How to Create a Handout for a Presentation: Examples and Tips
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When preparing a presentation, most of your attention naturally goes to what you are going to say and what will appear on your slides. The presentation handout can easily become an afterthought, something quickly put together or simply printed from PowerPoint five minutes before you present.
But a good handout can be much more useful than that. It gives your audience something they can refer to during the presentation and, importantly, something they can return to afterwards.
The important thing is to give your handout a purpose: it shouldn't simply be a smaller, printed version of your slides. In this guide, we'll look at how to write a handout for a presentation, what information to include, how to design it and some practical presentation handout examples.
What Is a Presentation Handout?
A presentation handout is a document that you ‘hand out’ to your audience before, during or after a presentation. It contains information that supports what you are presenting and gives your audience something they can keep for future reference.
Handouts for presentations can take many forms: a one-page summary of your argument, a more structured document containing important figures and references or an outline with space for notes.
A handout can be printed, but it doesn't have to be. These days you can also provide it digitally, for example as a PDF shared with your audience after the presentation.
The easiest way to understand its purpose is to distinguish it from two other things you may prepare:
- Your slides support what you are saying while you present.
- Your speaker notes help you remember what you want to say.
- Your handout gives your audience useful information they can read, annotate and refer back to.
This is why simply printing your PowerPoint slides doesn't necessarily create an effective handout.
Slides are designed to support what you say; handouts are designed to give your audience something useful to read and keep.
Do You Actually Need a Presentation Handout?
Not every presentation requires a handout. Before creating one, think about whether it will genuinely help your audience. A handout can be particularly useful when your presentation contains:
- detailed data, statistics or research findings
- important quotations or definitions
- sources your audience may want to look up later
- graphs, tables or other information that needs closer examination
- material the audience needs for an activity or discussion
- information you want people to remember after the presentation
Handouts can be especially valuable for academic presentations because they allow you to provide evidence and references without trying to squeeze too much information onto your slides, helping you avoid one of the most common PowerPoint presentation mistakes, i.e. overcrowding slides with a wall of text or overly complicated visuals.
On the other hand, if you're giving a very short or highly visual presentation, a handout may add little value. Don't create one simply because you think presentations are supposed to have them.
And if your presentation is part of an assessed university assignment, check the instructions first. Your lecturer or department may specify whether supporting materials are expected and, if they are, what form they should take.
Good to know: if your presentation is part of an assessed university assignment, check the instructions first. Your lecturer or department may specify whether supporting materials are expected and, if they are, what form they should take.
What to Put on a Presentation Handout
So, what should you put on a presentation handout? There isn't a single formula that works for every presentation. What you include should depend on your topic, audience and the purpose of the handout. However, a good academic presentation handout will usually contain some combination of the following.
Presentation Details
Start with enough information for somebody to identify the presentation later. This might include your presentation title, your name, the module or event and the date.
For a university seminar, you probably don't need much more than this. For a conference or professional presentation handout, you might also include your institution, role or contact details.
Your Main Argument or Purpose
Give your audience a quick reminder of what the presentation is trying to establish. This doesn't need to be a lengthy introduction. One or two sentences outlining your central question, argument or objective may be enough.
Your Key Points
If your presentation has 20 slides, your handout doesn't need 20 corresponding sections. Try to identify the three, four or five points that somebody would need to understand your overall argument.
Important Evidence
A handout is also a useful place for information that your audience may want to examine more closely.
Depending on your subject, this could include:
- a significant statistic
- a short quotation
- an important definition
- a formula
- a table or graph
- a brief example
- a particularly important research finding
References and Further Reading
References are particularly important in an academic presentation handout. Include the sources for evidence, quotations, images and key claims where appropriate, following the referencing style required for your course.
How to Write a Handout for a Presentation
Once you know roughly what your handout needs to contain, you can start putting it together. The following process will help you decide what deserves a place on the page.
1. Start With the Purpose
Before thinking about fonts, layouts or headings, ask one question:
What do I want my audience to do with this handout?
Do you want them to follow your argument as you speak? Take notes? Look closely at a piece of evidence? Remember your findings afterwards? Find the research you referred to?
A handout designed for note-taking will look very different from one intended primarily as a summary to read afterwards. Deciding on its purpose first makes all the other decisions much easier.
2. Build It Around Your Presentation Structure
Your handout and presentation don't need to contain exactly the same information, but they should follow the same overall logic.
If your presentation moves from a research question to methodology, findings and conclusions, for example, your handout should probably follow a similar order. This makes it easier for the audience to see how the two relate.
➡️ Are you still developing the presentation itself? Read our tips on how to write and structure a presentation before condensing its main ideas into a handout.
3. Decide What Is Worth Keeping
Don’t look through your slides asking what you can copy; instead try asking:
What will my audience need once I'm no longer there to explain this?
That may be your central argument, three important findings, a graph, a definition and a few references.
4. Rewrite Information for the Page
What works on a slide may need more context in a handout. A graph, quotation or statistic that you explain while speaking should be clear on its own when read later.
Add brief captions, explanations or sources where needed so your audience can understand the information without your spoken commentary.
5. Cut Anything That Doesn't Earn Its Space
Finally, edit.
Remove repeated points, secondary examples and details that don't help someone understand or remember the presentation.
A useful final test is to imagine someone finding the document a week later.
Would they understand what the presentation was about and what its most important points were?
If so, your handout is doing its job.
When Should You Give Out Your Handout?
There's no universal rule about when presentation handouts should be distributed. The best timing depends on what you want your audience to do with them.
Before the presentation: works well if people need the handout to follow your argument, take notes or refer to detailed information while you're speaking. The disadvantage is that they may start reading ahead instead of listening.
During the presentation: can be useful when you want the audience to examine a particular source, table, extract or activity at a specific point.
After the presentation: is often a good choice when the handout is primarily a summary or reference document. It keeps attention on you while you're speaking and prevents your audience from reading your conclusions before you reach them.
If you're planning to distribute your handout at the end, tell the audience at the beginning. Knowing they'll receive a summary afterwards means they don't need to spend the whole presentation frantically copying information from your slides.
Presentation Handout Design: Keep It Readable
A good design for a presentation handout should be less about making the page visually impressive and more about making information easy to find and understand.
Important reminder: You can include more detail on a handout than on a slide, but readability should still come first.
How Long Should a Presentation Handout Be?
There is no fixed length for a presentation handout, and longer does not necessarily mean better. One or two pages is typically enough to provide the key information without overwhelming your audience.
A one-page presentation handout can work particularly well for a short seminar presentation, research summary or EPQ presentation. You may need more space if your audience needs to work with a longer text, detailed data or other material during the presentation.
As always, if your university, lecturer or event organiser provides specific instructions, follow those first.
One-Page Presentation Handout Template
If you're not sure where to start, you can use this simple presentation handout template and adapt it to your subject:
Your name | Module or event | Date
Presentation title
Main question or argument
Summarise the focus of your presentation in one or two sentences.
Key Point 2
Brief explanation + essential evidence
Key Point 3
Brief explanation + essential evidence
Key takeaway
Summarise the main conclusion in one or two sentences.
References / Further Reading
List the most important sources.
Notes
Leave some blank space if the audience will use the handout during the presentation.
This is only a starting point. An effective handout should reflect the type of material you're presenting rather than forcing every subject into the same format.
Presentation Handout Example
Topic: The use of memory in Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu.
In this case, a handout could be particularly useful because your audience may need to look closely at passages from the original text while you discuss them.
A simple presentation handout example might look like this:
Memory and the Senses in Proust
French Literature Seminar | Your Name | Date
Central argument
Proust presents involuntary memory as something triggered through sensory experience rather than conscious effort. This presentation considers how this idea is developed through the famous madeleine episode.
Key extract
Include a short passage from the novel in the original French, with page/chapter details.
Points to consider
- What triggers the narrator's memory?
- How does Proust distinguish involuntary from deliberate memory?
- What role does sensory description play in the passage?
Key terms
mémoire involontaire – involuntary memory
souvenir – memory/recollection
Further reading / references
List the edition of the primary text and two or three important secondary sources.
This handout is useful because the audience can refer directly to the French passage while you analyse particular words and phrases. It provides material that would be difficult to read comfortably on a presentation slide without simply reproducing everything you say.
Poster Presentation Handout Example
Handouts can also be useful alongside academic posters, particularly at conferences where people may want to take your research away with them.
Many of the same principles involved in designing an effective conference poster apply: information needs to be selective, clearly organised and easy to understand quickly.
Because the poster itself already summarises your work, your handout doesn't need to reproduce the whole thing. A poster presentation handout example might contain the research title and question, a short description of the methodology, the most important findings, one key figure, your conclusion and a small selection of references.
You might also include your academic contact details or a QR code linking to the full paper, research project or professional profile.
If you need more examples, Purdue university has listed some useful examples of supplementary handouts for research poster presentations, showing different ways researchers can provide audiences with additional material alongside a poster.
Academic vs Professional Presentation Handouts
The basic principles between academic and professional presentation handouts are the same, but what you include will depend on your audience and the purpose of the presentation.
An academic presentation handout, for example, is more likely to prioritise evidence and sources, while a professional presentation handout may focus more on recommendations and next steps. Here is a more detailed breakdown:
| Academic presentation handout | Professional presentation handout |
|---|---|
| Research question or central argument | Objective or problem |
| Key evidence and findings | Key data or findings |
| Methodology, where relevant | Recommendations or proposed solutions |
| Quotations, extracts or examples | Actions or next steps |
| Academic references | Supporting resources |
| Further reading | Contact information |
Final Thoughts
A good presentation handout should make your presentation more useful, not simply repeat what is already on your slides. Think about what your audience will need while you are speaking and what they might want to refer back to afterwards.
There is no single presentation handout template that works for every situation. The best approach is to keep it relevant to your subject, audience and purpose, while making sure the information is clear and easy to follow.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Difference Between a Handout and a PowerPoint Presentation?
A PowerPoint presentation is primarily a visual aid designed to support what you say while presenting. It usually works best with concise text, images, charts and other visuals that can be understood quickly on screen.
A handout is designed to be read more closely and referred to later. It can therefore include information that would make a slide too crowded, such as quotations, detailed evidence, references, definitions or further reading. While the two should complement each other, a good handout should not simply reproduce every PowerPoint slide.
What Does a Presentation Handout Look Like?
There is no single format that every presentation handout needs to follow. A typical handout might be a one- or two-page document with the presentation title at the top, followed by the main argument or research question, key points, important evidence and references.
Should a Presentation Handout Include References?
For an academic presentation, you should reference sources used for quotations, evidence, data and other material where appropriate. A handout can also include a short list of further reading, particularly if there are useful sources you don't have time to discuss during the presentation.
Can a Presentation Handout Be Digital?
Yes. A presentation handout doesn't have to be printed. You can provide it as a PDF or another accessible digital document before or after your presentation. A digital handout can be particularly useful if you're including hyperlinks, online resources or further reading that your audience may want to access directly.
