Apologising for being unprepared

Showing your slide-count immediately

Giving a clear hook or rationale for why your topic matters

Leaving the audience waiting for the first minute

Your opening, objectives and main message

Only your bibliography

The next presenter’s topic

Irrelevant side-notes

Too much text and overly dense slides

Using bullets for key points

Clear headings

Clear headings

Using no transitional phrases at all

Only relying on on-screen bullet points

Using phrases like “First …, Next we will…”, “Finally…” to guide listeners

Jumping between topics randomly

The body section

In the footnotes

After Q&A

Slide one

Font size doesn’t matter

Only you can read them at the front

All audience members, including those at the back, can read them easily

You use the smallest possible to fit more content

It allows you to skip citing sources

It makes the presentation look academic and credible

It’s optional for academic talks

It’s only needed for written work, not presentations

Use the slides as prompts and engage with the audience directly

Avoid looking at the audience

Read slides verbatim

Use as many animations as possible

Road-map or outline of what you will cover

List of full academic references

Map of the room

Trivial background about yourself

Clear, concise, and appropriate for your audience’s level

Informal and full of slang

Highly technical with no explanation for the audience

Full of jokes, regardless of topic