At this point in time you have:

• chosen a theme
• made a theme fit within a te ao Māori principle
• found out more about how themes work across texts
• completed some research by gathering texts you have previously read
• found new examples of texts with that idea or principle
• made notes about the texts to extract meaning
• applied some close reading skills like APRICOT and GST analysis

It is likely that you are about half way through your analysis. You need to do more. You may have to still find a couple of texts, or you may be struggling to find the links to themes within your chosen text. That’s ok.

You need to continue to do this in the background.

Teaching aids

No doubt you will have seen teachers present information in various ways to you since you arrived at school – and particularly since you arrived at Macleans.

• some teachers prefer slides
• some teachers prefer handouts
• some teachers prefer writing on the board
• some teachers use visualisers (the camera sort of things that connect to the projector)
• some teachers use technology
• some teachers never use technology

Whatever the style is, you have seen a range over your time in the classroom.

 

Structure

Like (hopefully) you will begin to notice with your teachers, there is a structure to how things need to be delivered. There is a pattern that will begin to happen in classes and across time. Perhaps your teacher always starts with a particular activity, or perhaps they always include a certain element within their class. There should always be something that connects each class. And now, for you, you need to think about how you will structure or set out the various elements that you will need to cover in your report and seminar – because the two are related.

1. An introduction
2. Explanation of the te ao Māori principle you have chosen
3. Overview of the five texts you have chosen
4. Then for each text
   1. The genre of the text
   2. Notable elements of the genre (even if unrelated to the principle) e.g. the article with its headline, or the biography with first person narration.
   3. Passages or sequences where the theme or principle can be seen or applied (quoted with annotation)
   4. Explanation of the intended effect of the language, structure, and style
5. Conclusion to wrap the whole process up

Story Telling

This is all boiling back down to one of the fundamental premises of the English programme at Macleans – storytelling. You are all storytellers, and the way we often give advice or information is through stories. So let’s be the best storytellers we can be.

The structure above is just a template. It can be shaped and adapted. You can make it much more interesting through a story thread that you create to take the reader on a journey, even in an academic explanation way.

Learn the skill.

Slide Design

No doubt you will be looking at slides as a way to present information, they are by far the most popular way of sharing information during a presentation.

1. Choose the Images Wisely

Graphics and images can make or break your presentation. Choose the images that best fit the overall design of your presentation and anchor your slides well.

• Use just one or two images on a slide. Overuse of graphics will distract the audience, making them overwhelmed.
• Keep images in proportion to the slide’s size.
• If you have compressed the images, ensure that their quality remains intact on the large screen.
• Avoid writing text over an image or graphic as it will be difficult to read.

Useful Tip – If you don’t have much time to design images on your own, you can choose pre-designed and professional-looking presentation templates that come with well-researched content and stunning visuals.

2. Layout Your Content Clearly Using Grid

Badly proportioned and askew-aligned slides make your audience completely lose their interest in your message. Here, PowerPoint grids and guides can do wonders! If you are one of those who think that the use of grids will limit their creativity, you are absolutely wrong. Grids have nothing to do with your creativity; instead, they provide clearly defined spaces for logos, main content, disclaimers, and other content, thereby giving a consistent, neat, and well-balanced look to your slides.

Watch this video to learn how to create a slide design with a grid.

3. Make a First Good Impression by Choosing a Smart Color Scheme

Colors have unique psychology associated with them. For instance, the blue color gives a conservative and calming look to your deck,  the green color stimulates interaction and reflects eco-friendliness, the red color conveys passion, and so on. You can make your message more effective, impactful, and memorable by using the right colors.

• Use bright accent colors and light text on dark backgrounds.
• Bold accent colors and dark text look good on light backgrounds.
• Use corporate colors consistently within your presentation to boost branding.
• Avoid using intense colors; use them only for laying emphasis.

Useful Tip – Don’t be afraid of experimenting with different colors until you get the feeling that you actually want to convey to your audience.

Watch this video to learn 3 different ways to choose the right colors for your presentations.

4. Drive Focus by Making Good Use of Whitespace

Imagine a presentation where slides were densely packed with information without single whitespace. How did it make you feel? Frustrated? Well, at that very moment, you might have realized how important whitespace is to calm the audience’s mind and let them breathe.

The intelligent use of whitespaces between design elements draws the attention of the audience to key elements and organizes the presented information in their mind. Further, whitespaces give openness to designs and a clutter-free, minimalist, and elegant look to slides, ensuring a great user experience and good reading performance.

Here is the complete guide on how to use whitespace in PowerPoint presentations. Do watch!

5. Use Animations in Moderation for Maximum Impact

PowerPoint provides you an option to apply animation or transition to all slides. You can also add custom animation to specific objects of the slides. Whatever option you choose, be sure to remain consistent throughout the deck.

• Don’t use random animation as it will give an unprofessional look to your presentation and divert your audience.
• Don’t use animation just for the sake of using it; use it if it actually serves a direct purpose in your presentation.

The Bottom Line

Yes, design matters, and content too! You can’t choose design over the content or content over the design in a presentation. So, you must mingle the two into one seamless idea. A compelling design complements not only your content and message but also the intended purpose of your presentation. On the other hand, thoughtlessly packed information into a deck will quickly alienate your audience. To sum up, with a unified design and fine-tuned content, you can grab the attention that your deck deserves and positively reflect on your brand and company.

Other options for presentation tools

Of course, PowerPoint is one of the main examples of delivering information to the audience. But you may choose to go with another idea. You may like to think about what suits you better. Here are some options:

• another PowerPoint programme (Slides, Prezi, Keynote, Canva)
• a hand out
• write some notes on the board
• props

A note about ‘teaching’

Without a doubt, teaching is tough. You have to hold the content in your head and think about how you can keep 30 students listening or involved in the learning to try and allow them to make some shift from one state (not knowing) to another state (knowing).

This type of process is vital for your work. One day you will need to present something to someone, either formally or informally, and you will need to consider the best way to present it. It may be a request for a pay rise, it may be a presentation to a board about something, it may be to sell a product to a new client, or even to explain a medical procedure to anxious families. Whatever it is, you will need to consider how you present the information.

In this case, we are giving you time to research, study and learn the process yourself, and then teach the class about the connection.