More on slide decks

When creating a slide deck for - say - a conference presentation, we put ALL the references that we cite in our notes, on each slide; which is called a multiple works citation (American Psychological Association, 2019). And the reason why we put the multiple works on the slide is because when we are presenting at our conference, we do not share our speaker notes with our audience. We only share our slides. Without our referenced script, if we didn't have a multiple works citation on each slide, the audience would have no idea of where and what our reference list connected to.

For example, the following image shows all the sources on the slide, and where they are embedded in the notes area:

If the multiple works citation wasn't on the slide, the audience would only have the Shakespeare citation. They would be effectively unaware of the other four sources drawn upon. So the multiple works citation is essential for our audience.

Further, we need to remember that our slides shouldn't be too text heavy. The example slide here has 34 words in the body of the slide - close to Tufte's maximum of 40 words per slide (2003). And it looks a bit crowded, even though it is under 40. The notes area contains 306 words of the speaker notes.

Why do we keep the text on the slides brief? We want the slides to anchor and support what we say; not to interfere with it. Luckily, if the slide text is short, because we read at roughly 250-300 wpm "much faster than spoken language understanding [while...] audiobooks are spoken at a rate of 140–180 wpm" (Brysbaert, 2019 p. 3) our audience will read in a fraction of time and be able to refocus on what we are saying. We don't want our audience to be distracted from what we are saying by reading the slides. Brysbaert also noted that "while we are listening to a person speaking, we simultaneously have an internal conversation preparing to make a response", which may also mean the audience may stop listening to the presentation (2019. p. 3).

So, to keep our audience focused on us, we put only simple signposting on each slide. If our slides look too crowded, then we trim - slash to the bone - and push our words into our script in the notes. We can get creative and use diagrams, images, and Ishikawa's fishbone model (FabianLange, 2008, read more here) instead.

We need to keep our slide decks short, focused, and provide a map back to our evidential base.

Sam

References:

American Psychological Association. (2019). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style (7th ed.). Author.

Brysbaert, M. (2019). How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language, 109(1), 104047, 1-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.104047

FabianLange. (2008). ;Ishikawa fishbone diagram ;(Creative Commons 3.0) [image]. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ishikawa_Fishbone_Diagram.svg

Tufte, E. R. (2003). The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within. Graphics Press LLC.

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Slideshow options for android

I have been looking for a photo slideshow to run on my phone for a while so that I can show people selected images of overseas holidays, in an order which is not the date saved or created; but rather in the order of places we visited, or separate storylines. It is surprisingly difficult to find something which does this in a seamless way.

I tried SlideShow for Google Photos, but that doesn't work with albums (why on earth NOT???). So I uninstalled it and scrapped that idea.  

However, I have found that, if I go through all my images, and saved them to an album. I set up title images, and edited the dates to show the album in a particular order. 

Once that background work is done, there is a native slideshow within Google Photos works both on a phone and on a PC (though each one is a little different, and there is a bit of a trick to getting to the Slideshow menu option. 

1. On PC: Open the Google Photos album, then click on the first photo in the album and open it. Then, at the top-right corner, click the menu (i.e. the three dots); and select Slideshow. Use either the screen arrows or keyboard arrows to click through faster than the automatic timer (which I think is five seconds per image; Makvana, 2022). 
   
   
2. Android phone app: Open Google Photos, go to Collections. Click on the Albums tile, and find your desired album. Again, click on the first photo in the album and open it. Then, at the top-right corner, click the menu (i.e. the three dots); and scroll across to find and select Slideshow (Makvana, 2022). Swipe to move the slideshow along faster than the automatic 5 seconds/image.

I hope you find that useful!

Sam

References:

Makvana, M. (2022 March 4). How to Make a Slideshow on Google Photos. How-To Geek. https://www.howtogeek.com/783634/how-to-make-a-slideshow-on-google-photos/

* Image made with https://app.leonardo.ai/

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Aligning PowerPoint voice over and animations

This time we have a bit more on solving problems with creating a voice over PowerPoint. We look at how we can align the entry of animations to cue with our voice over in our sound file. This should be easy... right?

Well, it isn't. At least, not as far as I have found. I was able set up my animations on clicks, then record my voice over... then not be able to have the animations appear automatically as my voice over played. It didn't matter whether I used the "with" or the "after" timings: I was unable to crack this. I ensured that I set up the slide show, with "show without automation" being unticked; and "using timings, if present" being ticked. I set up my slides under Transitions with the Advance Slide set up to auto-forward after the number of seconds of the voice over plus a buffer. I had my sound file as the first item in the animation pane in the Animations tab. 

But the sound file remains the only element of animation that works as expected... until we are about to leave the slide, when all the other animations appear at once. So I went looking for some solutions. And once more a user problem was answered by Steve Rindsberg, MVP Volunteer Moderator. Steve's superb reply is paraphrased below (Freeman, 2023): 

"PowerPoint has *never* been able to make transitions/animations 'fire' reliably against a timeline. What [we] can do instead is use bookmarks and triggers."

"Add [...]our audio file, start it, then pause it when it reaches a point where [we]'d like an animation to occur."

"On the Playback tab [NB: Playback - on the far right of the ribbon - will only show if we are already clicked onto our embedded sound file], click Add Bookmark. [We then] Add bookmarks at each point where [we want] an animation to occur. It'll help later if [we] keep a list of each added bookmark, what the audio cue is and what action it's supposed to trigger. If [we] haven't already added [...]our animations" we need to do that before we can add the bookmarks. 

At this point I deleted all my existing animations and recreated them.  

"Now select the first animated shape, and on the Animation tab | Advance Animation group, click Trigger, click On Bookmark and choose the bookmark [we] want to act as the trigger for the animation."

"Now when the audio reaches one of your bookmarks, it will trigger the chosen animation."

Then, to move our slide on after our animation and voice-over is aligned, we go to the Transitions tab, and - in the Advance Slide area - enter our slide timing (i.e. the length of a voice over plus a second or two) into the "after" box.

Thank you very much, Steve. This actually works!

Sam

References:

Freeman, N. (2023, March 26). PowerPoint Animations will not occur automatically following a time schedule. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/powerpoint-animations-will-not-occur-automatically/24e49ca7-475d-42c0-af11-9107c55941c0

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Saving voice over files from PowerPoint

Ever created a PowerPoint with a voice over, and wanted to edit the sound files? And not known how to extract the PowerPoint recordings from the file? Well, there is a way!

I stumbled across this thanks to a query asked by Marques (2024), and answered by Steve Rindsberg, MVP Volunteer Moderator. Steve's superb reply is paraphrased below:

All we need to do is to make a copy of our presentation .pptx file, and change the file extension of the copy from .pptx to .zip (NB: our PowerPoint deck must be a .pptx file; what comes next will not work with the older .ppt format).

Then, when we open our new .xip file, we will see a few folders and xml files that make up a PowerPoint slide deck. In the folder structure of the .zip (_rels | docProps | ppt), we go to the ppt folder, and under that, go to the media folder. In the media folder we will find a cluster of .m4a files, which we can now extract, edit, and save in another location.

However, we should use a dedicated zip software tool to open the files as we may get an error - often a Windows "Error 0x80004005: Unspecified error" - if trying to open and extract the files using the native Windows Zip function. 

To avoid these types of errors, I tend to use 7-Zip (downloadable here) which extracts the files without difficulty.

Doesn't that make it SOO much easier to edit a slide deck?!

Sam

References:

7-Zip (2025). Download 7-Zip 24.09 (2024-11-29) for Windows. https://7-zip.org/download.html

Marques, J. S. (2024, April 19). How can I find the audio in a Powerpoint presentation that doesn't have an inserted object or link in any slide? Please see description below. Microsoft Community Support. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/how-can-i-find-the-audio-in-a-powerpoint/bc0721f8-4d4b-4489-84fc-ad60e6974eb6

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More on effective slide decks

Following on from the last post (here) on putting slide decks together, I thought I would put a few tips together for writing academic presentations, as they are a bit different to business presentations.

Firstly, if, when we are creating a presentation, and are 'write a script first' person, once we have the first rough draft of our script, we can work out how many minutes our script might convert to. As a general rule of thumb I tend to present at 2 minutes per slide, but with a new presentation it can be hard to gauge. However, we can simply go to https://wordstotime.com/ and load our word count in. The site will give us a rough conversion to minutes. Yay!

Secondly, In academic presentations, we need to flag what sources we have used in constructing our slide AND our script. We may verbally cite important sources within a presentation, but we also need to cite on the slides themselves, and in the script so we know whose expert views we have drawn on; and so we can connect our audience to other research. While we should get into the habit of including a multiple works citation on each slide, there are two methods for citing on slides:

• Where only one source applies for a single bulleted line, manually add the citation bracket at the end of that line (see image accompanying this post above);
  AND/OR
  
• Add all citations in a multiple works citation bracket elsewhere on the slide... being consistent about placement so our audience knows where to find it. But definitely include a multiple works citation bracket for all other sources used in presenting that slide on EACH SLIDE.

However, if we are quoting, the citation should be beside the quote (see the top and middle slides above for details). We should also have a reference slide - or slides - at the end of our presentation so our audience can see our sources. It should be listed in alpha-numeric order, with DOIs for all journal articles in full APA 7th edition manner, for all the sources cited on any and all of our slides (as per the bottom slide above).

Sam

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Effective PowerPoint slides

It is interesting how wrong we can get something as seemingly simple as creating a PowerPoint slide deck. A slide deck is - in my opinion - a bit like a fish bone diagram (Ishikawa, 1968; image accompanying this post, FabianLange, 2008). A root cause analysis process, if we will.

When creating a slide deck, we begin with what we are aiming to deliver (our 'problem'), create slides with the bare bones of what we want to communicate on each slide of the deck: replacing equipment, process, people, material, environment and management with our own rough headings. We should think of what story we want to tell, and collect our evidence to support that story. We may do this using a story board; we may write this out long-hand; we may type up our headings in a Word document or in PowerPoint itself. Then, under each heading, we add anchors for each point that we want to work through, relating to that slide. Some say no more than 20 words/slide (Nguyen et al., 2016); some say no more than 40 words/slide (Tufte, 2003). But JUST enough to frame the fish. 

We don't use full sentences on slides: "A cluttered or overwhelming data slide can derail even the most compelling speaker, so only show data in your presentation if the data helps you better illustrate your conclusions" (Duarte, 2016, p. 65). What goes on the slide is an audience-cue for what we are about to say: "Just use key words that serve as a visual and support your message. Check each slide to see how you can make the text more compact. Scrap as much as you can" (Gruwez, 2014, p. 179). Less is definitely more, as "Text-heavy slides are boring.  Minimize text on slides", and even better; "Sometimes no text is the best option" (Karia, 2013, p. 46). To check that our deck and presentation will be clear, we need to: "Get to the point; Pick the right tool [i.e. graphic, diagram, image] for the job; Highlight what’s important [for the audience]; Keep it simple" (Duarte, 2016, p. 65). 

Our script, what we will SAY to our audience, goes in the notes area of each slide. With citations. We can including side-trips we can explore if we have time, or jettison if we are running late. We need to practice the presentation aloud. Duarte suggests roughly 3 hours (2016), but that depends on if you are presenting for TED, or for an assignment. But practice is how we know roughly where we should be at what time as we deliver, so we know whether there is time for a side-trip or not.

So the steps are:

1. Delivery aim/story
2. Draft slide deck headings (check fit with the story)
3. Slide audience anchors (very few words which tell the story)
4. Script (telling the entire story in the notes area, with citations)

The audience sees a slide. The presenter sees the slide and their notes (and possibly the presenter view, if they have a screen they can see during the presentation). We may give the audience a handout afterwards; example below (Reynolds, 2020, p. 71):

We can see from the example above that the slide is relatively simple, with the script packed into the notes area. The one thing this example lacks, for academic purposes, is a multiple works citation on the slide.

I hope this helps!

Sam

References:

Duarte, N. (2016). slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. O'Reilly Media.

FabianLange. (2008). Ishikawa fishbone diagram (Creative Commons 3.0) [image]. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ishikawa_Fishbone_Diagram.svg

Gruwez, E. (2014). Presentation Thinking and Design: Create Better Presentations, Quicker. FT Publishing International.

Ishikawa, K. (1968). Guide to Quality Control. Asian Productivity Organization.

Karia, A. (2013). How to Design TED Worthy Presentation Slides: Presentation Design Principles from the Best TED Talks (How to Give a TED Talk). Author.

Nguyen, K., Murillo, G., Killeen, R., & Jones, L. (2016). The Big Fish Experience: Create memorable presentations that reel in your audience McGraw-Hill Education.

Reynolds, G. (2020). Presentation Zen 3: Simple ideas on presentation design and delivery (3rd ed.). New Riders.

Tufte, E. R. (2003). The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within. Graphics Press LLC.

read more "Effective PowerPoint slides"

Kill the company exercise

There is a very interesting tip related by Wharton professor, Adam Grant (2016), for constructing better investment pitches. Instead of doing a hard sell and focusing on the positives, we begin by explaining the negatives. Counter-intuitive? Known as an "upside-down pitch" this works as follows: 

"By acknowledging its most serious problems, [...] it [is] harder for investors to generate their own ideas about what was wrong with the [pitch]. [Potential investors find] themselves thinking hard to identify other concerns, [...] decid[ing that] problems [a]ren’t actually that severe". The creator of this pitch style, Rufus Griscom, said "When I led with the factors that could kill the company, the response from the board was the exact opposite: oh, these things aren’t so bad. Newton’s third law can be true in human dynamics as well: every action has an equal and opposite reaction" (Grant, 2016, 23%).

Taking this idea a step further, we can stand in the shoes of our competitors to determine where our own organisation is weak. To develop a more active, innovative and change-oriented approach to leadership at the drugs company Merck, the CE had the executive team spend two hours in small groups brainstorming ideas to "put Merck out of business" (Grant, 2016, 68%). The execs were: 

"pretending to be one of Merck’s top competitors. Energy soared as they developed ideas for drugs that would crush theirs and key markets they had missed. Then, their challenge was to reverse their roles and figure out how to defend against these threats. This 'kill the company' exercise is powerful because it reframes a gain-framed activity in terms of losses. When deliberating about innovation opportunities, the leaders weren’t inclined to take risks. When they considered how their competitors could put them out of business, they realized that it was a risk not to innovate" (68%)

Then Merck - or any organisation - must DO something about what they have come up with. First having a deep and honest "discussion about the most serious threats and how to convert them into opportunities to transition from defense to offense" (Grant, 2016, 72%), then assessing the level of risk; prioritising; allocating resources; planning; and implementing strategy. This is a SWOT analysis on steroids.

The 'kill the company' idea was the brainchild of Lisa Bodell, who explains that companies get - effectively - fat and complacent over time:

"Most companies, even successful ones, do not sustain a culture conducive to innovation. As they grow in size and complexity, it becomes hard for them to see what’s happening beyond their own walls. Their internal groups or divisions can become insular, resulting in creative and managerial silos that have no idea what anyone else is working on at any particular moment or what others’ strategic plan looks like. Companies often wind up using a microscope to scrutinize their isolated internal efforts rather than a telescope to keep a broad view toward the future. As the speed of change increases and demand for results continues to grow, critical thinking in all its forms—questioning, creating, inventing, exploring—too often takes a backseat to efficiency, output, and short-term ROI" (Bodell, 2012, 5%).

Doing the 'kill the company' exercise gives us licence to take a clear-eyed look at EVERYTHING. Honesty rules. This is a very clever tool: providing we enact the results.

Sam

References:

Bodell, L. (2012). Kill the Company: End the Status Quo, Start an Innovation Revolution.  Bibliomotion.

Grant, A. (2016). Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World [ebook]. Viking Press.

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Convert a ppt file to mp4

What is interesting is that we can create a PowerPoint, get all our timings right in our presentation, put a voice over on it, then export it as a video. This is very helpful.

So, how do we do that? The process is surprisingly simple:

1. Go to the File menu | "Export" | then "Create a Video". 
2. Select the type of video format and quality.
3. Click the "Create Video" button.
   
   

If we can't see the "Export" option, it is probably because we have not clicked "Enable Editing" when we opened the file. Go back to the Home ribbon, click "Enable Editing" then go back and repeat the steps above.

Simple as that.

Sam

References:

Microsoft Support. (2014, May 20). Turn your presentation into a video. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/turn-your-presentation-into-a-video-c140551f-cb37-4818-b5d4-3e30815c3e83

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Switching screens in Presenter view

Recently I was fortunate enough to be gifted an upgraded screen for my PC. However, when I came to viewing a PowerPoint slidedeck presentation, my PC had defaulted to the 'wrong' screen of my set of three for viewing. I hunted all over the PC for a fix... only to find that the fix was within PowerPoint itself. Ah well. 

I thought that I could not be the only person who wanted to know how to do this, so thought I would post a quick fix. Because it really is a QUICK fix.

Simply go to the Slide Show ribbon, and in the "Monitors" area, select the Monitor dropdown. All our screens will be listed here. We select the screen that we want used for the presentation slides to be projected on. If we don't want to see the presenter view (i.e. the black screen showing the slide forward and reverse buttons, the time, and the notes contents) we can untick that too in this space.

Too easy.

Sam

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Creating a persuasive presentation

We all know what a presentation is, but what is persuasion? It has been defined as "the art of convincing people to do what you want them to do" (Team Superside, 2017). Persuasion is about convincing people that the actions you are proposing are valid, evidenced, and the 'right thing to do'.

In academic writing, a persuasive presentation provides really good quality evidence, but - as Brené Brown (2017) says - we tell a story to create connection with our audience. Brené defines herself as a storyteller researcher, which I think clearly shows the link between planning, finding and organising the evidence, then being able to explain it to others (Brown, 2017, 1:00). The wise use of good quality evidence should persuade us to "follow [...] leaders and influencers" (Team Superside, 2017) who can persuade well. Not manipulate us, but allow us to contemplate what we have been told, and to make our own decisions based on what we have heard.

There are a few points to consider when making a persuasive presentation, and I am about to give you two doses of five tips each.

The first five are from Harappa (2021):

1. Start with research. This shows our professionalism, our ability to understand the situation and our reliance on evidence. As part of this, we need to determine who our audience is, their "needs and expectations". We trim our "content to [suit our] audience" to "pique their interest [and] keep them engaged".
2. Set presentation goals. Consider HOW much information we need, and keep to the point. If we "list [...] a few goals ([under] five) [...] to address during [...]our presentation", we will stay on target, cut the fat, and be clear.
3. Tell a story. "One of the most effective ways of capturing the audience’s attention is to" tell a story [and make it] as relatable as possible". This "help[s to] set the tone [and] also lightens the mood".
4. Be human. Use pace, tone of voice, and inflection when delivering our presentation. If we smile, it can be heard in our voice. When we are serious, that too can be picked up. Don't rush: be measured to show the deliberateness with which we have set out to do this mahi.
5. "Finish Strong[ly]". Summarise the key points. Check that the presentation goals have been met. Review, and anticipate what the audience might have liked to have asked, and ensure that those questions are answered throughout, where the question might have occurred to the listener (Harappa, 2021).

The second five are from HBR (2019), suggesting that when we "need to sell an idea [...] in a presentation" we can use Aristotle's five appeals dating from c. 300BCE. Those five appeals are:

1. "Ethos. Start your talk by establishing your credibility and character. Show your audience that you are committed to the welfare of others, and you will gain their trust"
2. "Logos. Use data, evidence, and facts to support your pitch”
3. "Pathos. People are moved to action by how a speaker makes them feel. Wrap your big idea in a story that will elicit an emotional reaction"
4. "Metaphor. Compare your idea to something that is familiar to your audience. It will help you clarify your argument by making the abstract concrete"
5. "Brevity. Explain your idea in as few words as possible. People have a limited attention span, so talk about your strongest points first" (HBR, 2019).

I hope that helps!

Sam

References:

Brown, B. (2017). Rising Strong as a Spiritual Practice [audiobook]. Sounds True.

Harappa. (2 July 2021). How To Give A Persuasive Presentation. https://harappa.education/harappa-diaries/persuasive-presentation/

HBR. (08 August 2019). 5 Tips for Giving a Persuasive Presentation. Harvard Business Review Tips. https://hbr.org/tip/2019/08/5-tips-for-giving-a-persuasive-presentation

Team Superside. (2 August 2017). 8 Fundamental Tips for Persuasive Presentations. https://www.superside.com/blog/persuasive-presentations

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5 oral presentation tips

We all need to deliver presentations at some point in our lives: whether that is talking about a friend at a party, speaking at a family celebration or funeral, making a business pitch, delivering a project rationale, at a conference, or for credit on a qualification. What is really interesting is that the research appears to show that we are almost paralysed at the thought of speaking to an audience. When we have been "surveyed about our greatest fears, dying was not the top of the list. Public speaking was the top of the list. The fear of speaking in public is not actually a fear of speaking in public, but the fear of being shamed in public", and "the word that is used to describe shame in public speaking is 'mortifying'" (Brabazon, 2022, 2:10). Ouch.

So the better prepared we can be, hopefully, the less mortified we will feel, and the less likely we are to become paralysed in the moment.

The best way to speak to an audience is not get into 'lecture' mode, but to tell a story. We humans are "a storytelling animal" (Swift, 1983, p. 53). Following are five tactics next time we need to speak to an audience (Harvard Business Review, 2022):

1. "Craft a narrative. A story is a connected series of events told through words and pictures. It has a theme, attention-grabbing moments, heroes and villains, and a satisfying conclusion"
2. Match our "text with images. Researchers have found that [...]our audience will recall about 10% of [...]our message if they simply hear information. But if they hear information and see a picture, they’ll retain 65%" (emphasis added)
3. "Humani[s]e data. Data is abstract until it’s put into context that people can understand. So make [...]our statistics more memorable by" relating the numbers to real people
4. "Surprise [...]our audience. The human brain pays attention to novelty — twists and turns and unexpected events. Our brain perks up when we detect something that breaks a pattern"
5. "Rehearse — out loud. Practice [...]our vocal delivery, adding perfectly timed pauses and varying the pace of [...]our speech. If [we] plan to stand in front of a group, stand during [...]our rehearsal. If [we]'re going to be seated in a Zoom call, take a seat, and deliver each slide as though [we]’re giving the real thing".

These are good tips, and I hope they help!

Sam

References:

Brabazon, T. (2022). Comma: How to reclaim, restart and reboot your PhD. Author's Republic.

Harvard Business Review (6 May 2022). The Management Tip of the Day: today's tip - Stand Out During Your Next Presentation [email]. https://m.a.email.hbr.org/rest/head/mirrorPage/@sFI4HvyNQ7EHZb181wGyxgM9QnGJ6S8NbxztDNFHukaeSd-b_a1cVZ2JPXID5sE_e0LHRfebCXXgfpJvvXmUZFpWIlvjKGMPO3_P5wWWAgeeD2ph.html?deliveryName=DM191407

Swift, G. (1983). Waterland. William Heinemann

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PowerPoint and the Business School lecturer

Coming, as I do, from a business school background, I was quite struck by an article I read on the Times Higher Education online earlier this year. In fact, I suspect that I may have stewed on it a bit.

You see, the tone in the article rankled. The article was about lecturing, and how some lecturers are better than others. This lecturer was of the school whereby you stand and deliver in a one-hour oratory. I think this is the type of lecturer the writer is, because he said, rather gob-smackingly, "Although I cannot imagine giving a PowerPoint lecture" (Sugg, 2021); crikey! In reading this, I felt that we poor plebs who use PowerPoint to season our delivery should just push off home then, tugging our forelocks at the master lecturer.

Down here in the dirty boots brigade, we do not have the luxury of a one hour lecture. We get one three hour slot each week, in one chunk. We lecture, workshop, and have Q&A for three times as long as Mr Sugg - Professor Sugg probably. We do not 'stand and deliver'. We interact with our students. We engage them. We encourage students to ask questions, and we ask questions of them; and collectively, we have a conversation, and we learn together.

When I write a PowerPoint presentation, I follow Tufte's rule of no more than 40 words per slide at 24pt minimum (2003). Ideally, four short, short bullet points; or even better, one image. PowerPoints are not our script: they are only the slide. The script is in the notes area with all the citations and evidence. And the slide deck is there to anchor the key points being made, to make learning 'stickier' in the combination workshop and lectures we run.

The writer went on to say:

"A business studies lecturer, nominally paid to make new knowledge and to fuse research and teaching, delivers someone else’s lecture. He has actually paid for a package of pre-written lectures. I remember the person in question writing a breath-taking article in Times Higher Education where he reflected thoughtfully on how it felt rather odd to be speaking someone else’s words… This case may well tell us something about business studies, arguably a pseudo-academic subject and just a reflection of a certain phase of capitalism (rather as another pseudo-subject, theology, once dominated universities under an earlier phase of Christianity)" (Sugg, 2021)

Ouch. So not only are business schools globally "pseudo-academic", they use PowerPoint, and also therefore must be packed to the gunn'ls with poor lecturers. I feel that Mr/Professor Sugg may have a spot of prejudice about 'filthy lucre' and the gaining of it.

He certainly seems to feel that business is not a 'proper' subject... perhaps like Classics, Latin, or English.

Is it just me, or does this read like academic snobbery?

Sam

References:

• Hay, I. (1914). The Lighter Side of School Life. Project Gutenburg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34721/34721-h/34721-h.htm (school master image)
• Sugg, R. (10 June 2021). Be there or be square: the strange art of lecturing. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/be-there-or-be-square-strange-art-lecturing
• Tufte, E. R. (2003). The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within. Graphics Press LLC.

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Presenting Research

(Swift, 1992, p. 53)

A while ago, Mehadi Altiye asked a question on Quora (18 January 2016), asking how to present a review paper using PowerPoint, which I came across while searching online for something else. I was intrigued by the question, as I had never stopped to think about how a review paper and a research paper are structured differently.

This only generated two answers, but both contained some useful advice. Echo Rivera and Jane Adelmann suggested that Mehadi picked out the main points; used visuals and avoided animations. Echo Rivera also suggested that Mehadi followed the structure of the paper: an interesting point which may or may not get in the way of addressing the key points consolidated in the literature.

In addition, Jane Adelmann suggested the use of bullet points to structure information and to minimise slide text, reminding Mehadi that these would make it easier for the audience to be on message. She also suggested a practice run with peers to fine-tune before the presentation proper.

What was interesting was what was missing. I would have emphasised that the PowerPoint deck only supports what we say: it is not what we say. The slide deck is the backing singers which emphasises our key points, underscores what is important, and harmonises with the story we are telling.

I would have suggested that our script does note equal our slide, illustrated by Tufte’s slide word limit, which is no more than 40 words per slide to keep the deck message stripped back to its essentials (2003, p. 12). We need to tell the elements of the story ourselves. The backing singers – our slide deck – should have a limited repertoire so the focus stays on the story teller. I would also have mentioned timing: as every slide – in my experience – takes around two minutes to deliver, we need to arrange our presentation to slightly underfill our time slot so there is time for questions.

Do we even want to use text at all? I know a lecturer who only uses images on her slide deck, pecha kucha style. It is a powerful and very clear way to convey a message, regardless of whether a presentation is on a review paper or not. That too is something important to consider.

Man is a story-telling animal, and that is what, in my opinion is THE most important thing: to clearly tell our story.

Sam

References:

• Altiye, M. (18 January 2016). How do I write PPT for presenting review paper? Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-write-PPT-for-presenting-review-paper
• Swift, G. (1983). Waterland. UK: William Heinemann.
  
• Tufte, E. R. (2003). The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within. Cheshire CT, USA: Graphics Press LLC.

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The Art of Conversation... or "Presenting"

Each year I have students make presentations to their peers. Each year some students do remarkably well, and others struggle. Yet they all get the same information on the course.

I think some of them take my messages to heart, while others don't.

On reflection, I think part of the reason we can find presentations difficult is that we don't do the base work before we present. And the base work is to practice. Aloud. Many times. To learn our script, not just like lines, but like a conversation that can morph and wend as our moods morph and wend, and as our audience give us feedback in terms of energy, body language and focus.

The more we practice, the better our presentation will be: provided we continue to think of what we say as a conversation with the room.

Following is a screencast which I put together for my students on tips and guidelines for having that conversation:



I hope you find it useful!


Sam

• Reference: Young, S. (2014). MGT737 09 01 Lecture 9a Presentation Guidelines. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/n82LI3XOTyA

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Draw Attention to your Presentation

If you need to highlight specific text or image in a presentation, there is a nifty PowerPoint function that allows you to draw a circle around it.

This is a two step process; firstly you create the thing you want to highlight, then secondly you need to draw an oval AutoShape over it.

Once you have created the item you want to highlight, then:

Click the Oval on the Drawing toolbar and drag it inside the slide. If you need a circle, hold down the Shift key as you drag out the AutoShape to create a circle, not an oval.

To format the oval, right-click and choose Format AutoShape from the pop-up menu. On the Colors and Lines tab, set Fill Color to No Fill, and Line Weight to 2 pt (or higher). You may want to change the Line Color to red, or another stand-out colour.

1. To animate your oval, right-click and choose Custom Animation.
2. From the Add Effect dropdown, choose Entrance.
3. Select Wheel (click More Effects if Wheel isn’t available from the short list).
4. From the Start dropdown, choose With Previous.
5. From the Spokes dropdown, choose 1
6. From the Speed dropdown, choose Fast or Very Fast
7. To view your animation, key F5.

Depending on your audience and the complexity of the info you want to highlight, you may want to play with the speed a bit.

Very simple but quite effective. Thanks to TechRepublic at http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/msoffice/?p=3873&tag=nl.e056 for this tip :-)

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