What else do all three have in common? They all point to Richard E Mayer’s Multimedia Learning as recommended reading for presentation design.

And I agree.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

How does Multimedia Learning compare to other books?

Let’s set the context:

• Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds (previously reviewed here)
• Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte (previously reviewed here)
• Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson

All three of these are:

• More popular than Mayer’s work. [In fact, these are three of the 9 most popular books on PowerPoint, according to amazon.com.]
• More applied in nature.
• More directly tied to public speaking.

Yet, all three offer advice which is, in part, based upon research explained by Mayer in Multimedia Design.

So, who should read Multimedia Learning?

Given that Richard Mayer is a professor of psychology, it is not surprising that Multimedia Learning is written in an academic style. I believe it is this style which hinders its mainstream appeal. (And the pedestrian cover design.)

However, the content is fascinating and provides scientific explanations which leads to deep understanding of much of the contemporary approach to slide design.

For this reason, I think the primary audience for Multimedia Learning is:

• Professors, teachers, and trainers who create, design, and deliver instructional courses
• Professionals who are frequently involved with slide design
• Public speaking instructors and coaches

12 Principles You Learn from Multimedia Learning

Mayer’s work is organized around 12 key principles. Each chapter introduces the principle, describes the methodology used to study it, and summarizes research results.

1. Coherence Principle
   People learn better when extraneous words, pictures, and sounds are excluded rather than included.
2. Signaling Principle
   People learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added.
3. Redundancy Principle
   People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text.
4. Spatial Contiguity Principle
   People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen.
5. Temporal Contiguity Principle
   People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.
6. Segmenting Principle
   People learn better when a multimedia lesson is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.
7. Pre-training Principle
   People learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts.
8. Modality Principle
   People learn better from graphics and narration than from animation and on-screen text.
9. Multimedia Principle
   People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.
10. Personalization Principle
    People learn better from multimedia lessons when words are in conversational style rather than formal style.
11. Voice Principle
    People learn better when the narration in multimedia lessons is spoken in a friendly human voice rather than a machine voice.
12. Image Principle
    People do not necessarily learn better from a multimedia lesson when the speaker’s image is added to the screen.

About Richard E. Mayer

Richard E. Mayer is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

From his home page:

His current research involves the related disciplines of cognition, instruction, and technology with a special focus on multimedia learning and computer-supported learning. [...]

He was ranked #1 as the most productive educational psychologist in the world for 1991-2001. [...]

He is the author of more than 390 publications including 23 books, such as Multimedia Learning: Second Edition (2009), Learning and Instruction: Second Edition (2008), E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Second Edition (with R. Clark, 2008), and the Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (editor, 2005).

Get Your Copy or Read Other Reviews

• Title: Multimedia Learning
• Author: Richard E. Mayer
• ISBN: 0521735351
• Get a copy from your local bookstore, or from these online sources (also with additional reviews):
  • amazon.com
  • amazon.ca
  • amazon.co.uk
  • amazon.de

Similar Articles You May Like... Presentation Skills Book Review – slide:ology by Nancy Duarte PowerPoint Book Review – Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations Presentation Zen Book Review Book Review: Universal Principles of Design 32 Reasons a PowerPoint Slide Deck is Nothing Like a Bra PowerPoint Design Wish List: 8 Modest Proposals

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

If you want to master visual communication, this book is for you.

If you want to impress your audience with eye-popping slides, this book is for you.

If you want to break free from the Death By PowerPoint pandemic, this book is for you.

Nancy Duarte has written slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. (Learn more about Nancy Duarte in a Six Minutes interview!)

Ever since my copy arrived, I can’t put it down. I’ve carried it to and from work every day so that I can read a few pages on breaks. It’s that good.

I highly recommend slide:ology. It is destined to become a classic reference text for presentation skills.

What’s In slide:ology?

slide:ology covers the whole visual presentation process, from concept generation to delivery. Examples and case studies abound throughout. The twelve chapters are:

1. Creating a new slide ideology.
2. Creating ideas, not slides.
3. Creating Diagrams.
4. Displaying Data.
5. Thinking like a designer.
6. Arranging elements.
7. Using visual elements: background, color, and text.
8. Using visual images.
9. Creating movement.
10. Governing with templates.
11. Interacting with slides.
12. Manifesto: The five theses of the power of a presentation.

7 Things I Love About slide:ology

There’s a lot to love about this book, and even more to learn. On top of the many presentation design lessons, slide:ology teaches many lessons that apply to all speeches and presentations.

1. Stories

I counted 20 case studies spritzed through the book, joining countless other anecdotes taken from Duarte’s personal or professional experiences.

Key Lesson: Tell a story. Make a point. Tell another story. Make another point…

2. Humbleness

slide:ology is written in a humble, respectful tone throughout. This makes it seem like the lessons are coming from a wise village elder rather than a stodgy industry expert.

Consider the case study of Al Gore in slide:ology. Although Duarte Design worked intimately with Gore on An Inconvenient Truth, Nancy takes no credit for this in the book. Instead, she hands all the praise to the former U.S. Vice President.

Al Gore has done more than any other individual to legitimize multimedia presentations as one of the most compelling communication vehicles on the planet.

Key Lesson: Making yourself the hero of your stories rarely works.

3. Generosity

Some books written by industry rock stars are filled with empty pages which ultimately amounts to “If you want to do X, hire an industry rock star.” This is not the case with slide:ology. Duarte reveals plenty of insider information in this book. And the giving doesn’t end there. Throughout the book, [www] icons refer the reader to extended multimedia content available online.

Key Lesson: Understand that every member of your audience wants to know what’s in it for them. It’s not about you.

4. Honesty

Walk the aisles in the technical books section of your local bookstore, and you’ll find dozens of titles making outrageous claims such as Teach Yourself X in 24 Hours.

Duarte is honest in pointing out the effort required for superior presentations. (36-90 hours to create a 30-slide one-hour presentation) There’s no smoke and mirrors here.

Key Lesson: Be authentic with your audience first, and tell them what they need to know.

5. Personal Connection

I’ve haven’t met Nancy Duarte yet (unless you count email), but reading this book makes me feel like I have. She shares intimate stories about her family and her psyche.

• The foreword is written by her husband, and features a mock presentation from her daughter.
• Page 44 tells the story of a day spent on her office floor categorizing diagrams, complete with a photograph from her youth which illustrates this personality trait.
• Page 84 discusses how she sought out her life mission.

Key Lesson: The best presentations (and books) make a personal connection.

6. Beauty

Every two-page spread in the entire book except the first (Introduction) and the last (A Call to Relate) has a visual element complementing the text. Whether a photograph, a drawing, a table, or an example slide, every design element in the book must have been labored over for hours or days. The design quality reflects the expertise of the entire Duarte Design team, but the decision to pour this quality effort into the book is key.

Key Lesson: Pay attention to the details. They matter.

7. Fun

What else can you say about a book which features:

• A quote comparing Tolstoy’s War and Peace to Dr. Seuss’ One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
• Pie graphs made with real slices of pie!
• A photo of Salvador Dali sketching in his bathtub

Key Lesson: People learn better when they are having fun. Make them smile.

How could it be better?

There are three things I’d like to see done differently in slide:ology.

1. Follow a Single Example Presentation from Concept to Completion

From chapter to chapter, Duarte covers the full lifecycle of a presentation from concept generation, through sketches on Post-It notes, to slide design, and on to delivery. Examples abound for each of these individual steps.

I’d like to see one example to which the entire slide:ology methodology would be applied. Start by setting the context, and then show the steps to the final presentation. This might add significant length, so perhaps that explains the absence. Maybe the platform for this extended case study could be a companion e-book downloadable on demand. Whatever the format, I’d like to see it.

2. More Flexibility in the Two-page Spread Format

Earlier in this review, I praised the visual elements present on nearly every two-page spread, and I was sincere. I love this style. It reminds me of the STOP method for document creation which is common for proposals and reports.

However, the challenge with this format is that every concept you want to cover needs to be massaged into two-page spreads. Continuity can suffer. I would like to see a little more in the way of chapter introductions and summaries, even if they spill onto three or four pages. Metaphorically, I’d like to zoom out once in a while and reset the big picture. (Something that’s good to do in a long presentation too.)

3. More Comprehensive Table of Contents

With only chapter titles given, it isn’t as easy as I’d like to jump back to a specific topic. Sure, the index is there, but that doesn’t help me if I’m looking for a case study, but don’t remember the organization profiled. This is a pretty minor thing, but I plan to reference slide:ology often; better navigation would help me find the topic I need sooner.

What Nancy Says About slide:ology

Author Nancy Duarte introduces her book in this YouTube video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

What Other Presentation Experts are Saying About slide:ology

Andrew Abela — The Extreme Presentation Method:

It’s a beautiful and useful book.  I recommend it highly.

Richard Bretschneider — Presentations Roundtable:

I know I’ve said this before, but this is a book you need.

Garr Reynolds — Presentation Zen:

My favorite presentation book of all time.

This is high praise, considering that Garr authored his own bestseller earlier this year. [Garr's Presentation Zen is reviewed here.]

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Stephen Kosslyn has written a wonderful book for all presenters: Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations.

The subtitle for the book promises to illuminate the psychology of PowerPoint. Does it deliver?

In a way, yes. The 8 principles, dozens of examples, and hundreds of tips reveal much that would improve your PowerPoint skills.

However, this book delivers so much more. The 8 psychological principles can be applied to many aspects of public speaking beyond PowerPoint design.

For example, consider Principle 7 (The Principle of Information Changes: People expect changes in properties to carry information). A wise presenter might apply this to variations in voice. A shift from a strong, quick voice to a softer and slower voice should mirror a change in the content. Indeed, such a transition must mirror a change in content. Otherwise, your audience will be confused.

8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations

This book revolves around 8 psychological principles which are introduced early in the book, and then explained in greater detail in the Appendix. (The Appendix explanations are not required reading, but I do recommend it.)

1. The Principle of Relevance
   Communication is most effective when neither too much nor too little information is presented.
2. The Principle of Appropriate Knowledge
   Communication requires prior knowledge of pertinent concepts, jargon, and symbols.
3. The Principle of Salience
   Attention is drawn to large perceptible differences.
4. The Principle of Discriminability
   Two properties must differ by a large enough proportion or they will not be distinguished.
5. The Principle of Perceptual Organization
   People automatically group elements into units, which they then attend to and remember.
6. The Principle of Compatibility
   A message is easiest to understand if its form is compatible with its meaning.
7. The Principle of Information Changes
   People expect changes in properties to carry information.
8. The Principle of Capacity Limitations
   People have a limited capacity to retain and to process information, and so will not understand a message if too much information must be retained or processed.

Practical Application of the 8 Principles

The majority of book is devoted to 4 chapters, each of which:

• Addresses a topical area of slide design,
• Includes dozens of tips which describe how the 8 principles can be applied to maximize the effectiveness of the slides, and
• Conclude with a summary of tips organized by the matching principle.

The format is easy to read from start to finish, or as reference material.

1. Legible Text

This chapter covers font selection, formatting choices, the use of bullet points, labels, titles, tables, and legends.

An excerpt which illustrates the Principle of Information Changes:

Use the same terminology in labels, as well as in the surrounding text and spoken words. Using different terms in a display, in text, and in what you say aloud may lead the audience to wonder if you mean different things. Attempting to distinguish these differences will definitely tax the cognitive capacities of your audience.

2. Color, Texture, Animation, and Sound

Here’s an excerpt illustrating the Principle of Perceptual Organization:

Use color to group elements. Regions of the same color will be seen as a group. Use the same color for all titles and another color for all text entries, which will clearly group the material into these two categories. And use color to pair corresponding elements.

3. Quantitative Information: Graphs

This chapter covers pie graphs, visual tables, line graphs, bar graphs, step graphs, and scatterplots.

Here’s an excerpt illustrating the Principle of Salience:

Construct an exploded pie graph by displacing the important slice or slices, as if a wedge of pizza had been pulled out from the pie. [...] If you decide to use an exploded pie, you must decide which part or parts to emphasize. If too many wedges are exploded, the viewers won’t know where to look.

4. Qualitative Information: Charts, Diagrams, Maps, Photographs, and Clipart

Here’s an excerpt illustrating the Principle of Capacity Limitations:

Use photos and clipart to give the audience time to “come up for air.” [...] useful as a break in the steady flow of information, allowing the audience a moment to reflect and digest. This is especially the case if the photo or clipart is humorous.

Three Primary Goals for Every Presentation

As stated above, the advice in Clear and to the Point applies to more than just PowerPoint design — it applies to presentations as a whole. This broad context is established early in the book, and referenced throughout.

The 8 principles are mapped to three primary goals of any presentation, even those which do not utilize PowerPoint at all.

Goal 1: Connect with your audience.
Your message should connect with the goals and interests of your audience. [Principles 1, 2]

Goal 2: Direct and hold attention.
You should lead the audience to pay attention to what’s important. [Principles 3, 4, 5]

Goal 3: Promote understanding and memory.
Your presentation should be easy to follow, digest, and remember. [Principles 6, 7, 8]

In Summary

Clear and to the Point is a very welcome addition to my public speaking bookshelf. I highly recommend that you read it too.

About the Author: Stephen M. Kosslyn

Stephen Kosslyn is Chair of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He is a leading authority on the nature of visual mental imagery and visual communication.

Update: Isn’t This Just “Common Sense”?

Upon reading this review, Michael Hyatt (President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers) commented:

Much of this looks like common sense; nevertheless, I am a sucker for books on making better presentations. It’s a HUGE part of what I do.

Michael’s comment struck a chord with me. I felt the same way as I browsed through and then read the book. None of the individual guidelines was earth-shattering, and most of them were not even new to me. While I was already designing slides in agreement with Kosslyn’s advice, Clear and to the Point helped me understand why I was doing things that way and it underlines the benefits for the audience.

Further, as I asked myself whether this was just common sense, my eventual conclusion was simply: “If it was common sense, why do we still suffer through so many poorly-designed presentations?”

Like Michael, I am a sucker for books on making better presentations. I hope you are too.

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

The World’s Best Presentation Contest is returning to SlideShare for 2008.

Get creative, enter the contest, and you can win one of those prizes.

Leave a comment linking to your entry. If a number of Six Minutes subscribers enter, I’ll feature those entries in a future article.

Categories

Entries are welcome in six diverse categories:

• Business
• Picture Slideshows
• Technology
• Educational
• Creative / Offbeat
• About Me

Can you Beat This?

As I write this article, The Consumer Agenda (category: Business) is leading the way with 19 votes.

| View | Upload your own

Last Year’s Winners

View the 2007 contest winners to see what it takes to win.

First Place — Shift Happens

| View | Upload your own

Second Place — Meet Henry

| View | Upload your own

Third Place — Sustainable Food Lab

| View | Upload your own

Good luck!

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Why?

• Does he use cutting-edge software to generate his slides?
• Does he hire the most expensive speech writers?
• Does he perform complex techniques that are beyond the reach of any other speaker?

No. You can easily learn these techniques and present like Steve Jobs.

In this video from bnet.com, communications coach Carmine Gallo provides an insightful synopsis of the methods that Steve Jobs uses to captivate his audience.

Summary of Speaking Tips

• Set the Theme
  • Make your theme clear and consistent
  • Create a headline that sets the direction for your meeting
• Provide the Outline
  • Open and close each section with a clear transition
  • Make is easy for your listeners to follow your story
• Demonstrate Enthusiasm
  • Wow your audience
• Sell an Experience
  • Make numbers and statistics meaningful
  • Analogies help connect the dots for your audience
• Make it Visual
  • Paint a simple picture that doesn’t overwhelm
• Give ‘em a Show
  • Identify your memorable moment and build up to it
  • Give your audience an added bonus to walk away with
• Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse
  • Spend the time to rehearse

More from Carmine Gallo

If you enjoyed this analysis by Carmine Gallo, you may be interested in the Six Minutes review of his book: Fire Them Up! where he analyzes many other great business communicators.

More about Steve Jobs Speaking Style

For further analysis of Steve Jobs’ speaking techniques, check out the speech critique of his Stanford commencement address. He demonstrates his strength in a different speaking style.

Similar Articles You May Like... Video Critique: Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005) Book Review: Multimedia Learning by Richard E. Mayer Presentation Skills Book Review – slide:ology by Nancy Duarte PowerPoint Book Review – Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations World’s Best Presentation Contest Free E-book – Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

This free ebook was created by John Emerson as a tool to help advocacy groups:

• Tell their story more effectively;
• Make their message more compelling; and
• Use information design techniques to do it.

You may not speak on behalf of an advocacy group, but every time you speak, you are attempting to deliver a message. Your message will be more compelling if you understand and apply the visualization principles in this guide.

Visualizing Information for Advocacy is full of rich content and nearly every page contains visual examples demonstrating design principles such as:

• Color
• Typography
• Structure
• Elements
• Technology
• Clarity

Hans Rosling (previously featured in a speech critique) is one of many experts profiled. Here is another example demonstrating effective use of contrast in presentation design. One can imagine toggling between two PowerPoint slides to illustrate the contrast.

Most of the examples are too complex to go on a PowerPoint slide, but the principles scale well to simpler media as well.

From the back page:

You’ve got data, now what do you do with it?
How do you tell your story effectively?
How can you move your audience?

Get your free copy on the downloads page.

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

My favorite aspect of the book was the hundreds of sample slides which illustrate design principles, particularly those illustrating before versus after transformations.

I’ve just discovered a great online resource from Garr Reynolds which contains a representative sample of the book contents.

Sample Slides from Garr Reynolds

Via SlideShare.net, here is a set of 85 sample slides taken from his book or from his presentation library.

| View | Upload your own

Interested in More?

You can check out the full book review or the Presentation Zen book for more details. It is a great resource for every presenter.

Similar Articles You May Like... Book Review: Multimedia Learning by Richard E. Mayer Presentation Zen Book Review Presentation Skills Book Review – slide:ology by Nancy Duarte PowerPoint Book Review – Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations World’s Best Presentation Contest Free E-book – Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Majora Carter’s TED talk has both incredible strengths — passion, energy, authenticity — and one unfortunate weakness — rapid speaking rate. Both extremes are worthy of public speaking analysis.

I encourage you to:

1. Watch the video;
2. Read the analysis in this speech critique; and
3. Share your thoughts on this presentation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What is Phenomenal about this Speech?

Guy Kawasaki has written a thorough 15-point speech review, describing the many wonderful aspects of this talk. His entire review is worth reading, but I’d like to quote a few excerpts which echoed my own analysis:

• She immediately provides a clear problem statement. (1:00-2:00)
• She personalizes her story all the way through the speech.
• She shows raw emotions and unveils a piece of her soul when she breaks into tears when talking about her brother being gunned down. (5:10)
• She capitalizes on alliteration: “pimps and pushers and prostitutes” (6:50) and repetition: “economic degradation begets environmental degradation which begets social degradation” (7:24).
• Her presence exudes power and confidence without a trace of arrogance, fear, or condescension.
• She ends with an insanely great call-to-action: “Please don’t waste me.” (17:57)

In short, Majora Carter exhibits incredible passion — more in 19 minutes than many of my college professors in an entire semester. Her message is captivating, and her enthusiasm is infectious. All speakers can learn from Majora Carter.

But… it could be much, much better

This talk by Majora Carter is not without flaws. Here’s what Guy Kawasaki wrote about her speaking rate:

• She speaks rapidly—bordering on too rapidly, but she is articulate at all times. And she slows her cadence for her most important points. You can tell that she’s trying to observe her time limit—communicating that she respects the audience’s time.

While I agreed with much of Guy Kawasaki’s analysis, I believe he is being too generous on this point.

Majora Carter speaks too fast for much of this talk. Period. It does not “border on too rapidly.” It is too rapid.

Her talk is packed with dense information, often delivered at a rate too fast for many in the audience to absorb. Garr Reynolds recently wrote about a presentation by economist Robert Frank. One of Frank’s slides asks these questions:

• How much can I cover today?
  vs.
  How much can my students absorb today?

While Majora Carter may be respecting the audience’s time, she is not respecting the audience’s capacity to absorb information.

I have the luxury of watching this video three times, pausing, and rewinding to get the meaning. This is a luxury that your audience rarely has. More importantly, your audience will rarely give you more than one opportunity. Overloading them with information is not effective.

Her speaking rate is so fast that she trips over her own words multiple times. At times, she seems breathless. Used sparingly, a rapid speaking rate can be used to very good effect by a speaker. However, when most of the talk is delivered at this rate, that’s a clear sign that too much information is being presented.

What’s the Solution? Aggressive Editing.

If you have a 20-minute time slot and 40 minutes of information, the solution is not to double your speaking rate. The solution is to cut the material in half. Keep the best lines, the best stories, and the most powerful images. Be ruthless in trimming the rest.

Depending on your speaking scenario, you may be able to include additional facts, figures, statistics, stories, and diagrams in handout material for the audience.

What about Reading from a Script?

It is generally better to avoid reading from notes, but that in itself didn’t bother me in this presentation. Despite frequently reading, Majora connects deeply with the audience throughout the talk. Her face is expressive, her body is active, and her vocal variety is excellent. She compensates well for the use of notes.

The indirect problem with reading notes is that it encourages rapid delivery. This is a problem that I have personally battled. In the past, I often wrote with red pen in margins of my notes: “SLOW DOWN!” In recent years, I go without notes or with only a few key phrases to guide me along. The time it takes me to occasionally catch my thoughts is time well spent — it allows the audience time to digest what I’ve just said.

Critical analysis notwithstanding, this is still a fantastic talk from Majora Carter. It could have been better with some aggressive editing and a slower delivery. [For contrast, watch this 2-minute video from Majora Carter demonstrating a much better speaking rate.]

Your Thoughts?

Did you enjoy this speech? What did you like most? What did you think of the speaking rate?

Similar Articles You May Like... Six Simple Techniques for Presenting Data: Hans Rosling (TED, 2006) Video Critique: Al Gore (TED, 2006) Video Critique: J.A. Gamache (Toastmasters, 2007) Video Critique: Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005) Critique: Lessig Method Presentation Style (Dick Hardt, Identity 2.0, OSCON 2005) How can you inspire your audience? Ask 10-year-old Dalton Sherman.

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Web comic xkcd has charted the number of deaths from numerous activities, but no public speaking deaths have been reported.

As I write this, Google searches demonstrate that public speaking is a non-life threatening activity. All of these return zero results:

• “died in a public speaking accident”
• “died in a speaking accident”
• “died in a presentation accident”
• “died in a PowerPoint accident”
• “died in a Toastmasters accident”

On the other hand, two people have apparently died in a blogging accident, so subscribing to my blog via RSS or email may be risky business…

• “died while reading Six Minutes”: 0 results

But, I think you’re safe.

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

In the spirit of Rotten Tomatoes – a site I always check before buying or renting a movie – this article gathers book reviews from public speaking experts and fellow bloggers.

A summary of their opinion is simple: buy this book and the slides in your next presentation will benefit.

The Book

• Title: Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
• Author: Garr Reynolds, presentation design expert and author of very popular Presentation Zen blog
• Paperback; 240 pages; New Riders Press

Introspective Book Review from the Author

• 2007-07-13 | Announcing Presentation Zen: the book
• 2007-07-17 | Reflections on the editing process
• 2007-09-12 | “The text is about 90% ready”
• 2007-10-19 | Design and layout previews
• 2007-12-18 | “The books have left the warehouse”

iStockphoto Bonus: Garr also reported that buying the book earns you credits to download 10 free images at the highest resolution from iStockphoto.

Book Reviews

Guy Kawasaki interviews Garr Reynolds with thirteen questions on presentation style which offer a flavor of what can be found in the book.

At its heart Presentation Zen is about restraint, simplicity, and a natural approach to presentations [...]

Paul Gibler – Powerful Presentation Techniques:

All in all, [...] an A for your reading list and as an addition to your presentation skills library.

Bert Decker – Create Your Communications Experience:

Presentation Zen [...] should be read by any business presenter, leader, politician, professional… well, by everybody.

Wayne Botha – Make Your Point with Pow’R:

Don’t leave home for your next presentation without Garr’s book.

Pamela Slim – Escape from Cubicle Nation:

As one who has suffered through years of excruciating PowerPoint presentations, all I can say is “Hallelujah!”

Michael Nolan – Peachpit:

This book will change the world [...] As this book makes its way through the corporate culture, the simple principles of Presentation Zen will change thinking.

Merlin Mann – 43 Folders:

[...] this is about re-imagining how your entire presentation will work together as a persuasive and integrated show, from conception through delivery.

TJ Walker:

Reynolds cuts through a lot of the silly noise about PowerPoint and gets right to how it can be used effectively, memorably and beautifully.

Mike Sporer – Fresh Perspectives:

This book didn’t just change the way I think about presentations, it changed the way I look at our world.

Rhett Laubach – Authenticity Rules:

[...] an instant classic [...]

Seth Godin:

Please don’t buy this book! Once people start making better presentations, mine won’t look so good.

Stephen Few:

Even if you’re good at this, I’m betting this book will make you better. If you struggle with this stuff and know you need help, let Garr Reynolds ease the load. Buy this book.

Preview the Book with an Excerpt

You can read a 12-page excerpt from Presentation Zen which addresses slide design concepts of contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity (c.r.a.p.).

Preview the Book via Sample Slides

You can view sample slides from Garr Reynolds. Many are taken from the book, and provide a sneak preview at what you’ll find inside.

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.