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In a class I took in college, we had to give a final presentation to go along with a paper we wrote. The presentations were to be about 30 minutes (not too hard

In a class I took in college, we had to give a final presentation to go along with a paper we wrote. The presentations were to be about 30 minutes (not too hard to come up with content, as my paper ended up being 50 pages). With the paper, this was essentially our entire grade for the class. I decided to do it without PowerPoint. I was the only one. Instead of relying on slides, I looked people in the eye and gave a presentation from memory, with a set of index cards as backup. I told stories and tried to make it relatable. Now, I've gotten better at these kinds of things over the course of my career, but even in college I was pretty confident in my ability to give these kinds of presentations. (I even took an acting class just to refine my public speaking skills.) Anyway, after I was finished I felt good about how I did. I got a C-. Literally the only feedback the professor gave me was that I should have had a PowerPoint presentation "to give people something to look at while I talked".

ddingus 11y ago
IMHO, that grade maybe was appropriate. I applaud you for doing that, and I personally would have gotten a lot out of your talk. Good, clear, verbal communication is fantastic! Good on you for attempting it. I have similar leanings and skills. The hard truth I've learned is not everyone can take in it that form. If you have any sort of an audience, the potential for those people will be actualized, and you lose on overall communication fidelity for those people without a visual reference. Secondly, there are people who really need to vocalize to learn, or do something, or experience it in tactile ways, etc... You will find these people asking questions, seeking to be a part of the dialog, taking notes, making motions, drawing, closing their eyes... Multi-sensory communication is high fidelity as well as broadband. Think of the different axis possible. We often do this with young people, giving a talk, letting them speak, having them touch it, or do it, take notes, etc... Adults work the same way, though their greater body of experience generally means they are well equipped to handle visual / aural presentations fairly well. You can get the majority of them with a dual style. This takes some extra work, and might not be in your personal sweet spot, but it's generally worth doing. YMMV, but 20+ years of communicating to individuals, small groups and crowds composed of amateurs, business people and techies speaking here.
- mratzloff 11y ago
  Great reply, thanks for the insight. I'm still not sure about the grade being correct; most of the presentations were dreadful--of the "read the PowerPoint to you" variety--but I'm guessing at least some of them got Bs if not As. That said, I'll keep it in mind going forward. Any presentations I do these days are much less formal, which helps with interactivity.
  - ddingus 11y ago
    On that basis, I agree. Seems like there might be a bias there, or the prof is a visual type... Anytime you can get away from formal, do it! I've learned to ratchet those expectations way down, and when I do, and it's relaxed, everybody gets more out of it.
  - ddingus 11y ago
    One other thing struck me. Since you lean verbal, consider light, concept type visuals as much as you can. These kinds of presentations tend to do very well, and you've got a strength that favors them. These days, talks are often available to view later, and or we can distribute files, meaning you can include text for people to read without having to prep so much visual clutter in the form of text, and other difficult to manage things on the slides.

ddingus 11y ago

IMHO, that grade maybe was appropriate. I applaud you for doing that, and I personally would have gotten a lot out of your talk. Good, clear, verbal communication is fantastic! Good on you for attempting it. I have similar leanings and skills. The hard truth I've learned is not everyone can take in it that form. If you have any sort of an audience, the potential for those people will be actualized, and you lose on overall communication fidelity for those people without a visual reference. Secondly, there are people who really need to vocalize to learn, or do something, or experience it in tactile ways, etc... You will find these people asking questions, seeking to be a part of the dialog, taking notes, making motions, drawing, closing their eyes... Multi-sensory communication is high fidelity as well as broadband. Think of the different axis possible. We often do this with young people, giving a talk, letting them speak, having them touch it, or do it, take notes, etc... Adults work the same way, though their greater body of experience generally means they are well equipped to handle visual / aural presentations fairly well. You can get the majority of them with a dual style. This takes some extra work, and might not be in your personal sweet spot, but it's generally worth doing. YMMV, but 20+ years of communicating to individuals, small groups and crowds composed of amateurs, business people and techies speaking here.

mratzloff 11y ago
Great reply, thanks for the insight. I'm still not sure about the grade being correct; most of the presentations were dreadful--of the "read the PowerPoint to you" variety--but I'm guessing at least some of them got Bs if not As. That said, I'll keep it in mind going forward. Any presentations I do these days are much less formal, which helps with interactivity.
- ddingus 11y ago
  On that basis, I agree. Seems like there might be a bias there, or the prof is a visual type... Anytime you can get away from formal, do it! I've learned to ratchet those expectations way down, and when I do, and it's relaxed, everybody gets more out of it.
- ddingus 11y ago
  One other thing struck me. Since you lean verbal, consider light, concept type visuals as much as you can. These kinds of presentations tend to do very well, and you've got a strength that favors them. These days, talks are often available to view later, and or we can distribute files, meaning you can include text for people to read without having to prep so much visual clutter in the form of text, and other difficult to manage things on the slides.