Content
- Motivate your topic -- Why is the topic important? Why should your
audience be interested?
- Convince your audience that you know what you are talking about. A
good way to do this is to thoroughly research your topic and understand
it well. Supporting your major
points with facts also helps**.
PowerPoint Slides and Overheads
- Follow the
7 x 7 rule: maximum of seven words per line and seven lines per
page. This is one of the frequently violated rules of effective
presentations.
- Use short phrases, not full sentences.
- Use a large font that your audience can read.
- Display web pages infrequently. They are not designed to be
projected on a screen and will appear as a blur to your audience. When you
do choose to display a web page carefully describe the relevant
parts to your audience.
- Handouts are useful when you have lots of text that you want your
audience to read (computer code, quotations, long lists, newspaper articles...)
Presentation
- Look at your audience. You should know your material well enough
that you do not need to read it.
- It's OK to use notes, but they should contain an outline of your
talk rather than a narrative.
- Have fun! Humor helps keep your audience's attention.
** Demonstrate your knowledge by supporting assertions with
facts. Compare the following two examples. The first example is
poorly researched, provides little helpful information and is not
convincing. The second is well
researched and the assertions are well supported.
Unsupported assertions:
- E-commerce fraud is a big problem and getting worse.
- Steps to avoid fraud (followed by a long list of items without
priorities, effectiveness, cost or usage).
Supported assertions:
- E-Commerce fraud:
- Cost on-line retailers $1.6 billion in 2003, or 1.7% of total
revenues.
- 22 times larger than Amazon.com's 2003 profit of $73
million
- 66% of on-line merchants consider fraud a "serious" or "very
serious" problem in 2003, up from 46% in 2002.
- On-line retailers are doing the
following to minimize fraud:
- 75% use address validation (up from 72% in 2002)
- 44% use the Card Verification Number (up from 34% in 2002)
- 40% use or plan to use Card Authentication programs offered
by Visa and MasterCard.
- Decline 7% of on-line orders as "too risky."
|