Tutorial on Creating an Assertion-Evidence Presentation
Increased audience comprehension, improved speaker confidence

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Step 1. Understand the weaknesses of following PowerPoint's defaults.
PowerPoint's default lead presenters to create slides that are ineffective in technical presentations. For one thing, the bullet-list default in the body leads presenters to write much more text than listeners can process while listening to the speaker. In addition, that default leads to cluttered slides because the bullet list crowds the graphics. Moreover, the space taken by the bullet lists reduces the size of graphics, leading to call-outs that are too small to read. To understand the rationale behind these claims, please view the short film for this step. .

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​Step 2. Learn key principles of assertion-evidence approach. 

1. Build your talk on messages (not topics). 
2. Support these messages with visual evidence (not bullet lists).

A talk built on key messages is more focused than a talk built on topics. Moreover, audiences understand visual evidence more readily than they do bullet lists. Using these principles, the assertion-evidence structure makes your presentation more focused and better understood. To understand the rationale behind these claims, please view the two short films for this step. For evidence of these claims, please see our research page.

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Step 3. Download an assertion-evidence template to create slides
​for your next talk.
Before opening our PowerPoint template on your computer, you should first write down the main messages on your next talk (please note that a message is a complete sentence). These messages should tell a coherent and compelling story about your work. Then using one of our templates, have each message serve as a sentence headline for the slides. Support those headlines with visual evidence and place secondary details into the notes pages of the slides. For instructions on how to use one of the templates, please see Christine Haas's tutorial in this step.

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​​Step 4. Explain evidence by fashioning sentences on the spot (after planning and practice).
Rather than reading bullets from the screen, you can build much more credibility with audiences if you will just explain the visual evidence that you are projecting. You will find that because you own the knowledge of your own scientific work, you do not need bullet lists. In the end, bullet lists are notes for the speakers because many if not most people in the audience tire from reading them after only a couple of  slides. Moreover, as you learned in Step 1, all those words reduce the comprehension by the audience. Fashioning sentences on the spot (after planning and practice) projects much more confidence. For more explanation about this delivery style, please view the short film of this step.