1. Some Thoughts on Academic Presentations
Dan Quint
University of Wisconsin
November 16, 2016

2. Introduction Preparation Delivery Answering Questions Almost Freakish Attention to Detail1 1

3. Introduction
Presenting well matters

4. Introduction Preparing a good talk takes much longer than you think
“Hofstadter’s Law: it always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.” – Douglas Hofstadter 3 3

5. Introduction Giving a good talk is hard… …and you’ll screw it up
Your first practice talk will probably go worse than you expect, even when you account for this. 4 4

6. Introduction Preparation Delivery Answering Questions Almost Freakish Attention to Detail5 5

7. Preparation “Own your paper”
This sounds stupid, but the starting point is: remember that the paper is YOURS, and YOU should decide how to present it
Don’t feel you have to use some template someone gave you
Start from scratch, thinking about the best way to make it clear 6 6

8. Preparation Think about who your audience is
Assume we’re smart, but haven’t read your paper, or the one you’re extending
Lots of people make the mistake of presenting the paper to their advisor
Even in a theory seminar, or a labor seminar, or an econometrics seminar, not everyone knows the area you’re working on
For a job talk, you’re trying to sell people outside your field
Think of your audience as smart economists in other fields – you need to convince them that you’ve done something interesting (even if they won’t catch all the details) 7 7

9. Preparation Think about the best way to teach them your paper
Own your paper! Think from scratch about the best way to teach it, which may not be the way it’s written! 8 8

10. Preparation Start with a puzzle, or a story
If your paper is about CEO pay and contract, don’t start out talking about general insights from principal-agent models
Start out with a shocking fact: in 2009, even though Toys R Us was going bankrupt, they paid their CEO $111 million
Be specific 9 9

11. Preparation Make us understand, quickly: What the question is
What you found
Why we should care 10 10

12. good place to take advice from advisors, etc.
Preparation
Your lit review is terrible
Show you know the literature you’re supposed to
Put your paper in context and clarify its contribution
easy
Lit review has two purposes
To show you know the literature you’re supposed to know
And to put your paper in context and clarify its contribution relative to the existing literature
hard
good place to take advice from advisors, etc. 11 11

13. Preparation
Your lit review is terrible 12 12

14. Preparation
Get to your model FAST! 13 13

15. Preparation Simplify! You don’t need to present the most general case
Help us out with the “right” leading example
You don’t have to present every result
It’s fine to focus the presentation on the simpler case, if that gives most of the useful intuition
It’s 100% fine to say,
“My results are for general N, but for the talk, I’ll focus on N = 2, because the notation is simpler and the ideas are the same.”
Or,
“In the paper, I give three empirical specifications and five counterfactuals, but I’ll focus on one specification and the two key counterfactuals here.”
Simplify the notation if you can
The point is for us to understand what’s going on 14 14

16. Preparation
Define things rigorously 15 15

17. Preparation Have examples in mind
Examples of the overall phenomenon/question you’re thinking about
But also examples for specific elements of your model
If you have a switching cost, what does it represent? An actual monetary cost (of what)? Lost time? Inconvenience and mental energy?
One or two good examples >> lots of mediocre ones 16 16

18. Preparation Plan where you want to spend your time
The most frustrating talks are when someone goes very very slowly and deliberately through stuff that’s standard and everyone already knows…
…and then doesn’t have time to properly explain the part of the paper that is actually novel
Not always easy to know what’s “commonly understood” and what’s not – OK to ask for advice!
But you need to deliberately plan where you want to focus your time during the talk 17 17

19. Preparation
Plan where you want to spend your time 18 18

20. Preparation
PLAN WHERE YOU WANT TO SPEND YOUR TIME 19 19

21. Preparation
Highlight the things you want us to notice 20 20

22. Preparation Don’t drown us in equations
Every equation you show should have a purpose
One of the reasons I use PowerPoint is to make it costly to use equations! 21 21

23. Preparation
Tables 22
source: A. Sengupta and S. Wiggins (2014), “Airline Pricing, Price Dispersion, and Ticket Characteristics On and Off the Internet,” AEJ: Economic Policy 6(1) 22

24. Preparation Visuals good! Visuals are great – but don’t get “gimmicky”23
source: T. Piketty, E. Saez and S. Stantcheva (2014), “Optimal Taxation of Top Labor Incomes: A Tale of Three Elasticities,” AEJ: Economic Policy 6(1) 23

25. Preparation
Ask for advice –
and follow it 24 24

26. Preparation
Practice! 25 25

27. Introduction Preparation Delivery Answering Questions Almost Freakish Attention to Detail26 26

28. Delivery
Face the audience,
and don’t laser-point every slide 27 27

29. Delivery Go slow, except for the technical parts –
then, go really slow 28 28

30. Delivery Going slow is crucial for equations
probability h of my opponents do one thing and the rest do another
increase in probability stuff happens
expected payoff I get if it happens 29 29

31. Delivery I like dot points to appear one by one
Guides people through each point I make
Reinforces each point
(Means I can’t present without a clicker) 30 30

32. Delivery But don’t “foreshadow” dot points You may think it looks cute
But it makes people read ahead while you’re talking
Which means they aren’t paying attention 31 31

33. Delivery But don’t “foreshadow” dot points You may think it looks cute
But it makes people read ahead while you’re talking
Which means they aren’t paying attention 32 32

34. Delivery But don’t “foreshadow” dot points You may think it looks cute
But it makes people read ahead while you’re talking
Which means they aren’t paying attention 33 33

35. Delivery But don’t “foreshadow” dot points You may think it looks cute
But it makes people read ahead while you’re talking
Which means they aren’t paying attention 34 34

36. Delivery Also, don’t put everything you want to say on your slide
If you do, then all you can do is read your slides
And that isn’t a very compelling way to present
Better to leave some things off your slide and just talk about them
And use your slides as an outline of the major points you want to cover…
…not every detail 35 35

37. Delivery Don’t be limited by your slides
Control pace, adjust accordingly
Use white board as needed 36 36

38. Introduction Preparation Delivery Answering Questions Almost Freakish Attention to Detail37 37

39. Answering questions Anticipate likely questions
Empirical paper: someone will ask about endogeneity concerns, and which direction this would bias your results
Theory paper: you’re assuming some variables are independent, someone will ask what happens if they’re correlated
Think about the questions you would ask! 38 38

40. Answering questions Don’t take it personally Don’t get defensive
Don’t be a dick 39 39

41. Answering questions
Don’t interrupt someone asking a question 40 40

42. Answering questions
Don’t interrupt someone asking a question 41 41

43. Answering questions
DON’T INTERRUPT SOMEONE ASKING A QUESTION 42 42

44. Answering questions
Be sure you understand the question before you start to answer 43 43

45. Answering questions Don’t defer questions more than necessary
If you keep saying, “That will be clear when I show you the model”… maybe you should have gotten to the model sooner?
Sometimes, the answer really is, “That’s on the next slide”
But in general, it’s better to engage when people want to engage – especially if there’s a quick answer, that will be faster than explaining why you want to wait
“I’ll explain in more detail in a few slides, but the short version is, …” 44 44

46. Answering questions But don’t lose control of the seminar
At some point, it’s OK to say, “Let’s talk about this more after the seminar” and move on 45 45

47. Answering questions Don’t be a bullshitter
But don’t undersell your work
Be honest about the limitations of your work – the assumptions you had to make that you don’t like, the concerns about endogeneity, etc.
Don’t undersell – hopefully, your paper has a valid contribution – but don’t pretend to do things you don’t
Also, don’t defend how you do things by saying “that’s what someone else did” – it’s your paper, you own it now 46 46

48. Introduction Preparation Delivery Answering Questions Almost Freakish Attention to Detail47 47

49. Almost freakish attention to detail
Minimize typos, incorrect notation, etc.
But don’t overreact if you catch one during your talk 48 48

50. Almost freakish attention to detail
If your dot points appear one by one, 49 49

51. Almost freakish attention to detail
If your dot points appear one by one,
Make sure you do it properly, 50 50

52. Almost freakish attention to detail
If your dot points appear one by one,
Make sure you do it properly,
Because if they don’t line up right, 51 51

53. Almost freakish attention to detail
If your dot points appear one by one,
Make sure you do it properly,
Because if they don’t line up right,
It makes me want to kill you! 52 52

54. Almost freakish attention to detail
Plug in your fucking computer
And have it set up so you don’t get a Skype message, or a message to update Adobe Reader
The only time I’ve ever said “fuck” to a room full of undergrads was booting up 5 minutes before a lecture and getting “Windows 7 is installing update 1 of 44”
And show up with a working clicker
Basically, have your shit together 53 53

55. Almost freakish attention to detail
(Also: don’t use the word “fuck” in a presentation until you have tenure) 54 54

56. Thanks for listening,
and good luck! 55 55