Transcript Technical writing

TECHNICAL WRITING
November 30th , 2012
Today
• Gestures.
• Making effective PowerPoints.
Presentation Skills: Gestures
A gesture = “a hand movement that is just as much a part of
language as speech.”
It you give your presentation like this:
The audience is less likely to appreciate your ideas.
Presentation Skills: Gestures
How do you gesture then?
- Gestures must look natural and must fit the circumstance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKuopm1FnkM
Presentation Skills: Gestures
How do you gesture then?
- Gestures must look natural and must fit the circumstance.
- Try to observe how you gesture naturally (record or practice
in a mirror).
Gestures: General guidelines
1. One on one conversational gestures tend to be small and
come from the wrist.
- This won’t work well for a presentation.
- Gestures need to be “enlarged”.
 “Talking with your hands”.
Gestures: General guidelines
2. Start gestures from the shoulder.
- Makes the gestures “bigger” and more expressive.
Gestures: General guidelines
3. Make sure your gestures are high enough.
- Low gestures draw the eyes of the audience down and away
from your face.
- This can be distracting.
Gestures: General guidelines
4. Expand on your natural body language style.
- Trying to force gestures or plan them can make you look
unnatural.
- Trying to include words and phrases in your speech that
have obvious gestures associated with them can be helpful
(i.e., tall, small, on one hand, etc.).
Effective PowerPoints
This:
• Do not attempt to put all the text, code, or explanation of what you are talking about
directly onto the slide, especially if it consists of full, long sentences. Or
paragraphs. There’s no place for paragraphs on slides. If you have complete
sentences, you can probably take something out.
• If you do that, you will have too much stuff to read on the slide, which isn’t always a
good thing.
• Like the previous slide, people do not really read all the stuff on the slides.
• That’s why it’s called a “presentation” and not “a reading” of your work
• Practice makes perfect, which is what gets you away from having to have all of you
“notes” in textual form on the screen in front of you.
• Utilize the Notes function of PowerPoint, have them printed out for your reference.
• The audience doesn’t need to hear the exact same thing that you are reading to them.
• The bullet points are simply talking points and should attempt to summarize the big ideas
that you are trying to convey
• If you’ve reached anything less than 18 point font, for God’s sake, please:
• Remove some of the text
• Split up the text and put it on separate slides
• Perhaps you are trying to do much in this one slide?
• Reading a slide is annoying.
• You should not simply be a text-to-speech converter.
vs. This:
PowerPoint slides should be:
- Simple and clean.
- Easy-to-read
- Facilite to the presentation.
Presentation Media (i.e., ppt.)
These are integral to presentations:
- Supplements verbal information.
- Helps the audience follow the presentation.
- Clarifies information (i.e., figures, visuals).
But…
It is important to remember:
- The screen is not a script.
Don’t overload on text.
- ppt. format is different than written documents.
Short, simple text and visuals are used.
- Clarity is essential.
Proper format, font, and layout.
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Contrast
The reason why this issue of
movie violence is an important
issue to me
• I think violence in all forms in wrong.
• Showing children examples of violence can only have
negative consequences.
• Parents need to control their children’s viewing.
Contrast
• Violence continued to get more extreme over time.
• What used to be shocking is now funny to some.
Contrast
• You need to be careful with contrast.
• Bad color choices affect visibility.
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Contrast
- Generally, dark text on light background.
- Light text on dark background:
- acceptable, but potentially difficult to see.
- Be careful if doing this.
i.e., black background and white text =
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Contrast
- Generally, dark text on light background.
- Light text on dark background:
- acceptable, but potentially difficult to see.
- Be careful if doing this.
i.e., black background and white text =
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Background
- Use a single background.
- Background is your stage.
- Don’t change the stage!
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Background
- Use a single background.
- Background is your stage.
- Don’t change the stage!
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Background
- Use a single background.
- Background is your stage.
- Don’t change the stage!
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Background
- Use a single background.
- Background is your stage.
- Don’t change the stage!
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Animation
- Keep it basic.
- The medium is not the message, the information is.
- Your audience is not a group of children.
Unnecessary!
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Balance
- Do not center bullet points.
- Make them line up.
- Or it will be confusing.
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Balance
- Left-aligned.
- Lined-up.
- Easy to follow.
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Balance
- Or slightly indented.
- Still lined-up.
- Still easy to follow.
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Balance (visuals)
Centered graphics leave little room for text.
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Balance
- Place graphics off-center.
- More room for text.
- Better balance.
- More pleasing to the eye.
- Left placement leads the eye to
the text.
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Font and color
- Same rules as documents.
- Talked about this a few weeks ago.
- Use at least 18-point font
- 24-point –
36-point
- Standard font type.
-Times New Roman.
- Arial
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Avoid text overload
Having too much text on the screen can defeat the
purpose of using PowerPoint. The slides begin to look
like a jumble of text, making slides difficult to read and
unrecognizable from each other. People will either try
to read everything or copy everything down or they will
lose interest. List only the key points. If you have more
info to include use more slides or create handouts.
Basic Rules That You Must Have to Have
a Good PowerPoint Presentation That
Everyone Can Understand
One of the most common
mistakes in creating a
presentation is to place too
much information on the
screen. This can cause the
reader to become
distracted from the
speaker…just like you are
now. Audiences are much
more receptive to the
spoken word.
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Bullet Points
• How many
• Levels of
• Hierarchy do
• You think
• You need
* To express
- Your point?
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Speelchick
• How samrt will poeple thikn yuo are?
• Watch for:
• there/their/they’re
• too/to/two
• its/it’s
CHECK YOUR SPELLING
Basic Rules: PowerPoint
Figures
- Follow the guidelines in the U.N. reading.
- Generally, 1 figure per slide.
- Text is not necessary.
- Except titles.
Figures - Good
Items Sold in First Quarter of 2002
100
90
80
70
60
Blue Balls
Red Balls
50
40
30
20
10
0
January
February
March
April
Figures - Bad
100
90
90
80
70
60
Blue Balls
50
Red Balls
38.6
40
34.6
31.6
30.6
27.4
30
20.4
20.4
20
10
0
January
February
March
April
Figures - Terrible
1 .2
1
0 .8
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Series 4
Series 5
0 .6
0 .4
0 .2
0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41
PowerPoint Text
- You want to keep the text simple.
- You should start bullet points with verbs if verbs are involved.
- The active voice is the voice that should be used.
- If you have key nouns, just use the key noun (it doesn’t need
a sentence).
- It is a good idea to keep your sentences short, 5 – 7 words
maximum when possible.
- Keep the number of bullet points to 5 maximum.
PowerPoint Text
- Keep the text simple.
- Start bullet points with verbs.
- Use active voice.
- Key nouns
- Sentences: 5 to 7 words.
- 5 bullet points max.
Concluding your Proposal
Transition into the conclusion:
“So, to sum up…”
“To conclude…”
“I would like to wrap up by saying…”
Concluding your Proposal
Give a brief summary of the problem and solution:
- This summary should re-emphasize the
importance/strengths of your solution.
“To sum up: our assistant is overworked, which is causing
a decrease in efficiency and job satisfaction. By hiring an
additional assistant, we will increase efficiency and
increase job satisfaction which will help us retain faculty
members, thus cutting down on hiring costs in the long
run.”
Concluding your Proposal
Thank the audience:
“I would like to thank you all for your attention this afternoon.”
“We appreciate your attention today. Thank you.”
“Thank you for considering this proposal.”
“Thanks for listening” = F
Concluding your Proposal
Open the floor for questions:
“At this time, we will take any questions you may have.”
“If there are any questions, we will be happy to answer
them now.”
“We will now open the floor for questions.”
Concluding your Proposal
Each group will answer one question.
- The question will come from another team.
Concluding your Proposal
After answering the question:
- State that, if there are any further questions, you will be
happy to discuss them later.
Thank the audience once more.
The Best Thing to Do…
The 3 P’s:
P repare
P repare
P repare