Common Presentation and PowerPoint Mistakes


Opening mistakes:

  1. Inappropriate joke
  2. Not knowing your audience/targeting your lecture appropriately
  3. Not having lecture in appropriate tech format (bringing in floppy disk)
  4. Not having appropriate adaptor (asking for 10 year old Mac adaptor for your computer)
  5. Dressing too casually (you should always be a little better dressed than your audience)
  6. Saying that this is going to be “dumb” or uninteresting lecture (not selling it/being enthusiastic)
  7. Not “hooking them” about why your material is important (need to give them a reason to change)


PowerPoint Groaners:

  1. Inconsistent background and text on slides, using distracting background
  2. Not using a contrasting background and text- (should use light background and dark text for light rooms, vice versa if room will be dark)
  3. Too many bullet points/words per slide/slides per line (limit to 6 bullet points/slide. Put only key words as bullet points-6 word per point. Audience should listen to you, not read your slides)
  4. Too many slides (rule of thumb is 1/min)
  5. Apologizing for mistakes/slides during presentation
  6. Overuse of special effects (sounds, animation, entrance/exit of slides)
  7. Small Font (font size 24 or larger for bullet points)
  8. Too many dog/kid pictures
  9. Too many cartoons/funny slides (need to break it up, but balance)
  10. Boring Title
  11. Death by laser pointer
  12. Red text
  13. Not making pictures big enough (should fill the slide)
  14. Not spell checking (have someone else read through to look for typos!)


Presentation Stumbles:

  1. Trying to cover too much, too many take home points (should only have 3)
  2. Speaking too fast to try to compensate for excessive material
  3. Mumbling/speaking too softly
  4. Swaying
  5. Death grip on podium (although better to hold podium then to shake)
  6. Never walking out from behind podium
  7. “Um” with every sentence, other verbal tics
  8. “Self defensive” postures-hands in pockets or folded or fig leaf (want openness- hands at sides, open palms). Also avoid nervous grooming, excessive big gestures
  9. Disorganization-just keeps going and going (say what you’re going to say, say it, and then tell us what you said-structure!)
  10. Reading from the notes/slides (memorize opening and closing, but not entire talk. Practice entire talk)
  11. Talking to the screen (face and engage audience)
  12. Weak opening (effective openings use key stat, case, story, question to get audience’s attention)
  13. Weak closure (should emphasize key point and tie it back to opening) Dg
  14. Irrelevant unrealistic material-not focusing on what’s practical/useful for this audience
  15. Monotone voice and pacing (consider speaking more slowly at important or complicated points, use natural fluctuations in pitch)
  16. Introducing random new knowledge (relate new knowledge to what is already known)
  17. Running overtime (plan to stop early for questions)


Finally, the points below are from “Working the Room, How to Move People to
Action through Audience Centered Speaking” by Nick Morgan. An Amal Mattu
recommendion.


Remember:

  • Public speaking is structured conversation
  • Audiences come into presentation asking “Why am I here?”
  • If you’re successful, they will leave asking “How do I implement these ideas?”
  • Focus your speech on one key message
  • Connect with your audience by telling them stories
  • Give your speech to the members of the audience by allowing them to become active
  • The single most important thing you can do to prepare a speech is to rehearse
  • The speaker’s focus should be on the audience; the audience’s should be on the content
  • Great public speakers listen to their audiences
  • Ultimately, great public speaking comes from passion