Today you will
- look at presentations that don't work
- name what went wrong in each one
- write down three mistakes you want to avoid in your own work
Warm-up
Look at the slide in the picture. It is crammed with tiny lines of text. What went wrong first? Was it too much text, no clear point, or a messy layout?
Give each bad example your teacher shows one of these labels.
- Bullet-wall: there is so much text that people read instead of listening to you.
- Visual clutter: too many fonts, colours and pictures fight for attention.
- No hook: nothing tells you what matters first.
Examples to label
- A GAA club quiz poster with five fonts, three logos, and yellow text on lime green.
- A phone video that opens on a grey screen with no title.
For each one, say the label and one thing you would cut.
Where do you stand?
Put your marker on the line for each statement. There is no right answer. Be ready to say why you picked your spot.
After each statement, the class will write one mistake on the board. You will use these later.
Interactive activity
Common snags
- If you can only say it "looks bad", pick one of the three labels and say what you would cut.
- If every mistake feels just as bad, pick the ones that would lose the examiner in the first 20 seconds.
- If you are describing someone else's slide, start your sentence with "I will avoid" instead.
Portfolio Build
- Open {{code:Project_Portfolio}}, then go to {{code:09_specialism/sm2/}}.
- Make a new Word or Google Docs file called {{code:sm2_mistakes_to_avoid}}.
- Type your Something Real project name at the top. If you don't have one yet, type my VET interview presentation.
- Write three mistakes, using the sentence starter in the box below.
- For each mistake, add one check you will do on your own slides.
Sentence starter: I will avoid [label] on my [format] by [check], because [why it hurts my interview].
Example: I will avoid a bullet-wall on my enterprise pitch slides by keeping to one claim and two spoken examples per slide, because the examiner needs to hear me, not read me.
- {{code:sm2_mistakes_to_avoid}} is saved in {{code:09_specialism/sm2/}}.
- My project name is at the top.
- I have three mistakes, each starting with "I will avoid".
- Each mistake has a label and a check.
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