Slides That Win: What to Do About Sentences

	Slides That Win: What to Do About Sentences How to make the most of your PowerPoint presentation by Claudyne Wilder and Jennifer Rotondo

	Sentences have almost no value on the screen: If you use sentences on your slides, you may as well hand out your presentation, then sit down and let the audience read it. They can read faster than you can talk. "But sentences remind me of what to say. I don’t actually read them out loud." Stop! You as the presenter may not read the sentences, but the audience does. And they are in conflict. Should they read the slides or listen to you? They do a little of both -- and miss much of what you say. Add value as the presenter: Make your text brief, or turn it into an image. Then show the audience you know your subject by explaining the image. No one buys a slide, they buy the idea you present. The slide helps, but you and your words sell the idea. Streamline your information. Reduce it to the essentials. Make your point as you speak -- don’t put the whole point on the slide. Streamlining ideas 1. Ask yourself, "Will putting this information on the slide help me reach my objective?" 2. Use the 8 x 8 guideline. Use only eight bullets per slide and about eight words per bullet. When you follow the guideline, you’ll never use sentences. Sentences Vs. Phrases Delivery Tip: When you start a presentation with ten slides about your company, you will not engage the audience members’ interest. Instead, you will feel their boredom as you continue with slide after slide about the company. Then you, as the presenter, will lose energy and start acting as bored as the audience. [an error occurred while processing this directive] Do yourself a favor! Make the company portion of your talk short. If that’s not possible, make it interesting with a variety of different-looking, non-sentence slides. Phrases vs. Shapes Don’t repeat words and phrases: There is no need to repeat "BE THEIR" every time. It just obscures the point of each line. Text in ALL CAPS on the Red Light slide: Notice how hard it is to read. Source: Wilder Presentations 1 2 Next