What Makes for a Good Research Presentation? Adapted from: Tom Carsey University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Three Components to a Good Talk Preparation Before the Talk Giving the Talk Q &A

Preparation Before the Talk Ask about the room, allotted time, and “norms” for your talk Consider the audience (general or not) For job talks – –Cover your first authored work –Maybe at the end “works in progress” Never exceed time limit - usually one hour Anticipate equipment problems –Have a back-up plan in place Practice, Practice, Practice

Rule of thumb for all talks Tell them what you’re going to tell them Tell them Tell them what you told them

Giving the Talk Know your work inside and out –Data, methods, measures, descriptive statistics, literature, etc. Don’t give handouts at the beginning –Audience will read them rather than listen to you Ask that questions be held until the end –Many like questions during the talk, but you need to know how to handle them Less important to hit a home run than it is to avoid striking out Avoid jargon Substance over Methods

Giving the Talk: road maps Get to the point –(really nail that first 2 minutes) Give them a road map and keep on it It is O.K. to preview the findings –It’s not a murder mystery Bad jokes are worse than no jokes Tell the audience why should the audience care? Have a Conclusion –What did we learn? –Where does it fit?

Giving the Talk: explaining results Really explain your graphs, figures, and tables –E.g. what is the x-axis? What does each number mean In other words, really explain your results –(don’t leave them guessing) Do not read long wordy slides –Don’t even have long wordy slides –Long quotes are often a waste of time and space

Giving the Talk: readability You can’t tell them everything, so tell them something well Graphs often say more than tables PowerPoint slides and/or overheads need to be readable –Don’t do this (Table)Table –Or this (Text)Text –Or this (Graphics)Graphics

Giving the Talk: readability Graphs often say more than tables PowerPoint slides and/or overheads need to be readable –Don’t do this (Table)Table –Or this (Text)Text –Or this (Graphics)Graphics

Hypotheses The policy balancing theory generates two primary hypotheses: –(1) that individuals who prefer that the President and the majority in Congress be from different parties are more likely than individuals who prefer that the President and the congressional majority be from the same party to cast split-ticket votes. –(2) that individuals’ preferences for partisan control of government are shaped by their own ideological locations and their perceptions of the locations of the two parties

Giving the Talk: readability Graphs often say more than tables PowerPoint slides and/or overheads need to be readable –Don’t do this (Table)Table –Or this (Text)Text –Or this (Graphics)Graphics

Politics of the Elderly –Life-cycle versus cohort effects –Do senior citizens really oppose public school funding? –Mobilizing the senior vote

My preference for presentation Outline Introduction to the problem Your solution and contribution Background, related work and where your work fits in Describe your work –Most of the talk is here Conclusions and future work

Style preferences - content Detailed page Vs Highlighted page My preference: detailed page –Shows you have lots of work Motivates questions –Helps those who already get it –Helps condense a talk to a shorter time span –Let’s others give your presentations Colleagues, boss, etc.

Style preferences - time 30 min talk should not contain more than 30 ppt slides Do not use “here slides” in your outline as you go along to point out where you are Do not waste titles with repeated headings

Q&A Pay attention to the question Give direct answers Be complete, but don’t ramble It is O.K. to: –Pause –Take notes –Say “I don’t know” (at least sometimes) Keep your cool

Q&A: defending your work Try to strike a balance: –Defend without becoming defensive –Be confident, but not arrogant –Accept fair criticism, but don’t cave in –Q&A should be a conversation among equals (Relax, keep your energy up, and stay cool)

You know something is wrong when questioners ask: What is your research question? What are your conclusions? Why should anyone (usually the questioner) care about this? Nothing at all (at least at job talks)

Closing Thoughts Be yourself, but... Keep your energy up –If you appear bored, the audience will be for sure Stay positive –It should be a conversation, not combat, and it takes two to fight Strive for excellence, but remember that perfection is unattainable Relax: trust your preparation and your knowledge