Academic PowerPoint slides should be like PEE paragraphs

My 14 year old daughter is always having to use PEE paragraphs in her school essays.  It stands for Point, Evidence, Explanation.  In her English essays this usually amounts to making a point, giving quotes that are examples and then explaining her reasoning.


It struck me that the same principle works really well for academic PowerPoint slides (as well as a lot of other types of PowerPoint slides as well).  


The P (Point)
Make your point in the title of the slide.  It should be a full sentence that fully represents the point you are making.  You should only have ONE point per slide. There has been quite a bit of research on the use of full sentences as titles in educational presentations.  Michael Alley of Penn State University has written on the topic a lot.  Here is a link to his work http://writing.engr.psu.edu/slides.html.  He calls the title the assertion, indicating that it is where you assert a fact, an opinion, a theory etc.  


Here is an example of a typical slide with a single word heading and a more effective one that makes the point more directly:

I know some information is missing - that is what the narration is for (see The second E below)

The first E (Evidence)

The evidence should be shown on the slide.  This could be in the form of a photograph, a drawing, a diagram, a chart, a table, or even (but VERY rarely) a short list of bullet points.
Given my last blog post I say this with trepidation so please always try to think of an alternative before you go down that route.  If you can use visual evidence more learners are engaged and the information is shared between the visual and textual processing areas in the brain (making it easier to take in).


The second E (Explanation)
The explanation should be in your verbal narration only.  DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO WRITE IT ON THE SLIDE.  I know I am shouting but this is really important.  Overloading the slide with too much written information will undo the good you are doing with your point and evidence.


So, here is a PowerPoint slide to sum it up: