Oral presentations: The good, the bad, and the downright ugly Zool 502

Tell us a story! Set up the research question: why is it important (25% of talk) Avoid tangents Sorry, we don’t care how much work you did! Reiterate, reiterate main point.

Where are we going? Always need a slide laying out talk structure Plus signposts throughout talk: Recurring slide, with current section highlighted Or graphics

Can we read it easily? Bad contrast Bad font Bad font size No spaces between lines, nor between bullet and first character Distracting Good

Be simple Concise Only several bullet points per slide Header says it all There is absolutely, positively no need for long and rambling and extraneous text, nor do you need to worry about complete sentences. Don’t try to cram everything in…slides are free! If complex, reveal details as speak And no fancy pants stuff!

Look at the audience Don’t read your slides on screen OR laptop! Don’t read from notes (for brainfarts only!) Practice, practice…until the words flow out Keep the audience engaged

Figure tips Explain your axes and bar or marker types Compare expected and observed with graphs X Y X Y

Stats tips Minimal: this isn’t a published paper! Give p values, maybe R 2, but little else They can always ask you for details 1 1 or use footnotes (ANOVA, df=21)

Go out with a bang! They can read the acknowledgements as you take questions