Pros

Cons

•  can enhance clarity, interest, and retention

•  can address multiple learning styles

•  can illustrate complicated pictorial, statistical, or conceptual material

•  can alleviate public speaking fear

•  can make logical structure of arguments more transparent

•  can enhance comprehensibility of nonnative speakers

•  can reinforce a message (two channels better than one)

•  lends authority to speaker (research shows that animated bar graphs on PP result in positive speaker evaluation) (Parker, 2001)

•  bullet-point templates can lead to staccato summaries

•  rigid structure can alienate audiences (no room to digress)

•  dependence on technology

•  not suitable for certain types of presentations (commencement speeches, poetry, etc.) and detailed processes (e.g., fatal Columbia space shuttle mission was partially due to use of PP instead of detailed technical report) (Schwartz, 2003)