1. Communicating Research Findings: Tips for Papers and Presentations
Stephen Boyles
Assistant Professor
University of Wyoming

2. Why is communication so important?
You have spent months or years working on a research project and have some results.
However, the hard work isn’t over yet!

3. Why is communication so important?
Doing a good job in writing papers and giving presentations is just as important as doing a good job with your research!
Does this surprise you?

4. Reason #1 This is how everybody learns: listening, watching, reading.or
So unless you do this well, nobody will learn from you!

5. Reason #2
You have spent much more time thinking about your research than your audience.
2 years
Time spent working

6. Maximum time spent understanding a paper
Reason #2
You have spent much more time thinking about your research than your audience.
2 years
2 weeks
Time spent working
Maximum time spent understanding a paper

7. Reason #2
You have spent much more time thinking about your research than your audience.
2 years
15 minutes
2 weeks
Time spent working
Maximum time spent understanding a paper
Time spent listening to a conference talk

8. Reason #2
You have spent much more time thinking about your research than your audience.
2 years
15 minutes
2 weeks
Time spent working
Maximum time spent understanding a paper
Time spent listening to a conference talk
It is not easy to explain 2 years of work in a 15 minute presentation!

9. Reason #3 It is important when you apply for jobs!
Every engineering job will require you to write reports and give presentations. So companies look for this when they hire.

10. Reason #4 It shows respect for people interested in your research.
They are taking the effort to learn about your work, so you should respect them by spending time preparing your papers and presentations.

11. Reason #5
Effective writing and speaking is a skill that can be learned, just like any other.

12. Talk Outline General communication principles
Writing a technical paper
Giving a technical presentation
I have provided a copy of one of my own papers and presentation slides, and will share my experience with this research.

13. Talk Outline General communication principles
Writing a technical paper
Giving a technical presentation
I have provided a copy of one of my own papers and presentation slides, and will share my experience with this research.

14. The Most Important Rule
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!!!
Experienced researcher
Undergraduate class
Busy executive
Town meeting
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

15. The Most Important Rule
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!!!
What do they already know or think?
What do you hope to do?
Teach something? Convince of something?
How can you make the link between these?
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

16. The Most Important Rule
Example: Writing a paper to submit to a journal
Most readers will already have a lot of knowledge in your field.
Your goal is to teach them something useful (either methodology or results)
So you should not go into too much detail on basic things, and focus on what you’ve done that is new.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

17. The Most Important Rule
Example: Writing a paper to submit to a journal
Most readers will already have a lot of knowledge in your field.
You also want to establish credibility and reputation.
So you should also make it clear that you understand the broader field and are an expert.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

18. The Most Important Rule
Example: Giving a conference talk
Most listeners will already have a lot of knowledge in your field.
You want them to read your paper. (It is impossible to teach everything in 15 minutes!)
So you should focus on the main findings, and the most interesting parts, so that the audience will want to read your paper and learn the details.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

19. Another Important Rule
Respect your listeners and readers by being logical and concise.
There should be a clear structure.
Every word, every sentence, and every paragraph should have a purpose!
If something is important to understand, it should be stated directly.
This rule does not apply to all cultures. In some places, it is rude to make things too straightforward. If the audience is American or European, you show respect by helping them learn, so directness and clarity are good.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

20. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Structure
There is an American proverb about good communication: This is what the introduction, body, and conclusion are for.
“Tell them what you’re going to tell them;
then tell them;
then tell them what you told them.”
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

21. Writing a Technical Paper

22. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Remember the most important rule!
Who will be reading your paper?
Experienced transportation researchers
Researchers in related fields
Practicing engineers
Graduate students learning the field
Politicians or policy-makers
For different journals, there will be a different “mix” of readers
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23. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
How to apply this rule
If you are sending a paper to a journal for the first time, learn about the journal.
Read some recent papers published there
See where the authors work
How long are the papers? How detailed are they? How much mathematics?
Example: Computers and Operations Research vs. Networks and Spatial Economics
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24. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Typical structure for research papers
Most papers contain the following sections in this order:
Abstract
Introduction
Literature review
Description of research problem
Results and analysis
Conclusion
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

25. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Abstract
Although the abstract appears first, it should be written last!
It should be short ( words at most) and be “self-contained.”
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

26. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
The introduction should accomplish the following tasks:
Say why your research topic is important.
Preview the main contributions.
Provide the structure for the rest of the paper.
The length of an introduction is very different for different journals – this is why it helps to know the journal!
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

27. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
One effective way to do this is to start generally, and get more specific.
Breadth
Paragraph 1. Why are transportation systems important? Why is ATIS needed?
Paragraph 2. Why is it difficult to figure out how to best use ATIS?
Paragraphs Related research problems and literature review.
Paragraph 7. Specific contributions of the paper, and outline.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

28. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Literature Review
Why do a literature review if most of your readers are experienced in your field?
Establish credibility by proving that you know how your research is related to what others are doing.
Show respect to the other researchers who did earlier work in your field – “no research is done in a vacuum”!
Help new researchers (such as graduate students!) who are new to your topic.
Make your contribution clear by showing how it relates to other research.
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29. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Literature Review
The most common mistake is just to list papers.
How are the papers related to each other?
Can the papers be classified in some way?
How does your paper fit in?
What makes your paper different?
Write more about the papers which are more closely related to your research.
Best literature review ever:
Larsson, T. and M. Patriksson. (1994) “Simplicial decomposition with disaggregated representation for the traffic assignment problem.” Transportation Science 26, 4-17.
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30. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Problem Description
Here is where you provide specifics on your research problem.
If you use mathematical notation, define it rigorously but concisely.
If you use a data set, describe how you obtained it, what information it contains, any procedure you used to make the data useful, etc.
After reading this section, the reader should know exactly what research problem you solved.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

31. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Results and Analysis
Here you present the main findings! The most common mistake is to repeat information from tables and figures rather than providing useful interpretation.
How long this part is, and what it contains, depends heavily on your research topic and on the journal.
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32. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Example:
This is bad:
“Table 1 shows that the benefits on the Barcelona network were 42.7%, compared to 19.9% on the Chicago network.”
Anybody can see this!
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33. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Example:
This is better:
“Table 1 shows that the benefits are smaller for large networks.”
This points out a general trend, which is useful. But it still doesn’t show much insight.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

34. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Example:
This is best:
“Table 1 shows that the benefits are smaller for large networks. One possible reason is that the proportion of information nodes is lower.”
This offers an explanation, not just repeating figures which can easily be read from the table.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

35. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Conclusion
A good conclusion should answer two questions:
What were the main findings from this research?
How might this research continue in the future?
Someone should be able to read just the introduction and conclusion, and understand the main points of your research.
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36. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Some final tips…
Leave plenty of time for revision
Have friends and colleagues read the paper and give comments
Write an outline first – the more time you spend planning, the less time you will need for writing.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

37. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Conclusion
A good conclusion should answer two questions:
What were the main findings from this research?
How might this research continue in the future?
Someone should be able to read just the introduction and conclusion, and understand the main points of your research.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

38. Giving a Conference Presentation

39. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
So what’s different?
A conference talk differs from a technical paper in several important ways:
Different audience: More variation in audience interest and background
You need different expectations: It is impossible for someone to learn all the details in a 15 minute talk.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

40. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
So what’s different?
This means you have a different objective.
In a conference presentation, your goal is to make someone interested enough to read the paper or talk to you afterwards. The paper is the place for the details.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

41. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Again…
Nobody sits through a PowerPoint presentation or lecture and wishes it was longer.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

42. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
So what should I do?
No matter how long you have to talk, identify a few main points (no more than four) that you want people to remember.
“Tell them what you’re going to tell them;
then tell them;
then tell them what you told them.”
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

43. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
So what should I do?
Then, make your presentation around this structure. For example:
Introduction, what is the problem?
Main point #1
How does this connect to point #2?
Main point #2
How does this connect to point #3
Main point #3
Conclusion (repeat 3 main points)
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

44. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
More tips
Do not put a huge amount of material on slides and then read directly from them.
Not only is this unnatural and difficult to read, but you also lose the connection with your audience.
They should be listening to you, not reading your slides. After all, if the slides were important you could have just ed them and not even shown up to the conference.
Also, putting lots of small text on a slide makes it difficult for people to read, especially if they’re sitting far back. You need to be especially careful when you’re working with tables and figures. It’s easy to just cut- and-paste and table and then it’s too small to read.
Your slides should never distract from your talk! This means that flashy animations should be kept to an absolute minimum.
Take advantage of slides as a visual aid! If there is something that would be useful to present graphically, using a picture, or using an animation, then go for it! Just don’t make it distracting.
Is anybody still reading this? I can guarantee you that nobody has gotten this far, and even if they have they haven’t paid attention to a single thing I’ve said on this slide.
On the next slide I’ll provide a better version of this.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

45. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
More tips
Keep your slides short. Do not put a lot of text on any slide.
Keep eye contact with your audience. They are there to see you, not to read your slides.
Use graphics, but not many animations.
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations

46. Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations
Final advice
The main thing is to develop your own style; everybody has different ideas about what is best. Good luck!
Introduction  General Principles  Papers  Presentations