Rethinking Technical Presentations: The Assertion-Evidence Approach

In engineering and science, most presentations are not nearly as successful as they could be. The biggest problem is that most presenters follow PowerPoint's defaults of a phrase headline supported by a bulleted list. A much more effective strategy for technical presentations is the assertion-evidence approach. In this approach, you build your presentations on succinct messages (assertions), rather than phrase topics. Moreover, to support those messages, you provide visual evidence rather than bulleted lists. Finally, to explain that evidence, you practice such that you can fashion sentences on the spot. Because this approach is built on research for how people learn, assertion-evidence presentations are better understood and remembered. Because you are explaining visual evidence rather than reading bullets, you project more confidence.

Adopting the Approach

One way to elevate your presentations in engineering and science is to adopt the assertion-evidence approach. Although requiring more work, this approach calls on you to filter noise in your talk by establishing the main messages (assertions) of your talk. Once you have the main messages that you want to convey, you create visual evidence to support each message. To help you with the process, this website presents a short tutorial. Accompanying that tutorial is a selection of PowerPoint templates that overcome the weak defaults. Also, to give you ideas about possible visual evidence and delivery strategies, the website includes a collection of model talks.

Assertion-Evidence