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The assertion-evidence approach is effective
The What. The assertion-evidence approach calls on you to build your talks on messages, not topics. In this approach, you support those messages with visual evidence, not bulleted lists. Moreover, to explain that evidence, you fashion sentences on the spot. Although requiring more effort, this assertion-evidence approach leads to higher understanding by the audience, as evidenced by our tests of audience comprehension. In addition, our students claim that using the assertion-evidence approach helps them project more confidence because they show ownership of the content through explaining visual evidence.
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PowerPoint's defaults are weak
PowerPoint's defaults lead presenters to create slides that are ineffective for presentations in engineering and science. For one thing, the bullet-list default in the body leads users to write too much text. In addition, that default leads to cluttered slides because the bullet list crowds the graphics. Moreover, the space taken by the bullet lists reduces the size of graphics, leading to call-outs that are too small to read. The assertion-evidence approach helps you overcome the weak defaults of PowerPoint. |
Build talks on messages,
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Support messages with
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Explain visuals by forming sentences on the spotThe best speakers fashion sentences on the spot, but do so after planning and practice. Delivering in this way projects much more confidence.
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Use slides only when they serve
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Audiences have specific expectations for the structure of a scientific presentation |
Christine Haas, a professional presentations instructor, discusses how to incorporate your own presentation into an assertion-evidence template. |
Kirby Perosa, a graduating senior in mechanical engineering from Penn State, discusses how to overcome resistance to the assertion-evidence approach that occurs for students giving internship presentations at companies. As an example, Kirby uses slides from her successful internship presentation at John Deere. |
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