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A day in the life of a doctor
The PowerPoint presentation
The main purpose of a PowerPoint presentation is
entertainment. Intellectual content is an
unwarranted distraction. In preparing a
PowerPoint presentation, aesthetics should
transcend substance.
The background colour scheme and logo for your
slides should be selected for maximum emetogenic
potential. The first inverse ridicule rule of
PowerPoint presentation states: "The more lines
of writing that can be coerced onto a slide and
the smaller the font, the lower the risk of
anyone criticising any data which has
accidentally been included." The second rule
states: "The number of slides you can show in
your allotted time is inversely proportional to
the number of awkward questions which can be
asked at the end." PowerPoint has superseded the
carousel era, when presentations were severely
limited by the number of slots in the slide
carousel and the risk of dropping the lot
seconds before your talk.
Plagiarism laws do not apply to PowerPoint, so
cartoons of marginal relevance but high
entertainment value can be downloaded and shown
at suitable intervals to maintain audience mirth
while minimising critical capacity. Research has
shown that the ideal cartoon:data ratio is 5:1.
The seasoned PowerPoint artist or
PowerPointilliste has refined the presentation
into a son-et-lumiere extravaganza, in which
scattered dots and luminescent clumps of
meaningless datasets hurtle on to the screen
from all points of the compass, to the strident
strains of Handel’s Fireworks Music, building
inexorably to a Fantasia-style Sorcerer’s
Apprentice climax. This fulfils an important
subsidiary purpose of the PowerPoint
presentation—to act as a bioassay of the
epileptic threshold of the audience, a form of
PowerPoint EEG.
PowerPoint has spawned a number of hitherto
unrecognised medical diseases. These include
PowerPoint phobia (PPP), PowerPoint stress
disorder (PPSD), and a virulent form of major
depression called PowerPointlessness.
Yet another purpose of the PowerPoint
presentation is to test the capacity of the
regional electricity grid. In case this should
be found wanting, and your presentation succeeds
in fusing the power supply to the surrounding
region, it is advisable to have a back-up
presentation, a box of matches and a Chinese
lantern. (David Isaacs, Stephen Isaacs, Dominic
Fitzgerald, in BMJ 2007;335:1292 (22 December),
Make a point with the power
I read with interest the message by Issacs et al
(The PowerPoint presentation, BMJ 2007; 335:
1292). I can not agree more. There could be no
better way to send the message across. A very
similar strategy on a similar topic was used by
Smith (1) which was equally interesting. I would
also like to share my views to prevent people
having PowerPoint phobia (PPP), PowerPoint
stress disorder (PPSD) and PowerPointlessness.
Microsoft (2) itself advises how to or not to
use PowerPoint (PP). PP is to support presenter,
not the other way round. One should not put too
much stuff on PP. The number of slides, the
number of lines in a slide and the number of
words in a line - all should be limited, for eg
no more than 5 - 6 bullet points in a slide. Try
not to use fancy fonts or font size smaller than
26-28pts. Too much of special effects, colorful
animations and pictures distract the audience.
They are often used by people who are not so
good in their content, though these powerful
tools can be used wisely. Don't just read it
out, rather use it to emphasize or explain what
you have to say. Remember, audience has come to
listen to you, not to see back of your head. Try
to connect with your audience rather than just
throwing slides. Try to make your talk
interesting by content and your communication,
not solely by power of PP.
Be clear what you want to include in your
presentation and what cannot be accommodated.
Leave enough time for discussion during and at
the end of presentation. A good PP presenter
needs to be a good editor. As someone has said,
a presentation should be like a bikini, long
enough to cover all the important aspects but
short enough to maintain interest. If you wish
to distribute handouts, do it in the end but
announce it at start. Having some feedback after
the presentation from a genuine source is always
very helpful (coming from personal experience).
PP does not give presentations, it makes slides.
What you can do with PP is very different from
what you should do. Never mix them. PowerPoint
is to make your point powerful, not to point
your power.
References:
- Kavita Singhal, Clinical observer Stevenage,
SG1 4AB,
Who wrote the law that mandates PowerPoint?
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* PowerPoint is not a pre-requisite for a
scholarly presentation. I give dozens of talks
each year, and with a few rare exceptions, I never use PowerPoint. When I talk, I pass out a
handout and talk from the handout. I am almost
always the only person in any research conference who does this, so I feel
like I am swimming against the tide.
* I have found, however, that I enjoy my talks
more without PowerPoint. I don't worry about
whether my file will transfer
properly to a strange computer or how it will look at a different
resolution than the computer that I used to
develop the
talk. I look at my audience more and don't nervously glance
backwards to see if I am on the right slide.
* Whether my talks are more effective or less
effective because I don't use PowerPoint is an
open question. There is a vocal minority who believe that PowerPoint will inexorably lead to bad
presentations because it encourages a simplistic
bulletized format that inhibits communication. The rather
provocative titles ("PowerPoint makes you dumb"
Thompson 2003 and "PowerPoint is evil", Tufte 2003) draw a sharp line in the
sand. Others will argue that bad PowerPoint
presentations
are the fault of the presenter.
* I side with the former group. A satirical
attempt to present Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
using a PowerPoint format (Norvig & Lincoln 1863) shows the problem with PowerPoint. Presenting a
talk using bullet points sucks all the life out
of the talk. A brilliantly crafted speech is reduced to idiotic lines like "Men
are equal" and "Government not perish."
* If you dislike most of the PowerPoint
presentations that you see, you can change this
by changing how <i>you</i> present
<i>your</i> material. You can either dip your toe in at the shallow end
of the pool or you can jump in the deep end.
* If you want to start at the shallow end of the
pool, try to reduce your reliance on PowerPoint.
Adopt a minimalist approach- -no template, just black text on a white background. It looks boring, but
it is by far the easiest color combination to
read, especially in a room where you have lighting issues.
* Also, try to use fewer slides. One slide
showing your general outline would be
acceptable, or slides only of your pictures
and graphs. If you do use text, avoid putting everything in bullets. An
occasional bullet list is not bad, but be sure
to mix it
up with sections presenting full English sentences (include both a
subject and a verb).
* I encourage any of you who are currently using
PowerPoint to jump in the deep end of the pool.
Go cold turkey and give
your talk without PowerPoint. Just prepare a narrative
handout--full sentences organized into
paragraphs. Distribute the
handout ahead of your talk and encourage people to read the handout
by including comments like "as I noted at the
top of
page 2" or "look at the graph in the middle of page 4."
* It is a myth that people reading your handout
instead of listening to you is a bad thing.
Anyone who reads your handout
during your talk is showing an active interest in your topic. They
may not remember what you look like, but they
will remember your material.
* If you achieve nothing else, you will
distinguish yourself as being the only person at
the conference who doesn't use
PowerPoint (unless I am at the conference as well). And standing out from
our peers is something that we all strive for.
References:
* Norvig P., and Lincoln A. (1863) "The
Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation" http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/
Accessed on
December 26, 2007.
* Tufte, E. (2003) "Powerpoint is evil." Wired
Magazine (September). Full free text is
available at
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html.
* Thompson C. (2003) "Powerpoint makes you dumb"
The New York Times (December 14). Full free text
is available at
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00EEDF163CF937A25751C1A9659C8B63.
-Stephen D. Simon, Research Biostatistician,
Kansas City, MO, USA 64108 |
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