Good presentation slides have an introduction, a main message, and a conclusion, one idea per slide, very little text, and plenty of visuals. Keep everything else in your notes. These 5 tips explain each point.
Few school children are comfortable when a teacher asks them to prepare a presentation. It seems such a daunting task that many students do whatever they can to avoid it. Quite a few adults still feel the same and find writing a presentation mentally exhausting.
If you have had your slide app open for hours and you are still staring at blank slides, here are the 5 things to keep in mind when you prepare any presentation.
1. Always have an introduction, a main message, and a conclusion
The basic structure of an essay also applies to a presentation. You cannot jump straight into the main message without giving the audience some context or background. If you do, you will get many interruptions and questions later on.
Use the first slide to give an outline of what you are about to cover. Put the conclusion at the end, to sum up the main points and ideas that the audience should take away.
The introduction and the conclusion should take only one slide each. If you cannot fit everything on a single slide, that is all right. Some presentations are longer than others, so if you really have to, spread each one over two slides.
2. Put one idea on each slide
As you move from one slide to the next, you will notice that one idea per slide makes the transitions feel smooth. You explain your ideas one at a time, and that makes them easier for the audience to understand. The audience also knows that when you move to the next slide, you are going to introduce the next idea or main point.
3. Keep the text short and sparse
Although the structure of a presentation is similar to an essay, you should never cover every slide in text. A wall of text is one of the most common mistakes people make in presentations.
As a rule of thumb, use at most about a quarter of the space on a slide for text. The more text you put on a slide, the more cluttered the presentation looks.
Use short sentences, too. Bullet points work very well for this, because they do not even need to be complete sentences.
4. Focus on visuals
Since the text takes up only a small part of each slide, you can fill the rest with visual elements.
Visuals are an essential part of a good presentation. Charts and graphs are excellent for simplifying a long-winded explanation: complex data is much easier to understand in a picture than in words.
5. Prepare notes
Since you keep your slides clean and simple, prepare notes for yourself. They are like a cheat sheet that you can look at now and then while you explain the main ideas on your slides. After all, not everyone has an excellent memory. If you need notes, make them.
Finish early and proofread
Prepare your presentation well before you need to give it. Use the extra time to clear your mind, so that when it is time to proofread and edit the slides, you see them with fresh eyes. The tips on how to proofread effectively help with that step.
For the proofreading itself, copy all the text from your slides and paste it into the Spell Checker. It saves you a lot of time when you look for spelling and grammar mistakes. And if you will also speak the words, see the best way to write a speech.