Powerpoint Presentations

Rhetoric, the art of persuasion, can be visual as well as textual.  Since the powerful rise of advertising and the advent of Web 2.0 technology, we cannot afford to ignore visual styles of rhetoric in our writing classes.

Understanding visual rhetoric will help you in work places where you may be asked to present information in the format of a slide show (as in a meeting) or poster presentation (as at a convention).  Since, as consumers and citizens, we confront visual rhetoric constantly--on billboards, signs, ads, magazine covers, commercials, TV programs, web sites, and more--understanding visual rhetoric should help us make informed, critical choices in the world.

We've already used semiotic analysis to understand the visual rhetoric of those awesome Old Spice ads.  (And btw, have you noticed that Dove appears to have adopted a similar marketing strategy?)

So let's turn to making our own visual rhetoric with Powerpoint (on PC) or Keynote (on Mac).



The rules governing slide shows are very similar to college essays. 

• They both have beginnings, middles, and ends
• They both need to be well-organized, well-developed, and coherent (ie, have transitions)
• They both need to have a clear purpose and thesis.  They need to be aware of audience and tone.
• They both need concrete evidence to show the reader the point they are trying to communicate.

But slide shows are different from essays because they have visual and oral components.

Slide show programs often have templates to guide our visual choices.  Two main rules apply:

• The rule of thirds
• More than 6 pieces of information on any given slide will overwhelm the viewer.

Check out the slide below.  How many pieces of information does it convey?

1. The title.  If this were a body paragraph, we might think of the title of the slide as the topic sentence, main idea, or claim.
2. The map.  The map is both context (it draws the historical setting from which the Declaration of Independence came) and an antecedent for the personal pronouns on the page.
3-5. Sub-points and evidence.  We might think of this as the development part of the body paragraph.  It's important to note that the bullet points are not comprehensive; like a summary they capture the main points you want to communicate.  Long sentences and paragraphs do not work well on slides.
6. Background color.  This slide is taken from a template, so it's not incredibly impressive.  But it's worthwhile to point out that the colors make the text easy to read.  You want to use high contrast colors (opposites and complements on the color wheel) for the sake of clarity.  You also want to think about tone.  What kind of attitude about the topic do these colors represent?  And lastly, you want to think about emphasis.  The gradation of color draws the eye to the white parts of the page; first the title, then the map, then the text.  Both because of the placement and the color, the title appears to be the most important piece of information on the slide.

Rule of Thirds:  Notice that the slide is divided into three spaces.

Oral Choices: When we write essays, we need to develop the body paragraphs by explaining how and why the evidence supports the claim, and why the claim matters. 

When we present slide shows, we need to create oral presentations that transform the crumbs of information on the slides into full blown paragraph-sized meals.  Think of the slides as an outline for a fuller speech you are making.  It is never a good idea to simply read the information off the slides when your audience is capable of reading it themselves.  OTOH, you also want to make sure that your speech refers to the items of the slide to help the audience make sense of them.