Almost three years ago, I wrote a post on my personal blog that is still the single most visited post I’ve done.
The title: “I Hate PowerPoint.”
The title should have been, “I Hate PowerPoint Presentations.” PowerPoint is just a tool; it’s how we use it that’s the problem.
And we use it badly. We treat it like the canvas for Homer’s Iliad; we should treat it like the backdrop for a haiku.
PowerPoint was originally created to handle charts and graphs, which it can do admirably well. The problem arises with words.
We presenters like words. We like lots of words. And we want to use every single one of them on a PowerPoint slide.
Experts on PowerPoint will tell you that you should use not more than six to eight words on a PowerPoint slide. Can you recall the last time you saw a PowerPoint slide with no more than eight words on it? Can you recall the last time you created a PowerPoint slide with no more than eight words on it?
One time I sat through a PowerPoint presentation that had more than 60 slides. Each slide had been masterfully created to eliminate all white space, a wildly colorful combination of charts, graphs, graphics and words.
Each slide contained an average of more than 200 words.
No one understood what the presentation was about. No one remembered it later, except for the mind-numbing ordeal we had experienced. The speaker became something of an inside joke, and his presentation a guideline for how not to do PowerPoint presentations.
He wrote the Iliad when a haiku would have not only sufficed but been more effective. And on each slide.
PowerPoint contains a kind of poetry, but it’s a minimalist kind of poetry. It is the poetry of art – pictures, photographs, drawings, cartoons. Consider all the TED talks you can attend or watch online. Most of them have PowerPoint slides, but they don’t cram them with words. The very best TED talks are a careful composition of minimalist slides and an articulate, intelligent speaker. The slides supplement the main communication by the speaker; the speaker doesn’t read what’s on the PowerPoint slide; instead, the slides are illustrations of what the speaker is saying.
Both the poetry and the poet matter, and in presentations, the poet matters more because the poet communicates more through spoken words, voice, gestures and body language.
In fact, I’m suggesting we approach PowerPoint as a poet approaches a poem. Each word matters. Each word is carefully selected. Each word is sufficient. Each word evokes a picture, a mood, an emotion.
And each poem is not designed to be the complete Norton Anthology of American Poetry.
Photograph by eleinads. Sourced via Flickr. Poetry at Work™ post by Glynn Young, author of the novels Dancing Priest and A Light Shining.
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Glynn Young
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Maureen Doallas says
You make me curious to see how the Norton anthology would look as PP presentation. Maybe that would take but a single one-word slide: Poetry!
There’s a link, too, between knowing how to take notes and knowing how to create PP slides. If you can’t do the one, you can’t do the other.
Glynn says
What drives me crazy about most PowerPoint presentations is the speaker reading every single word on the slide to the audience. We can read faster than the speaker can say it, and what happenes is that we focus on the slide — not the presenation (or the speaker). The speaker’s voice becomes a distraction.
Thanks for commenting, Maureen.
Monica Sharman says
It’s always good to remember the original intent of tools! Thanks for a great post, Glynn.
(And that photo is PERFECT for this post!)
Glynn says
There is no tool that we humans cannot find a way to distort and misuse.
When I saw the photo, Monica, I knew it was the one for the post. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Megan Willome says
My kids use PowerPoint for school presentations, and they use lots of graphics and flashing lights. I think they must get points for it, but my middle-aged eyes find it incredibly distracting.
Glynn says
Megan, you watch the slides or the children presenting the slides? Most us of would be drawn to the slides, and likely miss much of the communication.
Thanks for commenting.
L. L. Barkat says
Powerpoint Haiku. I think you should make a thing of it. I think Powerpoint should make a thing of it 🙂
Glynn says
We just copyrighted it for TweetSpeak Poetry. And the epic version, too.
Harley King says
I agree that most speakers do not know how to use PowerPoint. The slides should be a support team, not the main event. Now here is the reverse. I created a slide share to share a poem entitled Wrestling With God.
http://www.slideshare.net/hgking/wrestling-with-god
Glynn says
Harley – you’ve used words on PowerPoint slides exactly like you should — very few. And each slide makes a statement. Thanks for sharing.
Robbie Pruitt says
This is so good! I hope to treat every Power Point as a poetry into the future. . .
Glynn says
The next PowerPoint presentation I do, I’m going to announce: “You were expecting The Iliad, but I’m going to give you a haiku.” And then see what reaction I get (hoping that I don’t have to explainw hat a haiku is).
Thanks for the comment.
Diana says
So true. Could you please tell my profs? 🙂