Tips for Writing Presentation Slides

Not many school kids are comfortable when teachers ask them to prepare presentations. It’s such a daunting task that students just do whatever they can to avoid making them. Unfortunately, quite a number of adults still think writing a presentation as something too mentally taxing.

When it’s been hours since you fired up Microsoft PowerPoint and you find yourself staring and blanks, you need help. Here are the top 5 things you need to keep in mind when preparing any presentation

Tips for Writing Presentations

#1. Always have an introduction, main message, and conclusion

The basic element grouping for essays still applies to presentations. You can’t just jump into the main message without giving the audience any kind of context or background information. You’ll end up with too many interruptions and questions later on.

Use the first slide to introduce the outline of the things you’re about to cover. Be sure to put the conclusion at the end to sum up the major points and concepts that the audience should pick up.

Both the intro and conclusion should only take one slide. If you can’t put everything in a single slide, that’s alright. Some presentations are longer than others, so if you really have to, spread them into two slides.

#2. Put one idea per slide

As you move from one slide to the next, you’ll realize that putting only one idea per slide makes the transition from one slide to the next seems fluid. You are explaining your ideas one bit at a time and it is easier for the audience to grasp them. The audience knows that when you move to the next slide, you’re going to introduce the next concept or major point.

#3. Keep the text sparse and short

Although the basic elements of a presentation are similar to an essay, you should never plaster every slide with text. Writing a wall of text is one of the most common mistakes people make when making presentations.

Whenever possible, dedicate at most 25% of the available space for text. The more text you put on each slide will only make the presentation looks cluttered.

At the same time, be sure to use short sentences. Bullet points work very well for this because you don’t even need to write complete sentences.

#4. Focus on visuals

Since text only occupies a small portion of each slide, you can fill the rest with visual elements.

Visual elements are integral parts of a good presentation. Charts and graphs are excellent tools to simplify a long-winding explanation. It’s so much easier to understand complex data when you’re using images instead of words.

#5. Prepare a note

Since you’re keeping the slides nice and clean, you should prepare a note. It’s like a cheat sheet that you can peek once in a while as you’re explaining the main concepts you put on the slides. After all, not everyone is blessed with excellent an memory. If you need a note, make one.

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OK, so those are our simple tips on writing presentations. Just remember that you should prepare the presentation way before you need to present them. Use the extra time to clear your mind so when it’s time to proofread and edit the slides, you can see them with fresh eyes.

If you need help with the proofreading, just copy all the text and paste it on the online spelling checker. It can save you plenty of time when trying to find spelling and grammar mistakes.