Bullet points shine when they are used to visually structure separate topics under one main point. I use bullet points in EVERYTHING from my emails to my notes, to my blog posts, to my Powerpoint presentations. I like how they just so neatly indent the words to make the information scan-able.
They allow the reader to see the structure of the thinking without having to read the words.
But, there’s a danger in using bullet points in your Powerpoint presentations. They are deeply distracting. But not for the reasons you may think.
In Presentation Zen, Garr Reynolds writes,
“It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at us both verbally and in written form at the same time. Since people cannot read and listen well at the same time, displays filled with lots of text must be avoided.
On the other hand, multimedia that displays visual information, including visualizations of quantitative information, can be processed while listening to someone speak about the visual content.”
How can you stop bullet point abuse?
Get that text out of the slide and put it in your speaker’s notes. Insert some eye catching images into your presentation. Save the reading for yourself. Entertain your attendees, don’t make them read something you could have just emailed.
David Neely 