This Webinar is a very condensed version of the workshop I ll give in Accra.

Transcription

1 This Webinar is a very condensed version of the workshop I ll give in Accra. During the morning of Wednesday, January 18, I ll provide more details and more examples During the afternoon that day, the five fellows with whom I ll be working will practice giving their presentations The audience will provide feedback I ve tried in what I have today to mention the key do s and don ts. I won t discuss all of them, but there will be a PDF version of my notes that you can use as a sort of checklist when you develop your own presentation. 1

2 Be well-designed and clear at the individual slide level Words and graphics are legible Words and graphics are the right ones 2

3 Introduce the topic and the issues you are going to address Return to these at the end, when you summarize your main findings and conclusions Do not try to cover everything in the presentation Focus on several key points and try to illustrate them clearly (ideally with a graph or table, rather than only words) A picture is worth 1,000 words Stay on point; there usually isn t time for extraneous interesting facts You want the audience to come away with one or two key points, rather than to overwhelm them with so much that they can t remember anything. Your presentation is an opportunity to sell your research and make the viewer interested enough to want to see your paper. 3

4 Slides should not be cluttered At least 20-point font Sans serif font (e.g., Arial, Helvetica, Geneva) Do not be overly wordy (but not too cryptic either) Do not make many different points with the same slide. Use different slides to make different points. Slide titles should reflect what s shown in the slide Try to use telegraphic slide titles that summarize the main point If you are using a logo on each slide, make sure that it doesn t interfere with the material on the body of the slide. Sometimes best to only use the logo on the title slide. And make sure text doesn t run off slide. 4

5 This is the outline of the points I ll cover briefly today. 5

6 Determine what message you want to leave in the minds of the audience Select supporting material for that message Be a ruthless editor; don t overwhelm the audience with unnecessary detail Provide motivation For non-technical audiences: Deemphasize tasks and methodology Focus on results 6

7 Background and motivation Why the topic is important, what your research adds Research question/hypotheses Data and Methodology (sample size, measures used, analytic methods) Findings Conclusions (answer the research question posed at the beginning) 7

8 (Review the points on the slide) 8

9 You generally have more information than you can present to your audience Carefully select the data that you want to present Choose the format that makes your points most clearly Each format has certain advantages 9

10 There are many different ways to present data graphically. 10

11 (Mention a few) 11

12 Try to use the most accurate type appropriate for what you re showing. 12

13 Pie charts are easier to interpret than figures relying on volume, curvature, or color saturation Bar charts and column charts are less liable to misinterpretation than pie charts For expressing complex data relationships, line charts are generally easier to understand than bar and column charts 13

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15 Stacked bar charts are good for comparing frequency distributions across groups Good use of color from green light, conveying good, to red, conveying bad. Natural ordering along rainbow. Circles added to highlight the main points. (This slide is animated.) 15 15

16 Good use of color from green light, conveying good, to red, conveying bad. Natural ordering along rainbow. Circles added to highlight the main points. (This slide is animated.) 16 16

17 Good use of color from green light, conveying good, to red, conveying bad. Natural ordering along rainbow. Circles added to highlight the main points. (This slide is animated.) 17 17

18 I ll now discuss each of these. 18

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20 Title does not help viewer see pattern(s) of interest. 20

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22 Title now summarizes one of the key relationships Can change the title or add footer to point out other patterns of interest. 22

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24 This is OK, but.. 24

25 A telegraphic title and graphic make the slide clearer and more interesting Can say the things on the previous slide in the oral presentation. 25

26 A picture is worth 1,000 words. 26

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28 It is not clear from the title or the content what the main point is. 28

29 Part of interest is noted in the title and in the graph Tail weight is the main point. Notice how that s noted in the title and is highlighted in yellow in the pie chart and in its label. 29

30 Exploding the piece of interest emphasizes it even more. 30

31 If the slide is too complicated, the audience will spend too much time processing it (or will not try) They may get lost in the graphic and miss the message You will spend too long trying to explain it It is better to prune the slide or build the graphic It can be more effective to break material into several slides that can each be discussed quickly than to have one that you need to belabor 31

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33 An example of a cluttered slide. Too much information to read and absorb. 33

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35 Less cluttered version is easier to comprehend. Some details have been omitted, but it s much easier to see the key points. 35

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37 This slide is making many different points; it s difficult to discern the key ones without extensive explanation by the presenter. The title is not helpful. 37

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39 Here s an example of a build. Building a slide and adding a descriptive title make it easier for viewers to see points of interest 39

40 Coloring coding and underlining guides the viewer to the country of interest. Always note your data sources, unless this has already been covered in a slide about your data. 40

41 Build to show next year. (This presentation was given in 2007.) Note that the slide title has changed to note the key point. 41

42 Title is changes again. Color-coding helps pattern of interest stand out. 42

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44 The immediately preceding slides helped the viewer see the main points more clearly than this one by itself does. Those three new slides can be briefed more effectively and probably more quickly than this one. 44

45 For technical audiences, the use of jargon may be critical to establish credibility Lets audience know that you understand the subject area For policy audiences, make sure the audience will know any jargon or acronyms that you use. Otherwise, you will lose the audience, causing them to miss the message. 45

46 Often researcher is so close to the data that he/she doesn t realize that audience doesn t know some important details. Indicate the following about your data The source of the data The year(s) and area(s) to which the data refer The units of analysis (e.g., individuals, geographic units) Sample size The key variables considered and how they are defined As you talk about data mention why you chose the data that you use and why you feel that they are appropriate for your presentation If you collected your own data, provide additional information about sampling and methods of data collection Mention the method(s) of statistical analysis and why you chose them. Adapt the technical level of your description to the level of technical expertise of the audience. Mention statistical methods after you describe your dependent variable because typically method is adapted to the nature of the dep. var. At the workshop in Accra I ll have many examples of how to present info. about data and methods 46

47 Don t present more information than is needed Asterisks are a good way to show statistical signif. If you show asterisks for this, you don t need standard errors, confidence intervals, P-values, or t-statistics Show results graphically if you can. I ll show a couple of examples of how you can do this. 47

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49 Showing regression results graphically helps illustrate the relationship. 49

50 Another example of a graphical display, in this case of three hazard models. 50

51 Note that statistical significance of results shown by whether symbols are hollow or shaded in. One doesn t have to sacrifice rigor to show the results in a more digestible format. Depending on the particulars of your analysis, results can be presented as coefficients or odds ratios in a bar chart. Adjusted and unadjusted odds ratios can be compared. Predicted probabilities or values are another way to show the implications of the analyses graphically. This may be particularly effective for a non-technical audience, that may not know what odds ratios or relative risks are, but can understand higher and lower levels of income or infant mortality. 51

52 Results displayed graphically are generally easier for viewers to grasp If you present a table of numbers: Don t present more information than is needed; e.g., If you show asterisks indicating statistical significance, you don t need standard errors, confidence intervals, P-values, or t-statistics also Don t present data you won t discuss You can note what other variables were controlled If something is the same for every column (e.g., sample size), you can note it once. You don t need a row for it. If you present a table of numbers make it as easy as possible for the viewer to process the information. Try to use the same number of decimal places for all numbers (and don t have too many decimal places) and line up the decimal points within columns Rescale variables (e.g., income in 1,000s) if coefficients have too many leading zeros Use leading zeros for numbers that are < ǀ1ǀ Use headings, have spaces between rows, and/or shade rows to clearly delineate different variables Use highlighting, color-coding, shading, or circling to emphasize key results 52

53 One way to wrap up your presentation. I ll have other examples in Accra. 53

54 Also, the more complicated, the greater the chance that it will get messed up if you use a different computer or a different version of Power Point. Focus on substance, not style Avoid the use of busy backgrounds, 3-D, photographs, animation, or sound that distract from the points you want to make Slides should not be cluttered or too wordy Use at least 20-point font Use a sans serif font Do not make many different points with the same slide Use different slides to make different points Slide on screen should correspond to what you re saying Try to use telegraphic slide titles that summarize the main point A picture is often worth 1,000 words Use the same syntax for items of the same level within a slide either all sentences, phrases, or imperatives; all active voice (or not); same verb tenses Use title case for slide titles, sentence case for text of slides Try to have an interesting title and title slide 54

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56 A picture or photo can make your title slide more captivating and will draw the audience in. 56

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58 Make sure the colors for text and graphs show up clearly against the background If one group is of particular interest, use a very distinctive color for it Try to be consistent across slides in your color scheme For graphs comparing different groups, the colors for different groups should not be too similar If variable is quantitative (i.e., lower and higher values), you can have gradations of color or shading that convey this (e.g., from lighter to darker colors) 58

59 Label the curves or bars rather than using a legend Label axes in graphs and indicate units And use large enough font so that audience can see it. (Always think of the person in the audience at the back of the room.) Note data sources; this legitimates the scientific rigor of your work. 59

60 Use a larger font for the slide title than for the items in the body of the slide Putting the title in italics and another color or in a colored field helps it to stand out Have space between slide title and body of slide Try to have the lines of the (centered) title somewhat balanced in length PPT wraps the text; you may need to override this and impose where the line break occurs. Have a good amount of space between the slide title and the body of the slide. Have more space between bullets than within them 60

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62 Title does not stand out from body because there s no extra space below it and the font case, color, and size is not distinct from the body of the slide. The two lines of the title are not balanced in length. There s as much space within bullets as between them, so it s difficult to easily see where one ends and the next begins. 62

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64 All elements stand out more clearly. I often use line spacing of 0.95 and have around 20 pts between bulleted items. 64

65 Be careful when cutting and pasting: formatting can change unless you specify Keep source formatting Look at your presentation in Slide Show view and try to view it on the computer and projector on which it will be presented Colors and font sizes can change across computers You can have some backup slides at the end, in anticipation of questions you may be asked or other details you may want to provide If you are printing handouts of your slides in black and white, make sure everything shows up distinctly. What were distinct colors may show up as undistinguishable shades of gray in B&W. 65

66 Audience: What do and don t they already know regarding background and methods? Are they familiar with your topic and why it s important? Are they familiar with the statistical methods you are using and why they are appropriate? What are they interested in? These two are typically the key differences between research and policy audiences. Are there language issues? Can they easily understand English? Does the presenter speak with an accent that may limit the audience s ability to understand him or her? 66

67 For many presentations, such as at professional meetings and conferences such as PopPov., you only have about 15 minutes to make your presentation. This doesn t sound like much, but you can actually cover a lot of material if you ve structured your presentation well. The key is to think about the main points you want to make and recognize that you cannot present everything, and may need to skip some of your favorite points. Think about what s most important for this audience. Make sure what you have fits within the time allotted. It s very upsetting to be passed a note that you only have 2 minutes left when you still have the majority of the presentation to give. If you have too much material, you may try to deal with it by talking too fast (and you will lose your audience in the process). Make sure you pace yourself appropriately. A good set of slides can help you do it. And, very importantly, practice, to make sure your presentation will fit within the time limit and that you have good transitions from one slide to the next. 67

68 That s all for today. Thank you for your time and attention. More details will be provided in Accra. I ll be happy to answer any questions you might have. 68