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There may come a time while in college where you may have to prepare a presentation for one of your classes. Most students use Microsoft based, PowerPoint, for their presentations. It is easy to use, easy to present, and if need be, you can even email the presentation to classmates, making this type of presentation ideal for students in online classes as well. Presentations are fun and with a few tips, can be easy to prepare. Here are a few tips to help get you started:
COLOR
Make the colors of your presentation easy on the eyes of your audience. Black backgrounds with colored text are very hard on the human eye. Try to keep the background neutral and light so that your reader does not experience any type of eyestrain. Also, try to stay away from bright colors; keep it professional by sticking with basic colors. Hot pink is pretty, but not when you are presenting a project for school or work.
TEXT/FONT
Make the text of your presentation a medium size that is easy to read from a semi-far distance. If the text is too small, then your audience in the back of a room may not be able to see what it says. If it is too large, then an audience that is reading it on a computer may have to do continuous scrolling to try to view the whole slide.
PICTURES/CHARTS/GRAPHS
Pictures and other graphics are always a nice touch to a presentation. However you want to make sure you are providing your audience with images that are relevant to your presentation. If you are going to include pictures, make sure they are tasteful and professional. Make sure graphs and charts are easy to read and accurate. Be sure to credit your sources or obtain permission to use pictures and graphs that are not yours.
OTHER TIPS
- Use bullet points for your information. These are easier for your audience to follow and easier for you as the speaker to speak from when presenting.
- Check for errors. This may seem like common sense, however, the last thing you want to do is to set up your PowerPoint presentation filled with spelling and grammatical errors. Have someone else look it over for you to help spot errors that you may not notice.
- Do not put too much information on one slide. You want to keep each slide simple, concise and easy to follow. This will keep your audience interested in the presentation.
- Pass out a paper copy of your presentation: Consider passing out a hardcopy so that your audience will not have to take notes. If they have a paper copy in hand, then they will listen to you more intently rather than taking notes and missing information that you may provide.
- Test your presentation. Do not wait until the day of your presentation and hope it goes well. Instead, go through multiple runs of your presentation so that you will not run into embarrassing mistakes that may negatively impact your grade for the project.
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