In chapter four of his book "Crafting Digital Writing", Dr. Troy Hicks discusses what it takes to create a digital presentation in this age. "Power Pointless" presentations are not going to cut it anymore. Hicks gives his readers six simple rules to creating a good internet based presentation; keep it simple, introduce the unexpected, make it concrete, see that its credible, appeal to the emotions, and tell a story. He explains that the new age of presentations screams for originality and an escape from norms such as templates and built in themes. This puts more of an importance on the design elements that one will include in their presentation and makes these elements just as important than the text that is included. Hicks goes on to explain how important a mentor text can be, or in this case, a mentor presentation, is when starting a presentation of their own. What this means is that it is important to watch other presentations before creating your own so that you know what types of design concepts you would like to incorporate into your presentations and what you would leave out. Hicks also speaks to the types or writing that can be incorporated into a presentation, those types of writing being narrative, informational and argumentative. These types of writing are used to tell a story, provide information, and provide both sides of a argument. Hicks then goes on to explain the importance of good quality images and the drafting and editing of ones presentation.

Almost every point that Hicks provides in this chapter are extremely true. Hicks gives his readers a lot of information throughout this chapter, but one point resonates as the most important; keep it simple. Hicks is correct when he says that the time of power point presentations has past. These types of presentation platforms are simply not up to par anymore. Students of this age have seen more power points in their life then they really needed to and have become desensitized to them. The only way to really keep peoples interest is by introducing new technologies and using new design techniques. Hicks did a really good job of making that clear.

Another great point that Hicks makes is the importance of a mentor text. Knowing what not to include in your presentation is just as important as knowing what to include. by using mentor texts one can really figure out what they want their presentation to be and what design elements they want to make use of. by looking at other people presentations, you can get a better idea of what elements work well and what you want you include. What Hicks neglects to mention though is to make sure that the presentations that you are using as a mentor text should be at the same technological level that you find yourself in. Hicks definitely makes some valid points about presentations in this new age of media and he successful explains what it takes to make a well laid out, clean presentation.

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