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Giving an Oral Presentation

Sharon ParikhCS 160

3/19-20/2001

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Overview• Interactive Prototype Assignment

– New due date– Check the Web page for changes to

deadlines and midterm– Only one more prototype left

• select your platform and don’t change it for the final prototype

• Oral Presentations

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General Outline

• Creation• Layout• Structure• Practice• Presenting• Other Challenges

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Creation

• Use presentation software– Microsoft PowerPoint <-- Use this one– Sun StarOffice Impress– Lotus Freelance

• Concentrate on content– Don’t spend too much time adding

color, fonts, and animations– Don’t make it ugly either

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Layout

• One major concept per slide• Use relatively few words on slide• Limit to only two levels

– major & minor points

• Start major headings with a verb• Have only four to five major points• Magic rule ~ 1 minute/slide

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Layout (cont.)• If you need more room:

– reduce space between lines– make fonts smaller– use another slide

• Use sans-serif font for title• User either sans or sans-serif font

for the body• No more than two fonts

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Layout (cont.)

• Always put the date on your presentations– remember, your slides are archived

• Use slide numbers– allows a viewers to take notes on your

slides and refer back

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Use PowerPoint’s Master Slide Feature

• Go to the ‘View’ menu and select ‘Master’– choose ‘Slide Master’– allows you to set the fonts and layout

for all your slides in your presentation– keeps your presentation consistent

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Structure

• Title slide• Outline/Overview slide

– tells the audience what you are going to say

• Detail slides– provides the highlights and key points

being discussed

• Summary slide

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Practice

• Why practice?– make sure you are within the time limit– reduce stage fright– decide what you need to say before

the real thing

• Practice two or three times in front of other people

• Time yourself

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Presenting• Speak to the audience, not to the

screen• Make good eye contact

– Don’t stare in only one direction– Look at many people

• Speak clearly -- don’t mumble• Don’t just read the text off the slide

– don’t read straight from your notes either

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Other challenges

• Live demonstrations– be careful: big risk, but great results– test your demo that morning, on the

presentation machine

• Using multimedia clips– may require special software to be

installed• test before hand

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Summary

• Practice, practice, practice :)