Writing Effective
Presentations
An Introduction
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young
Wednesday, 13 September 2000
Agenda
• Five Principles
• Creating Quality Documents
• Using a Standard Format
• Presenting Your Data
• Structuring Your Story
© 2000 by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. All rights reserved.
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INTRODUCTION
Five principles underpin all good document writing
• Write for your audience.
• Keep it simple.
• Support assertions with facts.
• Stay in the active voice (have actors, use verbs).
• Tell a good story.
story.
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CREATING QUALITY DOCUMENTS
Documents are a consultancy’s only tangible product
• Send a message to our clients about who we are—and what we think of
them.
• Contain valuable—and expensive—information for the client.
• Often get wide circulation in the client firm.
• Are a direct reflection of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’s image.
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CREATING QUALITY DOCUMENTS
Document quality has an impact on CGE&Y’s image
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CREATING QUALITY DOCUMENTS
We want that image to be positive
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CREATING QUALITY DOCUMENTS
A first draft will not meet CGE&Y’s quality standards
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CREATING QUALITY DOCUMENTS
Each step in the writing process is essential
1.
Find a good model
6.
Edit
2.
Outline your story
7.
Revise
3.
Write draft
8.
Type revisions
4.
Type draft
9.
Check revisions
5.
Read to copy
10. Proofread
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CREATING QUALITY DOCUMENTS
Spellcheck can eliminate embarrassing errors
To goad people into spellchecking, a colleague of mine coined the
non-PC phrase, “Spellcheck or die”.
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CREATING QUALITY DOCUMENTS
There’s no good excuse for poor quality at CGE&Y
• “The audience doesn’t care.”
• “There isn’t time.”
• “No one complains.”
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Using a Standard Format
• Advantages
• Basic Mechanics
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USING A STANDARD FORMAT
Standard formats offer several practical advantages
• Audience soon learns where to look for particular kinds of information:
– Format “disappears” so they concentrate on substance.
– A form of repetition that promotes audience comfort.
• Provides you with a ready-made framework:
– Helps you structure your ideas concisely.
– Eliminates the need to make small format and style decisions.
– Becomes familiar across the firm.
• Promotes writing and production efficiencies.
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RUNNING HEAD
Headline (usually a sentence)
Head (optional)
“Tracker”
(optional)
• Bullet:
–
Sub-bullet (as needed):
• Sub-sub-bullet (as needed).
A look at the elements
and their names
“Kicker” (optional).
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WHERE WE ARE IN THE STORY
What this page is about
A key category or idea
• A main point:
– A sub-point.
How the elements work
– A second.
• A second main point:
– A sub-point.
– A second.
Implications: “So what?”
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USING A STANDARD FORMAT
Follow the “Rule of Two”
Limit every element in the format to two lines:
• Report title
• Bullets
• Subtitle
• Dashes
• Headlines
• Kickers
• Heads
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USING A STANDARD FORMAT
Your title page needs a few basic elements
• Name of target audience.
• An active title that generates interest:
–
Begin with a verb form (e.g. Developing, Evaluating, Understanding, Assessing).
• Subtitle:
–
An option that allows you to elaborate.
• Author.
• Date delivered.
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USING A STANDARD FORMAT
Good headlines focus attention on the page’s main idea
• Usually a brief sentence:
– One line is best.
– Two lines maximum.
• Say something meaningful that directs attention to the page’s important
point, e.g.:
– “ROE varies greatly across businesses”
• Avoid empty statements, e.g.:
– “The next step of the analysis is as follows:”
• Use headlines as the “story board” of your document:
– Reading only the headlines should tell a coherent story.
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USING A STANDARD FORMAT
The work we completed is as follows:
NO!
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USING A STANDARD FORMAT
Each page, like a paragraph, tells a small story
• Create a logical flow from top to bottom.
• Be sure it fits the logic of your overall story.
• Don’t overwhelm your audience:
– By jamming too much information on page.
– With material that is beyond its comprehension.
• Don’t “underwhelm” your audience:
– With too little (or trivial) information.
– By making simple information seem complex.
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USING A STANDARD FORMAT
Too much information can overwhelm your audience
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USING A STANDARD FORMAT
You can make text manageable at the revision stage
• Break long bullets into bullets and dashes, which will not only make them
look considerably better on the page, but will also make them easier for the
reader to understand and remember.
e.g.
• Break long bullets into bullets and dashes:
– Better looking.
– Easier to read and understand.
– More memorable.
That is, follow the Rule of Two.
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USING A STANDARD FORMAT
The best kickers answer the audience’s “So what?”
questions
• Say what the page’s content implies for the audience:
– NOT a continuation of the headline.
• Sometimes used effectively in other ways:
– As exception statement or counterpoint.
– To sum up and end section (signal a transition).
• Good kickers are short and to the point:
– Follow the Rule of Two.
• Optional—use only when needed.
Using kickers well can add substantial power to your
presentations.
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USING A STANDARD FORMAT
Your audience comes first
• Create an audience-focused title page with an active title.
• Write headlines that add value.
• Do not cram pages too full:
– People cannot absorb too much at once.
– White space is essential.
• Use the kicker option when you want to drive home a key
“So-what?” message.
Make the information on each page clearly accessible to your
audience.
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Presenting Your Data
• Ensuring Accuracy
• Constructing Effective Tables
• Using Graphics to Advantage
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PRESENTING YOUR DATA
One bad number can destroy the credibility of an entire
document
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PRESENTING YOUR DATA
Keep tables as simple and clean as possible
• Highlight key numbers:
– Box or circle.
– Boldface.
• Create logical patterns and progressions:
– Low to high; left to right; past to present to future; etc.
• Use repetition:
– Present similar data in same format from page to page.
– Promotes audience comfort.
• Put “data dumps” in appendix.
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PRESENTING YOUR DATA
Graphics add power to presentations
• A graphic always has more impact
than a table of raw numbers.
• Gives both a numerical and a visual
message.
• Simpler really is better.
• Worst case—audience does not
understand your complicated graphic.
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PRESENTING YOUR DATA
Choose the right graphic for the job you want done
In general:
Share

Pie charts
Comparisons

Bar charts
Trends

Line graphs
Degree

Booz balls
Position

Matrices
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PRESENTING YOUR DATA
Share = Pie Charts
Other
20%
Petroleum
Specialty Chemicals
40%
Coal
5%
15%
20%
Commodity Chemicals
Pie charts start at 12 o’clock and build clockwise from largest to
smallest; “other” is always last.
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PRESENTING YOUR DATA
Comparisons = Bar Charts
Strategy 1: “Status Quo”
Projected 1999 Market Share by Distribution Channel
84%
Traditional
Non-traditional
Total
58%
41%
23%
19%
19%
17%
13%
10%
4%
3%
Client
Competitor 1
9%
Competitor 2
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All Other
Competitors
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PRESENTING YOUR DATA
Trends = Line Graphs
Client vs. S&P 500 Index 1993–1999
4
Client
3
S&P
2
1
0
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
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1998
1999
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PRESENTING YOUR DATA
Degree = Booz Balls
Support Requirement
Siding
Distributors
Retailers
OEMs
Breadth of Product Line
Delivery Requirements
Order Processing
Training by Client Reps
Financing
Packaging
Level of Support
Required
Low
Medium
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High
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PRESENTING YOUR DATA
Position = Matrices
Many
Fragmented
Number of
Ways to
Create
Advantage
Specialised
Stalemate
Volume
Few
Small
Large
Size of Advantage
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Structuring Your Story
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STRUCTURING YOUR STORY
Tell a story your audience can follow
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STRUCTURING YOUR STORY
A good report story has simple, logically ordered elements
Element
Purpose

Roadmap
“Tell them what you’re going to tell them”

What the problem is
Set the stage

What we did
Outline approach/methodology; build credibility

What we found
Present findings

What that means
Interpret findings and make conclusions

What we need to do
Make recommendations

What happens next
Outline next steps
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STRUCTURING YOUR STORY
Many people create a storyboard of their presentations
• Develop an active title.
• Create an agenda that establishes the storyline’s sections.
• Write headlines for the panels in each section.
Creating even a rough storyboard will help you generate a
coherent story for your audience.
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Revisiting the five underlying principles
• Write for your audience.
• Keep it simple.
• Support assertions with facts.
• Stay in the active voice (have actors, use verbs).
• Tell a good story.
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