The Biggest Mistake in Presentations and How You Can Avoid Them

After 90 minutes of listening to her lecture,

I walked out of her Marketing class feeling  
no smarter than when I first walked in.

Have you ever had such a Professor? 
One who made an interesting subject so boring
that she made you feel like she'd torn a hole through
the space-time continuum and stopped time?

For me, it's my Marketing professor, Professor Wrong.
And in case you missed the highly popular first article
about Professor Wrong, check it out here. It contains
the Public Speaking Sins that you should avoid

if you want to avoid being as hated as Professor

Wrong.

Today, while half-dozing through Professor

Wrong's lecture, I realized that many other

innocent people were suffering from the

same teaching mistakes that Professor Wrong

was committing. To avoid boring your audiences,

be sure to avoid this one Presentation Skills Mistake

that most other presenters make:

The Biggest Mistake in Presentations?

• No Audience Involvement

Professor Wrong suffers a severe sickness called

'Answering Your Own Questions'. And today, the

sickness was at it's most severe stage. To get an

idea of how brutal this sickness is, imagine that

you were sitting in Professor Wrong's 10.30 a.m.

Marketing class. About 10 minutes into the class,

you would have heard her ask the following question:

"What are the different types of knowledge structures?"

You would have then seen her click to the next slide

on her Powerpoint presentation which magically

revealed the three different types of knowledge

structures. Take a quick look at the magical slide

(below) and decide for yourself how interested you'd

be in this lecture after 30 such slides:

After Professor Wrong asked the question, you

would have then heard Professor Wrong proceed

to answer her own question. Ten minutes later,

you'd hear her ask another question about the

factors affecting knowledge structure, immediately

after which she'd proceed to give you the three

different factors. And you'd just sit there, wondering

whether listening to a Professor's Q&A monologue

was what education was all about.

• Public Speaking Sin: No Audience Involvement

A question is a great way to arouse curiosity in

the listeners. In Professor Wrong's case, her

question caused me to rack my brains and try

and come up with a suitable solution.

Unfortunately, Professor Wrong wasn't

interested in listening to our answers.

Immediately after she asked her questions,

she proceeded to move on to providing the

possible answers. The questions were simply

a transition so that she could move onto the

next slide.

Here's the problem with this:

While rhetorical questions certainly have

their place in speeches, educators should try

and use questions for audience involvement.

Questions should be used to allow learners to

use their brains and discover the answers for

themselves, rather than simply listening

to the Professor hand out the solutions on

a Powerpoint presentation.

• Public Speaking Tip: If You Ask a Question, Listen to the Answers

If you're a teacher or workshop-leader whose

job is to educate, then use questions to allow

the audience to discover the answers

by themselves! In other words, if you ask a question,

be prepared to listen to the answers. Not doing so can

cause you to be seen as rude and obnoxious. The purpose

of education is to allow learners to expand their critical

thinking skills and discover the answers themselves.

Questions are a great way to do just that.

After this article was written, I came across the following
research study that emphasises the effect of audience
involvement in learning.


Pascarella and Terenzini (1991, p98) report that student involvement
or engagement (active learning) be used since a substantial body of
evidence suggests that the greater the learner's involvement in the 
learning process, then the greater the level of content acquisition. 
Also note that this involvement can be as simple as note taking,
discussions, or answering questions.

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Worst Presentation Skills Mistakes: Why We Hate Professors

If you've gone through college, then you've most likely sat through a class where you've familiarized more with the tiles on the ceiling than the content of the course being taught.


Now, I readily admit, the inspiration for this article came from such a Marketing class. The Professor is a nice, consistent lady who consistently bores her students.

Yet, despite all the ceiling-staring, chatting and snickering at the sex notes being passed around class, the Professor scarcely seems to notice the half-dead bodies of her students beginning to 
slip out of their chairs.

Now, here's the thing. The content of the course this Professor's 
course  is highly interesting - and even slightly useful! The problem is not

with what she is teaching, but with how she is teaching it. For her

(and my safety), I'll avoid mentioning her real name.

However, for the purpose of this article, lets just call her

Professor Wrong.

If you want to avoid boring your audiences, then avoid these

presentation mistakes.

The Powerpoint Problem

Professor Wrong loves using Powerpoint presentations to

teach. Now, there's a good reason for this. Powerpoints are

great because:

(1) They help the audience keep track of what the speaker

is saying. Say, if you have a horrible Professor with a horrible

accent, at least you can always follow what s/he is saying

by looking at the Powerpoint.

(2) The Powerpoint presentations can be uploaded on the

internet so that students can refer to them and use them

after class

(3) They assist the Professor in remembering the points that s/he

has to elaborate upon.

Unfortunately, Professor Wrong uses her Powerpoint presentations

as less of an assistance and more a crutch.

How? She literally reads each slide, word for word. Each of

her slides has between 6 - 8 bullet points each, with each

bullet point having a mini-paragraph underneath.

Sigh.

Here's how to avoid Professor Wrong's mistakes:

Presentation Tip 1: No more than 3 bullet points per slide

If you're going to use a Powerpoint presentation, keep the

number of bullet points per slide below three. Fewer bullet

points per slide means that your presentation will cause less

strain on the audiences eyes. Plus, less text means less

boredom.

Presentation Tip 2: No Paragraphs on Slides!

Do NOT insert a mini-paragraph below each bullet point. It's

difficult to read, and it's boring to stare at large chunks of text.

The less words on your slide, the better! Therefore, keep the number

of bullet points and the total number of words on each slide at a

minimum.

Presentation Tip 3: Do Not Read Everything from your Powerpoint

Unfortunately, Professor Wrong makes the mistake of reading

her Powerpoint presentation word for word. To me, she's less of a

presenter and more of a highly sophisticated robot with the ability

to read from the screen.

By reading straight from the powerpoint, Professor Wrong is commiting

three sins:

• Public Speaking Sin: The Monotone

When Professor Wrong reads straight from her slides,

her voice lacks energy and sounds unenthusiastic. Obviously.

It's hard to sound passionate when reading from a Powerpoint.

However, if Professor Wrong were to stop reading and instead

start sharing her stories [after all, she does have a wealth of

knowledge], then I believe that she'd avoid sounding so

monotonous.

• Public Speaking Sin: The Monologue

Professor Wrong reads straight from the slide. She doesn't

like to ask for opinions because it would break her monologue.

Instead of consulting with her students and asking them questions

and checking to see if they understand, Professor Wrong is more

concerned about reading the slide.

• Public Speaking Sin: No Eye Contact With the Audience

When Professor Wrong is reading from the slide, she is making no

eye contact with her students. In this way, she misses out on establishing

rapport with the students. No wonder she doesn't realize that almost

everyone is playing on their iPhone or BlackBerrry.

Public Speaking Tips

If you want to avoid being hated as much as Professor Wrong:

• don't fall victim to the Powerpoint Problem
• Avoid the Monotone Monologue

The Rules:

1. No more than 3 bullet points per slide
2. No paragraphs below bullet points
3. Avoid reading from the slides. You'll avoid sounding monotonous.
4. Establish rapport by making eye contact
5. Build a relationship with your audience by asking questions and soliciting their opinions

P.S. Forward this blogpost to your Professor. For your safety, do so anonymously. Plus, go ahead and click 'Like' and share with your friends (and Professors) on Facebook.