Avoid complicated slides
designed for another purpose (e.g. a paper). Strip these to the essentials that you will
consider in this talk. For example, in a paper you may use a figure with nine parts (a to
i) because of space limitations. For a talk break this up into several slides. Extra
slides are inexpensive and help the audience follow the flow of thought. For example, the
first slide could be just one of the nine parts. The second slide could illustrate a
horizontal row. Finally the third slide could show all nine parts.
Avoid slides that are too elaborate.
You
don't want to give the impression that you have too much time on your hands.
Avoid too many slides.
Many speakers
feel compelled to present every trivial fact, observation and
conclusion.
Avoid paragraphs of text.
If you must use text, use a very brief point form.
Avoid long lists of text in
a single slide, like this one. As
you can see, this page makes a poor slide.
Avoid going back and forth.
If you want to refer to a point shown a few slides back, make a duplicate slide.
Avoid jargon (terms that
you get in the habit of using in the lab).