Newsletter 006
How to Improve Writing 2/3: Flows and Presentations
In the previous Newsletter, we mentioned an interesting comparison between long and short texts by quoting a local proverb that goes:
A futsal player can easily play football, but a football player can’t always play futsal.
Now, what on Earth did we mean by that? Let us explain.
When we prepare flows or presentations, for example, it is important to remember that we need to be focusing on our speech, which means that the purpose of the text on our slides is to support what we are talking about while the audience is listening (and watching).
There is one great example in the form of PechaKucha — a presentation format that allows you to have 20 slides, each for 20 seconds, meaning that you have 20 seconds to tell one slide’s story. Practicing holding presentations with this format can help you understand how much information you need to place on one slide, but also how to limit your speaking time so that it is effective and not rushed.
On the other hand, it is not necessary to limit our time spent on one slide, but rather to pay attention not to overload it with too many sentences, examples, photos, gifs, etc. The good ol’ 10/20/30 rule is still very much alive and recommended and it simply means that presentations should contain no more than 10 slides, last no longer than 20 minutes, and feature a font no smaller than 30 points.
When it comes to some tips on writing presentations, here are some DOs:
- Keep it simple, use one font of the same size consistently.
- Use the company background pattern (if available).
- One good photo or graphic will do for one slide.
- Four items/bullets on a page is easier to remember.
… and things to AVOID:
- Using a background that makes the text difficult to read.
- Mixing colors that are too bright and not complimentary.
- WRITING IN ALL CAPS.
- Writing long sentences and definitions (more than 33 characters).
Take a look at some slides on how we can use creativity and simplicity to compile a presentation worth attending.
In addition to the aforementioned tips and tricks, we should remember to stay our need to use pompous language. Presentations, in general, are opportunities for us to share the information we have with the people who want to learn it, which is why it is important to speak directly and simply. Also, keeping it simple will help us relax and, with enough practice, conquer any stage fright we might feel.
It is normal to be nervous if you are not used to speaking in front of groups of people, but it is not something we should fear. As we mentioned at the beginning of the text — our need to say a lot does not mean that we should. Futsal is played with simple tricks, as we don’t have the space or the time like when we play football. We just need to learn how to say enough so that the listeners can easily follow our speech and understand it fully.
Next time, we will dive into the world of football and analyze how to improve the skills needed to write longer texts with a seamless flow, e.g. procedures, reports, lengthy emails, etc.
Until then, remember to keep it simple.
Take care!
