PowerPoint presentation checklist

When preparing or revising your PowerPoint presentation, it’s a good idea to check if you are presenting effectively. Are you offering your audience an informative and balanced presentation?  Following are a few tips.

Rhetorical triangle of presenting

• Know who you are as a speaker–present yourself as the speaker you wish to be. For example, if you are addressing members of a business community, you will want to dress and speak in a formal and practiced manner because you would then be exuding professionalism for that audience.
• Use words that are representative of your purpose. If you are giving a presentation on professionalism, for example, don’t use slang in your presentation.
• Know what relationship you have with your audience and use it while presenting. To illustrate, when addressing your fellow students, you might adopt a less formal manner of speech.

Presenting with speech and visuals

Speaking

• Have more to say than you quote from others
• Don’t read your slides—use them as cues for what you want to talk about
• Change up your tone (monotonous is boring)
• Engage your audience: make eye contact, smile, and relax

Visuals

Slides: Consider how your audience will react to your images and words

• Too much text=too much reading for audience
• Complicated vocabulary may disinterest or distract an audience
• Too many pictures looks messy (one or two images with a few main points)
• Imagery, words, and colors should not block each other
• Slides should be different than handouts or what you say in your presentation
• Transitions that are swirly or otherwise visually weird can be distracting
• Irrelevant images indicate unprofessionalism and create confusion

Handouts: Consider what you want your audience to take away from this presentation

• Have a balance between visuals and words
• Keep it short and simple (images with short blurbs–not mass paragraphs). Should be different from slides and speech for variety

All visual presentations should carry similar style

• Headings
• Language style
• Graphics
• Fonts
• Colors
• Terminology

General presentation advice

• Practice ahead of time to set your pace and length
• Engage your audience: ask questions, give brief explanations
• Keep your audience in mind—what are their needs/interests?
• Have a core set of points that you transition through
• Don’t repeat things (watch for vocabulary repetition)
• Take only the time you need; if done early, have a back-up of info to talk about
• Leave your audience time to respond (prepare questions for your audience)