustrations are all photocopies of actual transparencies.

Transparencies Nos. 1 to 3 are proper transparencies with a "/" mark.

Transparencies Nos. 4 to 10 are improper transparencies with an "x" mark.

Transparency No. 4 uses longhand writing.

Transparency No. 5 has two small printed letters.

Transparency No. 6 is jampacked.

Transparency No. 7 is jampacked and it contains the text in verbatim and in small letters.

Transparency No. 8 uses the portable typewriter which produces unclear letters.

Transparency No. 9 is dirty with blots.

Transparency No. 10 has a dirty transparency material.

III. THE ART OF MAKING A TRANSPARENCY AS A VISUAL AID - POST-TEST

I. DIRECTION: Choose the best answer. Place the appropriate letter in the blankss provided.

_____ 1. Of the three types of transparency material listed below, which one is the most practical to use in terms of cost and availability?

a. An acetate paper

b. An ordinary plastic paper

c. A clear X-ray plate

_____ 2. What is the recommended size of a transparency material?

a. Size of a short bond paper

b. Size of a long bond paper

c. One half the size of a long bond paper

d. One half the size of short bond paper

II. DIRECTION: A proper transparenecy is one that is clear, clean and not jampacked. Match the pitfalls against the goals of making a transparency. Place the answers in the blanks provided.

PITFALLS GOALS

_____ 3. Using long-hand writing A. Clear

_____ 4. Blots B. Clean

_____ 5. Fifteen-line transparency C. Not jampacked

_____ 6. Using small letters

_____ 7. Using recycled X-ray plates

_____ 8. Twelve words per line transparency

_____ 9. Using a portable typewriter

_____ 10. Three - message transparency

III. DIRECTION: Which one is preferred for a good quality transparency? Place the answers in the blank provided.

_____ 11. A. Permanent marker pens

B. Water-soluble marker pens

_____ 12. A. Black color

B. Green color

_____ 13. A. Ruled paper

B. Graphing paper

_____ 14. A. Longhand writing

B. Printing of letters

_____ 15. A. Capital letters

B. Lower-cased letters

_____ 16. A. 15 lines per transparency

B. 7 lines per transparency

_____ 17. A. 10 words per line

B. 5 words per line

_____ 18. A. One idea per transparency

B. Two ideas per transparency

_____ 19. A. Covering a part of a long transparency during presentation

B. No need to cover a short transparency

_____ 20. A. Big printed letters

B. Small printed letters

THE ART OF MAKING A TRANSPARENCY AS A VISUAL AID - ANSWERS TO POST-TEST

IV. RECOMMENDED FOLLOW-UP

After reading this manual, the user is advised to apply what he learns by making actual transparencies and presenting them for comments by his superiors and peers.

V. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Reynaldo O. Joson is presently an assistant professor at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. He is a consultant staff member at the Department of Surgery of the Philippine General Hospital. He is currently the training officer of the Ospital ng Maynila and of the Department of Surgery of Zamboanga Medical Center.

COPYRIGHT

1992

ROJ@16jan4