Read the text and match the paragraph headings to the

67 
E. Repeat as often as possible, memorize the content and don’t 
give out the slide copies. 
F. You should learn to make presentations while you are a student.
1.5. Answer the questions on the text: 
A. Where else, besides business, do they make presentations? 
B. What is the goal of most presentations? 
C. What should a PowerPoint presentation complement? 
D. Why is a presentation on project results so important? 
E. How can making a presentation help you with your executive 
summary? 
F. Is it necessary to have an illustration on every slide? 
G. What is the meaning of the adage? 
H. Why is handing out slide copies pointless? 
1.6. Summarize the main ideas of the text using Activity IV as 
a plan. 
Designing Presentations 
1. PowerPoint presentations have become the standard method of 
presenting information in corporate America. This program is not only 
used in corporations; however, even professional sports teams and the 
military use PowerPoint to convey information internally.
2. Yet, there are still those who claim that PowerPoint is one of the 
least effective forms of communication for many reasons: 
- Most presenters use slides with words only and yet very few 
words fit on a slide. 
- Presenters tend to cram an entire idea—no matter how com-
plex—onto a single slide. 
- Most presentations are thrown together with limited preparation, 
and the goal of most presentations is to summarize and sell ideas rather 
than to engage the audience in serious discourse. 

68 
- Slides are only displayed one at a time. Therefore, the audience 
has the difficult task of trying to remember what information appeared 
on previous slides. 
- Presenters tend to read their slides. 
- Presenters tend to look at the screen when reading the slides 
thereby avoiding eye contact with the audience. 
3. The result are presentations that are visually bland, intellec-
tually insulting, and easily forgettable. During your college career, 
you will use PowerPoint for almost every class in which you or a 
group has to do a presentation. Presentations should explain materi-
al clearly and concisely while also prompting the audience to take a 
certain course of action. A PowerPoint presentation should be a 
complement to your schematic report. In fact, you should be able to 
generate the PowerPoint presentation fairly quickly from your 
schematic report. 
4. You need to determine the purpose of the presentation and 
possible circumstances or contexts in which the presentation might 
be given. This is a time to showcase your ideas and highlight all of 
the great things about your project. Be concise and powerful. This 
may be the most crucial deliverable of the project— especially if 
given to higher-ups who will have only skimmed the actual report. 
5. Think of your presentation as an illustrated version of the 
executive summary of your schematic report. If you look at it that 
way, you have already done the work! Each idea from your execu-
tive summary should correspond to a slide. Pull ideas out of your 
executive summary and illustrate them with exhibits from inside the 
report. Each illustration should be accompanied by a sentence. The 
sentence can come from the executive summary or from the rele-
vant slide in the report. You may even find that in the process, you 
end up revising and improving your executive summary. Not every 
slide needs to be illustrated, and not every illustration needs to be 
included. A slide with a single sentence and no illustration may ac-
tually have great visual impact by contrast with the rest of the re-

69 
port. Furthermore, some of your illustrations may simply set up 
foundation knowledge or due diligence and need not make it to the 
presentation. 
6. To finish up, create slides that bookend your presentation 
with an agenda up front and a summary at the end. Follow the old 
adage, tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, 
then tell them what you told them. Here are some additional tips: 
- Master the content. 90% of the words that come out of your 
mouth will not be on the slide. You want the audience to look at 
you not the slide. Furthermore, if you know your content, you can 
look at the audience. If necessary, have note cards that you could 
refer to in an emergency. 
- Try to avoid handing out miniatures of your slides. Slides 
created using the method above will be virtually meaningless with-
out the presenter. Hand out the schematic report or even just the ex-
ecutive summary instead. 

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