It is unlikely that such a hypervisible program such as Powerpoint would be challenged. Doesn’t every successful businessperson or master presenter use it? In my Presentations class this semester, I am being taught these very specific PowerPoint tips; I am supposed to use three to four bulleted points a slide, use catchy titles to grip the viewer’s attention, and to spend at least 30 seconds to a minute a slide. Garr Reynolds wouldn’t agree with that. In fact, he would probably have my teacher engage in a meditative excersize, freeing his mind from pre-existing rules and regulations. Who is right, Garr Reynolds or my IST professor? To arrive at a conclusion, I decided to make my own assessment by a comparison of the two contrasting ideas.

To discover which approach is a more effective one, I must first decide what makes a presentation effective? I must say that sitting through a class and staring at blocky, bulleted points that make mute points doesn’t exactly grab my attention as an audience member. As entertaining as my teacher attempts to make old, basic, methods of presentation, the sheer thought of sitting in a business room and boring my superiors half to death makes me cringe more than nails on a blackboard. Presentation Zen, on the other hand, offers a fresh new interpretation of the science of presenting. In the first two chapters, Reynolds breaks the stereotype of the dull, remedial PowerPoints that have Times New Roman twelve-point font and complete sentences for slides. If you can read the slides by themselves and get the point without the presenter speaking at all, the PowerPoint is useless.