What is Serif and Sans Serif?

You have probably heard these two terms sometime in your academic career (my guess would be collegiate, but it's just a guess.) So what does it actually mean? Urbanfonts has created this awesome infographic that really lays down the law between serif and sans serif! Take a gander!

tldr: Use Sans Serifs for presentations!

Top 10 Do's for Presentations: Delivery

Welcome back! Here are the top 10 do's.

1. Dress appropriately
Depending on your topic and your audience, you will want to dress appropriately. For example, if you're presenting to your classmates, I highly recommend at least business casual. If you're unsure of the dress code, ask your professor.

2. Note cards
If you are allowed to use note cards, use note cards, not paper. Note cards are more subtle and not as distracting as a flimsy loose paper. The paper will make you look unprepared whereas note cards are used as nice little references.

3. Project
Last blog post, I talked about mumbling and speaking too fast. Here I want to touch upon projection. Use a clear, loud voice. Make sure the people in the back of the room can hear your voice.

4. Leave time for questions
Sometimes your audience may want to know more information about your topic. Leave some time for them to ask their questions. Get them involved!
                                                                  
5. Enunciate
Speak clearly. Don't slur your words or clip the endings of them.

6. Smile
Sounds cheesy, right? But really, show some humanity and spread the goodness of a smile! It may lighten up the mood.

7. Breathe
Don't starve yourself of oxygen because you're scared! Just remember to breathe!

8. Good posture
As mentioned before in the last post, stand up straight and proud. Slouching will give off a bad vibe.

9. Stick to your time limit
I can almost guarantee you that most people despise presenters who go over their time limit.

10. Have fun!
Honestly, have fun with your topic. If you show enthusiasm and are generally having fun, it will rub off on your audience. Good vibes are always welcome and contagious!

What are some other pieces of advice you would recommend to someone for tips on the 'do's' of presentations? Leave a comment below!

Technical Difficulties in Presentations

 
Let's talk technical difficulties. It happens. Sometimes in the worst way possible and sometimes it's mild. I had the awkward experience of dealing with it this morning in class. It's frustrating when something you've worked hard on doesn't get conveyed properly. Nevertheless, the presentation must go on. When you run into technical difficulties, you may lose your visual aid or certain pictures or your video clips. If this happens, you need to improvise and adapt. Improvisation and adaption is key to a good presentation because:

1. Practice really does make perfect.

By knowing your content and material, you will still be able to convey your information through your mouth instead of visually. It will be easier for you to adapt and improvise if you know your speech inside and out.

2. Presentations are your visual aids, they are not your speech.

Most people have this misconception that presentations can convey by itself what needs to be said. That is wrong because you are the speaker. You are the one the audience will be focusing on. Presentations are the visual aids that help support what you are saying.

Try to avoid hardware malfunctions by making sure what you needed is present such as

• the updated software to present on the device that is being used (Prezi, Keynote, PowerPoint)
• e-mailing yourself your presentation or keeping it on Google Drive, the iCloud, Dropbox or any type of storage mediums
• bringing a copy on a USB  

Remember to practice, adapt, and improvise!