I'll comment on putting together a slide presentation - have developed a strategy based on advice from a few different mentors. One of the best pieces of guida

I'll comment on putting together a slide presentation - have developed a strategy based on advice from a few different mentors. One of the best pieces of guidance I've ever received wrt presentations is to tell the audience what you're going to say, tell it to them, then remind them what you've said. Seems repetitive, but done right it can be much more effective. Once you know what you need to say, grab some blank paper (recycled, of course :) and use one sheet per slide to sketch out what each slide should look like. I've been told to use a blue background, white text, yellow & red for highlights. I can't say that's been scientifically proven, but I have seen some other awful colors being used - this scheme isn't offensive, at the very least. There should rarely be full sentences on a slide... a few bullet points at most. Your completed presentation shouldn't mean much to someone who reads it over without hearing your speech - if it does, there is probably too much text on the slides. That said, this means you need to practice... a lot. If you can't read off the slides, you'll need to know what you want to say. Hope this helps!