We get a glimpse into the Romney Campaign by looking at the PowerPoint shown on a recent bus tour. The slides were intended as a briefing for press, who were on board to visit Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.

Romney bus tour ppt

Of course, the slides are the requisite red, white, and blue, but we notice several other interesting components of the PPT. Without judging the content, overall, the slides conform to basic business writing principles:

• Good balance of text and graphics
• Good talking headings ("message titles")
• Good data comparisons with simple bar charts

But the slides could be improved:

• An agenda or preview
• Better color contrast in parts
• Sentence case titles, rather than all caps, which are difficult to read
• Better color choices in parts (e.g., slide 8)

Also, I'm all for a conversational style, but some of the language looks odd (e.g., "a ton," "under water"?).

Assignment Ideas:

• Improve slide 5. The comparison to 2008 could be easier to read.
• What are the key messages of the campaign's slides? How would you summarize the objectives of the presentation?