How NOT to use Powerpoint
For incoming first-years: BEWARE! You will run into many, many Powerpoint presentations at the Humphrey. Something around 85% of them will be poorly put together and will be substitutes for real presentation preparation. Especially when working in groups (something you will also encounter quite a bit at HHH), the Powerpoint presentation always is alluring because it doesn't take much work and when you've got that all buttoned up, you think you're done. But you're not.
Don't let Powerpoint become a crutch and don't do the things in this very funny video:
Life After Death by PowerPoint
Here are some more great resources on how to make and present effective presentations using (but not abusing or being abused by) Powerpoint:
The weblog of the Public Affairs Student Association at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
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Comments
My dad sent me the Edward Tufte book (see the Wired link) after hearing me complain about PowerPoint. Graham is correct: You will use the program A LOT and your level of hatred will be directly proportional to the amount of time you will spend using (read: Messing around with/crying over) PowerPoint. Ditto with Excel. You will also have to use Word in ways you've never had to before.
Of course, this all pales in comparison to the most evil of all Humphrey technology: SPSS.
In other words, welcome to the Humphrey!
BTW, Tufte's book is quite funny: He creates a PowerPoint version of the Gettysburg Address that turns the speech into, in his words, "phluff."
Posted by: Emily Sachs | June 10, 2007 09:02 PM