Đề tài Some strategies to give an effective PowerPoint presentation for the 4th year student of English Faculty, Hanoi Open University

position than delivering their message. - More than half of the students (74 out of 95) always use illustrations. This makes a problem! Although illustration enhances the message, using them a lot can distract the audience. - Almost student (80 out of 95) thinks that it is most important to introduce clearly the topic in the introduction. Just 15 students know that getting the audience’s attention is more important. Introducing the topic is important, but if you do not get the audience’s attention right after starting, you can lose them. - Just 8 students always use signpost language during their presentation, the rest rarely or sometimes use it. Signpost language is very important for the audience to catch what you say. Therefore, the students should learn how to use signpost language to deliver their message more effectively. - Most of the students (90 out of 95) do not know what to do with their hands and afraid of looking at the audience. This means body language is one of their weak points. They should pay more time to learn this skill. - More than half of the students (55 out of 95) often forget what to say while the rest often stammer. This is because they do not have enough practice. We can draw out from the result of the survey the following things: - The common mistakes that senior students often do are preparation, design, starting the presentation. - The difficulty that senior students often meet is using body language. CHAPTER 3: STRATEGIES TO GIVE AN EFFECTIVE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION Efficiency of a PowerPoint presentation depends on three main elements which are: Content Design Delivery Effective PowerPoint Presentation Content Delivery Design The content of your presentation should be relevant, convincing and clear. This depends on your preparation. The design of your presentation should enhance the message and visually please. Your delivery should be relaxed, confident and engaging. This depends on your ability to use both verbal and nonverbal language and your practice. 3.1 Good content As I mentioned above, good or bad content depends on your preparation. If you fail to prepare, you are prepared to fail. Unlike everyday conversation, presentations have a clear purpose and a logical structure. Therefore, in order to give an effective presentation it is necessary to prepare carefully. Thorough preparation will also reduce ones anxiety during the actual presentation. The survey’s result shows that the preparation of most students includes only two steps: choosing a topic that they like and collecting materials. They rarely determine the aim of their presentation as well as create an outline. This makes their materials collection not effective and their presentation not have a focus. How can the audience get the message when the students themselves do not know exactly what they want to deliver? So what steps should you take to assure a successful talk and to make it worth the time of the audience and yourself? Following is what you need to do: 3.1.1 Determine the aims of the presentation - Analyzing the audience Audience analysis is important because: Audiences are egocentric. They do not care how important what you are saying is, but whether it is related to them. Audiences will judge a speech based on what they already know and believe. Therefore, you should try to collect information about the audience as much as possible to choose a right topic and collect suitable materials. It helps you to know how to meet the audience’s demand and how to draw their attention. To do audience analysis, you need to collect information to answer these questions: - What is your audience’s needs/interests? - How much they know about the topic? - What misconception might they have? - What terms and concept will they probably not understand? - Choosing and narrowing topic. You have had your audience’s information about what their needs/interests are. Now you can decide what your presentation is about. Don’t try to include too much information in your presentation because your audience has a limited memory. You should narrow the topic. For example: Choose a topic: My presentation is about divorce rate. Narrow it: My presentation is about divorce rate in Vietnam. Choose a topic: My presentation is about finding job. Narrow it: My presentation is about finding job for fresh-graduated students. - Determining the purpose Even when you have narrowed the topic, your presentation will not have a clear focus if you do not determine the purpose for it. It is like that you decide to go shopping but do not know what you need to buy. You will probably waste your time. For example: To analyze the main reasons of high divorce rate in Vietnam. To give out some tips for fresh-graduated students in finding job. 3.1.2 Create an outline A speaker is like a guide, leading the listener through a cluster of ideas. An outline is like a map showing the best path. Therefore, creating an outline is a necessary part of the presenting process. Creating an outline will result in better quality, well constructed and more effective presentation. To create an effective outline, you should follow these steps: Developing centre idea. Generating main ideas. Gathering supporting material. For example: Centre idea: Some strategies to give an effective PowerPoint presentation. Main ideas: Prepare carefully. Supporting materials: Analyze audience Determine the purpose Create an outline Make a good design. Supporting materials: Slide structure Fonts Colors Background Graphs Delivery effectively. Supporting materials: An attractive introduction Use nonverbal language Use signpost language Rehearsal 3.2 Good design 3.2.1 Slide Structure Many students do make mistakes of slide structure. The most common mistake is that they always try to fill the slide with text. This makes the audience concentrate on what they write, not what they are speaking. There are some certain rules that you must follow: - Use 1-2 slides per minute of your presentation. - Make your 1st or 2nd slide an outline of your presentation, then follow the order of your outline for the rest of the presentation. Remember to place only main points on the outline slide. - No more than 4-5 bullets per slide, and keep bullet points to no more than five levels. - Use key words and phrases only, not complete sentences or paragraphs. You should also limit the number of words per line (normally no more than seven words) and the number of lines per slide (normally no more than seven lines). For example: Slide structure – Good No more than 4-5 bullets per slide. Use key words and phrases only. Not use complete sentences or paragraphs. Slide structure – Bad This is an example of a bad slide structure. It looks too complicated. It makes your audience not concentrate on what you are saying. You use too many bullets. You use complete sentences instead of key words. You use paragraph. This makes it difficult both for your audience to read and for you to present each point. Too many words look too complicated. In short, your audience will spend too much time trying to read this paragraph instead of listening to you. Example for slide structure 3.2.2 Fonts 3.2.2.1 Font types: Serif fonts are the ones with little tails attached to each letter. Times New Roman is an example of a serif font. Serif fonts were designed to be used in documents filled with lots of text. Serif fonts are said to be easier to read at small point sizes, but for on screen presentations the serifs tend to get lost due to the relatively low resolution of projectors. These types of fonts can be suitable for headlines. Sans serif fonts are fonts that look more like “stick letters”. They are plain and simple. These fonts are great for body on your slides. An example of sans serif fonts is Arial. Avoid script type fonts - always. These fonts are hard to read at the best of times. In a darkened room, and especially at the back of the room, they are almost impossible to read. Some students do not take note of consistency of font types. They choose different font types for different slides. Although those font types are easy to read or readable, it makes the audience’s attention lower. So, you should use two, or at most, three fonts for the whole presentation, use the slide master before you start entering text to establish the chosen fonts on the slides. This avoids having to change each slide individually. Tips: Use different fonts for headlines and bullet points. Choose a different font for the headlines and the bullet points. This makes text slides a little bit more interesting. 3.2.2.2 Font size: Certainly everyone knows we should use different font sizes for headlines and main points, but not everyone knows that we should also use different font sizes for main points and secondary points as well as lower levels. As my observation, most students use the same font size for both main points and lower levels. This distracts the audience from the really important points. Following is the guideline for choosing good font sizes: Headlines: 35-45 points Bullet points: + Level one: 30 points + Level two: 28 points + Level three: 24 points + Level four: 22 points + Level five: 20 points 3.2.2.3 Font style: There are different styles such as Bold, Italic and Underline for you to use for emphasis. But some students abuse them. They apply font styles not to some key word but many on a slide, even a sentence. Bold, Italic or Underline pose the same problems as script type fonts – they are often hard to read. Capitalizing is the same. You should use a combination of upper and lower case and avoid using all capital letters – even for headings. All caps are perceived as shouting, and the words are more difficult to read. For example: Fonts – Good Use a simple font. Use one size for main points and smaller size for lower levels and smaller size for lower levels Use a combination of UPPER and lower case. Use different styles for Emphasis. Example for good fonts Fonts – Bad Use script type fonts. It is hard to read. Abuse font style. CAPITALIZING ALL LETTERS IS ALSO DIFFICULT TO READ. Example for bad fonts 3.2.3 Colors Choosing colors seem to be easy. It is true. But there are still small mistakes made by students that reduce presentation’s efficiency. Sometimes students do not pay attention at color combination between background and font. No or weak contrast between the background and font color makes it hard to read. Even students use color for decoration. They use different colors for different points or for lower levels. This is distracting and annoying. Here are some tips to use colors effectively: - Use a color of font that contrasts sharply with the background. You should use dark text on a light background for presentation in a bright room, and light text on a dark background in a darkened room. For example: blue/black font on white background - Use color to reinforce the logic of your structure. For example: light blue title and dark blue text - Use color to emphasize a point, but only use this occasionally. - Ensure the color consistency. Use the same color for similar elements. Example for colors 3.2.4 Background Some students choose different backgrounds for each slide. They think that it makes their slides more attractive. In facts, different backgrounds just distract the audience. They will not concentrate on what the next point is, but how the next slide’s background looks like. Other students try to find out a lively or eye-catching background. They forget that the slide is just a tool enhancing the content, not the focus of their presentation. Moreover, a complicated background also makes it difficult to read text on it. So, there are two things to remember about background: - Use simple background. Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult to read from. - Use the same background consistently throughout your presentation. For example: 3.2.5 Charts We all know that using charts better than just words because data in charts is easier to understand and remember than raw data. Trends are also easier to visualize in graphic form. Obviously, these visual methods can make the point much stronger than simply describing the data. There are many types of charts such as pie, bar, line, etc... You can choose one of them to display the data. However, each type of graph is suitable for different type of data. - Pie charts: used to show percentages. For example: Communication Pie charts - Vertical bar charts: used to show change in quantity over time. You should limit the bars to 4-8. For example: Import reaches $90 million Vertical bar charts - Horizontal bar charts: used to compare quantities. For example: Sales for June, 2009 ($Million) Horizontal bar charts - Line charts: used to demonstrate trends. For example: Continuously increasing sales, 2009 Line charts 3.3 Good delivery 3.3.1 Audience’s attention There is no second chance for you to make first impression. You need to grasp your audience's attention within the first 30 seconds of your presentation. If you don't grab them in that short space of time, you could lose them. The people you are speaking to could simply look at you, but be thinking of the next coffee break, the shopping they need to do or that attractive person sitting in front of them. Without gaining the immediate attention of the audience the moment you start to speak, you could effectively be talking to yourself. There are many ways to get audience’s attention: - Question You should try to think of a good question related to your presentation that your audience will want answered. This will immediately get your audience thinking about the subject. Some may even have their own views. You can then go on to give your presentation finishing with your conclusions and answering your initial question. For example: - Have you ever wondered how to give an effective PowerPoint presentation? - Do you know what are the main factors affecting successful application for a job? - Quotation Starting a presentation with a quote is simple, yet can be very effective. The quotation should of course be relevant to your subject, and preferably from a well-known person familiar to the audience. For example: You should not say: - One of my friends has said that “Communication skill is indispensable for those who want to success”. The audience does not know who your friend is, so this quotation will not be strong and persuasive enough. You should say: - Bill Gates had a famous speech that “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose”. - Everyone knows the famous speech of Uncle Ho that “Nothing is more precious than independence”. - Facts and figures Giving some relevant facts or statistics can sometimes be a good way when starting a presentation. However, you should keep the facts simple, accurate and to the point. Contrasting facts often have the biggest impact. For example: You should not say: - The number of divorce in Vietnam was about 21.000 in 1995, 34.000 in 1998 and 51.000 in 2000. It reached over 60.000 last year. Too many facts and figures will not impact your audience. They just distract the audience. You should say: - In 1995, the number of divorce in Vietnam was about 21.000. It reached over 60.000 last year. - Anecdote The anecdote is among the more common devices. A well told anecdote can often be a good way to start a presentation. This simply is any interesting story based on a real incident or event. Again, a few general rules apply: keep it brief and relevant to your presentation. It will be better if the anecdote is from your personal experience. For example: - Three years ago I was a first-year student. Once day, when I was walking around the Sword Lake, a foreigner came to me and asked for the way instruction. I understood what he was asking but I could just keep silent and use gesture to show him. I knew what to say after he had left. I’m sure that many first-year students were ever in the same situation. - Relevant story If you like the idea of starting the presentation with a story, but are uncomfortable with an amusing anecdote, try to find a relevant story from the news or from somewhere else that is relevant and will lead into your presentation. For example: - Yesterday I read an interesting story on ABC newspaper. It was about a second-year student of XYZ University. She took a part-time job as a cosmetic seller. And now she has become a manager and got a very high salary of about 10 million dong per month after one year of working. - Controversial statement Try starting a presentation with a controversial statement relating to your subject. Then immediately follow it up with a clarification that you can build your presentation on. For example: - Start with a controversial statement: “Getting a part-time job while you are still on the school-desk is bad for your study…” then follow it up with a clarification “unless you know how to organize your time”. - A combination You can also combine some of the above methods. For example: - Combination of quotation and question: Bill Gates had a famous speech that “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose”. Does he mean failure is good? - Combination of anecdote and question: Three years ago I was a first-year student. Once day, when I was walking around the Sword Lake, a foreigner came to me and asked for the way instruction. I understood what he was asking but I could just keep silent and use gesture to show him. I knew what to say after he had left. Have you ever been in the same situation? 3.3.2 Nonverbal language More than half of your impact as a speaker depends upon your body language. When you are presenting, strong, positive body language becomes an essential tool in helping you build credibility, express your emotions, and connect with your listeners. It also helps your listeners focus more intently on you and what you're saying. 3.3.2.1 Gesture With our gesture we can express a lot.  You can give the emotion of something being good, romantic, bad or offensive with a gesture. Many students feel quite uncomfortable about what to do with their hands while speaking. Should you clasp them together and place them behind your back? Should you fold them neatly in front of you or let them dangle beside you? Actually, any of these would be acceptable for a few moments but you should not use only one gesture through your presentation. An ineffective gesture, like an unconscious repetitive flicking of your hair off your forehead, is a powerful distraction. Mastering gestures, therefore, is an important skill for becoming an effective presenter. The best way to get rid of unwanted, distracting gestures is to become aware of the types of useful gestures and practice them so that unwanted ones simply disappear. Effective gestures: - Emphatic gestures are hand movements used to stress a word or idea that is important in your message. You might, for example, lean forward a bit, raise your arm to waist level with the elbow bent and hand close to the body, and then move your raised hand out slowly toward the audience with palm up. This is an inviting gesture and stresses your desire to pull your audience into your message, to encourage them to accept what you are saying. Or, you might make a fist and gently bring it into your other open palm to stress that you feel strongly about something. You wouldn't want to pound your fist; it would seem too forceful and might make some members of the audience uncomfortable. You might point at the audience if you want to stress their responsibility to think or do something. A flick of your hand outward with palm down works well when you are saying negation words like "not" or "none" or "no." - Descriptive gestures are used to accompany words when a visualization of your message would help. For example, if you are describing how little your sister was when an event happened to her, you might place your hand, palm down, a distance from the floor which would match her height. If you talk about something going up, you might raise your hand upward with palm facing up. Contrarily, if you talk about something going down, lower your hand downward with the palm facing down. - Locative gestures are used to indicate where something is or what direction something might be going. If you say, "Over there," for example, pointing to the location is a locative gesture. Locative gestures are often used with visual aids to direct attention to some specific part of the aid. - Transitional gestures are used to move your audience from one idea to the next or to enumerate things. You might, for example, count on your fingers in your introduction when you give an overview of the points you will cover in the body of your presentation. Or you might sweep one hand in front of you followed by a sweep in the opposite direction with the other hand when you say, "Now that we've talked about the benefits of volunteering for charitable organizations, let's examine how to get started."  When you aren't using one of the intentional gestures, let your hands fall naturally at your sides or hold your arms, or one arm, waist high, elbows bent and fingers curled naturally in front of you. Ineffective gestures: In addition to adding a variety of useful gestures to your speech, you must become conscious of unwanted gestures and eliminate them. Here are some bad gestures to be aware of: Pointing over and over at your audience. It is too aggressive and accusatory. Putting your hands in your pockets. A "push away" gesture (hands palm down and moving outward away from the body) may be appropriate and useful sometimes, but using it too often can subconsciously encourage an audience to reject your entire message. Taking a pen or paper up with you then subconsciously clicking the pen or crinkling the paper. Clasping your hands together either behind or in front of you for more than a few seconds. Folding your arms across your chest. Even if you are only doing this because you feel cold, this gesture will most likely be interpreted as your closing yourself off from the audience. Remember to avoid doing any gestures repetitively. Be sure you incorporate a wide variety of gestures. 3.3.2.2 Eye contact - The power of eye contact As you probably know, how we look someone in the eye has quite an impact on the person whom we're communicating with. Eye contact is a powerful communication tool. If someone avoids eye contact with us, we may find them untrustworthy or "sly." On the other hand, if they stare at us, we begin to feel uncomfortable. In a presentation, you need to keep a balance between these two extremes with each of the members of your audience. - What makes a speaker not have strong eye contact? A speaker might have a weak eye contact when he has not practiced the presentation enough and must rely too heavily on notes. Another reason a speaker might not have strong eye contact is that the speaker is nervous, and looking straight into the eyes of the members of the audience seems like going right into the camp of the enemy. When presenting in the past, have you ever thought that your audience was like a blank face staring back at you? If you have, then it’s probably because you were treating the audience as one body – as a mass of people, rather than individuals. - How to use eye contact in presentation? Have you ever heard someone tell you that if you are nervous about giving a presentation, you should avoid looking straight into anyone's eyes and just look over the top of everyone's head instead? Don't ever follow that advice! Giving a presentation might make you a little nervous, but there are much more effective ways of dealing with those nerves than avoiding eye contact. First, notice where everyone in the room is seated before you present and position yourself so that all or most of the people can easily see you without straining their necks. To use eye contact, you just need to look directly at an individual member of the audience for a couple of seconds or long enough to deliver a sentence or two and then shift your glance to another person. Now, you keep moving your eye from one person to another throughout the rest of the speech. Following is some tips for successful eye contact: - Don’t dwell for too long. It’s important not to look at one person for too long as they may start to feel uncomfortable. Keep moving your eye contact from one person to another. But, ensure that you maintain contact for long enough to make a personal connection each time. - Include as many people as possible.