PowerPoint is Your Friend!
Comment#1:
In his book The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint Edward R. Tufte takes issue with lack of originality in power point presentations. In addition he discusses the many problems he feels are associated with such presentations. Tufte contends that “many true statements are too long to fit on a PP slide, but this does not mean we should abbreviate the truth to make the words fit” (Tufte 4). Thus he contends that the limited space on PowerPoint slides leads to a limitation of the truth. However Tufte misses the mark with this argument. When giving a power point presentation it is best to use descriptive text on the slides, leaving the lengthy explanation for the presenter.
Comment#2:
As argued by Tufte “Nearly all PowerPoint slides that accompany talks have much lower rates of information transmission than the talk itself.” Once again Tufte is off the mark. In order for a presentation to efficiently get the information across it is important that the audience is not torn between listening to the presenter and reading the slides; this is a problem that arises when the slides contain high rates of information transmission.
Comment#3:
I take issue with Tufte’s insistence that PowerPoint is not an adequate form for presentations. Many of the issues he has with PowerPoint are problems of personal taste. I agree that a large number of presentations are boring; however it is up to the individual to make their presentation informative, exciting, and artistic.