Powerpoint Guidelines

Your project presentation in CS 381 is an important means of exchanging information with your fellow students. The guidelines provided here will make your presentation as effective as possible!

• Use Powerpoint

  
  ALL presentations should be prepared using Microsoft Powerpoint (or equivalent application)  and brought to class on CD-ROM, memory stick or laptop. The computer projection unit will be used to deliver the class presentations.

• Plan Your Talk

  
  The time allotment for each talk is 15 minutes. Your instructor is charged with the responsibility of not allowing you to go over this time, since doing so would infringe upon someone else's well prepared talk. Plan your talk for 12 minutes, allowing 3 minutes for questions. Additionally, you should plan for approximately 1 minute per slide that you use for your talk. It's recommended that you plan for approximately 12 slides as a maximum. You should have a title slide that includes your name and the title of your project.

• Organize Content

  
  Using an outline as a guide, decide how many slides to make for each topic. Organize the content of your slides to summarize the main points. Know the main point(s) for each slide before you prepare it.

• Summarize Main Points

  
  Do NOT write in complete sentences. Most people can read faster than you can speak. Reading your slides to the audience is guaranteed to put them to sleep. Use the slides as memory aids to help you organize the main points and then fill in the details during your talk.

• Practice Makes Perfect

  
  Due to the tight time constraints, it is extremely important that you practice delivering your presentation and time it to see how long it takes. Adjust the content accordingly while practicing to fill the time allotment.

• Be Prepared!

  
  Do NOT talk about any topic unless you have prepared a slide to go with it. DO talk about every slide you show. There is an ideal balance between including too much and too little information on each slide. It is desireable for the slides to require some explanation in order to hold the interest of the audience. Too much verbal explanation leads to confusing "hand waving" which the listeners will not remember.

• Layout and Fonts

  
  In order for viewgraphs to be legible from the back of the room, use large (16-18pt), well-spaced type and allow space for the border around the image. The maximum number of lines on your viewgraph or slide should be around 10 lines of text. As noted above, summarize and do NOT photocopy text passages from references.

• Save and Backup Files

  
  Finally, save your work frequently while working in Powerpoint and make a backup copy to prevent losing your work.