 After receiving helpful guidance from your instructor and detailed information from your textbook to say nothing of the amazing video resources out there, I'm sure you have a handle on the do's and don'ts of preparing and using PowerPoint and other multimedia resources in your speech. Just in case though, let us show you a couple of examples of what not to do with these resources. These are real-life PowerPoints created and used by actual students in a public speaking course. Let's see what we can learn from their efforts. Okay, let's get this out of the way early. Those cool transitions that PowerPoint makes available to you, forget that they exist. They slow the pace of your speech, try the patience of the audience, and they don't add anything to the content of your message. Leave them out. A title slide also is really unnecessary. As a speaker, you should be introducing the topic of your speech in the introduction. Best to leave the title slide out and just start with a blank screen until you have something to show. Great, another transition. Again, leave it out. There's also another issue here, any guess as to what that is? That's right, it's the pixelated image. If you're going to use a graphic, make sure that it has clear definition and it's not all grainy. There's some improvement here in that he skipped the transition and the slide came right up. We have another pixelated image though. It's an improvement though. What is that? Was that an origami bird? What in the world did that have to do with anything? I think I'm going to have an aneurysm. Let's move on. Another grainy picture, another transition, followed by another grainy picture. This one with no title apparently. Oh wait, there it is with fancy animation that also doesn't add anything to the presentation. This just serves as a distraction. There's nothing inherently wrong with the simplicity of the slides or using pictures as part of your presentation. Just make sure that the pictures have a high degree of definition and leave out all the transitions and animations to keep the audience focused on your message. Okay, let's move on to the next example. Whoa, whoa, whoa, sensory overload. There is a lot going on here. Not only am I not paying attention to what the speaker is saying, but I'm having trouble focusing on just one thing on this slide. There are too many graphics, the background is pretty busy, and it's hard to see the text because it doesn't contrast enough with the background colors. Let's get off of this one. This is an improvement, but there's still a little too much going on here. Skipping over the poor grammar in the title, the full sentence description probably isn't necessary as the speaker should be explaining it themselves. The audience is also likely to be reading the chart instead of listening to what the speaker is saying. Man, we're back to this again. This is far too busy and the text doesn't contrast enough with the background color. This is also the third different slide design in three slides. Your PowerPoint should be consistent in theme and design. Once again, too much going on overall. The distracting background is gone, but there's a lot to pull the audience's attention from what the speaker is saying. I'm also finding it harder and harder to excuse all the grammatical issues. This does not give the audience confidence in the speaker's preparation and the overall credibility of the speaker. Oh, come on, again with the busy background graphic. Plus, we've already seen the image with the hands. It was on the first slide too, see? Hard to tell what's going on with the guy in the one picture. It's pretty grainy and it seems out of place. We're back to a simple background, but there shouldn't be a full sentence on the slide. Again, the speaker should be explaining this information thoroughly enough that it won't be necessary. Some key words and bullet points will reinforce the content, but full sentences are just a distraction. Okay, that's all I can take. Now you've seen some examples of what not to do. Do yourself and your audience a favor and stay away from some of these basic mistakes. This has been a lot of fun, but I need to watch some TED Talks now so that I can wash these misguided efforts from my brain.