Chapter No.: 1 Title Name: ffirs.indd Comp. by: Date: 30 Jan 2014 Time: 12:40:00 PM Stage: WorkFlow: Page Number: vi Slide Rules Chapter No.: 1 Title Name: WorkFlow: ffirs.indd Comp. by: Date: 30 Jan 2014 Time: 12:40:00 PM Stage: Page Number: i IEEE Press 445 Hoes Lane Piscataway, NJ 08854 IEEE Press Editorial Board Tariq Samad, Editor in Chief George W. Arnold Mary Lanzerotti Linda Shafer Dmitry Goldgof Pui-In Mak MengChu Zhou Ekram Hossain Ray Perez George Zobrist Kenneth Moore, Director of IEEE Book and Information Services (BIS) Technical Reviewers Muriel Zimmerman Sr. Lecturer Emerita, University of California, Santa Barbara Chapter No.: 1 Title Name: WorkFlow: ffirs.indd Comp. by: Date: 30 Jan 2014 Time: 12:40:00 PM Stage: Page Number: ii Slide Rules Design, Build, and Archive Presentations in the Engineering and Technical Fields Traci Nathans-Kelly Christine G. Nicometo IEEE PCS Professional Engineering Communication Series Chapter No.: 1 Title Name: WorkFlow: ffirs.indd Comp. by: Date: 30 Jan 2014 Time: 12:40:00 PM Stage: Page Number: iii Copyright © 2014 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. All rights reserved Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. 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Communication of technical information. 2. Business presentations. 3. Presentation graphics software. 4. Technical writing. I. Nicometo, Christine G., 1976– II. Title. T10.5.N377 2013 620.0068′4–dc23 2013024801 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Chapter No.: 1 Title Name: WorkFlow: ffirs.indd Comp. by: Date: 30 Jan 2014 Time: 12:40:00 PM Stage: Page Number: iv To our families Chapter No.: 1 Title Name: WorkFlow: ffirs.indd Comp. by: Date: 30 Jan 2014 Time: 12:40:00 PM Stage: Page Number: v Chapter No.: 1 Title Name: ffirs.indd Comp. by: Date: 30 Jan 2014 Time: 12:40:00 PM Stage: WorkFlow: Page Number: vi Contents A Note from the Series Editor ...........................................xi Acknowledgments ..........................................................xiii Foreword ..........................................................................xv Introduction .................................................................1 Understand our path to these techniques .........................1 Witness the change ...........................................................2 Feel confident about these techniques .............................3 References .........................................................................3 1 Heed the Pleas for Better Presentations ..................5 Know the enemy ................................................................6 Be an agent of change ......................................................8 Call a meeting instead of summoning a slide deck ...............................................................................8 Destroy the decks of drudgery ..........................................8 Learn communication lessons from past tragedies ................................................................9 Confront conventional poor practices .............................10 Consider slides as a two-part deliverable .......................11 Implement your own continuous improvement ................................................................12 References .......................................................................12 Slide Rule #1 Revisit Presentation Assumptions 2 Apply Cognitive Science and Tell a Story ...............17 Change presentation practices using grounded research .......................................................................17 Stay open to change .......................................................18 Revisit how a slide works ................................................19 Design slides for audience’s cognitive load.....................20 Lessen cognitive load with storytelling ............................24 Apply science and storytelling .........................................27 References .......................................................................27 vii Chapter No.: 1 Title Name: WorkFlow: ftoc.indd Comp. by: Date: 30 Jan 2014 Time: 12:40:02 PM Stage: Page Number: vii viii CoNTENTS 3 Understand Audience Needs ..................................29 Scope content toward identified purpose .......................29 Learn about your audience first .......................................30 Determine the presentation’s purpose ............................32 Examine the goals for a talk ............................................33 Elevate the moment .........................................................33 Assess the audience .......................................................34 Prepare for a familiar audience ........................................34 Prepare for an unfamiliar audience ..................................35 Coping when your talk gets hijacked ..............................37 Ditch the “dumb it down” attitude ...................................38 Think of audience needs, not yours ................................42 Think about logistics .......................................................45 References.......................................................................48 4 Challenge Your Organization’s Culture of Text-Heavy Slides .................................................49 Understand the patterns’ origin ......................................50 Stop assuming they want to read ....................................50 Work toward fewer bullets, less text ...............................51 Avoid using slides as teleprompters ................................53 Build information deliberately ..........................................54 Move beyond “How many slides should I use?” ..............................................................54 Encourage better presentation practices ........................56 Create, compile, organize, and stabilize team presentations ...............................................................58 Work towards a change ...................................................60 References.......................................................................60 Slide Rule #2 Write Sentence Headers 5 Clarify Topics with Full-Sentence Headers ............65 Write full sentences for headers, avoiding fragments .....................................................................65 Consider the case against fragmented headers ................66 Deploy best practices for sentence headers ...................70 Expect immediate results ................................................71 Write targeted headers ....................................................73 State a fact or explain a concept ....................................74 Showcase an analysis .....................................................80 Transition to new information ..........................................84 Influence outcomes with headers ...................................88 Frequently asked questions about sentence headers ........................................................................88 References.......................................................................91 Chapter No.: 1 Title Name: WorkFlow: ftoc.indd Comp. by: Date: 30 Jan 2014 Time: 12:40:02 PM Stage: Page Number: viii

Slide Rules : Design, Build, and Archive Presentations in the Engineering and Technical Fields

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