• Use clinical cases when possible to apply talk to the real world.
  
  
• Organize carefully so that the presentation has a clear beginning, middle and end.
  
  
• Give the audience your objectives for the talk.
  
  
• Don't try to present too much. Your audience will only take home three or four major points from a one-hour lecture.
  
  
• Emphasize what is important to learn.
  
  
• Provide memorization aids such as mnemonics.
  
  
• Include a few typical board questions on this topic, if appropriate for the audience.
  
  
• Provide clinical practice guidelines on this topic, if they exist.

Suggestion: Use progressive disclosure tactics to involve the audience and guide them through the decision-making process. 

• Limit the number of words per line and the number of lines per slide.
  
  
• Use the slides as an outline for the talk -- not a word-for-word script that is read to the audience.
  
  
• (Optional) Include the verbatim talk in the Notes section for printing if you want these as a prompt for your presentation.
  
  
• Minimum font size for slide text is 20 points, 28 for titles. Text size should be large enough to be read from the back of the room.

Suggestion: Break long lists into multiple slides or use a two-bulleted text boxes format.

• Slides should contain transitions between each slide as needed.
  
  
• Use animation to emphasize important points or convey concepts effectively without distracting from the overall talk.
  
  
• Use the same transition throughout presentation.

Suggestion:Use dimming effects to focus your audience on individual points where emphasis is needed.

• A PowerPoint template or color scheme with a neutral, gradient background works best for most presentations.
  
  
• High contrast color schemes may be used if the room or data projector are not ideal. High contrast means that the text and background are not even close to the same hue.
  
  
• Use the same background for the entire presentation.
  
  
• Illustrate concepts and critters.

Suggestion:  Include slides containing relevant graphics. Example: a photograph of a parasite, a map illustrating the incidence worldwide, a movie of a microscopic wet prep of the parasite, a graph of results of a study of effectiveness of diagnosis or treatments.

• Cite the resource on the slide in a footnote using APA style or include a list of references on your last slide.
  
  
• Include hyperlinks to authoritative Web sites on the topic.
  
  
• If applicable, include the results of at least one research article on the topic with a link to the full text article.

Suggestion: Remember that medical audiences want evidence of validity, authority, and currency of information.

• Try to show more personality than the podium. However, use of humor is only advised if you have some comedic talent. Injection of Far Side cartoons, etc., should apply to the topic. Long talks can be improved with these, but don't overuse them.
  
  
• Involve the audience, if possible. Let their experience or expertise improve the talk. When the topic allows, using stories from your own experience improves the presentation.
  
  
• Speak to the audience, not the computer or the projection screen.
  
  
• Practice so that you appear at ease. Do not read talk.
  
  
• Speak at a reasonable rate, not too fast or slow.
  
  
• Speak clearly and audibly. Don't mumble. People sitting at the back of the room should be able to hear you.
  
  
• Use the allotted presentation time effectively. Do not run short or over the allotted time.
  
  
• Allow time for discussion and questions from the audience.

• Don't kill trees just for the sake of having a handout.
  
  
• If you have an illustration that is too complicated to project on the screen, such as an intricate algorithm, hand that out and refer to it in your talk.
  
  
• Give the audience something useful like a job aid, list of abbreviations, or outline.
  
  
• Board questions on the topic make a good handout.
  
  
• Articles kill trees, but the seminal article on the topic is good. Short of that, a reference/resource list is good with URLs.
  
  
• For some audiences such as a group of residents who don't have anything to write on, the PowerPoint 3 slides-per-page handout is good for taking notes.
  
  
• Otherwise, put your presentation on Blackboard or on the web, and let the audience print out what they like in the way of a handout.