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Ratio of the written word to the spoken word

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I am writing a half day learning event which will be split into four 30 minute sessions . These will be delivered via a Powerpoint presentation , but how much wordage will I need to write in order to fill the 30 minutes .
julie Ryland

6 Responses

  1. Think about learner involvement
    Hi Julie

    This sounds to me like a series of presentations, where the speaker will just talk for his/her 30 minute slot. Is this really what you want? From my own experience I would say that not much “learning” will take place and you do say this is a learning event. How about making the slots much more participative, with the group being encouraged to discuss the topic, share ideas and ask questions? This is likely to keep their interest much more than being talked at for half an hour. You would then only need a handful of slides for you or the trainer to talk around and then invite group involvement.

    Give me a call if you want to discuss.

    Jenny

  2. please stop!
    Hi Julie

    2 hours of PowerPoint….I think that this can realistically be said to constitute workplace harrassment!

    Please think about the boredom thresholds of you, as the deliverer, and your “audience”.

    Use some Powerpoint by all means but get the delegates to do some of the work…get them to think and discuss and produce outputs and share them rather than them sitting listening to you doing all the work.

    Sorry, this doesn’t strictly answer your question but anyone can braindump knowledge onto slides; a skilled trainer helps people (with different styles) to learn.

    Rus

  3. I agree with the others
    Julie, i agree with what has already been written here. However, to try and answer your question a bit more directly it depends on who is doing the presentation / training event. I work with people who require full script training briefs and these can go on for pages. 30 minutes would probably be about 5 pages if it was written out word for word. Many people dont work like this and personally i think it stifles the life out of the event. If i am confident in the subject matter that i am training / presenting on then i often take in no more than my slides and a post it note with a few bullet points on it.

    Remember the powerpoint is an aid to the event not the event in itself which is what rus is aluding too i suspect.

  4. Offer of help
    Hi Julie

    If you would like some help with specific exercises or some suggestions, email me with the subject matter of your learning event and I will try and help you

    Sue

  5. Many thanks for your help
    Sorry for the late response , but I have taken all of your comments into account and I have been busily writing the event, which was delivered yesterday .Looking at the feedback it seems to have been received very well . So many thanks .Julie