One of the most original and captivating academic assignments is a PowerPoint presentation. It is quite similar to common essays and other research papers. A researcher should choose a topic and a concrete point of view. Afterward, he/she should gather evidence and convince that his/her thesis is correct. It includes a lot of research and writing. However, there are a few distinct differences.
A PowerPoint presentation involves a lot of visual content that is used as supplementary materials. The most important difference is that a researcher should defend his/her project in front of the public. In other words, it’s demanded to give a speech. This may scare somebody off. Not all people feel confident when they have to give speeches. They make crucial mistakes that may spoil everything.
However, even self-confident students may still fail. There are various mistakes that aren’t made right on the stage. They may be made during your preparation. Thus, you may fail to select proper fonts or slides. Mind that mistakes are of various origins and types.
Therefore, academic experts from AdvancedWriters.com PowerPoint presentation writing service have divided typically into three major categories:
| Type of Mistakes | Sub-Types |
| Visual | Bad fonts and contrast
Multimedia of poor quality Inappropriate color scheme |
| Textual | Too much text
Unreadable text Putting important points on the edge |
| Performance | Reading from the screen
Too quick change of slides Standing in front of the screen |
As you can see, there are three categories that include three sub-types. This makes 9 typical PowerPoint presentation mistakes. We have divided them into separate blocks and will explain each in turn.
Contents
Visual Errors
Let’s begin with fonts and contrast. Students have two major problems with fonts. They pick either too small or too big fonts. If you pick small fonts, your listeners won’t be able to see anything. Big fonts take too much space and this causes other complications. All the facts cannot be reflected on the same page or slide and a speech giver has to interchange them to and fro. This fully spoils the presentation. Find the middle ground. Sit back and play with the size to identify the most suitable.
Bad contrast is another great error. Some students may select the black color of the text on the dark background. It also makes the text invisible or hard to read. The greater contrast is the more enjoyable your text will be.
PowerPoint allows for adding images and videos. It’s a huge advantage and one of the common recommendations. Unfortunately, students use multimedia of poor quality. As a result, the videos and images are indistinguishable.
If you use an inadequate color scheme, you may also bring your presentation to ruin. Too bright colors irritate the eye. Too dark or pale colors make the text unreadable.
Textual Mistakes
Some students write too much text. They forget that a PowerPoint presentation is focused on giving a speech and not reading it. The text you provide on the screen serves as the guideline. You simply add key points that remind your listeners and you the main purpose and sub-purposes of your project. The rest should be told by you. Too much information in one slide is another big mistake you should avoid.
We have already mentioned how inappropriate fonts, contrast, and colors may make a text unreadable. Another way to make such a mistake is to use a bad structure. If you use too long sentences and paragraphs that aren’t logically divided, it’s a textual failure. Your listeners will have no time to read lengthy explanations and examples. Make them concise and clear. Use bullet lists and enumerations, add subheadings, charts, diagrams, and other visual effects to make the text appealing.
One more error is to place important stuff on the edge or bottom of the presentation page. You ought to centralize the major claims of your project. Nonetheless, many people don’t do that. As a result, they place arguments of lesser importance in the middle of the text. All the important matters appear somewhere in the end. Accordingly, listeners don’t even notice them. They focus on the sentences in the center. As a result, they may think that you could not disclose the main question properly.
Problems with Performance
Many students forget that they should speak a lot. Some folks tend to constantly read from the slides. This issue can be explained in two ways. Firstly, they are not self-confident and always check whether they say the right things. Secondly, they aren’t prepared well. If you don’t read and memorize the text beforehand, you force yourself to constantly read from the screen. This creates a negative impression concerning your professionalism.
Some people tend to constantly change slides and do it too fast. It’s a huge mistake because your audience will not be able to read all you share with. You should give your listeners some time to read and understand your intentions. Too fast change only gets on everybody’s nerves. Avoid this bad habit.
Finally, many speech givers undertake one more mistake, which is even ridiculous. They constantly stand in front of the screen. All the lights shine right into their faces. They barely see their own hands but they continue their presentation. You should step aside and use a pointer (digital or wooden) to show what you want. Otherwise, the phrases similar to “As you see…” will be meaningless because your listeners will not see anything at all.
