4/27/05lecture151 MAKING AN ORAL PRESENTATION We are frequently asked to make various types of presentations: Written –Proposals –Technical reports –Theses –Etc.

4/27/05lecture152 Oral –Lectures (e.g., at your kid’s school) –Research reports (e.g., at conferences) –Demonstrations (equipment, software)

4/27/05lecture153 Other –Poster presentations (e.g., at conferences) –Where you write/print bits of text and figures, and post them for people to view (writing skills). –During the viewing period, you often discuss and explain your work one-on-one (oral skills).

4/27/05lecture154 –Usually, the poster session coincides with happy hour (and/or tea or coffee time in Europe)! –We may do posters next year in MET 179. –Example of instructions for a poster session

4/27/05lecture155 This is what a conference poster session looks like (I don’t know who these guys are):

4/27/05lecture156 Examples of posters given by our faculty and students are posted in the hallway and in my office.

4/27/05lecture157 Oral presentations These are almost always accompanied by some props, such as: Overheads (now old-fashioned!) Powerpoint slides (very popular) Actual slides (usually photos) These help you pace your talk – and remind you of what to talk about!!!

4/27/05lecture158 In-class oral presentations Your task today is to begin to craft a short oral presentation, using powerpoint slides. Time limit: THREE minutes. Slides limit: no more than FOUR slides.

4/27/05lecture159 Talks will be given on… Last Monday of classes? –Or should we eat pizza that day? Last Wednesday of classes? We’ll decide next week!

4/27/05lecture1510 A time limit of THREE minutes is very short. This will NOT allow you go to into much detail! So – imagine this scenario:

4/27/05lecture1511 You work at a large company (or in the military or at a large university), and your 20-page paper is one of 200 that have been delivered to the boss. You want to give the boss a reason to read your paper (perhaps you are up for an award!) You have this 3-minute talk to do that!

4/27/05lecture1512 Things to consider: 1.Should you talk really fast to get everything in? This means LOTS of slides and LOTS of information on each slide. Remember that the slides serve to PACE YOUR TALK. 2.Correct answer = NO. 3.Talk slow? –Just a few words per slide? 4.NO! everybody will doze off – especially if you are talk # 162!

4/27/05lecture1513 Things to consider: 1.Should you use little tiny font that can only be seen from the front row? 2.NO! 3.Walk to the back of the room and see how your slides look!

4/27/05lecture1514 Things to consider: 1.Should you include a lot of figures and have slides that look very busy? 2.Probably not – too overwhelming.

4/27/05lecture1515 Get started! If you’ve used powerpoint before, you will get off to a quicker start. If you have not used powerpoint – can somebody volunteer to help get started? You can grab any of the class lectures/ppt files and use them as a starting point! Due Monday: –resume + cover letter –Evidence of progress on today’s task!