Research Methods and Techniques Lecture 6 Presentation Skills © 2004, J S Sventek, University of Glasgow

2 November 2004RMaT/Presentation Skills2 Reminders/Notices Web site: Course director: Prof J S Sventek Assignment due Thursday, 11 November 2004 In-depth review of paper 4 Assignment due Thursday, 2 December 2004 Annotated bibliography – topic to be assigned 11 November 2004

2 November 2004RMaT/Presentation Skills3 Basic Rules for Presentations Know what you want to say Give just enough detail to convey your interesting ideas without losing your audience. Audiences want to hear what you did that was novel and why they should care. They should hear this at the beginning of the talk, over the course of the talk, and at the end of the talk If they are intrigued, they’ll ask questions and/or read your paper DO NOT JUST READ THE SLIDES!!!!

2 November 2004RMaT/Presentation Skills4 Basic Rules (2) Know your audience Don’t waste time on basics if you’re talking to an audience composed of people in your field You still need to be sure that you explain each new concept clearly You will lose people in a general audience if you do not give sufficient background. The most important thing is to emphasize what you’ve done and why they should care.

2 November 2004RMaT/Presentation Skills5 Basic Rules (3) Know how long you have How much time is allocated for the talk? This usually includes 5 minutes at the end for questions. Are you expected to take questions during the talk? Budget 2-3 minutes/slide! If you have too many slides, you’ll end up rushing through the slides that describe what you’ve done – why give the talk at all? You are trying to provide your audience with a “taster” for your work, rather than as an in-depth discussion. Unless you are very experienced giving talks, you must practice your timing 2-3 times on your own to get the general flow at least one dry run to work out any problems run through the talk on your own the night before

2 November 2004RMaT/Presentation Skills6 Structure Talks are linear: your audience can’t flip back to see what you said before they can’t use section headers as a guideline help them keep track of where you are in the talk don’t try to cover as much material as you would in a technical paper Give an overview (and use it throughout) Start with 1-2 slides on key ideas/contributions Give a high-level summary (or simple example) before you dive into the (not too many) details Recap at the end

2 November 2004RMaT/Presentation Skills7 Really Important Points Don’t just read your slides! Use the minimum amount of text necessary Use examples and diagrams/pictures Use a readable, simple, yet elegant format. Use colour to emphasize important points, but avoid the excessive use of colour Hiding bullet points through animation is an affront to the intelligence of your audience! Don’t read your presentation from a piece of paper! Don’t just read your slides!

2 November 2004RMaT/Presentation Skills8 How to Give a Bad Talk Advice from Dave Patterson, summarized by Mark Hill Thou shalt not be neat. Thou shalt not waste space. Thou shalt not covet brevity. Thou shalt cover thy naked slides. Thou shalt not write large. Thou shalt not use color. Thou shalt not illustrate. Thou shalt not make eye contact. Thou shalt not skip slides in a long talk. Thou shalt not practice.

2 November 2004RMaT/Presentation Skills9 Handling Questions Questions during the talk If your presentation will answer the question later, say so and move on If your presentation does not answer the question, either: Give a brief answer Defer the question to the end of the talk Do NOT hold up the presentation unnecessarily Make sure you understand the question before answering it Ask for clarification if you need it Restate the question, and ask whether your restatement is correct Have backup slides for anticipated questions