How to Make a Live Presentation

General Information: Live presentations should be a maximum of 10 minutes including 2 mins of Q&A. Please prepare a powerpoint, and add your submission here: https://rb.gy/uz8ry

Why make a slide presentation?

To communicate ideas clearly and visually to others.
To share research and areas of expertise in a compelling way.
To offer a stronger form of communication than text alone, allowing for interaction and responsive questions.

Organization

Be clear in your organization:
1. Tell them what you're going to tell them.
2. Tell them.
3. Tell them what you told them.
General structure:
1. Introduction
2. Outline
3. Body
4. Conclusion

Slide content

Be familiar with your content beforehand in order to:

Prevent nervousness.
Prepare you for any questions.

When designing slides, choose a style and maintain consistency throughout the presentation, especially with:

The font, as well as the size, style, and color of the text.
The colors of the chosen theme and background.
The images and animations, all used specifically to enhance the main content.

Text

Avoid too much text per slide:

Think of how the audience will respond, as they will always be inclined to read most if not all of what you show, even if that means listening less to what you have to say.
Make the content accessible.
Avoid small font sizes; at least 30-point or more.
As a general rule: no more than 6 bullet points per slide; no more than 6 words per bullet point.

Font

The audience should be thinking about what the words on your slide say, not how the words look, so favoring simplicity is always good:

Fancy fonts are hard to read.
Avoid fonts that are unprofessional.
Sans serif fonts are better for slide presentations than serif fonts, especially for reading text at a distance.
Use appropriately sized fonts, favoring larger fonts when possible, but also keeping the style consistent and reserving size variations for deliberate focal choices in the presentation.

Colors

Avoid bad color combinations:

Avoid loud, garish colors.
- Avoid text colors that fade into the background.
- Favoring dark text on light backgrounds is best.
Avoid color-blind combinations:
- Red/green
- Blue/yellow

Images

Keep it simple:

Like with text, keep the content accessible and don't overwhelm the audience.
1 to 2 images per slide should be sufficient.
Be mindful of the colors in images and the colors or themes you've chosen for your slides.
Use images when appropriate to enhance the visual appeal of slides, but avoid distracting graphics.
Use high-resolution graphics that will not appear pixelated when projected onto a large screen.

Animation

Again, keep it simple:

One transition style and one animation scheme for the presentation is best.
Don't let the effects detract from the content.
Make the effects consistent and deliberate to keep the presentation cohesive and unified.
Use animations and transitions only to enhance the content of the presentation.

Backgrounds

Again, keep it simple:

White is the easiest background to use, both aesthetically and functionally.
- People are accustomed to reading black text on a white background.
Solid colors or simple patterns are preferred.
Picture backgrounds are distracting.
- First and foremost, make sure the text is always readable when using a picture for a background.
- For any necessary background pictures with text or other content in the foreground, you can adjust the brightness and contrast of the background image to make the foreground content easier to read/see.

Timing

When practicing, be sure to time how long each slide takes (aim for 1-3 minutes per slide) as well as the total runtime for the presentation.

Don't exceed your time limit:

- Better to end early than to run late.

Presenting

The most important thing is to practice.

It's obvious to the audience when you haven't.

Avoid reading directly off the slide.

The audience will do that naturally.
You, on the other hand, should be providing useful insights or commentary along the way.

Avoid fidgeting and distracting movement, and make eye contact.

Use PowerPoint's "Presenter mode" if possible to see the current slide, the next slide, and any notes you left for yourself.

Speak loudly so that even those in the back can hear, and show enthusiasm for your topic, because if you aren't interested, the audience won't be either.

Leave time at the end for questions, and when appropriate, include humor and personal anecdotes to add interest.

Be sure to acknowledge those who have helped you in the audience.

This will give you more people "on your side."
It also fosters appreciation.

Avoid sloppy speaking ("Umm", "Like", etc.):

Best avoided with ample practice and rehearsal.

Treat the slides as a visual aid to your professional speech.

This webpage is based on a presentation from the Undergraduate Research Center, UC Davis, by Kendon Kurzer, PhD, University Writing Program.

Page updated

Report abuse