1. CSCD 506 Research Methods Fall 2018 Presentations for Fun and Profit
Lecture 13 1 1

2. Topics What not to do in Presentations Advice in General for Talks
Advice for Good Talks
What not to do in Presentations
Advice in General for Talks 2

3. Why Do Smart People Give Poor Talks?
Poor speaking is a reaction to fear.
Presentations are not journal articles. They’re a completely different communication, and they require different skills
Do you agree with these statements?
Do you have fears about public speaking?
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4. An Effective Talk Must Do Two Things
Convey information to your audience
Be interesting and entertaining
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5. Think About Your Presentation Goals
In conference talks you should have at least two goals:
1. Leave your audience with a clear picture of your
contribution
2. Make them want to read your paper
Your presentation should not replace your paper, but make the audience want to look for it.
Talk about information in the paper that can’t be completely covered in the presentation.
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6. A Short Conference Talk Outline
Title/author/university (1 slide)
Abstract (1 slide)
- Give the basic problem and answer.
Outline (1 slide)
- Give the talk structure.
Background
Motivation and Problem Statement (1-2 slides)
- Why does anyone care?
Related Work (0-1 slide)
- Talk briefly about this, or you can eliminate this section and refer people to your paper.
Audience should not do this ...
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7. Conference Speech Introduction
How to begin a conference presentation?
Step 1: Be familiar with your material and any facts, names or numbers you are planning to use.
Step 2: Walk to stage and smile.
Be quiet for at least 3 seconds while looking at your audience and smiling.
Step 3: Start with a quote, a story, a number or a fact, preferably something that is surprising or unusual, that the audience hasn’t heard before.
Step 4: Think of the speech opening like the beginning of a good movie.

8. Conference Speech cont.
Use the first two minutes to build excitement.
The best way to do this is by using surprising facts or a story
Involves people creating interest in seeing where you will take them.

9. Eight Techniques to Start Your Presentation
1. Ask a question – Examples follow
“Is it safe to trust documents from the Internet?”
“Is there anyone here who has not broken the copyright law?”
2. Use a story: Many of the best stories are personal.
3. Make a surprising comment (often a statistic)
“According to a national survey reported in the Wall Street Journal 82% of respondents say they access pornography on the Net at work.”
You can also make a startling statement by using an unanticipated visual aid. Hmmm visual aide to the above statement ...

10. 4. Use a quotation
“Confucius said: ‘What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do I understand.’
Following this belief, I planned an interactive talk.”
Choose a quote from movies, speeches, newspapers, reports, official documents or use a quotation book.
5. Create curiosity
“There is a poison in your home. Your children use it and so do you. It kills thousands every year. Yet government does not control it. It is—table salt.”
6. Mention the importance of the topic
“With 400,000 job openings for computer professionals in the United States, it is important that we train computer professionals now. I have a plan that will do this quickly and with little expense.”

11. Ask for participation in a survey.
7. Involve the audience
Ask for participation in a survey.
Show a picture or short video and ask for audience comment.
8. Refer to the occasion
Speeches are often part of a special event for a group, organization or community.
Connect any special celebrations to your topic.
These opening techniques can be used individually or in combination.
For example, ask a question which creates curiosity,
“What is the single biggest problem that students are facing today?”
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12. Power Point Slides
A necessary evil …..

13. Don’t Write Everything and Read
Your PowerPoint presentation should:
Clarify ideas
Emphasize key points
Show relationships
Provide visual information to ensure audience understands message
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14. Present a Speech Outline
Have an outline of your talk.
A good talk outline makes your audience curious to hear the details.
It also helps them follow the structure of your thinking.
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15. Slides Should be Short Slides help you, and your audience,
follow the flow of the talk
Not too full: 6 lines of text per slide
is enough;
9 lines is a lot;
12 lines is unreadable
Bullet points should be a few words, not complete sentences
If you need more space, use more slides
Good slide?

16. Use Big Type .
Change the font size in the Preferences of browser, when using a web presentation
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17. Determining Font Size Your audience may be looking at
the screen from 70 feet away.
Fonts should be 24 points or larger
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18. Choosing a Font
From a distance, you’ll notice that the serif (Times) font and the ‘narrow’ or condensed font are more difficult to read.
Don’t sacrifice readability for style. Your job is to communicate.

19. Don’t Write Everything and Read
Your PowerPoint presentation
should:
Clarify ideas
Emphasize key points
Show relationships
Provide visual information to ensure the audience understands your message
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20. Present a Speech Outline
Have an outline of your talk.
A good talk outline makes your
audience curious to hear the details
It also helps them follow the structure
of your thinking
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21. Use Color to Influence Mood and Emotion
Red – excitement, alert
Green – growth
Yellow – confidence, warmth, wisdom
Purple – dignity, sophistication
White – professionalism, new, innocence
Blue – truth, trust, justice
Black – authority, strength
Orange – action, optimism
Brown – friendliness, warmth
Grey – integrity, maturity
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22. The Last Thing In Your Talk
At the end of your presentation while answering questions, leave up a contact info slide
Contains your name, , address, and website URL related to the talk if you have one.
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23. Why Are Questions and Answers Important?
Questions and answers are important for several reasons:
Get attention
Create interest
Get feedback
Make points easy to remember
Create audience interaction
Promote new thoughts
To get comfortable with Q&A sessions and questions,
start asking questions throughout your presentations
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24. Why Do People Ask Questions?
Because they want to know the answer
Because they want to make a point
To impress the audience
To see if you know the answer
To see how you handle questions and the stress
To make you look bad (for example, if they are competing with you for a job)
To attack your methodology
Some ask questions that are in fact a personal attack (but not often) 24 24

25. Handling the Q&A session
Below are tips to deal with the Q&A session of your
presentation effectively
Repeat the question in a large group or
arrange for microphones so others
can hear the question
Make sure you understand the question
Angry questions don’t have to be answered
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26. Handling the Q&A session
Don’t let an interesting but unrelated question start you on a new speech
Don’t let your presentation continue on thinking the Q&A
time is extra time for your presentation
Consider questions as an honor your presentation.
Good ideas create questions. Boring presentations make people leave ….
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27. What If You Don’t Know the Answer?
Suggest someone in the audience more qualified answer the question. “Professor M. has studied this extensively.”
Delay, “That’s a good question...”
Ask a question: “Can you clarify what you mean?”
Admit you don’t know but will research it for them
Repeat the question in a different way:
“Is this what you are asking?”
If you don’t have a good answer after these delaying tactics, say: “Let’s talk about that after my talk.” 27 27

28. What not to do in a Presentation

29. Presentation No-No's
Next set of slides detail what NOT to do in Power Point Presentations
Gaze at the horrible examples of bad slide design and presentation.
Read the hints and tips slides that follow the examples to avoid making similar mistakes!

30. Chilean Exports
Fresh fruit leads Chile's export mix - Chile emerges as major supplier of fresh fruit to world market due to ample natural resources, consumer demand for fresh fruit during winter season in U.S. and Europe, and incentives in agricultural policies of Chilean government, encouraging trend toward diversification of exports and development of nontraditional crops - U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research Service Report
Chile is among the developing economies taking advantage of these trends, pursuing a free market economy. This has allowed for diversification through the expansion of fruit production for export, especially to the U.S. and Western Europe. Chile has successfully diversified its agricultural sector to the extent that it is now a major fruit exporting nation. Many countries view Chile's diversification of agriculture as a model to be followed.
Meanwhile, the U.S. remains the largest single market for Chile's fruit exports. However, increasing demand from the EC and Central and East European countries combined may eventually surpass exports to the U.S., spurring further growth in Chile's exports.
If you’ve read this far, your eyes probably hurt and you’ve been reading this tedious long- winded text instead of listening to me. I’m insulted- can’t you see I’m doing a presentation up here? Look at me! Congratulations, however, on having such good eyesight.

31. Too Much Text, and Font too small
Don’t put large blocks of text in your presentation.
Emphasize the main points.
The “Six-by-Six” Rule.
Use pictures- PowerPoint is multimedia!
Use a large font…at least 30-point or more.

32. Beginner Motorcycles My personal favorite: the Suzuki Savage
Light weight (~380lbs)
Adequate power (650cc engine)
Low seat height fits most riders

33. Bad Color Choices
Avoid loud, garish colors…dark text on light background is best.
Avoid text colors that fade into background, i.e. blue and black
Avoid color-blind combinations:
Red and green
Blue and yellow

34. Buying a New Suit

35. Overwhelming Pictures
Use pictures, but don’t let them use you.
Keep slides SIMPLE! Too much diverts audience away from content.
Too many pictures also make saving a presentation difficult.
1 or 2 pictures per slide is probably enough.

36. Racquetball Fundamentals
2, 3, or 4 players.
1 player serves, other “returns.”
Only serving player can score.
Served ball must land past serving line and cannot hit back wall.
Ball can only bounce once before striking front wall…but ball does not have to bounce.

37. Using too much Slide Animation
Again, keep slides simple!
Apply one Slide Transition style and one Animation Scheme to ALL slides.
Don’t change between styles- a single style makes a presentation look unified.
“Busy” presentations divert audience attention from content.

38. FILE NOT FOUND
Microsoft PowerPoint is unable to open the requested file. This could be because your file is corrupted and/or this is an unsupported file type. Do you wish to retry or cancel?
Disk is unformatted. Click “yes” to format your disk now.
Boot startup failure, press any key to reboot.

39. Murphy’s Law
Something WILL go wrong- test your presentation before you show it.
Always have a backup of your presentation on hand.
Be prepared to do the presentation without the PowerPoint…professionals ALWAYS print handouts for the audience.

40. Advice from The Craft of Scientific Presentations

41. Slides influence the preparation, delivery, and understanding of a scientific presentation
Reference pages in The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed.: pp
References:
Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2013), pp
[Alley, 2013] 41

42. A common error in the beginning of scientific talks is to leave the audience behind
Reference pages in The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed.:
p. 72
References:
Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2013), p. 72.
[Alley, 2013] 42

43. Determining Whether Atmospheric Mercury Goes into Surface Snow after a Depletion Event
Ny-Ålesund
Katrine Aspmo
Torunn Berg
Norwegian Institute for Air Research
Grethe Wibetoe
University of Oslo, Dept. of Chemistry
June 16, 2004
Event
Reference pages in The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed.: pp
References:
Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2013), pp
Adapted from K. Aspmo, T. Berg, and G. Wibetow, “Atmospheric Mercury Depletion Events in Polar Regions during Arctic Spring, “ presentation (Oslo: University of Oslo, 16 June 2004). 2.
[Alley, 2013] 43

44. A common error in the mapping of scientific talks is to show a list that is not memorable
Reference pages in The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed.: pp
References:
Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2013), pp
[Alley, 2013] 44

45. Another assumption is that the slides we project should differ from our handout≠
Reference pages in The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed.:
p. 107
Additional Notes: The animation shows the difference between a slide designed for the projection and a crafted notes page, which we recommend to serve as a handout
References:
Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2013), p. 107.
Mimi Overbaugh, Handout for “Osseointegration for Lower-Limb Prosthetics,” (University Park: Penn State, 2013).
[Alley, 2013] 45 45

46. The first step is to write a sentence headline that states the main message of the slide
Reference pages in The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed.: pp
References:
Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2013), pp
Scott Fishbone, “Comparison of Xenon Headlights Versus Halogen Headlights,” presentation (University Park: College of Engineering, April 2008). 46

47. A data acquisition system changes the form of the data
A digital acquisition system has to sample at a rate fast enough to retain the shape of the analog signal
A data acquisition system changes the form of the data
Measurement Device
Reference pages in The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed.: pp
References:
Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2013), pp
Analog-to-Digital
Converter
[Alley, 2013] 47

48. A digital acquisition system has to sample at a rate fast enough to retain the shape of the analog signal
Measurement Device
Reference pages in The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed.: pp
References:
Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2013), pp
H.H. Robertshaw, “Class Period 15: Signals and Systems,” class lecture in ME 4005 (Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Tech, 16 March 2004).
Analog-to-Digital
Converter 48

49. Western Pennsylvania Parks:
Most streams were classified in fair condition
because of high chloride concentrations
West Virginia Parks:
48% Fair
Sulfate caused most problem
Delaware River Parks:
79% Fair
Chloride caused most problems
Western Pennsylvania Parks:
75% Fair
Chloride caused most problems
Reference pages in The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed.: pp
References:
Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2013), pp
Jimmy Webber, “Water Quality of Streams in National Parks of the Mid-Atlantic USA: A Chemical and Biological Assessment,” Ph.D. dissertation defense (University Park: Penn State School of Forestry, 31 March 2012). 49

50. In summary, to excel in your presentations, you will need content, passion, and an acute sense of audience [
[ted.com] [
Reference pages in The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed.:
pp. 3-4
Additional Notes: Concluding summary of book.
References:
Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed. (Springer-Verlag, 2013). Generally, the lowest price is on Amazon.com.
Michael Alley, “Scientific Presentations: The Assertion-Evidence Approach,” (University Park: Penn State, 2013).

51. I know you will all have Excellent Presentations !!! End
[TED.com]