PowerPoint Tips for College Students

PowerPoint offers college students a user-friendly, easy tool to create colorful, professional presentations. However, this powerful presentation tool from Microsoft can oftentimes become a crutch during the actual presentation. Here are some useful tips on creating a PowerPoint presentation that complements your project and presentation, not one that overpowers it.

Don't Read Your Slides

Think about your most engaging professors. Were they the ones that read from a book, or were they the folks who moved about the room, adlibbing their way through a lecture? A mistake in many PowerPoint presentation deliveries is reading directly off the slides. This is an easy trap to fall into because, well, the information is right there, easy to be read. However, by creating slides that include only bullet points and by practicing the material that supplements the slides, you'll appear polished and prepared-and become a more dynamic presenter. Not being tied to those slides verbatim allows you to be flexible and will better engage the audience. After all, they can read the slides too.

Keep Number of Slides to a Minimum

You don't necessarily need to have a slide for every single point you want to make. Cutting down on the number of slides will allow you to focus on the verbal presentation itself, not so much having a visual for each point. You will spend more time engaging your audience if you are not constantly switching to a new slide. Use the slides to prepare audience for topics, such as bullet points, or to reinforce information, such as charts and graphics. The PowerPoint does not need to contain everything you talk about.You may need to practice material or have notecards handy to make sure you hit all important points.

Keep Slide Content to a Minimum

Cluttered slides are bad practice for several reasons. First, the more information you want on an individual slide, the smaller the font becomes. No matter how big the projection screen may be, your audience will still struggle reading cluttered content or tiny text. Keep content on each slide minimal. When practicing, step to the back of a room to see how someone in the back row of the lecture hall would see your presentation. A good rule of thumb is to have no more than six words per line and no more than six lines per slide.

Use Graphics

Images do a great job at breaking up text on a slide, as well as engaging the audience. If your slide does not have data to go along with it, such as a pie chart or bar graph, choose a related image for each slide. Use a free stock photo service or take your own images. Do not use images that are copyrighted without permission.

Pass Out Handouts After Presentation

If you want to gain the undivided attention of your audience, do not distribute any handouts during the presentation. Your class may begin to read ahead. Or, they may keep their heads down, reading your presentation instead of listening to it.

PowerPoint remains one of the most popular presentation tools in education and in business. It should be used to support your presentation and research, not take the place of the actual presenter. Taking these four tips into consideration, you will greatly increase the success of your next presentation.