First off, the content of presentation must be cogent and coherent. Though there is no absolute measure of what's right or wrong in writing, writing credibly is important to cater to the various readers and conditions (Putnis & Petelin, 1996). According to Marquez (2010), it is important to keep the content concise; stating only important points related to the topic. This ensures that the presentation will not meander and does not become to draggy and wordy. Rothman (2005) supports this stating that 'technical writing should be specific and include all relevant details'.
Next, comes the design of the document which does plays a major role to keep your audience glued to what you're presenting. Among the elements to be considered are the use of graphics and images for example like charts and photos. Images and graphics serves as an assistance to the audience to comprehend and utilize information in the document (Reep, 2006). On top of that, Russell (2010) mentions that graphics and images makes the presentation interesting and different. This makes it less likely for your audience to fall asleep too. The flow of the presentation is important thus there must be consistency. Both Reep (2006) and Russell (2010) stresses to take note that people read from left to right. This should be taken advantage of to have a proper arrangements of points. Reep (2006) also pointed out important elements such as margins, indentations and typeface in order to achieve a smooth flow of the sequence.
An example of arrangement of information.
Source: Presentation slides from IPD
As you can see from the image above, the heading is accentuated in bold and the font size is bigger than the pointers below it.
Source: Presentation slides from IPD
The image above complies to Rothman's (2005) principle of keeping the information concise and specific.
Source: Presentation slides from IPD
This image above follows Reep's (2006) theory of incorporating images to assist in explaining the data. The image above shows how is image is place side by side which shows for comparison. On the other hand, the slide is not clutter with many text as this gives the presenter the opportunity to explain in further details.
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References:
Marquez, Z L 2010, How to Make a Good Power Point Presentation, Ezinearticles.com, viewed 26th August 2010, < http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Good-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=4313178>
Peter, P & Petelin, R 1996, 'Writing to communicate', Professional communication : principles and applications, Ch. 7, pp. 223-263
Reep, DC 2006, 'Document Design', Technical Writing, Ch. 6, pp. 133-172
Russel, W 2010, 10 Tips for Creating Successful Business Presentations, About.com: Presentation Software, viewed 26th August 2010, <>>
Rothman, S 2005, What Makes Good Scientific and Techinical Writing?, Assosiatedcontent.com, viewed 26th August 2010, < http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9447/error?cat=4>
