Kinds of visuals and their uses
| To be used when you need to: | |
| Photographs and drawings | explain a concept, an idea or a process |
| Graphs | display numerical information and statistics |
| - line graphs | show changes and trends |
| - pie graphs | show distribution patterns |
| - bar graphs | compare data |
| Charts | summarize data in a list |
| Info Graphics | communicate complex data through the use of attractive, dynamic diagrams that facilitate understanding |
| Videos | show or explain something more quickly and efficiently than words or graphics allow |
| Realia (physical objects and models) | show how something works |
| stimulate the audience’s interest |
Suggestions for the layout and graphics
| Storyboard | Base it on the structure of the talk and choose: |
| - for the introduction | - one slide to get the audience’s attention |
| - one slide which gives the outline of your presentation | |
| - for the development | - slides presenting data, facts etc.. , highlighting the most important points |
| - for the conclusion | - one slide with a strong message and a lasting impact |
| Talk and visuals | Decide what you will say for each slide you show |
| Timing | Calculate about 1/2 minutes for each slide |
| Graphic consistency | Adopt same layout, colours and font for all the slides |
| Space | Aim for a balanced layout of text, pictures, graphs etc. Blank space is good. And remember “less is more”. |
| Font | Use a large font size (no smaller than 30pt) |
| Only use fonts (like Arial or Gill Sans) which are easy to read | |
| Don’t use complicated fonts or write in capital letters | |
| Colours | Make sure there is a clear contrast between the lettering and background, and |
| Use a dark background with light-coloured text for dark rooms, a light background with black or dark-coloured text for rooms with all the lights on | |
| Don’t use red/green or blue/green combinations | |
| Use different colours to differentiate key points/items (e.g. red=dangerous; green=safe) | |
| Background | Use one colour only |
| Avoid background pictures, logos or patterns that might distract the audience | |
| Text | Use short, simple, direct sentences |
| Review grammar and spelling | |
| Bullets | Include no more than 6 lines per slide |
| Write key words, not sentences | |
| Images | Don’t choose images that might offend the audience or be misunderstood by people from different cultures or religions |
| Animation | Use it only if it helps communicate your message better. If it doesn’t make your ideas clearer, don’t use it. |
| Copyright | Observe copyright laws when taking materials from the internet, by crediting sources and authors |
Useful phrases: referring to visuals
| Introducing the first slide of a talk | The first slide summarizes the main points of my talk |
| This slide introduces the theme of my talk | |
| Introducing slides | Moving on to the next slide … |
| Now let’s look at the next slide, which shows … | |
| This graph/chart/photo shows/illustrates/proves … | |
| This slide illustrates / focuses on / gives an overview of … | |
| In this slide you can see data/figures/information indicating … | |
| As you can see here … | |
| Explaining slides | First, let me explain … |
| You can see that the different colours represent … | |
| Highlighting information | I’d like to stress / highlight /emphasize / the following points … |
| Can I draw your attention to … ? | |
| The essential point here is … | |
| If we look more closely at … | |
| Describing position on the slide | The figures/data on the left / on the right / at the top / at the bottom / in the middle … |
| In the top right corner / in the bottom left corner | |
| Explaining cause and effect | The figures /data displayed on this slide show why … |
| As shown in this slide, the causes are to be found in … | |
| Describing photographs and drawings | Look at this picture/drawing. It shows … |
| This picture/drawing represents … | |
| I have chosen this photograph because … | |
| Describing graphs | This graph shows the rise / fall in … |
| This graphs shows the distribution of … | |
| This graphs compares … | |
| Describing charts | This chart summarizes the most important data for … |
| This chart highlights the results of … | |
| Introducing the last slide | In the last slide I have summarized the main points of my talk |
| The last slide shows the final results of … | |
| And in my final slide you will find my suggestions / recommendations for … | |
| Realia (objects and models) | I brought this … to show you how … works. |
| Have a look at this … | |
| Can everybody see this … ? | |
| This is what a completed … looks like. |
Prepare your visuals
Now prepare your visuals for a talk you want to give at school or university. Before starting, plan the sequence of the slides and decide what you will say about each one. In the left hand column make a note of the contents (photos, graphs, charts, etc.) you are going to include; in the other column write the text or the key words of your talk. In this way, you will know how to talk about each slide (see the attached examples below).
After that, you can create the layout of your slides and fill them with whatever short pieces of text or images best support your talk. Choose the software or cloud application you feel most comfortable with.
| DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTENTS OF YOUR SLIDES | THE TEXT OR KEY WORDS OF YOUR TALK |
| Introduction: Get the audience’s attention and summarize the contents | |
| Slide 1 | |
| Slide 2 | |
| Development: Display the facts, data, etc. | |
| Slide 3 | |
| Slide 4 | |
| Slide 5 | |
| Slide ... – | |
| Conclusion: Summarise the main points of your talk and end with a strong message | |
| Slide ... – | |
| Slide ... – |
