Some strategies to give an effective PowerPoint presentation for the 4th year student of English Faculty, Hanoi Open University

DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE OF CONTENT
1.Barry Clough. 2008. Nghệ Thuật Nói Trước Công Chúng - Phương
Pháp Nói Chuyện Hiệu Quả. NXB Hồng Đức..........................................47
INTRODUCTION
Rationale
We are living in a modern society where communication skill is
indispensable. Among different communication skills is public speaking skill
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which probably is the most difficult one. Ability of giving a good presentation is
extremely important for those who want to success. When you are still on the
school-desk, you need presentation skill to discuss or argue some point of view
with your classmate. When you are at work, in the future, you need this skill to
report your work to your colleagues and manager, or introduce and sell some
product to your customers. If you are manager, presentation skill is even much
more necessary. It helps you to success in negotiating with your partners or
inspiriting your staffs.
Together with technology development, MS PowerPoint program has also
been developed. Today, it has become so popular. MS PowerPoint is a very strong
tool supporting for presentations. A PowerPoint presentation delivers a message
much more effectively than a normal oral presentation because it is a combination
of words, pictures and sound.
However, it is not everyone can give an effective PowerPoint presentation. A
person who is able to make a good oral presentation can make a bad PowerPoint
presentation due to his design mistakes.
As a student at Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University, I have given
several PowerPoint presentations before classmates and I have also been an
audience for many times. I see that even when we are senior students, we still
rarely make an effective PowerPoint presentation. Hence, in this study I would like
to focus on finding difficulties which senior students often meet and common

mistakes they often do.
“Some strategies to give an effective PowerPoint presentation for the 4
th
year student of English Faculty, Hanoi Open University” is a very helpful and
interesting topic so I decided to choose it for my Graduation Paper.
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Aims of the study
The objective of the work is to bring out some strategies which are helpful in
giving an effective PowerPoint presentation for senior students of English Faculty,
Hanoi Open University. There are many strategies for giving an effective
PowerPoint Presentation but in this study, I would like to focus on finding what
difficulties senior students usually meet and which mistakes they often do when
giving a PowerPoint presentation. From that point, I would like to bring out some
effective strategies to help students of English in general and the 4
th
year students
of English at HOU in particular to overcome difficulties and avoid making
mistakes.
My study focuses on 3 steps:
- Step 1: Overviews basic PowerPoint presentation knowledge.
- Step 2: Presents a survey to get what exactly students find hard and which
mistakes they often do when giving a PowerPoint presentation.
- Step 3: Proposes effective ways of giving a PowerPoint presentation based on the
result drawn from the survey.
Scope of the study
PowerPoint presentation is not a small field for research. Therefore, I would
like to draw out some strategies of giving an effective PowerPoint presentation
only. My research aimed at senior students at Faculty of English, Hanoi Open
University.
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Method of the study
In order to accomplish this thesis systematically and adequately, I have
acquired all the literature resources from many sources of data such as the internet,
magazines, newspapers and books in the Library of Faculty of English and Modern
Languages, Hanoi Open University as well as the National Library. I implemented
a survey with subjects who are senior students of English Faculty, Hanoi Open
University. Personal observation consulted and discussed by my supervisor in the
process of researching also contributed much to the completion of this thesis.
Design of the study
My study is divided into 3 main parts:
1. Introduction includes:
- Rationale
- Aims of the study
- Scope of the study
- Method of the study
- Design of the study
2. Development includes 3 chapters:
Chapter 1: Literature review
- Definition of presentation
- Types of presentation
- The role of presentation skill
Chapter 2: The study
- Habit of giving PowerPoint presentation of senior students of English
Faculty, HOU
- The findings and discussion
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Chapter 3: Some strategies to give an effective PowerPoint presentation.
3. Conclusion and References summarizes all the main points in the whole
graduation paper.
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Definition of PowerPoint presentation
- What is a presentation?
There are many definitions of presentation. Following are some typical
definitions:
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- A presentation is a practice of showing and explaining the content of a
topic to an audience or learner.
- A presentation is a kind of communication between the speaker and the
audience.
- A presentation is a way of communicating ideas and information to a
group. A presentation carries the speaker’s personality and allows immediate
interaction between all the participants.
- What is a PowerPoint presentation?
A power point presentation is a presentation which is carried out with the
support of PowerPoint, a presentation software program.
1.2 The structure of a PowerPoint presentation
Like other kinds of presentation, a PowerPoint presentation includes three
parts:
The introduction:
- Greeting the audience.
- Tell your audience the topic of the presentation.
- Tell your audience the purposes of the presentation.
- Show your audience how the presentation will be developed.
The body:
- Present the first key points.
- Use supporting ideas for this point.
- Present the second key points.
- Use supporting ideas for this point.
- And so on…
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The conclusion:
- State the main points again.
- Evaluate the importance of the information.
- Formulate some conclusions and/or recommendations.
1.3 Types of presentations
1.3.1 Based on the presentation’s purpose
- Informative presentation:
An informative presentation is a presentation on a realistic factual matter
destined to raise the informative and cultural level of listeners. An informative
presentation should be based upon a wide range of adequate and credible sources.
- Persuasive presentation:
A persuasive presentation is a speech aimed at influencing values, ideas,
beliefs and attitudes of the audience. Pragmatically, a persuasive presentation is
used to convince people to get a different idea, attitude and belief, react to
something, consider doing things they were previously unwilling to do.
- Entertaining presentation:
Entertaining presentation focuses on the overall theme of the entertainment
speechwriting occasion. The presentation is oriented to entertainment, so that the
audience could get relaxed, react to the presentation in a hearty way, and enjoy
every minute of the entertaining speech.
- Inspirational presentation:
Inspirational speech is a speech presented by a professional speaker or by a
renowned authority/leader in front of large homogeneous audiences such as
corporate staff, etc. in order to encourage them, reveal the true sense of leadership
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and enrich them with some approved formulae of commercial and professional
success.
1.3.2 Based on the presentation’s manner
- Written presentation:
Written presentations may include story, manual, report, book, newspaper

article, letter, diary (for one person), scroll, booklet, pamphlet (for small group),
questionnaire, survey (for small or large group), advertisement and chart (for large
group).
- Oral presentation:
Oral presentations may include interview, report, conversation (for one
person), discussion group, seminar, debate (for small group), advertisement,
lecture, talk show, song, debate, choral speech, lesson (for large group).
- Visual presentation:
Visual presentations may include project cube, page sized chart or diagram
(for one person), cartoon, photographs, display (for small group), poster, timeline,
web page, map, large diagram, puppet show, overheads (for large group).
- Multimedia presentation:
Multimedia presentation is a combination of written, oral and visual
presentations, for example, a computer presentation such as Power Point
presentation.
1.4 The importance of PowerPoint Presentation skill
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In today’s world, PowerPoint presentation skill is synonymous with
presentation success of any kind! Thanks to Bill Gates and his team of
professionals who developed MS PowerPoint, today most of us have access to what
is considered a basic and most staple tool to effective presentations. No matter if
you are a student or a professor or a business professional or even a scientist, if you
are out there in this world, you need PowerPoint presentation skills to be
successful.
- PowerPoint Presentation skill for students
These days, it is important for students to learn PowerPoint skills right from
high school. With practice, by the time they reach university, they will have
mastered the art of making effective presentations.
Today, whether you are a graduate or an undergraduate student, most classes
demand that you write papers and present them in front of the whole class. If you

do not use effective tools to make presentations, you can forget getting great
grades. Most professors expect you to know how to use the PowerPoint tool. This
is especially important if you are a doctoral student. No thesis is marked complete
without a final presentation to the faculty. Not knowing how to present effectively
using this tool, could cost you your degree.
- PowerPoint Presentation skill for professors
In the event you are a professor, the importance of PowerPoint skills cannot
be stressed enough. You need to know how to present effectively in order to keep
the attention of the class. Using monotonous presentations will bore the class and
affect their attention levels. Presentations need to be stimulating and interesting as
students learn maximum though a combination of visual and auditory mode. Only
then will students respond and retain information you wish to impart.
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- PowerPoint Presentation skill for business professionals
Success in the business world depends mostly on presentation skills. The
reasons for this are simple. Most businesses run on presentations. Be it internal
presentations to your management about the status of a project or a sales
presentation to a potential client, failing there could end up costing you your job.
Business professional from all departments need to know how to present
effectively. Whether you are training a group of new recruits or holding an
advanced training session for a technical team; effective presentation is a key to
success. These days’ professionals also have to use PowerPoint to relay
information to their own team mates and colleagues.
CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY
This research focuses on the way senior students of English Faculty at Hanoi
Open University give a PowerPoint presentation. Due to the course’s demand, each
student must give PowerPoint presentation several times per school year. How to
make an effective PowerPoint presentation is a problem that most students take
care of.
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2.1 Survey on senior student’s habit of presenting
2.1.1 The subjects
100 senior students (K13) of English Faculty, Hanoi Open University were
randomly chosen for the project. All of them have ever given some PowerPoint
presentations.
2.1.2 Data collection
The survey which aims at collecting necessary data for the project consists of
three steps:
- Handing out questionnaires to subjects.
- Deleting invalid cases.
- Collecting the final number of the remaining valid and reliable cases.
After deleting invalid cases, the number of remaining cases is 95.
2.1.3 Questionnaire
This questionnaire is designed to survey the student’s habit of presenting:
from the way they preparing, designing to giving a presentation. The first two
questions of the questionnaire focus on finding which way students prepare for
their presentation. The next three questions aim at finding out the way students
design their presentation slides. The next three questions help me know their habit
when giving presentation. And the last two questions will discover the difficulties
student often encounter in presenting process. Through this survey, I can know
exactly student’s difficulties as well as their common mistakes in giving a
PowerPoint presentation.
2.2 The finding and discussion
The following table shows us a clear result of the survey:
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Question
Number
Answers
a b c
1 40 55

2 5 50 40
3 7 55 33
4 60 25 10
5 3 18 74
6 15 80
7 12 75 8
8 90 5
9 5 90
- Nearly half of the students (40 out of 95) create an outline after choosing a topic
while the rest carry out materials collection immediately. All of them do not find it
important to determine the purpose of their presentation. This is like that they are
going without a destination. Their presentation without a specific purpose will be
discursive and boring.
- More than half of the students (55 out of 95) think that it is not or not too
important to create an outline. Even when they have had a destination (a specific
purpose), if they have no map (outline), they can not reach their destination in the
best way. In case that they do not have both destination and map, where will they
go to?
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- Only 7 students rarely use font styles. More than half sometimes use it and 33 one
always. This is also a problem! Using no font styles make your presentation less
interesting but abusing them can break the presentation.
- There are still 35 students (out of 95) think that more backgrounds more
interesting the presentation is. They have put slide decoration at a higher position
than delivering their message.
- More than half of the students (74 out of 95) always use illustrations. This makes
a problem! Although illustration enhances the message, using them a lot can
distract the audience.
- Almost student (80 out of 95) thinks that it is most important to introduce clearly
the topic in the introduction. Just 15 students know that getting the audience’s

attention is more important. Introducing the topic is important, but if you do not get
the audience’s attention right after starting, you can lose them.
- Just 8 students always use signpost language during their presentation, the rest
rarely or sometimes use it. Signpost language is very important for the audience to
catch what you say. Therefore, the students should learn how to use signpost
language to deliver their message more effectively.
- Most of the students (90 out of 95) do not know what to do with their hands and
afraid of looking at the audience. This means body language is one of their weak
points. They should pay more time to learn this skill.
- More than half of the students (55 out of 95) often forget what to say while the
rest often stammer. This is because they do not have enough practice.
We can draw out from the result of the survey the following things:
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- The common mistakes that senior students often do are preparation, design,
starting the presentation.
- The difficulty that senior students often meet is using body language.
CHAPTER 3: STRATEGIES TO GIVE AN EFFECTIVE
POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
Efficiency of a PowerPoint presentation depends on three main elements
which are:
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- Content
- Design
- Delivery
The content of your presentation should be relevant, convincing and clear.
This depends on your preparation.
The design of your presentation should enhance the message and visually
please.
Your delivery should be relaxed, confident and engaging. This depends on
your ability to use both verbal and nonverbal language and your practice.

3.1 Good content
As I mentioned above, good or bad content depends on your preparation. If
you fail to prepare, you are prepared to fail. Unlike everyday conversation,
presentations have a clear purpose and a logical structure. Therefore, in order to
Effective
PowerPoint
Presentation
Content
Delivery
Design
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give an effective presentation it is necessary to prepare carefully. Thorough
preparation will also reduce ones anxiety during the actual presentation.
The survey’s result shows that the preparation of most students includes only
two steps: choosing a topic that they like and collecting materials. They rarely
determine the aim of their presentation as well as create an outline. This makes
their materials collection not effective and their presentation not have a focus. How
can the audience get the message when the students themselves do not know
exactly what they want to deliver?
So what steps should you take to assure a successful talk and to make it
worth the time of the audience and yourself? Following is what you need to do:
3.1.1 Determine the aims of the presentation
- Analyzing the audience
Audience analysis is important because:
- Audiences are egocentric. They do not care how important what you are
saying is, but whether it is related to them.
- Audiences will judge a speech based on what they already know and
believe.
Therefore, you should try to collect information about the audience as much
as possible to choose a right topic and collect suitable materials. It helps you to

know how to meet the audience’s demand and how to draw their attention.
To do audience analysis, you need to collect information to answer these
questions:
- What is your audience’s needs/interests?
- How much they know about the topic?
- What misconception might they have?
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- What terms and concept will they probably not understand?
- Choosing and narrowing topic.
You have had your audience’s information about what their needs/interests
are. Now you can decide what your presentation is about. Don’t try to include too
much information in your presentation because your audience has a limited
memory. You should narrow the topic.
For example:
- Choose a topic:
My presentation is about divorce rate.
Narrow it:
My presentation is about divorce rate in Vietnam.
- Choose a topic:
My presentation is about finding job.
Narrow it:
My presentation is about finding job for fresh-graduated students.
- Determining the purpose
Even when you have narrowed the topic, your presentation will not have a
clear focus if you do not determine the purpose for it. It is like that you decide to go
shopping but do not know what you need to buy. You will probably waste your
time.
For example:
- To analyze the main reasons of high divorce rate in Vietnam.
- To give out some tips for fresh-graduated students in finding job.

3.1.2 Create an outline
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A speaker is like a guide, leading the listener through a cluster of ideas. An
outline is like a map showing the best path. Therefore, creating an outline is a
necessary part of the presenting process. Creating an outline will result in better
quality, well constructed and more effective presentation.
To create an effective outline, you should follow these steps:
- Developing centre idea.
- Generating main ideas.
- Gathering supporting material.
For example:
Centre idea: Some strategies to give an effective PowerPoint presentation.
Main ideas:
- Prepare carefully.
Supporting materials: Analyze audience
Choose and narrow topic
Determine the purpose
Create an outline
- Make a good design.
Supporting materials: Slide structure
Fonts
Colors
Background
Graphs
- Delivery effectively.
Supporting materials: An attractive introduction
Use nonverbal language
Use signpost language
Rehearsal
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3.2 Good design
3.2.1 Slide Structure
Many students do make mistakes of slide structure. The most common
mistake is that they always try to fill the slide with text. This makes the audience
concentrate on what they write, not what they are speaking.
There are some certain rules that you must follow:
- Use 1-2 slides per minute of your presentation.
- Make your 1
st
or 2
nd
slide an outline of your presentation, then follow the order of
your outline for the rest of the presentation. Remember to place only main points
on the outline slide.
- No more than 4-5 bullets per slide, and keep bullet points to no more than five
levels.
- Use key words and phrases only, not complete sentences or paragraphs.
You should also limit the number of words per line (normally no more than
seven words) and the number of lines per slide (normally no more than seven
lines).
For example:
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