Senior Project Presentation Tips

1. Senior Project Presentation Tips Feraco Search for Human Potential 5 May 2011

2. Content and Conduct • Your emphasis during your project should be on the material that someone wouldn’t gather simply by watching a person do your job a couple of times • The “hidden realities,” as I’ve called them elsewhere, or just information that’s interesting and not necessarily well-known • We’re chasing insights about all else – careful observations that you worked hard to obtain • Don’t refrain from sharing them now!

3. Content and Conduct • Your supplemental material should amplify your presentation, as should your activities and demonstrations • Don’t just include them for their own sake • Remember to elaborate on each point, within reason: you really don’t want to end up reciting bullet points • It’s much more interesting to mention a point within a sentence, then follow that with another sentence or two that makes the point’s relevance clear

4. Content and Conduct • The occasional use of personal anecdotes or experiences can go a long way towards sustaining audience interest • We don’t want to hear too many of them, but a couple can add a personal touch to the proceedings • Philosophies or views are even better: when you contextualize information instead of simply reciting it, you come across as someone who was intelligent enough to study and care about the material you’re giving us…which, in turn, makes said material seem more valuable • Don’t forget to include the basics – not just career information, but assumptions, introductions (don’t just launch into the career), aspirations, whether the career choice proved feasible, and future plans

5. Content and Conduct • Dress appropriately. No skirts well above the knee, no sneakers, no ties over shirts that aren’t buttoned all the way up, etc. • It’s not rocket science once you get used to it, but some presenters still struggle with this due to limits on either experience or wardrobe • Your clothes won’t get you a job, but they can definitely cost you an opportunity to get one. (Hence the FIDM presentation earlier this year…) • Don’t shift and sway; project confidence with your posture and stance • Try not to stand in the same place for too long • Even if you don’t want to be a pacer, you should still cover at least some of the ground around the classroom

6. Content and Conduct • Try to avoid over-gesturing. I know that I do this a lot myself as an enthusiastic young Italian; some of us talk with our hands • Remember, however, that this is a presentation, and thus an environment that’s a little more controlled • Some gestures are good, even encouraged. Just don’t overdo them • (For example, you’ll have a laser pointer; point with it, and not with your hand, whenever possible.)

7. Content and Conduct • When you present, face forward • Don’t get caught standing for minutes at a time at a perpendicular angle to the rest of the class, and don’t turn your back on them! • You’ll need to do this anyway because you don’t have notes; if you’re facing forward, you can see your PowerPoint on the laptop screen, and you won’t have to look back at the board to remind yourself where you are in the presentation

8. Content and Conduct • When you speak, your voice should be modulated – strong but not loud, hitting a number of different notes depending on the situation, and so on • You obviously know to avoid lapsing into monotone, but you also want to avoid speaking too quietly or shouting • Warmth, passion, and humor will all help you • Some of you have dry senses of humor, or just come off as low-key people • Both work fine during conversations, but you have to bring energy to the proceedings • You’ll probably be presenting in a dark room in front of an audience whose members want to put their heads down, and you’re not allowed to beat them up if they do • Given them a reason to watch besides fear!

9. Content and Conduct • Don’t forget your audience, or only interact with them once, and don’t limit your interaction to rhetorical questions • Either risk their participation or get some people who you know will watch to agree to participate (even in specific ways) beforehand • Don’t shift your tone abruptly (say, go from something depressing to something really happy) • Your audience will feel jerked around or self-conscious and won’t know how to respond

10. Design and Format • Avoid “like,” “uh,” “yeah,” and similar nonsense sounds • At this point, you’ve had a little less than a month to finish your presentation • Your PowerPoint should be clean and error-free, and your speaking should be too – you’ve had plenty of time to practice • You’ll get away with a couple, but not many more than that • You are in front of an audience of peers, but you should be practicing “casual formality” – not standing in front of a podium, but not winging it and presenting sloppily • Conclude your presentation gracefully • Don’t just stop, and definitely don’t end with a “Yeah, so…that’s my presentation”; finish with a memorable line • (When’s the last time I dismissed you with a “So, yeah…”?)

11. Design and Format • When it comes to your design aesthetic – background, font, image placement, etc. – strike a balance between consistency and variety • You don’t want chaos in your design, but you also don’t want every slide to look the same • I get around this by moving my slide backgrounds through a series of color shifts, or by including a variety of related images for my backgrounds • It takes a little more work, but the difference between presentations that have variety and those that don’t is often the difference between tolerable and acceptable • (Matt Lee already used various stages of a drawing as his background this year; every time he switched a slide, the background drawing grew more complete. It was a nifty effect!)

12. Design and Format • Transitions (structure-wise, not PowerPoint-wise) should link each slide to the ones that follow • Order matters as much as pace! • You won’t be effective if you just give us a broad survey of information • We want to learn in a controlled, polished setting • Transitions (PowerPoint-wise) should be quick and subtle • Flashy and ostentatious ones not only distract the heck out of your audience, but interrupt your delivery as well • Transitions should be used to amplify your momentum, not cripple it; you aren’t using them for their own sake.

13. Design and Format • Remember your transitions in advance • That way, you can start clicking to the next bullet – or even the next slide – as you’re finishing your discussion about the current one • If you have to wait after you finish a point, especially for a long transition or for a slide to switch, it leaves you pausing awkwardly • That’s a lot of awkward-pause potential if you have a presentation that runs over ten slides!

14. Design and Format • Don’t spend too long on one bullet, and don’t spend too long on one slide • I can’t think of many reasons to stay on one slide for much longer than a minute • On the other hand, don’t flash bullets too quickly or all at once, and don’t show slides without transitions (there are exceptions); parcel out your information at a specific pace

15. Design and Format • Avoid full-blown sentences (like everything in this presentation) as bullets unless they’re necessary • Quotes are fine, for example • This presentation breaks the rules for note-taking purposes; don’t let yours look like mine! • I’d rather hear your verbal elaboration in this presentation than see you elaborate in writing • That was what your paper was for!

16. Design and Format • Some colors, particularly when it comes to fonts, don’t project well • Purple, especially richer shades, doesn’t show up against anything other than a white background • Don’t choose your color scheme and aesthetic randomly! • Skinny fonts do not work • Don’t just embolden your text: find fonts with substantiality • You want readability above all else, and some fonts simply weren’t designed from presentations • Times New Roman works great for essays, but do you really want to see it blown up on the big screen?

17. Design and Format • Also, the bold command usually isn’t enough to make your font stand out against your background • You need to also give the words some sense of depth • That requires you to go into the “Font” command menu and choose “Shadow” • If you do this in the Master screen, it will apply to all of your slides

18. Design and Format • When you embed your images, make sure they don’t clash with the background you chose • This is for those who don’t plan to make the background itself the image • Your own visuals are always superior to something you can pull at random off Google – not just because it makes your work feel more organic, but because the images you produce are often more relevant to what you’re presenting than something you grabbed off a search • Similarly, Web images are better than clip art, which comes across as amateurish unless you use it effectively (which is really, really tough to do) • Clip art is better than nothing • Don’t show up without visuals!

19. Design and Format • Capitalize your slides consistently • The bullets should be short, so you should capitalize their words you’d capitalize in an essay title • Prepositions and the like remain lowercase, while nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. get the uppercase treatment • This goes for your slide titles as well • Similarly, you won’t really use end marks in your PowerPoint • The main exception occurs in your slide titles: if you’re asking a question there, you have to include the question mark at the end • Don’t forget your Works Cited page!

20. Last Things Last • If you encounter adversity, roll with it! • I’ll be watching to see how you handle things if they do not, in fact, go as planned (say, if you drop a PowerPoint remote and it explodes mid-presentation) • Finally, remember that everyone in the room except the person scheduled to go after you is rooting for you • (That guy, on the other hand, is hoping you bomb so he’ll look better; don’t look at him)