ƒ In the context of this seminar learn how to present

How to give good seminar presentations – some hints

Friedemann Mattern , ETH Zurich

presentations some hints

March 2013

Why should we care?

ƒ Presentation skills are required in professional life

ƒ Present yourself, your research, your company, an idea, a product…

ƒ You are often evaluated based on a presentation

ƒ In the context of this seminar learn how to present

ƒ In the context of this seminar, learn how to present scientific content

ƒ Also learn

ƒ How to digest different knowledge sources and make a consistent picture out of it

picture out of it

ƒ To present the result in a structured way, adequate for the audience

ƒ To make and defend your point in front of a group

The 80-20 rule of presentations

ƒ 80% presentation, 20% content?

ƒ No!

ƒ Clearly, content is crucial

ƒ But content does not get through if presentation is

ƒ Confusingg

ƒ Boring

ƒ Too advanced (or too easy) for the audience

ƒ Too long (or too short)

ƒ Too long (or too short)

ƒ …

Outline

ƒ Basics

ƒ Preparing the slides h

ƒ Giving the presentation

Goal: Maximize benefit for the audience

ƒ ((For once, you are a teacher!))

C id t t l t d i f th t ti

ƒ Consider structure, layout, design of the presentation

ƒ What can be assumed the audience knows?

ƒ What not?

ƒ How can we arouse interest in the audience?

ƒ Maximize knowledge transfer

ƒ Think of your audience – assume you are part of it

When preparing a talk…

ƒ For whom is the presentation?

ƒ Target audience, knowledge, expectations

ƒ What is the message you want to convey?

ƒ What is the purpose of your presentation?

ƒ Teach, inspire, sell, convince,…?

ƒ What (technical) equipment do you have available?

ƒ Room projector blackboard light

ƒ Room, projector, blackboard, light, …

ƒ In the context of this seminar, the answers should be given!

Academic presentations

ƒ Limited time (e.g., 20, 30, or 45 minutes)

ƒ Fix your milestones

ƒ Know when you should be where in your talk

ƒ Be ready to shorten your talk dynamically

B d t ti f th di d l i t lk

ƒ Be prepared to questions from the audience delaying your talk

ƒ Message Message

ƒ A novel scientific result, a report on your and/or others’ work

ƒ Make clear what is your contribution and what is general knowledge or results achieved by others

Plagiarism

ƒ Make a clear difference between your results and those of others

ƒ Report all your references and cite them properly

ƒ Briefly in the talk, but fully in the written report

ƒ Plagiarism has many forms

ƒ Copy & paste without explicit citationpy p p

ƒ Paraphrase of text without reference

ƒ Unacknowledged adoption of ideas, structure, design, …

ƒ Keep your presentation prosaic, objective, factual

ƒ Convince with arguments, not with rhetoricg ,

ƒ You are not a salesperson

You are not a salesperson

Academic presentations (II)

ƒ Try to convince, not to persuade

I think you should be more

li it h i

ƒ Read and use the literature in a critical way

ƒ The authors are almost always right

explicit here in step two

ƒ Read and use different references

ƒ Typically, scientific articles are more yp y, reliable than information on the Web

ƒ You should understand 100%

ƒ You should understand 100%

of what your are saying

“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”

thereof one must be silent

ƒ „Wovon man nicht reden kann,

d üb h i “

darüber muss man schweigen “

ƒ Ludwig Wittgenstein

(last sentence of his Tract Log Phil 1922) (last sentence of his Tract. Log. Phil., 1922)

Intellectual challenge and clarity of thought

?

?

Information processing in your head

Information processing

ƒ Use your own words

ƒ Do not paraphrase or just translate from

h l ^?

other languages

ƒ Be careful with foreign languages Be careful with foreign languages

ƒ E.g., “Operating system” (EN) Æ Betriebssystem (DE)

ƒ not: Operationssystem

ƒ Focus on relevant aspects

ƒ Identification of “the” relevant aspects is the most important point

ƒ But go into details when necessary or appropriate

ƒ Avoid abbreviations and acronyms whenever possible

ƒ Avoid abbreviations and acronyms whenever possible

Preparation

ƒ Observe and evaluate other speakers

ƒ Do they do it well? Why? How?

ƒ Do they do it well? Why? How?

ƒ Practice your talk

ƒ Make a true “dress rehearsal”

ƒ Test your presentation Test your presentation

ƒ Animations, colors, …

ƒ Know your audience

ƒ Know your audience

ƒ Competences, expectations

D l

ƒ Dress properly

Preparation (II)

ƒ Complete your preparation on time

ƒ Not just the night before…

ƒ Be on time the day of the presentation

ƒ Take some time to check projector and laptop configuration

ƒ Take some time to check projector and laptop configuration

ƒ What if something does not wok?

ƒ Be prepared for spontaneous drawings

ƒ Clean the blackboard

ƒ Make sure chalks / markers are available

ƒ Make sure chalks / markers are available

Be prepared to questions and discussion

ƒ Allow time for it

ƒ Your answers should show that you are

ƒ Your answers should show that you are competent

ƒ How you reply to questions could be an

ƒ How you reply to questions could be an important issue when your talk is used to evaluate you (e.g., as part of a job interview)

Outline

ƒ Basics

ƒ Preparing the slides h

ƒ Giving the presentation

Slide layout

ƒ Rule of thumb: only one train of thoughts per slide

ƒ Bullet points / key phrases better than complete sentences

ƒ Slide title should summarize the content of the slide

ƒ In a meaningful and self-contained wayIn a meaningful and self contained way

ƒ Sometimes people only read the title of a slide (Æ newspapers)

F d i t ti id l d t t

ƒ For academic presentations avoid logo, name, date, etc.

on every slide

ƒ This is not a sales pitch

ƒ Background noise

ƒ Risk of drawing off attention from content

ƒ But: Corporate design?But: Corporate design?

Slide layout (II)

ƒ Font

ƒ Sans serif (e.g., “Arial” or “Tahoma”)

ƒ Do not mix (too many) different fonts (size / style) on a slide

ƒ Font size

ƒ Font size

ƒ Must be “big enough” (rule of thumb?)

ƒ 12pt, 16pt, 18pt, 20pt,

24pt

28pt p

ƒ Bullet points

D “ ” ( h 7 i i lid )

ƒ Do not “exaggerate” (no more than ~7 main items per slide)

Slide layout (III)

ƒ Avoid overloading your slides

ƒ Not meant to provide full content

ƒ Be careful (and frugal) with animations

ƒ No point in quickly browsing through slides

one has not enough time for presenting g p g

Images, plots, and diagrams instead of text

ƒ “ A picture is worth a thousand words. ”

ƒ But: avoid too striking pictures

( l h k / k

(unless you want to shock / provoke your audience)

ƒ Plots / diagrams must help you in making your point

ƒ They must be easy to explain / understand

ƒ They must be easy to explain / understand

ƒ Photographs convey emotions, graphics g p y , g p

and drawings convey exactness

Schemes and graphics, an example

A cluster has the following form:

id t CLUSTER [ ] IS id t ident = CLUSTER [parms] IS ident

cluster_body END ident

CLUSTER <parms> IS <ident>

REP = <type_spec>

<procedure>...

END id t cluster_body = REP = type_spec

routine {routine}

routine = procedure

END <ident>

cluster body

routine procedure

Much better:

- Striking - Less text - Less text

- Less forward references

The power of colors

Outline

ƒ Basics

ƒ Preparing the slides h

ƒ Giving the presentation

Start with an outline of the talk?

ƒ A matter of taste

ƒ Do not spend too much time explaining the outline

ƒ High risk of boring your audience

ƒ List few, self-explaining items, p g

ƒ A (negative) example:

¾Introduction [Necessary?]

¾Topic 1

¾Subtopic 1 bla bla [Avoid nested bullet points in the outline!]

¾T i 2

¾Topic 2

¾…

¾Topic 7 [too many items!]

Make a good start

ƒ Be happy!

ƒ Look at your audience

ƒ Not at slides, laptop, window, …

ƒ Not at one single person (e g professor)

ƒ Not at one single person (e.g., professor)

ƒ Friendly start of the talk y

ƒ Welcome

ƒ Present yourself

ƒ Present your topic

ƒ Present your topic

ƒ If applicable, put your presentation in context

(e.g., relation to previous presentations in the seminar)

Beware of yourself!

ƒ Look

ƒ At your audience

ƒ Speak

ƒ Slowly (enough)

ƒ Loud (enough)

ƒ Fluently

ƒ Free (do not memorize your talk!)Free (do not memorize your talk!)

ƒ Pause if necessary or appropriate

ƒ Move Move

ƒ Slowly (avoid hopping around)

ƒ Use your mimic (hands / body)

During the presentation

ƒ Engage with your audience

ƒ Eye contact

ƒ Questions

ƒ Provocations, contradictions, surprises? (risky, but effective)

ƒ Motivate your audience

ƒ Why is your presentation worth listening to?

h h l ?

ƒ Why are you worth listening to?

ƒ Remain authentic stay calm be flexible Remain authentic, stay calm, be flexible

ƒ Be ready to react to questions, interruptions

Almost done

ƒ Do not leave important questions unanswered at the end of the presentation

ƒ Open issues should be explicitly addressed (e.g., future work)

ƒ Provide a summary of the main message of your

ƒ Provide a summary of the main message of your presentation

ƒ Try to close the circle: link the results at the end to the

ti ti ti t th b i i

motivating questions at the beginning

ƒ Make clear that the end of the talk has come Make clear that the end of the talk has come

ƒ Keep on looking at the audience

ƒ Thank and the audience

Summary

ƒ Understand your topic

ƒ Be well prepared Be well prepared

ƒ Structure and balance your talk well

ƒ Think of your audience Think of your audience

ƒ Keep the time

ƒ Stay calm, be flexible Stay calm, be flexible

ƒ … and it will be a great success!!

How to give good seminar presentations – some hints

Friedemann Mattern , ETH Zurich

presentations some hints

Pictures from: www.leander.lib.tx.us/ LILT/citing and www1.ku-eichstaett.de/PPF/PDMueller/lerntech/referat/