don t do as I do do as I say...! Val Diggle, ASK, October 2011 Contact:

Transcription

1 don t do as I do do as I say...! Val Diggle, ASK, October 2011 Contact: valerie.diggle@falmouth.ac.uk

2 Who are they and what are they expecting? Why is it important to present the information orally? What is the key focus of your presentation? Are they more or less knowledgeable about your topic than you?

3 In a talk there is usually only one chance for the audience to understand what you are saying but you can Use your voice, eye contact, body language to compensate Make your presentation inter-active Vary the pace Inject some humour without sacrificing academic credibility

4 In an oral presentation it is perfectly OK to Use the first person Keep ideas simple Use contractions (I ll, doesn t..) Keep speech natural by avoiding conjunctions like additionally and however Use phrases like the next point to focus on instead

5 Because there is no written text to refer to Foreshadow or guide the listener Use phrases like I d like to move on to The focus of this presentation will be..

6 Unpack your language Don t make it too academically dense Avoid acronyms and subject specific jargon The audience cannot refer back to what you said previously in order to keep up

7 Your talk will need a structure This could be historical/chronological or procedural step-by-step Or group similar ideas together thematically Briefly introduce your topic Summarise what you have covered don t just stop

8 Timing is crucial If you go over time when presenting at a conference it will irritate everybody It will rob the next presenter of some of their (brief) chance to shine You need to allow time for questions at the end

9 Only write what you can actually say in the allocated time slot Typically this is only minutes with 10 minutes for questions One typed A4 page 12pt font 2cm margins line spacing - takes approx 5minutes to read aloud at a conversational pace

10 Be prepared for the technology to fail Have full notes and OHPs as back up Use large enough, easy to read font Only use relevant visual imagery

11 Clip art Sound effects Slide transitions/fancy animations all the bells and whistles in PowerPoint were designed for selling not educating non-standard fonts Slabs of text

12 Don t be tempted just to read it aloud this will Make you lose eye-contact Risk using a boring monotone Encourage poor posture Practice filling in the gaps between points Use points that are additional to the ones on the slides

13 The presentation should give people the gist of your contribution It should make them want to read it, to find out more later You can refer to information that it is not possible to include adequately in your talk

14 Your audience will probably be suffering from information fatigue before you open your mouth Try to keep a roving eye contact with them Stand up straight and use appropriate gestures Check that you can be heard vary the pace of the delivery use silences and pauses and interesting intonation patterns

15 You probably won t Some degree of nervousness is useful Everybody feels nervous - some people are better at disguising it try to act not nervous Take deep breaths, remind yourself to slow down not gabble Focus on your message what you are there for

16 Many people in your audience will also be presenting and so sympathetic to your ordeal Your worst crime will be to go over-time as this will subvert their expectations and make them bored, impatient and confused Timing is an easy one to get right if you practice

17 Use about one slide every 2 mins about a dozen slides for a 20 min presentation Most of us use way more than that!

18 Slide 1 title/author/affiliation Slide 2 Forecast This is the gist the abstract of an oral presentation what is the problem/your insight about..? Slide 3 Outline How will the talk be structured? Audiences like predictability

19 Slides 4-5 your motivation and problem statement Why should anyone actually care? Don t assume that your audience will feel the same about your research as you Involve the group at this point to try to get some interaction, if appropriate Slide 6 methods in brief, refer to paper

20 Slides 7-11 Main points the results and insights should be covered well. Avoid dishing out numbers or presenting tables and numerical charts without interpretation Slide 12 the summary