Too-many-bullets spoil the broth (slightly modified English proverb)

hsr Proceedings in intensive care and cardiovascular anesthesia 2011, Vol. 3 Corresponding author: Prof. Michael John Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele Via Olgettina, 48 20132 Milan, Italy e-mail: [email protected] never have more than four bullet points per slide and each point should be written, wherever possible, on one line to simplify and speed up reading. Bullet points are preferable to complete sentences as you only need to write in key terminology. You can then use this terminology as a launching pad for your story. You can avoid the problems caused by unnecessary words (at least in their written form) such as articles and certain prepositions. Having complete sentences is limiting, as you will no doubt read your data verbatim and this will make your presentations mechanical and boring, as well as patronizing and dull. As bullet points should not be complete sentences but merely a list of key words and numbers, you will naturally not be needing punctuation of any kind. Indeed, how can you punctuate something that is not a sentence? It would be illogical and silly. The only punctuation you might need will be a question mark. Certainly not an exclamation mark. Stay away from that, please. Do not think you are stressing something’s importance by sticking an exclamation mark (sometimes two or three exclamation marks!!!) at the end of a bullet point. Exclamation marks are not elegant. You can give added stress to your words by varying the tone of your voice, which is not only more elegant but far more effective. Another thing to avoid is semi colons and illogical grammar use. Hands up if you have ever seen a presentation where the slides were jam-packed with writing. Everybody has their hands up, I imagine. Presenters sadly feel the need to bombard the poor audience with slides that look like the opening chapter of Anna Karenina, meaning that they are full of words. Lots of words. Sometimes these words will be written in complete sentences and these complete sentences will, in turn, make up paragraphs. This mass of words is often badly organized, making it not only irritating and frustrating to look at but also impossible to follow. Slides need to be big, clear and uncluttered. If they are cluttered then they automatically become unclear and this will undoubtedly lead to a communications breakdown. So, those extensively written slides, where every word you need to pronounce, and not just the all-important key terminology, is written, will become dangerous boomerangs. Indeed, the audience is not there to listen to a bedtime story and certainly does not need you to read a list of complete sentences or, worse still, a long paragraph to them. Be conservative, therefore, with your writing. Save your bullets. Ideally, you should too-many-bullets spoil the broth (slightly modified english proverb)