How to Give an Effective Presentation - Lecture Slides, Slides of Career Counseling

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HOW TO GIVE AN EFFECTIVE

PRESENTATION

WHY

DO

WE

GIVE

(OR

LISTEN

TO)

TALKS?

To

communicate

unpublished

research.

This

is

important

for

the

speaker

(publicizing

new

work,

getting

feedback)

and

for

the

audience

(getting

access

to

the

latest).

Except

in

rare

circumstances,

talks

should

emphasize

unpublished

material

To

get

exposition

outside

of

our

specialized

area

benefits

both

the

speaker

(broader

impact)

and

the

audience

(continuing

education)

To

get

to

know

other

scientists,

to

get

noticed

for

most

senior

scientists,

presentations

are

the

main

source

of

information.

To

commune

as

scientists

the

weekly

seminar,

annual

conference

are

rituals.

Never miss an opportunity to give a talk!

KNOW

YOUR

TOPIC

COLD

Understand EVERYTHING you say or show

don’t “if you can’t befuddle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit”. Scientists can see right through that. - Agonize over your slides and arguments as you prepare for your talk - think of what questions you could be getting. Often that will make you understand something new and important about your work. - Be deep in your knowledge– give the audience the feeling that “ this is only the tip of what I know ”. Show scholarship. - Achieve depth by attitude and hard work (aha!). For grad students, depth is more important than breadth (a Ph.D. is about depth). Cordon off a topic that’s your own and be uncompromising in knowing absolutely all there is to know about it along wih the underlying fundamentals. Rely on courses and seminars to build some breadth. Breadth will be important later in your career.

STRUCTURING

YOUR

TALK

Title slide

‘shake ‐hand’ with the audience. Use it to say a bit about yourself and your interests. Connect to the audience or to previous talks. Don’t read the title!

Background slides –educate the audience in a way tightly channeled toward enabling an understanding of your research. - Research slides

should be understandable and engaging for all audience members who’ve followed your background slides. Focus on the important, broad ‐interest results

more arcane results can be mentioned in passing and without slides (audience does not expect to understand everything you

SAY,

but is distressed if it doesn’t understand everything it

SEES).

Conclusions

future plans slides:

I

avoid them because they’r boring and take time and are usually boring but

I

understand that some presenters like them for closure. (as pointed out by Shiliang, a good solution is to show a bullet conclusions slide at the end of your talk as background for the question period, i.e., just let the audience read it. Also, as pointed out by May, a graduate student presentation of work in progress may demand a slide on future plans)

How many slides? Limit yourself to

‐1slide/min

time for questions. Never go over your allotted time and never rush through your final slides because you’re running out of time

throw away material on the fly instead. Know in advance what material can be jettisoned. docsity.com

RESEARCH

SLIDES

Think

of

the

take

home

messages

you

want

for

your

audience

make

sure

they

get

them

(some

repetition

OK).

Your

research

slides

should

be

accessible

to

the

lowest

common

denominator

of

your

audience,

if

they

survived

through

your

background

slides.

The

slide

title

(and

subtitle

if

appropriate)

should

say

what

the

slide

is

about

in

a

way

that

talks

to

the

general

audience.

The

slide

should

have

the

punchline

(take

home

message)

written

on

it.

Don’t

show

all

the

gory

details

of

your

work

if

you

have

postage

stamp

plots

in

your

paper,

just

show

a

few

panels.

Make

sure

axes

and

curves

are

properly

labeled,

in

large

fonts,

and

that

variables

are

defined.

A

plot

in

a

paper

often

has

to

be

cleaned

up

for

presentation.

As pointed out by Monika, equation slides can be very effective and there’snothing wrong with them – in fact they can be viewed as a graphic. But you thenhave to be painstaking in identifying all the variables and all the terms, and makethe equations look as simple, physical, and demystified as possible.

DEALING

WITH

STAGE

FRIGHT

Know at least the first few minutes of your talk by heart to get over the butterflies and set the right tone.

Know your audience

introduce yourself to people before talk, shake some hands,

A

familiar audience is less scary than an anonymous one.

Get it in your head before you stand up to speak that what you have to say is of considerable value to your audience. Concentrate. - Begin by thanking your hosts or your chair. Say hello to the audience, thank them for being here, express your pleasure at this opportunity. Show a positive attitutde. Over the course of your talk, make a note to acknowledge specific people in the audience for their contributions to the subject at hand, even if it’s far ‐fetched

they will appreciate it and be on your side.

It is impossible to exaggerate in the flattery of one’s peers”

Flow of adrenaline is a positive force

if you have

NO

stage fright that’s a problem! Before your talk, blank out other thoughts and tell yourself that your talk carries a very important message and you can’t afford to flub it. That should get your heart pumping.

SLIDE

COSMETICS

Include graphics in all your slides– they anchor the eye. Don’t use cheap Microsoft graphics

spend some time looking for good ones. Your colleagues’ slides, Google Images…

I^

tend to put a lot of material on a slide and then spend quite a bit of time per slide

giving the audience time to take it in.

All figures should have axes labeled, lines identified, variables defined, source acknowledged. If showing comparison of model results to research observations, make sure to mention who took the measurements. - Font sizes should be

pt or greater.

pt

OK

in desperate cases. Times Roman font doesn’t look good on slides

Arial looks good.

Use a plain background to avoid distracting the audience and allow more room for content. Avoid cheesy Microsoft templates. - Animation schemes, successive uncovering of text may be effective but don’t overdo it

audience may resent the game of cat and mouse, and it makes your slides less handy for others to use. Avoid distracting your audience with needless animation schemes.

Consider showing a short movie if your topic warrants it

everyone likes movies.

A

bit of blackboard work in the middle can also be an effective break

but make sure you know what you’re doing. docsity.com

DEALING

WITH

QUESTIONS

Questions

are

an

important

part

of

the

talk

for

your

audience

and

can

give

you

valuable

feedback

so

make

sure

you

leave

time

for

them!

Being

able

to

properly

deal

with

questions

is

of

course

a

good

reason

to

know

your

topic

cold.

It’s

difficult

to

deal

with

an

unexpected

question

while

on

your

feet

that’s

why

you

should

try

to

think

about

all

possible

questions

during

your

talk

preparation.

Don’t

deliver

a

hesitant

response

to

an

unexpected

question

better

to

say

cheerfully

that

this

is

a

very

interesting

point

that

you’ll

need

to

investigate,

or

that

this

is

outside

of

your

area

Your

response

should

not

be

to

the

questioner

but

to

the

audience.

If

you

think

the

audience

didn’t

understand

the

question,

repeat

it

or

clarify.

Keep

answers

to

questions

brief

allows

time

for

more

questions

Thank

the

questioners

“this

is

a

really

good

question”

“thanks

for

asking

that

question

how

much

am

I

paying

you?”