Write on target. We can even answer rhetorical questions.

Write on target. We can even answer rhetorical questions. 458-1455 writingcenter.tamu.edu

Effective Presentation Slides

Why Use Slides? Provide visual and auditory supplements for an oral presentation • Maps • Charts • Sound • Graphs

Advantages of Slides Display wide array of information Enhance words of a speaker by making points memorable Easily made into hard copy handouts

Slides should not… • Divert attention from the speaker • Take too much time to prepare • Limit the speaker’s ability to adapt to the situation • Tempt the speaker to read the slides instead of addressing the audience

Getting Started • Identify purpose • Explain • Inform • Persuade • Entertain • Identify audience • Formal or informal • For reading or a presentation

Outline your presentation • Title must capture main idea • One or more slides can serve as a general overview • Main points after the opening • Include a summary Use key phrases to highlight your topic.

Select Relevant Visuals • Visuals should add to comprehension and make your slides memorable

Background images should be • subtle and unobtrusive • provide good contrast with text

You can recolor images to some degree. You can also flip or move images, or send them to the back or front of text. which one?

Stick with professional art or art you produce • Lose the cute drawings

Choose a Layout Simple Layout Combinations of titles and lists

Complex Layout Combinations that use heavy illustrations and formatted texts

Formatting Lingo Proximity Alignment Contrast Emphasis Group related items together Line up text and graphics Opposite elements in presentation Place headings where they catch reader’s attention

Techniques to Emphasize Text Filtering: place border around paragraph Queuing: order images based on level of importance Jane wanted to work on a survey and table she was turning in as well as vocabulary words and coordinating sentences she uses for her students. Her table was very well put together. Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3 Heading 4

Color variation: choose different colors for headings or subheadings Highlighting: boldface, underline, italics, font size (just not all at once!) BEING OBSERVED NUMBER ONE She was turning in vocabulary words AND coordinating sentences. Jane wanted to work on a survey.

Chunking: cluster information together Vegetables Broccoli Carrots Squash Fruit Mango Pineapple Blueberry

Design Lingo Symmetrical: balanced and static Asymmetrical: unbalanced and suggesting movement across the page White space: related elements go together with “breathing room” between blocks of text or visuals

Symmetrical Layout The domestic cat, or Felis silvestris: • is a carnivore • has retractable claws • has excellent night vision

Asymmetrical Layout The domestic cat, or Felis silvestris: • is a carnivore • has retractable claws • has excellent night vision

Placement of Photos

Video/Audio The domestic cat, or Felis silvestris: • is a carnivore • has retractable claws • has excellent night vision

Text Tips • Keep list items parallel. • Parallel: I like swimming, running, and biking. • Non-parallel: I like swimming, to go run, and bike. • Don’t indent text when you are not using bullets. • Use hanging indents when you are listing. • Decide if you need ordered (numbered) or unordered lists.

Font Tips • Use font styles that are easy to read. • Use at least 24 font size, larger for headings or titles. • Save font effects for informal presentations.

Animation: Friend or Foe? Too many words on the page. Too many words on the page. Too many, well, you get the idea…the point I’m trying to make is that your audience cannot listen to you and, at the same time, read your slide that has too many words. It’s just too much, even for a heavily caffeinated multi-tasker who lives and breathes for the subject material you’re presenting. Which is probably not the case.

You critique the following slides.

Clay Houses Besides the relative ease with which they may be built and re-built, clay houses are also comfortable in hot climates. Earthen floors, thick insulating walls, and dark enclosed rooms trap the cool night air and guard against the penetrating midday sun. The smoke from small fires drives away mosquitoes, and when it is cold a well-stoked, centrally located hearth, radiating heat in every direction, can warm the whole house. Cooking fires might be brought inside on cold or rainy days and their coals and ashes literally swept out the door to provide more room when the weather improves. The early houses at Yaughan and Curriboo—small, earth-walled structures without formal fireplaces— exemplify this tropical technology as practiced in North America. From, Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and Early African America, 1650-1800, p. 72

Chiefdom A regional polity (political order) in which two or more local groups are organized under a single chief, who is at the head of a ranked hierarchy of people. Graphic: www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/fundamentals/images/great_sun.html

WATER CONSERVATION TIPS Don’t leave the water running while brushing your teeth! • Leaky faucets Lawns should only be watered when they need to be watered, and only on approved days.

Common misconceptions of egalitarianism: • Everyone is Equal- • People in egalitarian societies are NOT equal. Differentiation is based on: • SEX • AGE • ACHIEVEMENT • No one is “special” or “important”- • Egalitarian societies CAN have important individuals - leaders, but they do not have any real political power. • Egalitarian societies CAN have specialists, including religious specialists (shamans)

Pacific Island Garden Crops Taro, yams, banana, sugarcane, breadfruit, coconut, sago palm, and rice Sago Palm Graphic: http://www.knpr.org/dbloom/detailNEW.cfm?FeatureID=2450 Breadfruit Graphic: http://www.96seven44.com/images/ulu_breadfruit.jpg Taro root field Graphic:news.bioversityinternational.org/nucleus/plugins/print/print.php?itemid=1157

The Inca Empire • AD 1476-1532: Andean regions of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and northern Andes of Chile and Argentina • Population estimate: 6 million to 32 million people • Andean mountain chain: 5500 miles long from Venezuela to southern Chile Graphic: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/7785/Doc1.html

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Write on target. We can even answer rhetorical questions.