How to give a PowerPoint presentation

In one of my classes, each student must write a research paper based on an article and give a PowerPoint presentation about their paper. I am amazed at how many college students don't know how to give a presenation correctly.

Here are some of my personal tips:

1. Know the vast majority of all the information off the top of your head. Think of the slides as reference cards as to what you want to state in the presentation.
2. Keep the slides short and sweet; phrases, thoughts, bullet points, quotes and statistics; balanced with some relevant pictures, graphs/visual data, or at least different side set ups.
3. The vast majority of the time you’re presenting, your eyes should be on your audience. Occasionally looking down at notes or pointing things out on the screen, is fine. Remember, you’re not talking to the screen or your notes, you are explaining the data to the audience.
4. Never read word to word by your notes.
5. Talk loud. If you have no public speaking or background in acting, speak louder and more precise than you think you need to.
6. Smile and speak with lots of intonation in your voice. Don’t be afraid to keep the atmosphere light, if the audience finds how you present the information interesting, they are far more likely to actually listen to the data.
7. Dress nicely. No need for a skirt or tie; but no t-shits with says, holes, or be distractingly mixed matched.
8. After presenting, ask the audience if they have any questions. If you don’t know the answer; don’t simply say ‘I don’t know’ in any circumstances – say your research didn’t cover that, and then give a brief hypothesis on what the answer could be.