PowerPoint Presentation Guidelines

1. Give your presentation an effective title. (Slide #1)

2. Organize your presentation around one main idea. (A thesis!) State that main idea clearly and succinctly on your second slide. 

3. Shoot for brevity, specificity and clarity in your presentation. It should be no longer than five minutes in length. (THE SILICIANO RULE!)

4. Do not include too much information on any ONE slide. (General Rule: One slide should outline the information that you would present in one succinct essay paragraph. Each slide's topic should directly relate to your thesis.) 

Limit the number of words you put on a page:
  1. Avoid paragraphs
  2. Use bullet points
  3. Use succinct phrases instead of sentences
  4. Limit each slide to 6 bullet points (Crocker High School Guidelines)

 

5. Include effective graphics (pictures, paintings, tables, etc.), effects (sound, video), and transitions which improve the presentation of your argument. Do not include jazzy stuff (Clip Art, Bullet sounds) just for the sake of showing off your computer savvy. Mindless effects detract from the effectiveness of your argument.

Fancy is not always better! Keep it simple!
  1. Choose fonts that are easy to read (ARIAL is a good one.)
  2. Choose color combinations that make your text easy to read.
  3. Limit your graphics to 1-3 per page. Too many graphics can be distracting.
  4. Slides are designed to supplement your presentation---not to BE your presentation. 
  5. Don't read your presentation word for word from your slides.(Crocker High School Guidelines)
    6.

6. Make sure that you document your argument with specific references to your text. Use MLA form to show where you found your information. (MLA)

7. Quote the text. Select a quote that is directly related to your argument: short, sweet and to the point. (MLA)

8. Make your conclusion clear. (Re-state your main idea.)

9. Include a Works Cited Page! (Last Slide) (MLA)

10. Proofread and spell check! Proofread and spell check! Proofread and spell check!

Powerpoint Presentation Guidelines (Crocker High School):

Text
  • Every bullet is followed by a capital letter
  • Each bullet has eight words or less
  • Keep font style simple
  • No complete sentences
  • No periods, question marks, or exclamation points
  • No ALL CAPS
Graphics
  • Add to the message of the slide
  • Face the middle of the slide
Transitions
  • Use one transition for all slides
Proofreading
  • Check for spelling errors
  • Check for correct MLA documentation
 
Effects and Animations
  • Use up to three different effects on bulleted text
  • Avoid animation effects on graphics copied from Internet

 

Powerpoint Presentation Tutorials (from Alberta, CN)

  • PowerPoint 2000 Tutorial - Florida Gulf Coast University
    This excellent tutorial is image and text based, and allos you to flow linearly in a step-by-step tutorial, or to jump to the sections you want to focus on. http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/ppt/index.html
  • PowerPoint in the Classroom - A wonderful. student oriented, guide to building PowerPoint presentations. This site includes printable tutorials, a teacher's guide and lots of extras. http://www.actden.com/pp/
  •  Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0 Carol Siwinski - Germantown Academy - You can create overhead slides, speaker's notes, audience handouts, and an outline, all in a single presentation file. PowerPoint uses powerful wizards to help you create and organize your presentation step by step. (site intro.) No images, but clear instructions in this tutorial. http://www.ga.k12.pa.us/curtech/powerwk.htm
  • Office97 PowerPoint Tutorial - Debbie Collins, Programmer Analyst - A tutorial set up as a series of slides, which are image intensive, but provide a logical sequence for developing a PowerPoint presentation. http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~mclweb/ppt1.htm
  • PowerPoint Tutorial - Department of Computer Science at The University of Rhode Island - A tutorial that has good instructions with a minimum of images--suitable if your load time for websites is slower. Good for printing. http://einstein.cs.uri.edu/tutorials/csc101/powerpoint/ppt.html
  • Powerpoint Basics Introduction - A modulized tutorial, which steps you through the development of a PowerPoint presentation, and gives you some very good visual design information. This tutorial works best if the PowerPoint program is open simultaneously while the tutorial is accessed through the web. This is an excellent example, but for some computer configurations this may be too RAM intensive. http://www2.hawaii.edu/~cpeterse/powerpointintroduction.htm
  • Teaching With Presentation Tools - Powerpoint - This tutorial uses PowerPoint generated slides to discuss the elements of building a slide presentation. It provides a model for those who want to prepare a How to Powerpoint. http://www.htctu.fhda.edu/prestools/ppslides/index.htm
  • ED596: Technology for Teachers - Powerpoint Tutorial - This tutorial is designed to assist students in the course, ED596: Technology for Teachers, with completing their Presentation Learning Task. The tutorial is designed to support PowerPoint on both the PC and Macintosh platforms. http://www.orst.edu/instruct/ed596/ppoint/pphome.htm
  • PowerPoint Tutorials - The Media Services department of Eastern Illinois University has created these very thorough tutorials for PowerPoint '95 and '97. http://www.eiu.edu/~mediasrv/PPtut.html (Office '95) 
    http://www.eiu.edu/~mediasrv/ppoint97/PowerPoint.html (Office '97) 
  • Land-Grant Training Alliance Online Lessons, Learning Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 - An free online workshop on PowerPoint 2000 for Windows. http://www.lgta.org/ppt2000/ppt2000.contents.htm
  • PowerPoint 2000 Basics Tutorial - from the Web By Design site at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. This easy to follow tutorial is hyperlinked throughout, making the tutorial succinct where necessary, and helpful when you need it. http://www.iupui.edu/~webtrain/tutorials/powerpoint2000_basics.html