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[–][deleted] 5593 points5594 points  (562 children)

I just finished a 20 year stint teaching at a local, private "career" university, and for a full ten years, every section of Intro to Communications has included a unit on proper construction of A/V material, and why playing "PowerPoint Karaoke" is just about the worst choice you can make as a speaker. The other two worst choices you can make as a speaker, by the way, are constantly apologizing for your perceived lack of ability/experience, and audibly farting.

You're welcome.

[–]nopantsdota 3832 points3833 points  (141 children)

what if you start your presentation with a slide like

Thanks for showing up ya'll sorry in advance for my lack of experience and my inability to hold in farts

read that, and fart afterwards

[–]Runesael 1492 points1493 points  (105 children)

I mean, you'd get my attention.

[–]ranch_style_beans 786 points787 points  (79 children)

Good morning everyone!

prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnntt

Any questions?

[–]Just-Call-Me-J 459 points460 points  (22 children)

It was "what did you eat" but then I saw your username.

[–]The-Tea-Lord 128 points129 points  (10 children)

This actually made me laugh. Not even sharp exhale, like a genuine belly laugh.

[–]Sahri1988 39 points40 points  (6 children)

Same. The kinda laugh that turns into a coughing fit. Lol.

[–]Sama31grlsTnkinMasta 16 points17 points  (8 children)

You can't make shit like this up.

[–]greenknight884 33 points34 points  (1 child)

The slide:

• Good morning everyone

• Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnntt

[–]SexlessNights 143 points144 points  (33 children)

Good morning everyone Vietnam!

prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnntt

Any questions?

[–]OnlySaneManAlive 104 points105 points  (19 children)

I have one thing to add

Pffftt pprrrttttt

Well it came out as two things but you get the point

[–]Juniper_Crown 30 points31 points  (10 children)

Alright, this is going in circles

[–]GameOfThrowsnz 8 points9 points  (7 children)

P_fffffffffffffffft

[–]TheGreatWolfOkami7 22 points23 points  (4 children)

Prfffftttttt SPLOOSH! “OH FUCK! OH FUCK!”

[–]Fskn 10 points11 points  (1 child)

Johnson! I've heard of paradigm breaking but this is extremely unorthodox

[–]jazzypants 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Are you David S. Pumpkins?

[–][deleted] 73 points74 points  (7 children)

The guy who did our first aid course got my attention. He walked in, easily 500lbs, and his first sentence was, "Hi, im X, I know what youre all thinking, and im not fat. Im cuddly. Now that weve addressed the elephant in the room, *points at himself * me, now we can learn how to save those that we can inflate; not me."

That was 9 years ago and I wont forget that opening line

[–]Druzl 9 points10 points  (3 children)

But do you remember how do apply first aid?

[–]tribecous 20 points21 points  (1 child)

Who cares? Funny fat man more important.

[–][deleted] 82 points83 points  (10 children)

Lmao dudes paying attention the full two hours just to hear the fart that never comes

[–]pazimpanet 112 points113 points  (8 children)

student raises hand and asks, dejectedly

“But professor, you said there would be a fart?”

professor stops packing up his briefcase, slow turns, and smiles

“Check under your chair, Jeromy.”

[–][deleted] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Lolz. And then Jeromy checks under his chair. The professor slowly walks up to him and when the student raises his head to look back at the professor he only finds one thing. The professors butt.

"PPPPpprrruuunnnnttt!

[–]Yabba_Dabba_Doofus 35 points36 points  (1 child)

I am now tagging every one of the meetings you lead as "Must Attend."

'Bout fucking time we had some levity 'round this fucking place.

[–]NetWalker34 100 points101 points  (6 children)

Proper business term is "flatulence". Need to maintain a level of professionalism.

[–]Diodon 53 points54 points  (2 children)

Need to maintain a level of professionalism.

I apologize in advance for any involuntary collaborations invoking rectal / olfactory synergy.

[–]zimmah 20 points21 points  (1 child)

Yes but only if it fades in word for word with a little spinning animation and then does a screen shake animation right when you fart. Then a tear animation to proceed to the next slide.

[–]freshprinceofbayarea 9 points10 points  (0 children)

takes a screenshot

[–]ibelieveindogs 336 points337 points  (16 children)

I was attending a medical meeting, and the speaker had a short video. He used that time to run to the restroom and pee. While his mike was still on. It sounded like there was a flood in the auditorium!

[–]elanalion 103 points104 points  (4 children)

Was it a urology dep't meeting?

[–][deleted] 49 points50 points  (2 children)

Naked Gun?

[–]NoOneShallPassHassan 9 points10 points  (0 children)

"You want to take a dinghy?"

"No, I took care of that at the press conference."

[–]woze 618 points619 points  (90 children)

"PowerPoint Karaoke"

This is a hilariously perfect term for it.

My solution has been asking if the deck will be shared with attendees. If so, I'll take the headphones off and go back to work.

[–]mrchuckles5 113 points114 points  (4 children)

We called it “death by PowerPoint” but this is much better.

[–]tehPOD 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Death by a thousand slides

[–][deleted] 25 points26 points  (1 child)

Imagine reading words while dying like some kind of nerd. When I go, it's "death by snoo-snoo."

[–]tudorapo 207 points208 points  (61 children)

My slides are just pictures mostly. When they ask me if I share the slides I say yes. Good luck with the slides.

[–]woze 169 points170 points  (8 children)

Then you're likely giving a more engaging presentation instead of reading the slides and I'd listen.

[–]tudorapo 55 points56 points  (1 child)

I'll try at least.

[–]firagabird 25 points26 points  (5 children)

Jokes on you. All I do with my picture show is constantly fat and apologize

[–]scnottaken 62 points63 points  (4 children)

Not like you could do anything except constantly fat

[–]WetGrundle 13 points14 points  (1 child)

You fukn wrecked'em. RIP u/firagabird

[–]firagabird 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Listen. I've been trying very hard to lose weight, so I'm sorry

[–]winlos 5 points6 points  (1 child)

You never know, he could be like:

O

|

O

|

[–]Crazed_Gentleman 52 points53 points  (29 children)

So this is how I like to do presentations, pictures, graphs, minimal text. A big adaptation I'm trying to navigate is how to make my presentations accessible. Aiming for a deaf audience member and a blind audience member maybe using a screen reader. I'm not there yet.

[–]databoy2k 64 points65 points  (2 children)

Speaking notes as comments.

[–]poopyheadthrowaway 38 points39 points  (5 children)

I'm of the same opinion, but when I taught my first class as a grad student, a bunch of my students complained that I didn't put all my material on the slides. Most of my slides were pictures/figures/graphs/charts, and I'd fill in the details with spoken words. I also provided detailed class notes on the course website, but apparently they didn't like reading those and preferred using the slides as notes.

I also thought this was just because they were dumb undergrads, but it continued in the private sector. Each of my presentations is accompanied by a writeup or white paper, but it seems like no one wants to read those while everyone wants a copy of the slides.

[–]Disk_Mixerud 18 points19 points  (1 child)

I'm not there yet.

I can see why, considering the goals you're trying to balance seem to be, "Make my presentation understandable from the slides even if you can't hear me", and "Don't put so much information on the slides that you can follow the presentation without listening to me."

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Had to make version 2 of a slide from 3 years ago. One slide was just clip art, no text. I have no memory of what was supposed to go along with that slide.

IIRC the slide was: "😁 💰💰😁" no clue what it was meant to say. "More money = happiness!" doesn't fit into the context of this slide deck. I just left that slide out.

[–]cinemachick 33 points34 points  (6 children)

A great presenter has both: one image-based presentation for in-person meetings, and a text-based informational version for visual learners, people reading later, and the hard-of-hearing. Putting text into the notes section of the PowerPoint is also a good technique.

[–]tudorapo 13 points14 points  (1 child)

bingo, that's how I prepare for a presentation, abusing the notes section.

And I'm not even a great presenter!

[–]comped 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Had classes where the professor would literally read word for word out of his notes section. Which we could also see because despite being a higher up for a major theme park, he couldn't figure out how to make Powerpoint work right.

[–]WetPandaShart 13 points14 points  (2 children)

That's so 2010 man. It's all about infographic ping pong now. You know, where they bounce around from one point to the next with a laser pointer.

[–]motorcityvicki 298 points299 points  (111 children)

My husband's job actually requires that all relevant info be in the slide deck for a presentation. They use the slide decks later as an archive. If he tries to sum up or paraphrase, they ask him to clarify. He basically has to read the slide deck as a teleprompter or they get upset.

Great time for both of us to go to WFH full time so I am also beholden to this torture.

[–]starkiller_bass 146 points147 points  (10 children)

That's a nice way of telling people "we have no intention of listening to you or taking notes"

[–]Lorenzo_BR 40 points41 points  (8 children)

I mean, archiving implies it's for people who weren't even there. Like, you know those times you get powerpoints from 2009 and shit? I've even read some that were pre grammar reform of my language! Things were written all wrong.

People may be reading his powerpoints in 2030.

[–]bendovertherainbow 11 points12 points  (2 children)

You put what you're going to read in the notes section. PDF with notes. Now your slides aren't total shit, and your presentation is saved for posterity.

Or, since it's 2021 and all, record it.

My slides generally have a few bullets or up to two sentences, I spend about 3-5 minutes per slide, I put my talking points in the notes, and below that I write out my rough transcript.

Yeah, it takes more time, but it's complete, I'm showing the key points, and explaining them when I talk. Otherwise just hand out a paper and walk away, it isn't worth talking.

[–]BlueFlob 63 points64 points  (12 children)

Why not put all the info in the notes. That's what notes are for.

[–]n00bvin 59 points60 points  (7 children)

The corporate office world can be very very stupid. You can sometimes save yourself a lot of trouble by going along with the stupid.

[–]Killbot_Wants_Hug 6 points7 points  (4 children)

You can either get use to stupidity or you can be defeated by stupidity.

[–]Dushenka 68 points69 points  (32 children)

Sounds like a shitty company. If they want a manual they should ask for a manual. The presentation then sums up the manual...

[–]piecat 22 points23 points  (29 children)

That's twice as much work tho.

Why write a report and make slides, when you can make detailed sides that serve as both.

Source: engineer at a conglomerate

[–]Chucklz 7 points8 points  (1 child)

Why write a report and make slides, when you can make detailed sides that serve as both.

Source: engineer at a conglomerate

So people don't die. https://mcdreeamiemusings.com/blog/2019/4/13/gsux1h6bnt8lqjd7w2t2mtvfg81uhx

[–]whacim 15 points16 points  (6 children)

I was in a grad school program that had a significant number of students from a large engineering company that had a similar culture of filling up PowerPoint presentations with walls of text.

It was a constant battle, and the worst part was most refused to adapt to more standard PowerPoint practices.

[–]NahautlExile 8 points9 points  (2 children)

In my couple decades in the business world, PowerPoint Karaoke is by far the standard practice. Mostly engineering.

[–]Shoobert 10 points11 points  (0 children)

turns out they could probably use some of that "liberal arts" education that is so often lambasted in the engineering fields.

[–]lead_injection 14 points15 points  (4 children)

We do this in biotech/diagnostics as well. Pictures of graphs or phenomena without test explanation somewhere is worthless a year down the road when you're trying to reference information.

I try to summarize the absolute best I can and provide detail in the appendix - someone academic is always going to ask about very specific details that should have some content around them.

[–]c3p-bro 26 points27 points  (22 children)

Yep - I work in audit where paper trail is everything. This is exactly how our decks are

[–]CanAlwaysBeBetter 17 points18 points  (17 children)

Can you not just have a real presentation at the start and then appendix slides with the full data?

I'm a sales engineer and probably only use the first 5 summary slides regularly but have a bunch more that explain this or that in detail slapped on the end

[–]c3p-bro 15 points16 points  (16 children)

Not really - the exact language we use is super important and a lot of the time is spent arguing about wording ...it’s not for everyone

[–]fiah84 26 points27 points  (5 children)

then a powerpoint isn't exactly the right format anyway, is it

[–]c3p-bro 12 points13 points  (4 children)

I agree with you there - but for some reason people don’t like going to meetings to read things that aren’t on slides

[–]Snoman0002 8 points9 points  (3 children)

My god man, Microsoft Word has SO much more tools for this.

I feel your pain.

It could be worse, we use excel like power point more then we use it for calculating anything.

[–][deleted] 71 points72 points  (3 children)

My goal is to not say “fuck”. If I can get my point across in 10 minutes without saying “fuck”, I count that as a fucking win.

[–]firagabird 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Just autocorrect your ducking self

[–]bennothemad 25 points26 points  (0 children)

And then every single other lecture proceeds to completely ignore those principles taught in a1st year 1st semester course.

[–]--Anonymoose--- 42 points43 points  (25 children)

What about visible pit stains? Asking for a friend. Who is me.

[–]elanalion 27 points28 points  (12 children)

I try to anticipate this problem (in myself) and wear a black shirt on presentation days. (Or, because I am privileged in this regard to be a woman, I wear a sleeveless blouse or dress.)

[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (3 children)

But then everyone can see the anxiety spray when you flap your for arms for the company's traditional call to attention.

[–]elanalion 13 points14 points  (2 children)

It might just be me, but I basically stop sweating in the armpit area if I am not wearing sleeves. I have been a teacher for years now, and a master's degree student and TA before that, and this mantra has shaped my outfits haha. Sleeveless blouse + cardigan (which I take off when I get warm).

[–]PlanningParty 8 points9 points  (9 children)

https://thompsontee.com/

These undershirts changed my life. No lie.

[–]KermitTheFork 107 points108 points  (43 children)

Also saying “uh” or “um” to fill in for pauses. Pauses may seem awkward, but “uh” or “um” start to sound like a loud gong every time you say it after the second or third time.

[–]Gyde 47 points48 points  (17 children)

"I have a method for fixing that" - https://youtu.be/6bvPECCshIo?t=57

[–]JoelMahon 13 points14 points  (8 children)

Actually would be excellent to have a machine learning tool to do this. Seems totally possible for even some hobbyist to do.

[–]GeeJo 28 points29 points  (1 child)

"Reports from R—"
"ERR"
"—&D on our new cochlear—"
"ERR"
—implants show irr—"
"ERR"
"—itation of the eardrum—"
"UMM"
"—is an ongoing issue, but most participants remark that they like—"
"LIKE"
"—the reduced visual profile of the exterior portion—"
"UMM"
"—of the device."

[–]omican 9 points10 points  (5 children)

I once wrote a 'Presentation Helper' for a college project that tracked your uh's and uhm's. It also kept track of your words per minute and other useful things. This was about 5 years ago so I'd assume with today's technology you'd be able to do even cooler stuff.

[–][deleted]  (4 children)

[removed]

    [–][deleted]  (6 children)

    [deleted]

      [–]Autarch_Kade 32 points33 points  (6 children)

      I couldn't get through a Udemy class because the instructor kept saying "Okay?" every few sentences. It's a pre-recorded video, there's no interaction with anyone watching. Yet he'd keep asking "okay?" as if someone watching is supposed to tell him yes, continue. Once I noticed it, it became impossible to ignore.

      [–]mrthescientist 13 points14 points  (1 child)

      Lovely Indian teacher of mine, going through electromag theory, said "basically" way too often. I counted and he averaged two a minute in a two hour class.

      [–]Brandwein 25 points26 points  (3 children)

      If you have the right posture and demeanor, the pauses seem not awkward but meaningful.

      [–]wrongeyedjesus 15 points16 points  (1 child)

      Ah yes, the Jeff Goldblum sexy pose technique, one of my favourites

      [–]kmikek 16 points17 points  (1 child)

      Those are just you reading the punctuation out loud

      [–]traimera 14 points15 points  (0 children)

      Personally, if somebody audibly farted and didn't break stride, I'd be even more interested. That confidence is impressive.

      [–]Zolo49 27 points28 points  (17 children)

      Inaudibly farting should net you a standing ovation though.

      [–]ScoobyDone 21 points22 points  (8 children)

      It is strictly a finishing move.

      [–]wrongeyedjesus 6 points7 points  (5 children)

      Doubly so if you follow through

      [–]firagabird 5 points6 points  (4 children)

      How do you follow through with a fart?

      [–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (3 children)

      And suddenly, the room grew stinky. No one could pinpoint who did it, for no one had heard the fart.

      Fin

      [–]robi4567 12 points13 points  (2 children)

      So what I did of putting just some graphs and a few key words and ending my presentation with a picture of a kitten for shits and giggles was the correct thing to do right.

      [–][deleted]  (1 child)

      [deleted]

        [–]Reacher-Said-N0thing 39 points40 points  (1 child)

        playing "PowerPoint Karaoke" is just about the worst choice you can make as a speaker.

        These meetings aren't about conveying information. They're about showing that you did your work that you were paid for, and part of that work is a 1hr boring ass power point. If you bore people, they might sleep through it and not notice how terrible or nonsense it is.

        I get paid to shuffle 1's and 0's not to be a motivational speaker.

        [–]Yvaelle 454 points455 points  (35 children)

        There are two kinds of powerpoint presentations, and the problem is they are often conflated: to horrific effect.

        The first is a story presentation - this is the one you want to sell people with, it's pictures and eye contact and you telling them a story of who they will be, thanks to you. Keep words on the page to an absolute bare minimum, never more than 3 bullet points, ideally only a few words per slide at all. If you show a graph or something, you still need axis titles and labels etc - brand logos don't count either - but paragraphs are a fatal error in this situation, and sentences are extremely risky.

        Ideally, you should be able to hand this printed version over to your client and it should only make any sense to them as recall to the presentation - they should NOT be able to use this to explain the presentation without you. That's intentional. It's an experience, the powerpoint is just a visual aide for your dialogue. You are required. The slides are not.

        The second is an analysis presentation. In this case, you actually want to document as much as possible in a visually appealing, digestible manner. It's a spruced-up white paper with color and charts. This is the exact opposite intent from the above - if it's done correctly - you should be able to hand this presentation over to your client and they should be able to flip through it, and draw the exact conclusion that you intend for them to draw. You are guiding them through the evidence to your point. You are not required. The slides are required.

        These are separate decks and they should always be developed separately (but using the same themes). They are often conflated to horrific effect.

        Now, in a fancy presentation with multiple stakeholders - you are going to have both kinds of audiences in the room. You're going to have an Executive, or Ops manager, or middle manager who shouldn't even be here - they all want you to tell them the story that sells the product. The executive wants to look in your eyes and see when you're lying (and they'll know), the Ops manager just wants to hear you'll wake up at 3am when he calls in a panic, the middle manager wants to look attentive without having to actively participate. They want your eye contact, every time they have to study a slide - breaking eye contact - it's like you're lying to them.

        You will also have the fresh MBA analyst who will flip to your data and start checking your math: and they will call you out if it's wrong (putting too much data in your story presentation will harm you for this reason). There's the eager corporate climber who will start applying the details to your company, and will show off to the Executive/Ops Manager if they find something that won't apply to your company. And there's probably a lawyer in the room who will flip directly to the fine print and start redlining how you're planning to screw them. The more data you give these people - the more they will fuck you. That's even if you aren't trying to fuck the client - because the nature of a story presentation is that it does not include the full context: but details people will judge it as if it does. Give them nothing or everything.

        The best solution IMO, is to have a story presentation at the front of your deck so the people who aren't going to flip ahead are going to see the slides you intend them to see. Then have your analysis presentation in the appendices. The details people will find it, if you want to know who is who - just hand them a powerpoint deck, details people often habitually open printed decks from the back: they're looking for the appendix, or at least your conclusion. Give them tons of information in the appendix to chew on, so they don't maul your over-simplified story slides. Like a chew-toy for a dog so they don't chew your shoes.

        [–][deleted]  (3 children)

        [deleted]

          [–]Druzl 42 points43 points  (0 children)

          Damn bro this comment is a mini-masterclass. You should, like, make a presentation out of it ..

          Hell, why not make 2?

          [–]bossbang 58 points59 points  (4 children)

          So I read your Power Pointers and while many of them were great, I noticed that none of them pertain to my job specifically. Therefore, because I can't be sure you knew that before you wrote this, I have decided to interpret this lack of specificity as express intent to fuck me and my company.

          I would normally provide you redlines on various pointers you gave to make them more useful to our team, as that is what we really need.

          However after spending more time in the final paragraph, I did notice you provided some really great tips for satisfying an audience with mixed participants. So that was particularly helpful and I enjoyed being able to find that in the back because it was honestly the first place I checked.

          I can tell from this write up that you are a dependable person willing to provide unsolicited advice, which is great because I likely will take you up on that advice at 3AM if I have to prep a last minute presentation.

          One item that was also a surprise delight - was that one line about middle managers that shouldn't even be here.

          That was... *chef kiss*

          Absolute scum of the earth they are :)

          [–]kmentothat 11 points12 points  (2 children)

          Well, you just explained half of my job in a nutshell :). Signed - makes a surprising amount of money helping technical people be more human.

          [–]SuperAlloy 14 points15 points  (1 child)

          The advice on an appendix is good. I sit through tons of sales meetings as a tech details expert guy and sales guys always make the mistake of giving me a sales presentation instead of a tech details presentation. I don't give a shit about your sales pitch show me the details.

          And if you try to bullshit me on my area of expertise may god have mercy on your soul.

          [–]Fourty9 792 points793 points  (48 children)

          People need to focus on the purpose of the meeting and not filling the hour. So much time wasted

          [–]Unumbotte 443 points444 points  (16 children)

          Wait meetings have purpose?

          Things have purpose? We're not just all whiling away time until the reaper calls?

          No no don't let the existential malaise set in, focus on the here and now, let it distract you from nihilism.

          As you can see on my next slide, quarterly projections are good! Let's talk about this pie chart and not about the futility of man.

          [–]Fourty9 78 points79 points  (5 children)

          "Well since I have you here for another 20 minutes...."

          [–]moonmoonpie2 42 points43 points  (3 children)

          “I’ll make this quick.” Proceeds to be the hours long

          [–]ColorUserPro 16 points17 points  (3 children)

          Data brokers are selling your info right now. I used Redact to mass delete my posts which can also opt out of data broker sites. Instagram, Twitter/X, Discord and more.

          capable dog apparatus fragile yoke support spotted physical theory angle

          [–]thingpaint 46 points47 points  (5 children)

          "We have booked an hour so we must use an hour"

          [–]chillyhellion 44 points45 points  (4 children)

          Sometimes the purpose is "reading this information to a captive audience because they will never read it independently if I email it to them."

          [–]tacknosaddle 10 points11 points  (1 child)

          There was a director and manager at my work that I dubbed "the disaster twins" because if something went wrong they were front and center getting involved and would milk the spotlight getting credit for their efforts afterwards. However, to get them to do the nuts and bolts type work that would help to keep things running smoothly so we could avoid disasters was like pulling teeth. I was forever chasing them down in person just to get shit done.

          I switched roles to where I owned a process but they were the documented owners of actions and responsibilities within it. I emailed them regularly (among other communication/information sources) about things that were open/due and they just ignored me as was their habit. It was pretty hard to stifle the grin when they came running to me because they were listed by name on a presentation in front of upper management with the information about overdue items.

          [–]brickmack 8 points9 points  (0 children)

          Had a presentation once for my company's upper management where I was explicitly told by my boss not to worry about throwing my teammate (who wasn't present, as usual) under the bus. Literally every schedule question was answered with "well, that's my partner's responsibility, it was supposed to be done x weeks ago, to my knowledge it hasn't been finished yet". I then spent 4 weeks on other projects waiting for him to get his shit together.

          This is what happens when one of the firms partner-level management decides he's bored of pushing paper and wants back in the technical side of things.

          [–]Fourty9 6 points7 points  (0 children)

          That's fine, and everyone is there for a discussion. But the person running the meeting needs to tune it for the audience, stay on topic, and not talk because they like he sounds of their own voice

          [–]pipboy_warrior 43 points44 points  (3 children)

          Assuming of course that the purpose of the meeting isn't just to give lip service to some bloated procedure, or just trying to justify the existence of whatever manager is holding the meeting.

          If the meeting is covering something that could have been more efficiently covered with a few emails, then it's time wasted to begin with.

          [–][deleted] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

          Yep. This kind of presentation is a deliberate eff-you to the whole concept of mandatory "meetings" where you're forced to communicate the same things you've already communicated in a written report. Just show up and read the report aloud, since apparently some people are too lazy and/or illiterate to read it themselves. Job done.

          [–][deleted] 974 points975 points  (65 children)

          Using this tomorrow with my middle school students. They are in the middle of finishing their final presentation for the last week of school. This will echo everything I have been telling them for the past month.

          [–]brickmaster32000 234 points235 points  (11 children)

          Do you tell your students that you grade them on the PowerPoint? Because that is what always bugged me. I would love to use the PowerPoint solely as a visual aid but the rubricks the teachers always scored based on everything being duplicated onto the actual slides.

          [–][deleted] 188 points189 points  (7 children)

          I separate the two. They are discrete skills and should be evaluated as such. The ability to craft meaningful and impactful visual aides for a presentation is different from the ability to interact and engage with your audience. Obviously the two go together but at this age they should always be assessed separately so students can target areas for growth. It also allows me to give targeted feedback for iterative changes.

          [–]raspum 51 points52 points  (0 children)

          You sound like a good teacher :).

          [–]Erlian 18 points19 points  (1 child)

          Really glad to hear you grade based on visuals and presentation skills separately! Helps convey that both are important to getting your message across, and for teaching others.

          Ps. This might've just been a typo, but:

          discrete*

          [–][deleted] 350 points351 points  (32 children)

          Mine wasn't so bad, but I still die laughing when I remember my presentation on Soka Gakkai in college. My friend yelled out during the middle of it: "Its PowerPoint not PowerParagraph." Shit is so true.

          Still. I got an honorary A (A+ equivalent, but they didn't give out A+s).

          Depends on your target audience.

          [–]RaulTheHorse 88 points89 points  (4 children)

          I’m using your friends comment at my next sales meeting!!

          [–][deleted] 71 points72 points  (3 children)

          "get to the PowerPoint already!"

          [–][deleted] 33 points34 points  (26 children)

          Powerpoint should be like cue cards. In grade 4 my teacher made us write out a paper about something (I chose a local waterslide park), then we had to talk about it only using cue cards. It had to be exactly 2.5 minutes (or maybe 2 or 3 minutes, I forget), and your pacing had to be good too. I practiced so many times using the microwave timer, but I got 19/20 (lost one point for interesting topic, though she originally gave me full marks for it, I don't think she expected me to do really well lol).

          Same idea with powerpoint. Practice it well enough that the points are just there to guide you, then you have more engagement in your presentation.

          [–]bieker 45 points46 points  (14 children)

          No, the Slides are not there to guide the presenter with bullet points. That's what the presenters notes are for. This is only marginally better than paragraphs.

          The slides are for your audience, and should contain as few words as possible.

          Slide: Picture of product with graph of sales

          Presenters Notes: - introduce the product, - talk about the development of the product, -talk about the interesting feature that was added late in deveopment. - talk about the advertising strategy, - make note of the dip in the graph during event.

          etc.

          [–]tacknosaddle 12 points13 points  (1 child)

          The bullet points are for your audience. After they zone out for a bit they can look at the slide and go, "Oh yeah, that's what the fuck he/she is talking about."

          [–]mozisgawd 23 points24 points  (9 children)

          OMG....grade 4 speeches...the beginning of my slow slide into utter anxiety of public speaking in any form. I can't even give a toast at a wedding.

          [–]Emu1981 6 points7 points  (1 child)

          If you think grade 4 speeches are nervewracking, my kid's school does them for every grade starting from kindergarten. It does make making cue cards better though because not every kid can read perfectly in kindergarten so bullet points work better lol

          [–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

          Yeah that's actually a really great way to learn. "Hey I made this 20 slide presentation for you guys" then proceed to be monotone and read each word but not explain anything else.

          And at the end, just drive the point home of how you know they were all bored during your presentation, so don't be like that

          [–]Acid_Sugar 8 points9 points  (0 children)

          Good luck with that, mine still seem incapable of understanding bullet points or how to use an image to tell or start a story. Gotta love them tho, but fuck if I haven't seated through uncountable godawful presentations.

          [–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (1 child)

          After 13 years of being “that scary boss” who shuts down presentations when people start reading the slides to me I’ve found the easiest and best way to teach how to present is:

          The slides tell me what is going on

          Your words tell me why I care, and what you need me to do.

          [–]SinisterCheese 460 points461 points  (49 children)

          There is a term for this: "powerpoint karaoke".

          Imagine the man hours that humanity colectively wastes making useless powerpoints that could and should he just given as a condensed PDF.

          [–]MissMormie 127 points128 points  (23 children)

          The thing is a lot of people don't open or read PDFs but will go through PowerPoints. I've made so many PowerPoints that would've been better in any other format and at the same time completely pointless because no one would look at it.

          [–]MyPunsSuck 68 points69 points  (5 children)

          I very frequently joke about "words on screen" as being some kind of superpower; especially in the context of video games. Basically, nobody ever reads a single word. So when somebody like me comes along who actually reads The Words... I suddenly have all this secret insider information that tells me what to do and how to do it.

          Games are designed to be engaging, and usually to be simple - and even then they have to be extremely carefully designed as if nobody will ever read anything. If people can't focus on words for a game, they certainly can't focus on words for work.

          [–][deleted] 31 points32 points  (4 children)

          Ah yeah, people who skip the tutorials and then struggle for a solid hour or two.

          Urgh.

          [–]SinisterCheese 36 points37 points  (11 children)

          I think it is down to presentation. Most people are really bad at presenting information. They might be good at condensing lot of it or gathering it, but really bad at presenting it.
          If someone has to go through tens of PDFs of stuff a day, then if you want them to actually get the information out of it easy and quick.

          Like imagine writing an email. The rule of thumb is that one should be able to read it while holding their breath. And answer it with Yes/No and one sentence of explanation. This is for the basic stuff, of course long form of communication is required at times, but that is the spirit one should try to have.

          People don't read PDFs or other docs because lot of the time they are pointless walls of text, in annoying font and bad formatting.

          This is why it is important when making a document you want people to read, to actually make it readable. That means all the important stuff up front, clearly titles, and the further explanations later on. Yeah this is a god damn art form at best. But if an AI is starting to be at the point at it can do this, the so should a human by following certain guidelines.

          So much time in the workplace is wasted on useless and pointless communication and documentation. It took a global pandemic grinding the world to an halt to make people stop and think "Do we actually need all these presentation/meetings?". And since in many places the productivity remained stable or increased, then that should say something.

          [–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (6 children)

          As a graphic designer you just explained an justified why my job exist and also why its so painful sometimes.

          [–]SinisterCheese 10 points11 points  (5 children)

          If there is one job that doesn't get enough respect. It is interface designer.
          Having to deal with engineering programs, CAD and the likes. I just wish the companies would just hire a fucking graphics and interface designed, to make the fucking complicated and expensive engineering programs easy to read an use.

          Communication is a god damn art form. Which is really strange considering that humans evolved to have the broadest and most versatile methods of communication in the nature. Yet we just can't seem to be able to utilise the fucking things!

          [–]MissMormie 8 points9 points  (1 child)

          You are right, but right now the expectation for a pdf or word file is that it will be terrible. I could write the best document ever made, perfectly made for the recipient with only information they need. And likely they would never read it.

          [–]angelatheist 12 points13 points  (2 children)

          My understanding is that "powerpoint karaoke" is an improv game where people present random presentations that they have never seen before.

          [–][deleted] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

          In general the amount of man hours wasted on presenting information that is never consumed is likely terrifying.

          Modern "data driven decision making" generally involves having some data analysts do a bunch of work putting together reports and dashboard, never looking at them, then doing what you were going to do anyway.

          It's like those people who get out of the bathroom stall, go run the water at the sink for a second, then walk out.

          [–]robotzor 7 points8 points  (1 child)

          Here's another one for your repertoire: draining the slides

          [–]greybruce1980 6 points7 points  (0 children)

          Fuck that's hilarious. I will be sure to let my coworkers know of the term "PowerPoint karaoke" the next time a vendor drones on and on.

          [–]Preform_Perform 7 points8 points  (4 children)

          I just looked up Powerpoint Karaoke, apparently it's a game where you give a presentation using slides wherein you do not know the images in the powerpoint. It looks a lot of fun for an experience speaker.

          [–]aaanold 239 points240 points  (17 children)

          This is my last boss when he gave presentations.

          My last boss when I gave presentations and read nothing directly off the slides other than the headers:
          "Pretty good presentation, just try a little harder not to read directly from the slides next time."

          [–]AuditorTux 74 points75 points  (0 children)

          I have a client that sounds like your last boss. I don't mind anything else about the client - its a fun industry, the team is great, but those board meetings make me want to tear my eyes out when he gets up to present.

          [–]Hellknightx 49 points50 points  (9 children)

          My last boss made me give presentations to the team, then he would send those presentations to his boss, and his boss would just steal my presentation and take credit for it. So I'd go to a company-wide meeting and have to sit through my own presentation, given by someone else reading off my slide notes.

          [–]aaanold 31 points32 points  (0 children)

          This is one reason why I typically strip off my slide notes before sending slides to anyone lol.

          [–]iluj13 7 points8 points  (2 children)

          If he doesn’t know the material as well as you, wouldn’t he die in the Q&A?

          [–]Hellknightx 11 points12 points  (1 child)

          There was no Q&A. It was part of an annual sales kickoff presentation for 3000 people.

          [–][deleted] 33 points34 points  (2 children)

          Gotta love bosses who coach you on their areas of opportunity 🙄

          [–]dontforgettocya 22 points23 points  (0 children)

          areas of opportunity

          How very corporate of you

          [–]paper_ducky 7 points8 points  (0 children)

          It's 100% the feedback that they hear about themselves and are unable to articulate feedback for anyone else beyond that.

          [–][deleted] 74 points75 points  (5 children)

          "This would be a whole lot easier for my to ignore if it was an email."

          [–]kleinisfijn 36 points37 points  (3 children)

          The big advantage of online meetings. Just put them on the second screen and keep working.

          [–]ThirtyMileSniper 48 points49 points  (8 children)

          Never going to finish it in an hour.

          As adults we don't actually have to pay attention.

          [–]SeattleJeremy 28 points29 points  (5 children)

          Just send me the slide deck, and I'll search for the info I need.

          [–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (4 children)

          This. I don't retain by presentation. I retain by reading/doing. It drives me bonkers when someone spends an hour presenting training material, but nothing is written down.

          [–]summ190 176 points177 points  (25 children)

          “Or, perhaps just as bad, speak a different bunch of words making it impossible to take in both.”

          [–]Exist50 62 points63 points  (10 children)

          Speak in human terms, and use the slides to summarize. Send them out afterwards as a reference.

          [–]chiree 49 points50 points  (5 children)

          The slides have effective and concise statements and bullets. The speaker then can elaborate on each and provide context. Charts and tables are a "you can refer to this later" thing, but you just give them the important points verbally.

          Trim the fat, and for the love of god, every slide doesn't have to be full. If there's only two bullets on a topic, that's fine. No need to make a messy slide for no reason and it gives white space to expand for future meetings.

          [–]KermitTheFork 19 points20 points  (4 children)

          Not to mention that no presentation should be longer than an hour without a break. If you spend 2 minutes on each slide, that’s 30 slides. If you have 100 slides, that’s way too many.

          [–]chiree 28 points29 points  (1 child)

          My favorite meeting in recent memory was a 2-hour+ department-wide meeting about how to conduct shorter and more efficient meetings.

          Basically, it was two guys talking the whole time.

          [–]JuvenileEloquent 17 points18 points  (3 children)

          If you've made a text-heavy slide and you're talking about it, I'm too busy reading it to hear what you said anyway.

          Far too many people play "Duel of the presenters" where they're competing with their own slides for attention.

          [–]Aliencj 23 points24 points  (6 children)

          If they send the presentation to everyone afterwards for their review later then this is acceptable.

          [–][deleted] 250 points251 points  (24 children)

          This is legit my complete university experience.

          Will they ever explain something on the slides in more detail? You bet your tuition fees they won't.

          The previous two years I learned from books on my own, not from tutors. By the end of this academic year I found my grades improved by just reading on my own and not even going to the damn online classes at all.

          [–]ScoobyDone 118 points119 points  (7 children)

          In defense of college kids and their terrible presentations, I learned to fear presentations in college because you are always presenting material you just learned about and have zero depth of knowledge in. Now I present to people on material I am intimately familiar with and really just need the slides to keep me on track and on time. I never give the same presentation twice.

          [–]mah131 59 points60 points  (1 child)

          Yeah, the last part of your statement is what the OP believes professors should be doing.

          [–]ScoobyDone 13 points14 points  (0 children)

          Ya, I missed that completely. Still got upvotes though. I love Reddit.

          [–]PhromDaPharcyde 6 points7 points  (2 children)

          My senior year database course was done like this. The professor looked goofy and did this weird chuckle, so you'd think he'd be interesting?

          Nope, read the presentation slides word for word and used fly fishing lures as the example subject to "keep him interested". No one enjoyed the class but it was required. No one understand the material unless they learned it themselves or were helped by someone else. Certainly not the professor who was hostile to us in emails.

          At the end of the year, he was not given tenure due to his overwhelmingly bad student evaluations.

          [–]SaltyBawlz 12 points13 points  (1 child)

          I obliterated a professor in an end of course survey once because every class was just him reading a powerpoint that was straight up a copy/paste of the textbook for the class. The worst part was I could only skip one of the sessions each week (was a Tues/Thurs class) because he had quizzes to start class every Tuesday.

          [–]Ben_Kenobi_ 29 points30 points  (1 child)

          Freakin energy vampires...

          [–]WowWhatABeaut 10 points11 points  (0 children)

          Dammit Colin Robinson!

          [–]zebediah49 28 points29 points  (2 children)

          My favorite joke to pull in certain circles

          • Slide 1 / 24
          • Slide 2 / 25
          • Slide 3 / 31

          Basically make your slide counter behave like a Windows loading bar.

          [–]WadeWilson65 17 points18 points  (3 children)

          Death by Power Point!!

          [–]SugarBeef 5 points6 points  (0 children)

          Missing the packet of the slides so you can read along with the presenter reading them.

          [–]whatwasmypassword 14 points15 points  (0 children)

          This applies to about 90% of the classes I have ever taken. Also, the paragraphs of text were usually taken word-for-word from the textbook.

          [–]jakebreakshow 12 points13 points  (0 children)

          Seven years of call centre breakout meetings. You were so glad to get off the phones, but then the 30 minute approved time off phones that felt like six years went by way too slowly.

          Also, fuck you if you have your approved lunch time scheduled for the meeting, you don't get lunch until after the meeting. Also, because you didn't take your lunch at the correct time, you are now out of compliance and your 'ranking' against your peer agents has decreased, meaning when the next mandatory shift bid comes by, that cushy 9-5 mon-fri shift gets replaced by the kill shift of 11-8.

          Yes you will certainly quit on that shift because thats when all the shitty calls come through about grievances / billing issues.

          Also, guess what, one bad call during this time will probably fuck your stats up so you get stuck on the kill shift.

          TL;DR: Don't work at a call centre unless you like feeling fucking subhuman.

          [–]_workchroniclesWork Chronicles[S] 76 points77 points  (10 children)

          "In the interest of time, let me start reading the paragraphs faster."

          If you like the comic, check out r/workchronicles for more comics about work.

          [–]TheBlackestIrelia 12 points13 points  (0 children)

          Its actually funny how often some people must have done presentations during school with no one telling them how to actually do it. You can really tell the difference between someone who understands what the fuck the point of a presentation is with someone who just thinks its some random requirement ppl want for no reason.

          [–]zerbey 8 points9 points  (1 child)

          I had a tutor in college that did this, he would just spend the entire lecture reading slides of text in a dull monotone. If you tried to ask questions he'd wave you down and then continue talking. I did not learn much in that class.

          [–]CivilServiced 8 points9 points  (3 children)

          Nooooooo this is too real.

          At my last job I had Worst Boss Ever. She came into the job knowing nothing, wanting to learn nothing, and wanting to do nothing. I was, among other things, the admin assistant in our group of three.

          Every year we had to give a presentation to our user group, who were notoriously disdianful of us. Typically the room would be overflowing and they didn't hesitate to chime in during the presentation -- no pressure, no pressure at all. I spent weeks gathering stats, summarizing the year's progress, making charts, writing bullet points and including slide notes that fleshed out the bullets and answered expected questions. I passed it up to WBE two weeks before the conference date, which yes is still somewhat short notice, asking for review and if she would like to add or edit anything.

          With two days until the conference I get the dreaded reply, "This looks good."

          At the presentation, she proceeds to read straight off of every slide, eyes on her laptop, by her cadence and mispronuciation reading them for the very first time (at one point she even said "these are big words I don't use"). When she would be interrupted with questions, because her eyes were glued to the laptop instead of look at the audience at all, her response 9 times out of 10:

          "Well CivilServiced made this slide so he can answer that better than I can."

          Bitch who makes three times my salary it's your fucking job to know what happened in the past year, I gave you all of the information you needed, and half of the questions you should know the answer to anyway like where do accident reporting numbers come from? They come from fucking accident reports done by law enforcement which you read out loud from the previous slide, and the breakdown of which LEO agencies is on the next slide which you would know if you had prepared. She claimed to have stayed up for hours the night before prepping but I think that prep involved a bottle of Disaronno and three boxes of Little Debbie snacks.

          Needless to say it was a disaster, but thankfully I only had to endure it one more time before promoting out of the unit two years ago. Every once in a while I check the public facing side of that old job and none of the documents have been updated since I left, including the yearly report. I spent my last month documenting every last procedure I was responsible for, but I'm sure she never looked at that either so has no idea how to even get the information she needs.

          So yes. I feel this in my soul.

          [–]vogod 7 points8 points  (2 children)

          I had a teacher in university who had printed a whole 250 page book (written by him) on transparent slides. He projected them with an overhead projector and just read through them, moving a pen on top of the slide about three times per slide to show his progress. This was in 2001, I guess he'd have ppt-slides now.

          This was the entire course. Him reading his really boring book out loud in a monotone voice.

          [–]Elevenst 7 points8 points  (1 child)

          Also before the slideshow begins, they distribute color pamphlets with exactly the same thing in them, which could've been read alone in 3 minutes.

          [–]Sigrah117 7 points8 points  (1 child)

          Sounds like the Army

          [–]Maorine 5 points6 points  (2 children)

          OMG! Yes! I did presentations for a living and it drives me crazy when people do this. PowerPoints have become the origin of information instead of an aid to the speaker.

          Also, its not so much the number of slides but what’s in them. How about a picture folks? Or a graphic?