How to politely tell someone that they haven't a clue?

Question

I had to do a powerpoint in astronomy with this senior (I'm a freshman), and I basically did ALL the work. I spend literal hours in the library educating myself on the topic, and for the powerpoint there are certain slides that I will be able to explain and he won't, simply because he did not put in the time. He doesn't know how many hours I put into this thing, and I need to be the one to explain certain slides. How can I tell him that I need to do those particular ones without flat out saying, "because you would have no idea of even the first thing on that slide". Some information that needs to be said is not directly written on the slide. If he did it, he would omit that information.

I need to let him know that he simply can't explain those slides without making myself sound like I'm putting him down.

Answer 1

Just give him jobs in the presentation he can do. Not everyone can meet your expectations. You obviously got higher standards in terms of completing your work. So delegating certain jobs u know he can do should not be a problem for you.

Furthermore, Knowing what your talking about when doing the presentation will show when u are talking. The teachers will see it. Compared to when he speaks. Let him talk a bit and they will see who has done all the work.

Answer 2

If he hasn't done the work, then there's no reason why he should be the 'voice' of the powerpoint. There's nothing wrong with telling him that he doesn't have the information he needs to explain the slides. Perhaps you could alternate and let him talk about the ones that he is able to explain, while you look after the others.

Answer 3

Let him know you need to talk seriously with him for a moment. explain that you respect him and the work that he has contributed,, and then choose a few slides as an example of the slides you want to present and show how you would like to handle presenting it and "strongly suggest" you do those in order to save both of you grades.

Answer 4

I think you are more concerned about how you look during the presentation than you need to be.

Learn to let others take responsibility for themselves. Let him explain his slides and if he fails, "look" like a team player by using terms like "I would like to add....." or "Thanks "Tim", we also want to mention...."

Just let go. It was a team project and you may have felt the need to take control because his knowledge is lacking but that won't a/ help him learn, b/ be a team effort and c/ why do you care if he fails at it?

If you know your part- that's enough.

Answer 5

Just say something like 'Hey, whatever your name is, why don't we practice presenting this powerpoint just so we can do better on the real thing.' Then, when he doesn't say something that he shouldh've, you can say 'hey, I have this cool fact that we could say. . .' and if he doesn't do anything, tell the teacher that your partner had you do all the work.