Presentations can be boring!
You have sat through your fair share of boring
presentations. You've probably even sat through
presentations where you thought the presenter
was wasting your time. You've probably thought,
"Why am I here? I could just read through the
Powerpoint on my own!"
If you want to avoid being that presenter, then
avoid this public speaking mistake that most
other presenters make:
- Public Speaking Sin: Reading The List
During the lecture, after she'd asked her question,
you would have heard Professor Wrong say something along
the lines of:
"There are three types of knowledge structures. The first
one is Correlated Association. This means...
The second one is Hierarchical structure. This means...
The third one is Goal derived categories. This means...
Now you see how severe [and boring] the 'Read the List'
syndrome is? Unfortunately, most presenters who use
Powerpoint presentations suffer from this sickness.
They love to ask their own questions and then listing
out their solutions. Thankfully, since you've read this
blogpost, you won't be one of them.
While the 'Read the List' syndrome still allows for
information imparting, it's not a very effective way
of educating your audience. You'll most likely bore your
audience and put them to sleep. And the few who do remain?
After several slides, they'll forget most of what you've said.
And no one will walk away feeling inspired and feeling as
though they've learned something.
Imagine being victim to the 'Read the List' syndrome
for the above slide. Now imagine 30 such slides over
the course of one and a half-hours. And yes, that's
a real slide from Professor Wrong's lecture.
So, what's the cure to the 'Read the List' Syndrome?
For one thing, allow learners to discover the answers by
asking them questions. Give them hints and get
them moving in the right directions, but don't
immediately read the whole list of solutions.
- Public Speaking Tip: PARTS Formula for Powerful Presentations
Next, instead of simply reading through the list and defining the
terms, make the talk interesting by adding your own stories,
anecdotes and opinions. [Read more about the power of stories
here] Add value to the Powerpoint by providing interesting,
memorable anecdotes.
The best structure to do this - to avoid Reading The List Syndrome -
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