Preparing Effective PowerPoint Presentations
Jane Carver, PhD
Emeritus Professor Dept. of Pediatrics

An important part of advancing your academic career is learning to create and deliver effective and compelling oral presentations. Remember that your job is not just to deliver information. You, as the speaker, are an expert who can personalize, clarify and illustrate what you present by sharing your personal experiences, opinions and knowledge. Consider this: If your audience could learn just as much by reviewing your slides versus listening to your presentation, then you have not done your job as an effective communicator.
Basic guidelines for creating slides:
  • Use large font and limit the amount of text per slide. This is especially important for presentations that are delivered virtually, which are often viewed on small screens. Ensure that figures and tables are also readable by all viewers.
  • Avoid showing complex figures and tables. Consider simplifying them to show just the key data. Remember that if you adapt someone else’s material, you need to include a notation stating that it was adapted.
  • Dark text on light background is the easiest to read.
  • Use bulleted points instead of paragraphs.
  • Use phrases instead of sentences – it will help prevent you from reading your slides.
  • Fully credit all borrowed material.
  • Use a mix of text, tables and graphics.
  • Consider your audience. If it is broad, avoid field-specific jargon and define acronyms.
  • Make sure there are NO typos in your presentation. Use the “add to dictionary” feature for correctly spelled words so that you have nothing (terms, titles, abbreviations, names) underlined in red.
  • Create your slides well in advance, allowing time for others (and you) to carefully review them for content and composition.