A Slide Presentation

Today, when we are asked to present, audiences often expect to see PowerPoint slides. PowerPoint's default slides seem to lock you into a structure: a short heading and then bullet points. Or worse, as Edward Tufte maintained, an "evil" flurry of arty charts.

An alternative structure, with a free PowerPoint template, is available from Michael Alley at Penn State.  His target audience is scientists.  He proposes an "assertion-evidence" model.  Each slide asserts in a short (two-line) headline sentence.  Then, as evidence, the slide shows one to three illustrations.

Before we make any slides at all, Alley rightly suggests we ask:

1. Can I give my audience meaningful illustrations that support without distracting?  (Clip art is useless distraction, as is the "chart junk" that Edward Tufte decries.) 
2. Will the audience understand the information on each slide?
3. Will the slides be identical to the handout?  If the slides will have to eliminate important text, or reproduce large blocks of text, they defeat their purpose.
4. Will slides really improve the audience's understanding by providing pictures, graphs, and color?  If slides are merely note cards to guide your talk, think again.

If you click on Alley's page, and scroll to the words a special PowerPoint template, you can download a PowerPoint file that illustrates by examples and with slide templates, the assertion-evidence model. No bullet lists there.

Dr. King Still Writes

Like many of us, on Dr. King's birthday, I visited the Stanford web site where I could reread his writings and speeches.  As an aspiring writer, I never plumb the depths of that genius's consummate skill.

This year I reread Dr. King's address, in A Call to Conscience, entitled "Beyond Vietnam."

I noticed again how his sentences so often ended on the upbeat.  They so often painted pictures.  They alluded to stories we know and love.  They drew wisdom from scriptures, poets, philosophers, histories. They never stopped with facile slogans, but meticulously recounted buried histories, as in that speech we heard the real history of Vietnam.  They went beyond history to practical politics, and beyond practical politics to core values.

"One the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

What writing.  What truth.

Online Teacher: It's All About You

How little I knew about online teaching when I first built my WriteWell courses!  First, I thought everyone would flock to them. The truth is that most people learn faster and more easily face-to-face in a classroom. Online learning is best as an adjunct.

Second, I found it was crucial and challenging to keep my teaching personal.  Writing is like breath: no one wants to know they have a problem, although everyone appreciates a mint. From a friend!

How do I monitor, say, 80 online learners?  These pictures show a recent printout of quiz scores in one course.  I pinned it on my wall and followed each learner's progress.  Then I sent out emails that encouraged good work and suggested resources.   

Because teaching is about the learner.  It's all about you.

Is Editing Worthwhile?

At IBM a group of editors tested whether editing paid off.  You can see the report written by James Mathewson of IBM in July of 2010.

The IBM people gave unedited web pages to a random sample of users.  The pages were then revised by an expert editor from IBM marketing.  The result was shown to the remaining users in the sample.

The edited pages got 30% more clicks to desired links on the page.