Constructing a Professional Slide Deck

Whether it be explaining a project to a class or presenting research findings to your boss, you will find yourself realizing that constructing a slide deck is an integral component of our lives. As 35 million PowerPoint presentations are given each day, it is imperative that we are establishing our credence. Follow along and learn more tips to integrate into your next presentation!   

Did you know that our university’s name should never appear as: 

• Cal Poly State University 

• Cal Poly State 

• Cal Poly SLO 

• CalPoly 

• California Polytechnic University 

But rather appear as: 

• Cal Poly  

• California Polytechnic State University  

• Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo 

• Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA

“Inconsistency in how we refer to the university name weakens our brand, confuses our audiences and appears uninformed.” - Cal Poly University Communications and Marketing 

This applies to any brand - whether you’re making a slide deck for a company in your internship, or you’re putting together a class presentation. Make sure to adhere to the company’s or organization’s brand guidelines when creating your slide deck. For example, our university’s brand includes certain guidelines regarding style, voice & tone, the Cal Poly name, and templates. 

Aside from style guidelines and templates, it is more effective to limit the amount of text in the slide deck. Including written paragraphs influences one to read off the slides, which can make them lose credence as a presenter. Stick to one-line bullet points that outline the main idea(s) or finding(s) that correlate to a visual on the slide. 

After constructing the slide deck itself, make sure to practice your presentation to ensure that you know when it is appropriate to move to the next slide, in correlation to the content you are explaining to the audience. 

Overall, constructing a slide deck from scratch can initially seem like a daunting task. However, applying these tips will allow you to approach your next presentation with confidence. Keep accumulating your PowerPoint skills, and good luck!