Edward Tufte Article

Tufte writes an article “PowerPoint does Rocket Science – and Better Techniques for Technical Reports,” and in this he points out the faults in PowerPoint presentations that can cause the audience to be mislead. Tufte explains in depth these faults and how important proper PowerPoint presentations are because even people in the aeronautics use these presentations to describe their information and put it in terms that are understandable to a general audience. Specifically, in the Columbia Shuttle disaster Tufte talks about one of the slides used in that presentation and how an overuse of certain words can cause the audience to lose concentration on the topic and the word that was used repetitively no longer has the same connotation.

In addition, Tufte talks about the main focus of a PowerPoint presentation which is organization, specifically hierarchical organization. Although these hierarchical organizations are good, the presentation could be dumped down if too much text is added to one particular slide because the information would seem superfluous. If the audience sees too much information on one slide, the presentation could easily be misinterpreted.

All in all, Tufte focuses on pointing out the main points that will help the audience from becoming unnecessarily confused. Not only does her talk about negative influences of a PowerPoint, but he also talks about that important positive aspects such as certain images or videos added to the presentation. These images and videos would help keep the audience’s attention and make it easier for them to acknowledge the information.