The Power Presenter: Techniques, Style, and Strategy to Be Suasive, 2nd Edition

Chapter Twelve

SlideSync Narrative

Case Studies: Microsoft Presenter Coach • Abraham Lincoln

Suit…the word to the action.¹Hamlet 3.2.18–19

William Shakespeare

■ Describe ■

Start your discussion of every slide with the TitlePlus, the one-sentence description of the slide, so that your audience understands it immediately. Do not read the words of the title verbatim, or you will fall into the trap that Don McMillan parodied in Chapter Ten: Tools of the Trade. One of the most common audience complaints is about presenters who read their slides verbatim. Feeling patronized, the audience thinks, “I can read it myself!”

Verbatim reading—as pervasive and problematic in presentations as Unwords—produces a host of negative effects.

• The presenter appears ...