Every student in university is asked at least a couple of times in his/her educational journey to prepare a power point presentation and present to a class, group or even audience. Every student tends to feel somewhat nervous as students are usually caught up in between what the presentation should include with respect to what should be said. Here’s a small guideline to put you on track and make you realize that power point presentations are life savers and not the other way around!

A power point presentation is a complementary tool when you’re presenting, and not the main one. The focus should be on your speech and not on your sentences inside your slides. Here’s what you should consider:

1. Research everything prior to doing anything else. Collect all necessary information on your topic and develop a clear overview of what information and content you will be focusing on.
2. It is crucial for you to have all information ready prior to putting together the slides. This is important because you will find yourself putting unnecessary information in your slides, which will only bore your presentation.
3. After collecting your information, don’t place them immediately on your slides. This will make you rely on the information placed on your power point slides rather than your head. It is advised that you write down your thoughts somewhere else, on a paper, tab or whatever tool that you feel comfortable referring to in order to freshen up your thoughts.
4. At this stage, you would have developed everything that you need to know and say in your presentation and this is when breaking down your power point presentation becomes easy and actually fun to make.

What should my power point include?

1. Bullet points are your way to go! No one, absolutely no one, is interested in reading long slides placed on power point presentations.
2. Always remember that your audience can already read, therefore reading out your sentences on the slide out loud is one of the worse things that you can do while presenting.
3. The whole point of a power point presentation is to offer your listeners something visibly exciting about your topic, to make them understand the topic in a simple and fun manner, while you present.
4. Therefore, use more images to portray your thoughts rather than sentences and keep your slides simple. Perhaps try including info graphs, which is always an exciting method to explain your idea.
5. Stay consistent in your design as it is more comfortable to the eyes.
6. Try to ask a question and answer yourself, which directs the attention of your audience to both the presenter and the presentation.
7. Try to change your tone as you speak, it will keep your audience more alert.

In conclusion, as mentioned above, a power point presentation complements your presentation. The focus should be on you rather than the slides. Therefore, be confident and own it!

By: Lana Fadel

For more information on how to nail your presentation visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdohST8phf4