1 General Guidelines
- 1.1 Effective PowerPoints
- 1.2 Interesting Talks
- 1.3 Media Use
- 1.4 Use of Charts and Graphs
2 Resources
- 2.1 UT Staff Toastmasters group
- 2.2 Articles
- 2.3 Lynda.com Courses
  - 2.3.1 Presentation
  - 2.3.2 PowerPoint
- 2.4 Literature

The following is intended for UTSC annual presentations, but can be adapted to other uses.

General Guidelines

Use the
Use the written report to inform your presentation. The written report contains the details, and the presentation hits only the highlights.
Give credit to your committee and any other contributors on your last slide
Get the first draft of your slides done at least 1 month before the presentation date
- Have your committee review your first and subsequent drafts
- What questions do people have? What needs to be more clear?
- What data do you still need to collect?
- How can you make your argument stronger?
- Why should your audience care about what you're saying? What's in it for them?
Know the time limit for your presentation. Usually you will have between 5-15 minutes for a presentation. Once you create it, go through it out loud and time yourself. Then go back and add information or cut information.
Do a dry run in front of your committee members, the Staff Council Executive Committee, and anyone else who can offer you constructive feedback
- Emil Kresl from HR may be willing to help you hone your message or give you feedback

Effective PowerPoints

Interesting Talks

As you prepare your talk, think from the audience's point of view: what's in it for them? Why should they care about what you're telling them?
Stick with 3-4 main points. Everything else should support those points. For each point, try to come up with a supporting story or example.
Statistics and charts can be boring, so make them as simple as you can or break each one up with a story or anecdote. Always give meaning or context to the data.
Keep it as concise as possible - don't waste your audience's time. Remember for the May presentations, the audience has your report to refer to. You can refer to it too.

Media Use

When considering use of logos, particularly those of UT departments, get permission first. Using their logo in the wrong way can cause reputation damage for UTSC.

To get permission, contact the department's director. Look up the department on the utexas.edu site and then look for an organizational chart, or call their main line and ask for the name of the director, and then look them up in the UT directory.

When considering use of other images in presentations, fair use includes use for educational, non-profit, and scholarly purposes. When in doubt, see this flowchart: