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Marcy et al --

Why do people use PowerPoint so much? To play devil's advocate --

One answer might be that it helps in situations where not everybody speaks or
understands English perfectly. And there are lots of such situations at
multicultural universities as well as in globalized corporations. Showing slides
can extend the standard good practice of writing a few key words on the board to
help people follow your lecture. I've also seen non-native-speaker students rely
on PPt slides as a chance to state their key points when they fear that they
can't speak clearly or forcefully enough.

PowerPoint also makes it easier to integrate and mix various kinds of visuals
and audio clips in oral presentations -- charts if suitable, also paintings or
photographs or excerpts from films.

Margaret

** on the other side, see this wonderful parody of the Gettysburg Address:
http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/

--
(Dr.) Margaret Procter
University of Toronto Coordinator, Writing Support
Room 216, University College
15 King's College Circle
Toronto, ON M5S 3H7

(416) 978-8109; FAX (416) 971-2027
[log in to unmask]
http://www.utoronto.ca/writing


Marcy Bauman wrote:
>
> Well, then, why is it so popular?
>
> --On Thursday, November 20, 2003 9:37 AM -0400 Russ Hunt <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > But I think it's interesting that Jamie posted this to us
> > Chatelaines, because it seems to me that at the root of Tufte's
> > objections is a rhetorical one. It's not only about denuding
> > complex ideas of their richness; it's not only about abandoning
> > the connectives and subordinators that make discourse into
> > thinking; it's about your relation to your audience.  PPt is
> > unremittingly monologic.  The speaker's plan is the speaker's
> > plan, interrupt it at your peril.  The _Wired_ piece concludes
> > with this: "PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and
> > projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has
> > become a substitute for it. Such misuse ignores the most
> > important rule of speaking: Respect your audience." It's no
> > mistake that it's called POWER point, eh?
>
> Surely it can't be because speakers intend to disrespect their audiences,
> denude complex ideas of their richness, and abandon the connections among
> ideas . . .
>
> This is a serious question.  The denunciations of powerpoint that I have
> seen are amazingly vituperative, yet it's darned near ubiquitous.  (Can't
> just be that it's a M$ product; you don't find the same thing with Access,
> say.)  Obviously the program meets a need.  What is it?
>
> Marcy
>
>       =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>                            Marcy Bauman
>                          Media Consultant
>                        College of Pharmacy
>                       University of Michigan
>                            734-647-2227
>         =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>
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