Sunil Masand

CS 312

Professor Wolf

Presentations have the power to be a great tool to aid others in the power of persuasion or have the power to be the Achilles heel of an otherwise good idea. The web page I found was a written blog of Debbie Bailey who according to her website was a 'well regarded presentation professional’. While it deals with the same topic as our text's article entitled "The Level of Discourse Continues to Slide", it focuses its attention to the large number of slides that sometime ruin or hinder an otherwise good presentation that could be made somewhat more concisely.

Also a major point that seems like common sense yet is overlooked by many who make presentations on Microsoft PowerPoint is that those who make these presentations with a large number of slides never seem to keep the audience in mind when they make this crucial mistake. A simple test such as trying a presentation out to a friend or fellow workmate can do much to aid the presenter in determining if they are using too many slides to make a certain point and where in the presentation they are making this mistake.

The author also gives a list on her blog that illustrates the many negative effects a large number of slides can have on an audience. The list, which again seems like common sense but is often overlooked by these problem presenters, can be summed up by saying that PowerPoint presentations with too many slides have the slides' message and yours lose their appeal and overall effect on the audience. With the audience being overly focused on reading the slides the author argues that the role of the presenter is diminished to a "narrator" of the slides and which has an obvious negative effect on your presentation.

I found that blog made many common sense observations and suggestions that many need to hear about. I think if some people followed these suggestions there would a marked improvement on the quality of the Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.

Citations

1. Bailey, Debbie. "How Too Many PowerPoint Slides Can Ruin Your Presentation."

FunnyDot.com eZine. 2005. 18 March. 2006

< http://funnydotcom.com/blog/2006/02/17/how-too-many-powerpoint-slides-can-ruin-your-presentation.htm>.