PowerPoint Tip - do the research!

When preparing for a presentation, you often need to research facts and figures, as well as find quotes and opinions, before you draw your own conclusions (or to back up their opinions.)

E 'important to get the facts right. A friend recently told me of an experience that had a lesson. He spoke of a "fact" of some scientific research, but during the period of Questions and Answers, a member of the audience challenged him on it. He was not sure, that lost him the authority he had worked so hard to develop with the public. When it appeared later, he discovered that what he said was not accurate. He decided not to have it happen again!

How do you search for a topic? Where to go? Of course, it depends on your subject, but the principle is the same: look for non-partisan, the original sources of the highest level.

Search academic sources

In the field of multimedia, for example, seek academic sources. There is a fair amount of research has been done on the field. In business, you can also search for academic research on marketing, human resources, productivity, and more.

Academic sources have several advantages:

* They are generally non-partisan, the researchers are not required to support a point of view

* Respected

* Published research is a primary resource, you're getting the information first hand

* You can cite the exact source, page number and so on - that sounds awesome!

Sometimes you can correspond with the authors of published research. Their email addresses are often available on the Web site of their universities and can also accommodate requests.

- Find the writers do their research

It may not have the time or resources (such as magazine subscriptions) to do all your research. In this case, it is advisable to rely on other articles you have written. In this case, you must carefully evaluate the credentials of the author and the completeness of the research.

Look for articles that include references, indicating that the author has done the research that does not have time to do. Also, when you search on the Internet, access to Web sites that have respectable names.

For example, the Adobe Web site has published an article, "The value of multimedia learning," written by Patti Shank, Ph.D. It 'a good example of a reliable source. An important point is that it includes a section references at the end.

When you include some words in a Google search, such as search, Google sometimes displays a section of academic articles.

Google has special search engine for scholarly articles and academic sites. The search engine is the university for research into the specific site of a university, you must specify the first university.

- Keep track of your sources

Write down and save your sources, making them more complete as if you were creating a bibliography. This means you must include the following:

* Author

* The name of the book or article

* The date of publication

* The newspaper or publisher

* The site published (if a book)

* Issue number (if a newspaper)

* The number of page

* The URL, if appropriate

Here's an example of a complete reference for a journal article:

Kafai, Y., C. Ching, and S. Marshall (1997). Children as designers of educational multimedia software. Computer Education, 29, (2/3), 117-126.

It is not necessary to include reference slides or verbal presentation. It is necessary to maintain for backup in the case where the sources are under discussion. However, you can, and should certainly give attribution to what you say. Giving credit where credit is due. So, you might say, for example,

"Mao Neo and Ken TK Neo, faculty at the Multimedia University in Malaysia, saying that media is' the combination of various types of digital media, such as text, images, audio and video in one integrated multisensory interactive or presentation of transmit a message or information to an audience. '"(This sentence is from the above article).

Try using more recent references, if possible, as it will be more relevant and authoritative. Search Vecchio is often replaced by new research.

- Check your sources

If a claim seems doubtful, try to find evidence. Recently, I received a flyer in the mail from Prevention magazine, which gets a certain level of trust from me. One party said,

"If you'd like to get from 10 to 20 pounds of fat faster than you ever thought possible, you should know about Mother Nature's greatest weight-reducing nutrient.

"It's called Chrome ... for MDS to help their patients win the battle of the bulge, all natural, nutritious perfectly safe may be the biggest weight reducer ever discovered ...

"In a study at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, the researchers found that women who take the right weight loss the dosage and the right kind of chromium has seen a remarkable transformation in their body were 100% .... more successful in turning flab lean, svelte body lines "

Sounds good, huh? Sounds decent and cite some research. A search on weight loss chromium raised "chromium picolinate and weight loss" from the Web site of Vanderbilt University. This article reviews the research done on chromium and weight loss, and discovers that in study after study, is not effective! A long list of references follows the article.

I lost my trust in Prevention Magazine!

If you see a question that you want, try to find and verify the original source. You may have heard the claim that 30 million PowerPoint presentations are given every day. A great article, "Dr. Livingston I presume?" by Robert Befus, from Visual Being blog, trying to track down the source of this statement.

Guess what? The author could not find the source!

* Microsoft has said it came from Presentations Magazine

* Presentations Magazine said it was by Geetesh Bajaj, owner of Indezine, com.

* Geetesh said it came from an article by Ian Parker, "ABSOLUTE POWERPOINT: Can a software package edit our thoughts?"

* In the article, Ian Parker attributes the statement to Microsoft.

Back where we started!

- Citing opinions

The views are different. Anyone has the right to an opinion, but whose opinion you trust? Whose opinion you do not want to put out as authoritative? Therefore, look for the best-known and respected sources of opinion.

Sure, you're entitled to your opinions. Indeed, a presentation is stronger when you have a point of view and have drawn a conclusion from your research. But make it clear that the opinion is yours. Do not pass it as an absolute fact. If you can cite authoritative opinions of third parties, and lead the audience through the events, data, and logic, you will be able to carry around to agree with your opinion. This will be an awesome success! ......