How to Format PowerPoint Presentations for Class
Slideshows for Public Speaking and Business Communication Classes
Oct 11, 2008
College students taking public speaking, business, or communication courses are often required to create PowerPoint presentations.
A complete PowerPoint presentation includes some basic components – an intro, table of contents, multiple presentation slides, conclusion, and a closing slide that opens the floor for questions and comments. Sometimes students get so lost in coming up with enough content to fill a certain number of slides that they don’t pay attention to PowerPoint presentation design details like formatting.
A College Student’s Guide: PowerPoint Presentation Tips
In addition to the primary components above, students should give some thought to formatting and overall presentation. Here are several business communication instructor-approved formatting tips to help college students create PowerPoint presentations with impact:
- Use a single overall background scheme throughout. Although it is colorful to use a purple background on one slide and an orange background on the next, this is very distracting and might take away from the content of the presentation. An easy way to do this is to choose a PowerPoint presentation template that already has a unified theme.
- Include just enough white space. “White space” is essentially breathing room for the eyes. If there is too much white space, either increase font size or size of graphics to strike a good balance. For too much white space, do the opposite or simply cut down on the volume of text.
- Instead of using text only, insert graphics to convey information. Eye-catching, yet unobtrusive background graphics like clip-art, photos, charts, or graphs make the PowerPoint slides visually stimulating.
- Avoid typos and other mechanical errors. Nothing tells the instructor that a student didn’t take time creating a presentation better than the presence of careless mistakes. A quick proofread of the presentation will pay off in the form of a higher grade. A surprisingly easy and effective way to catch mechanical errors is to read the presentation out loud. Any funny-sounding or awkward phrases usually warrant further inspection (all that may be needed is a change in punctuation or a spelling correction).
An Important PowerPoint Presentation Feature: Speaker Notes
Many instructors will specify that PowerPoint slides should not contain more than five bullet points with five words each. Even if this is not specified in the assignment instructions, common sense dictates that slides shouldn’t be cluttered with complete sentences or tiny letters that are hard to read. If the slide cannot contain very much text, how can a college student make sure all of the information is conveyed? The problem is easily solved through the use of speaker notes.
Speaker notes are the typed notes that appear below the slide that can be hidden from the audience during the presentation and printed out on paper for the presenter to use during the presentation or for rehearsal. Speaker notes should complement the presentation slides. Whereas the slides will have short bulleted items, the speaker notes will be more detailed. They are essentially what the presenter would say during the presentation.
If the assignment is turned in electronically, speaker notes will help the instructor get a feel of what would actually be said during the presentation. By looking at the slides and reading the speaker notes, the instructor should be able to get a feel for what it would be like to attend the presentation even if he or she wasn’t present.
College students who consider the PowerPoint presentation tips above and pay attention to details like formatting will earn higher grades than those who don’t give much thought to Powerpoint presentation design. An instructor can really tell the difference when a student goes that extra mile, and the payoff will be in the form of a higher grade.
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