As often stated here, the number one crime of PowerPoint abuse is this: Loading up the screen with endless text, then tuning your back to the audience and reading the copy word-for-word. Everyone hates it and they will hate you for doing it.
There is an instance, however, when reading from the screen is appropriate and even desirable: When you show and read a short quote.
Quotes can be a powerful way to make a transition, support your content or to introduce a new point. You can utilize someone else’s words and their credibility to reinforce your ideas. And when you then turn to verbally read through a brief quote it can be a dramatic and potent way to emphasize the special meaning of those words.
Think of yourself as the tour guide for your presentation. When you turn and read these great words from the screen it is as if you are looking at a work of art and saying to your audience “Let’s stop and together admire these wonderful thoughts.”
Bear in mind you should use a short quote, maybe less than 15 words and you may only be able to get away with this once or twice in a presentation.
