By this time in your life, you have most likely been on the receiving end of a really bad presentation and have assuredly seen a solidly mediocre presentation. What made those presentations lackluster? Faults in presentations can be assigned to three categories: presentation content, slide design, and delivery.

Project presentations, and the slides that support them, demonstrate to employers your skills in communication and you ability to target your communication to a particular audience. As part of a data science team, you will be expected to communicate results to a variety of audiences. Thoughtful planning and intentional review of your presentation materials will help you to showcase your abilities to future employers - not only those employers who explore the slides linked within your project repositories, but also those employers who expect you to discuss those projects in detail.

In these sections, we will focus on presentation content and slide design.

You will be able to:

• Learn about good presentation content
• Learn about good slide design

To examine presentation content, you will:

• create a description of the example project's target audience
• connect the presentation components with a narrative arc
• list the content sections that are expected in a data science presentation
• create an outline for your presentation
• review content of an example presentation
• identify areas where an example presentation could improve
• apply content review techniques to your own presentation materials and revise your own presentation content

To examine slide design, you will:

• identify what slide components count as "style"
• describe the impact of a slide template
• declutter slides by removing excessive text and redundant visualizations
• define the characteristics of a "complete" visualization
• review and enhance the design of your own project presentation materials

The best way to improve presentation delivery is through iterative practice and feedback. Ask a friend or a mentor to listen while you go through your presentation. Aim to keep the presentation under seven minutes. Ask them to tell you what was unclear and what information wasn't engaging. Also ask them what you did well! This process will help practice your public speaking and expose areas where your project can be improved. The ability to gracefully solicit, receive, and incorperate feedback is prized in today's workplace.

Typos and grammatical errors in your presentation material are equivilent to typos and grammatical errors in your resume. Neither make you look good! Mistakes happen, but take the time to review your work before making it publicaly available. Spellcheck does not catch everything. No current technology can compete with taking the time to iteratively review your materials.

Let's dive in!