Third Quarter Peabody PowerPoint Presentation Project

Objective:

Use your Peabody Award Project to create a presentation for inclusion in your final news program.  Time will be provided in the computer lab for your convenience but it is expected that you may need to arrange for additional time on your own.  No “advanced” PowerPoint skills are needed—just encouraged for the improved quality of your final course project.

Since you have done all of the writing and the hard work… now you will convert your research (journalist’s notebook) into a presentation to be given in class and ultimately recorded into your final news project using PowerPoint.  If you didn’t complete the project, you must first complete that project before continuing with the presentation.

Method:

You will open PowerPoint and use the Outline view to type in the Title and then the Main Idea for each paragraph (notice the topic sentence).  Of course, you should use simple phrases and two or three bullets at the most for each page. Your outline and participation will form the outline of a storyboard for your report.  This is evaluated in class and will be worth 50% of your grade for the project.

Once all of the slices are created, you will use design tips provided below to sharpen the graphics for your final broadcast.

Final Evaluation:

You will complete the project and be prepared to present and record your project onto your mini dv after your editorial in class on February 26th in the third quarter.  Effective use of the outline view is worth 50% of your grade for the project.  The professional quality of the presentation (including your ability to maintain a professional studio environment) will form the remaining 50% of your grade.

Design tips for effective use of PowerPoint

1. The goal is improved presentation

2. Keep it simple don’t confuse the issues with too much on a screen

3. Use lots of “white” space-- maintain a one inch border around the screen for all text and one half inch for graphics.

4. Use contrast (dark-on-light or light-on-dark, for example)

5. Design from top left to bottom right

6. People see graphics first, then text

7. Use large font size – minimum of 28 points!

8. Limit use of boldface, italics, and underlining

9. Don’t write in all upper case letters

10. Use common fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, etc,)

11. No more than two fonts on a screen

12. Be concise with text-- two or three bullets at the most for each page

13. One concept per slide (follow your outline)

14. Plan on spending one full minute per slide

15. Limit use of special effects (animation, sound, transitions)

16. Background patterns usually make screens harder to read

17. When creating original media, use the best equipment you can find

18. Edit files to a minimum meaningful length and size

19. Avoid combinations of red green and blue as background colors as they interfere with the television screen when used to excess.