Week 14: PowerPoint, Only Better : ENGW 3335

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Week 14: PowerPoint, Only Better

Posted by Quinn Warnick April 15, 2011 Comments Off

I really enjoyed our discussion about the best and worst PowerPoint presentations you’ve ever seen. Next week, we’re going to extend that discussion by focusing on some specific strategies you can employ to make sure that your oral presentation doesn’t become one of the Worst Presentations Of All Time.

Before you come to class on Tuesday, please print out and read “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint,” by Edward Tufte, and “In Defense of PowerPoint,” by Donald Norman. You can find PDF versions of both pieces on the Readings page. In class on Tuesday, we will look at a few more examples of successful and not-so-successful presentations, then work on converting your Pecha Kucha storyboards into a real PowerPoint file. Your homework for the weekend is to finish the storyboarding exercise and bring that completed document to class.

We will not meet on Thursday, due to the Easter break, but you should continue working to draft the script and find images for your Pecha Kucha presentation. A rough draft of your PowerPoint file will be due after we come back from Easter break (April 26).

Last but not least, all of the steps listed above are contingent upon your selection of a topic for the Unit #4 presentation. If you have not submitted your topic and received my approval, please email me ASAP.

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This is the website for English Writing and Rhetoric 3335: Technical and Business Writing, taught by Quinn Warnick at St. Edward's University in spring 2011.
Delicious Links

The links below are the most recent additions to my collection of bookmarks that are relevant to this course. You can find a complete list of ENGW 3335 bookmarks on Delicious.com.
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10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Blogging
Nice list of realistic advice from Smashing Magazine: "The most successful blogs are more than a broadcast tool. They are a dialogue between the individuals within your organization and your users. It is important to listen, as well as speak. Unfortunately, the most corporate blogs fail to engage. Instead they focus on telling readers how great their products and services are. Rarely do they ask for feedback or ask questions."
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As usual with The Oatmeal, it's funny because it's true.
Minimalistic Callouts Heighten Visual Appeal
Tom Johnson compiles numerous examples of callouts in visual instructions and concludes with this helpful advice: "Callouts should not distract the focus away from the image but should supplement the image. To keep the callouts in the visual background, make the callouts as minimal as possible, avoiding callout bubbles, box formatting, or background shading."
New York Times: E-Mail Gets an Instant Makeover
Will Facebook's new email system finally kill email once and for all? (My prediction: No.)
Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period
Farhad Manjoo carefully explains why some people put two spaces after a period. And why they're wrong. "Every modern typographer agrees on the one-space rule. It's one of the canonical rules of the profession, in the same way that waiters know that the salad fork goes to the left of the dinner fork and fashion designers know to put men's shirt buttons on the right and women's on the left."
The TED Commandments
A list of ten rules that TED gives to every speaker. Good advice for anyone giving an oral presentation.
The Art of the TED Talk
Aimee Knight offers some great suggestions for giving a TED-style talk.
10 Reasons Why YOU Should Care About Personal Branding
Dan Schawbel: "Our brands are going to be seen everywhere that people are searching, forcing us to manage and monitor them daily."