Blog Entry: Handouts With a Purpose

In an effort to conserve resources, I have tried to limit my handouts to one page – or nothing at all. Since taking this class, I am seeing that a well-designed handout can be important to a presentation and I might need to be less stingy about my use of paper. For example, I think my “how-to” presentation needed a handout with the steps I was reviewing. I think a handout should have a specific purpose, just like the individual slides in our presentation. I would consider providing a handout with an example that was easier to see up close than on the screen. I never liked having an “agenda” slide, but I think I might provide the agenda as a handout in some situations. Even so, I think we need to stay aware of the carbon footprint, and limit the handouts to what makes our presentations more useful. We should make the presentation available online instead of printing copies of the slides for the entire audience. We should try to use recycled paper, print on both sides, and ask the reader to recycle. Finally, we need to be sure the handout lists our contact information, such as our email address or an URL, so the audience can get more information electronically.