Tips For Preparing a Presentation....
Factors to be Considered....
Identify the important ideas
Your work (or the work you are presenting) likely has many details, but only one or two main ideas; structure your talk around these main ideas.
Your work (or the work you are presenting) likely has many details, but only one or two main ideas; structure your talk around these main ideas.
Create a talk outline
Your talk should be organized in a top-down manner. You should have the following main sections in your talk:
Your talk should be organized in a top-down manner. You should have the following main sections in your talk:
o Introduction, the big picture: what, why and why we should care, and how. Be sure to include:
§ a statement of the problem being solved (what)
§ motivation and putting the work in context (why and why should we care)
§ a high-level view of the solution (how)
o Details of solution
o Results demonstrating your solution
o Critiques of the work (possibly compare to related work)
o Conclusions and future directions for this work
The talk should be organized so that the important ideas are presented first, the details second, and the conclusions last. Each section of your talk should be organized in a similar manner: big ideas, details, then summarize.
Next, design your slides:
· Slide organization
Your slides should be organized like an outline--a few main points, with sub-points under each one. Your slides are a guide for your talk not a word-for-word copy of your talk. List specific points that you want to talk about as sub-topics of each main topic. If there are particular details that you want to discuss, outline them on the slide and keep written notes for you to refer to in your talk rather than writing all the details on the slide.
Your slides should be organized like an outline--a few main points, with sub-points under each one. Your slides are a guide for your talk not a word-for-word copy of your talk. List specific points that you want to talk about as sub-topics of each main topic. If there are particular details that you want to discuss, outline them on the slide and keep written notes for you to refer to in your talk rather than writing all the details on the slide.
· Summarize main points
You should have a summary slide of the main ideas at the end. If applicable, Include a list of open questions and/or future directions of your work.
You should have a summary slide of the main ideas at the end. If applicable, Include a list of open questions and/or future directions of your work.
· It is okay to waste space
Add just enough prose prose to present the main points and highlight the main parts of each point. Use phrases rather than complete sentences and use large fonts. You can use acronyms and abbreviations sparingly, however you should say the complete name when you talk about about them. For example, if you abbreviate processes to procs on a slide, say "processes" when you talk about the point not "procs". Similarly, if your create an acronym for your super fast multi-cast implementation, SFMC, and refer to the old slow multi-cast implementation as OSMC, then say "our super fast multi-cast" and "the old slow multi-cast" rather than "SFMC" and "OSMC". The exception is for well-known acronyms such as PVM, MPI, API, JVM, etc.
Add just enough prose prose to present the main points and highlight the main parts of each point. Use phrases rather than complete sentences and use large fonts. You can use acronyms and abbreviations sparingly, however you should say the complete name when you talk about about them. For example, if you abbreviate processes to procs on a slide, say "processes" when you talk about the point not "procs". Similarly, if your create an acronym for your super fast multi-cast implementation, SFMC, and refer to the old slow multi-cast implementation as OSMC, then say "our super fast multi-cast" and "the old slow multi-cast" rather than "SFMC" and "OSMC". The exception is for well-known acronyms such as PVM, MPI, API, JVM, etc.
· A picture is worth a thousand words
Use figures and graphs to explain implementation and results. It is very hard to describe a system implementation without having a picture of the components of the system.
Use figures and graphs to explain implementation and results. It is very hard to describe a system implementation without having a picture of the components of the system.
· Number of slides
As a general rule, it should take 2-3 minutes to talk through the material on one slide, so for a 30 minute talk you should have about 13 slides. If there are too many ideas in your work to present completely in 30 minutes, then pick one or two (the most interesting/important parts) that you will discuss in detail, and present the other parts at a higher level. Also, you can create back-up slides for specific details that you don't plan to talk about, but may get questions about.
As a general rule, it should take 2-3 minutes to talk through the material on one slide, so for a 30 minute talk you should have about 13 slides. If there are too many ideas in your work to present completely in 30 minutes, then pick one or two (the most interesting/important parts) that you will discuss in detail, and present the other parts at a higher level. Also, you can create back-up slides for specific details that you don't plan to talk about, but may get questions about.
Then, prepare your presentation:
· Provide a talk road-map
Tell the audience where you are going with your talk.
Tell the audience where you are going with your talk.
o Give audience a road-map of your talk at the beginning by using outline slides. Immediately after the title slide, put up an outline slide and tell the audience the main organization of your talk. Another alternative is to first have a few slides motivating the general topic, and then put up an outline slide giving the audience a road-map of your talk.
o It should be clear when you start a new high-level part of your talk. Use good transitions from one slide to the next, and from one main topic to the next..."We just talked about the implementation. Now we will look at how well the system performs."
o You may want to use the outline slide at other points in your talk to provide a visual transition between parts of your talk.
· Repeat your point
There is a rule that says you have to tell your audience something three times before they really hear it:
There is a rule that says you have to tell your audience something three times before they really hear it:
1. Tell them what you are going to say.
2. Say it.
3. Summarize what you said.
This is particularly important for figures and graphs. For example:
4. This graph show how algorithm A performs better than algorithms B and C as the number of nodes increase.
5. The X axis is the number of nodes, the Y axis is the execution time in seconds. The red curve shows the execution time of A as the number of nodes increases.
6. Thus you can see that as the number of nodes increases above N, algorithm A performs better. This is because...
· Talk to the audience
Don't read your slide off the computer, nor directly off the screen. It is okay to stop for a second and refer to your notes if you need to.
Don't read your slide off the computer, nor directly off the screen. It is okay to stop for a second and refer to your notes if you need to.
· Practice
Give a practice run-through of your talk in front of an audience of at least one other student. Stand in a room for 30 minutes (or the duration of your talk) and talk through all your slides (out loud). This should be a timed dress rehearsal. Don't stop and fix slides as you go and don't let your audience ask questions or suggest fixes until your practice talk is over; you want to force yourself to talk through your entire talk. You should assume that there will be about 5-10 minutes worth of questions during or after your talk. If your talk is too long, you should cut out some material to get it to fit into the time slot (your audience will not mind if your talk ends 5 minutes early, but they will mind if it goes 5 minutes over).
As a practice talk audience member, you should jot down notes of places in the talk where you have suggestions for improvements, or where something seems unclear. After the presenter is done with his/her practice talk, you should talk through the things you wrote down. It is also good to give the presenter some practice answering audience questions.
Give a practice run-through of your talk in front of an audience of at least one other student. Stand in a room for 30 minutes (or the duration of your talk) and talk through all your slides (out loud). This should be a timed dress rehearsal. Don't stop and fix slides as you go and don't let your audience ask questions or suggest fixes until your practice talk is over; you want to force yourself to talk through your entire talk. You should assume that there will be about 5-10 minutes worth of questions during or after your talk. If your talk is too long, you should cut out some material to get it to fit into the time slot (your audience will not mind if your talk ends 5 minutes early, but they will mind if it goes 5 minutes over).
As a practice talk audience member, you should jot down notes of places in the talk where you have suggestions for improvements, or where something seems unclear. After the presenter is done with his/her practice talk, you should talk through the things you wrote down. It is also good to give the presenter some practice answering audience questions.
· Nervousness: How to fight back
o A well organized, practiced talk will almost always go well. If you draw a blank, then looking at your slides will help you get back on track.
o Taking a deep breath will clam you down. One trick is to try to remember to take a deep breath between each slide.
o Slow down. Take a few seconds to think about a question that is being asked before you answer it. It is okay to pause for a few seconds between points and between slides; a second or two of silence between points is noticeable only to you, but if you are talking a mile a minute everyone will notice.
o Bring notes. if you are afraid that you will forget a point or will forget your elegant transition between slides 11 and 12, write these down on a piece of paper and bring it with you. However, you don't want to have a verbatim copy of your talk, instead write down key phrases that you want to remember to say.
o Be prepared to answer questions. You don't have to know the answer to every question, however you should be prepared to answer questions about your work. Before you give the talk, think about what questions you are likely to get, and how you would answer them. You may want to have back-up slides ready for answering certain questions.
o It is okay to say "I don't know" or better yet "gee, I hadn't thought about that, but one possible approach would be to..."
· Identify the important ideas
Your work (or the work you are presenting) likely has many details, but only one or two main ideas; structure your talk around these main ideas.
Your work (or the work you are presenting) likely has many details, but only one or two main ideas; structure your talk around these main ideas.
· Create a talk outline
Your talk should be organized in a top-down manner. You should have the following main sections in your talk:
Your talk should be organized in a top-down manner. You should have the following main sections in your talk:
o Introduction, the big picture: what, why and why we should care, and how. Be sure to include:
§ a statement of the problem being solved (what)
§ motivation and putting the work in context (why and why should we care)
§ a high-level view of the solution (how)
o Details of solution
o Results demonstrating your solution
o Critiques of the work (possibly compare to related work)
o Conclusions and future directions for this work
The talk should be organized so that the important ideas are presented first, the details second, and the conclusions last. Each section of your talk should be organized in a similar manner: big ideas, details, then summarize.
Next, design your slides:
· Slide organization
Your slides should be organized like an outline--a few main points, with sub-points under each one. Your slides are a guide for your talk not a word-for-word copy of your talk. List specific points that you want to talk about as sub-topics of each main topic. If there are particular details that you want to discuss, outline them on the slide and keep written notes for you to refer to in your talk rather than writing all the details on the slide.
Your slides should be organized like an outline--a few main points, with sub-points under each one. Your slides are a guide for your talk not a word-for-word copy of your talk. List specific points that you want to talk about as sub-topics of each main topic. If there are particular details that you want to discuss, outline them on the slide and keep written notes for you to refer to in your talk rather than writing all the details on the slide.
· Summarize main points
You should have a summary slide of the main ideas at the end. If applicable, Include a list of open questions and/or future directions of your work.
You should have a summary slide of the main ideas at the end. If applicable, Include a list of open questions and/or future directions of your work.
· It is okay to waste space
Add just enough prose prose to present the main points and highlight the main parts of each point. Use phrases rather than complete sentences and use large fonts. You can use acronyms and abbreviations sparingly, however you should say the complete name when you talk about about them. For example, if you abbreviate processes to procs on a slide, say "processes" when you talk about the point not "procs". Similarly, if your create an acronym for your super fast multi-cast implementation, SFMC, and refer to the old slow multi-cast implementation as OSMC, then say "our super fast multi-cast" and "the old slow multi-cast" rather than "SFMC" and "OSMC". The exception is for well-known acronyms such as PVM, MPI, API, JVM, etc.
Add just enough prose prose to present the main points and highlight the main parts of each point. Use phrases rather than complete sentences and use large fonts. You can use acronyms and abbreviations sparingly, however you should say the complete name when you talk about about them. For example, if you abbreviate processes to procs on a slide, say "processes" when you talk about the point not "procs". Similarly, if your create an acronym for your super fast multi-cast implementation, SFMC, and refer to the old slow multi-cast implementation as OSMC, then say "our super fast multi-cast" and "the old slow multi-cast" rather than "SFMC" and "OSMC". The exception is for well-known acronyms such as PVM, MPI, API, JVM, etc.
· A picture is worth a thousand words
Use figures and graphs to explain implementation and results. It is very hard to describe a system implementation without having a picture of the components of the system.
Use figures and graphs to explain implementation and results. It is very hard to describe a system implementation without having a picture of the components of the system.
· Number of slides
As a general rule, it should take 2-3 minutes to talk through the material on one slide, so for a 30 minute talk you should have about 13 slides. If there are too many ideas in your work to present completely in 30 minutes, then pick one or two (the most interesting/important parts) that you will discuss in detail, and present the other parts at a higher level. Also, you can create back-up slides for specific details that you don't plan to talk about, but may get questions about.
As a general rule, it should take 2-3 minutes to talk through the material on one slide, so for a 30 minute talk you should have about 13 slides. If there are too many ideas in your work to present completely in 30 minutes, then pick one or two (the most interesting/important parts) that you will discuss in detail, and present the other parts at a higher level. Also, you can create back-up slides for specific details that you don't plan to talk about, but may get questions about.
Then, prepare your presentation:
· Provide a talk road-map
Tell the audience where you are going with your talk.
Tell the audience where you are going with your talk.
o Give audience a road-map of your talk at the beginning by using outline slides. Immediately after the title slide, put up an outline slide and tell the audience the main organization of your talk. Another alternative is to first have a few slides motivating the general topic, and then put up an outline slide giving the audience a road-map of your talk.
o It should be clear when you start a new high-level part of your talk. Use good transitions from one slide to the next, and from one main topic to the next..."We just talked about the implementation. Now we will look at how well the system performs."
o You may want to use the outline slide at other points in your talk to provide a visual transition between parts of your talk.
· Repeat your point
There is a rule that says you have to tell your audience something three times before they really hear it:
There is a rule that says you have to tell your audience something three times before they really hear it:
1. Tell them what you are going to say.
2. Say it.
3. Summarize what you said.
This is particularly important for figures and graphs. For example:
4. This graph show how algorithm A performs better than algorithms B and C as the number of nodes increase.
5. The X axis is the number of nodes, the Y axis is the execution time in seconds. The red curve shows the execution time of A as the number of nodes increases.
6. Thus you can see that as the number of nodes increases above N, algorithm A performs better. This is because...
· Talk to the audience
Don't read your slide off the computer, nor directly off the screen. It is okay to stop for a second and refer to your notes if you need to.
Don't read your slide off the computer, nor directly off the screen. It is okay to stop for a second and refer to your notes if you need to.
· Practice
Give a practice run-through of your talk in front of an audience of at least one other student. Stand in a room for 30 minutes (or the duration of your talk) and talk through all your slides (out loud). This should be a timed dress rehearsal. Don't stop and fix slides as you go and don't let your audience ask questions or suggest fixes until your practice talk is over; you want to force yourself to talk through your entire talk. You should assume that there will be about 5-10 minutes worth of questions during or after your talk. If your talk is too long, you should cut out some material to get it to fit into the time slot (your audience will not mind if your talk ends 5 minutes early, but they will mind if it goes 5 minutes over).
As a practice talk audience member, you should jot down notes of places in the talk where you have suggestions for improvements, or where something seems unclear. After the presenter is done with his/her practice talk, you should talk through the things you wrote down. It is also good to give the presenter some practice answering audience questions.
Give a practice run-through of your talk in front of an audience of at least one other student. Stand in a room for 30 minutes (or the duration of your talk) and talk through all your slides (out loud). This should be a timed dress rehearsal. Don't stop and fix slides as you go and don't let your audience ask questions or suggest fixes until your practice talk is over; you want to force yourself to talk through your entire talk. You should assume that there will be about 5-10 minutes worth of questions during or after your talk. If your talk is too long, you should cut out some material to get it to fit into the time slot (your audience will not mind if your talk ends 5 minutes early, but they will mind if it goes 5 minutes over).
As a practice talk audience member, you should jot down notes of places in the talk where you have suggestions for improvements, or where something seems unclear. After the presenter is done with his/her practice talk, you should talk through the things you wrote down. It is also good to give the presenter some practice answering audience questions.
· Nervousness: How to fight back
o A well organized, practiced talk will almost always go well. If you draw a blank, then looking at your slides will help you get back on track.
o Taking a deep breath will clam you down. One trick is to try to remember to take a deep breath between each slide.
o Slow down. Take a few seconds to think about a question that is being asked before you answer it. It is okay to pause for a few seconds between points and between slides; a second or two of silence between points is noticeable only to you, but if you are talking a mile a minute everyone will notice.
o Bring notes. if you are afraid that you will forget a point or will forget your elegant transition between slides 11 and 12, write these down on a piece of paper and bring it with you. However, you don't want to have a verbatim copy of your talk, instead write down key phrases that you want to remember to say.
o Be prepared to answer questions. You don't have to know the answer to every question, however you should be prepared to answer questions about your work. Before you give the talk, think about what questions you are likely to get, and how you would answer them. You may want to have back-up slides ready for answering certain questions.
o It is okay to say "I don't know" or better yet "gee, I hadn't thought about that, but one possible approach would be to..."
SPEAKING
TALK to YOUR AUDIENCE
Why are you giving this paper? Presumably because you have something interesting to tell people - out loud, and in public. Why will people come to hear your paper? Presumably because they hope to be stimulated by hearing about your research and your ideas - from you yourself, in person. Don't disappoint them!
TALK, DON'T READ
People have come to hear you talk. Speaking and writing are so different that you will sound dull if you read monotonously from a condensed version of your latest manuscript or thesis. Prepare notes specifically for an informal address and force yourself to speak naturally and to avoid jargon. But don't depend on thcse notes - there probably won't be enough light to see them. It's best to make your slides in such a way that they serve as your notes; and to know your subject so well that you could give the talk smoothly without slides or notes.
On the other hand, don't become too informal. Many speakers tend to make "cute" remarks during the presentation, often disparaging their own data and/or visual aids. Data described as "smoking hot," "first cut," etc. should neither be presented nor so described. Such actions can and do damage your reputation and offend the audience.
STIMULATE THE AUOIENCE
Present your ideas with a few verbal punches to stimulate your listeners. Look at the audience and look for nods of agreement or signs of differtng viewpoints. You will find that this kind of communication is more rewarding than just reading your notes. If some listeners are so bored that they walk out (or fall asleep), at least you will see them go. And next time you will prepare a more exciting paper.
KEEP ON SCHEDULE
There are several good reasons for keeping your presentation comfortably within the allotted time. Doing so will help prevent illness of or mayhem by the program chairman and/or session moderator. But more important, it is a professional courtesy to your colleagues who, more often than not, wish to move freely between various sessions to "catch" specific papers. If one session runs off schedule this entire system breaks down. Also, those speakers following you deserve their full allotted time - it's not available for you to "borrow." Con't make your session moderator take "police action" against you - do it yourself by planning and rehearsing your presentation to fit into the allotted time, leaving a few minutes for questions.
SLIDES
The 35 mm or 2x2" slide has become the standard visual aid for scientific presentation. It has many advantages, and, with a little time and effort, virtually any material can be placed on a slide. We discourage other aids such as "overhead" transparencies because even if visually acceptable and properly sized (a rarity) they exact a heavy penalty in confusion, lost time, and distraction of the speaker and the audience.
Problems with slides generally fall into three categories: a) reversal, b) out-of-order, c) illegible. The first two can be prevented by simple care, use of standardized equipment (bring your slides already in a "carousel" tray if possible), and a pre-check by the speaker and the session moderator. The third is much more serious and more difficult to conquer, but it can be conquered.
Good slides amplify and clarify the message, stimulate interest, and help the speaker keep "on the track." They merit the same care in preparation as the commentary. Slides that cannot be read when projected lessen the impact and effectiveness of the presentation; in other words, the primary consideration is legibility.
Ideally, the author should work with a specialist who can translate information into effective visuals and who will instruct an artist and a photographer in making slides. Whether or not such assistance is available to you, you can make good slides using the following information.
Most errors in slide-making stem from the mistaken assumption that legibility in one form assures legibility in another. A person ordinarily reads printed material at a distance of 12 to 14 inches (304 to 356 mm). But frequently at a slide presentation the image projected is only 4x6 feet (1.2xl.8m); the rear seats are 70 feet (21.3m) from the screen! Reading the text of a 4-foot high image at 70 feet is like reading this page reduced to 33x44 millimeters. None of it would be legible, because of the small size of the original characters.
Illustrations in textbooks and reports are usually drawn carefully and labelled in detail. Copying such illustrations in slide form usually demonstrates that what may be adequate on the printed page ls inadequate on the screen. Line widths must be increased, and captions must be reduced in number, simplified, and increased in size. If you reduce a blueprint to-slide form and project it, the screen image will be illegible. Lines will be too faint, lettering will be too small, and the narrator will usually lose the audience while trying to explain in words what the audience should be seeing. A thick-line tracing of essentials, made with crayon, felt-tip pen, etc. or a simplified version is preferable.
OBSERVE THESE IMPORTANT POINTS
- Use 2x2-inch color slides - they are effective, easy to make, hnd inexpensive. Color film is also convenient for making slides from black-and-white copy.
- Use a colored background - it is better than black or white. An easy way to do this is to put a green, blue, dark yellow, etc. filter over the lens when photographing black-on-white copy.
- Limit each slide to one main idea.
- Use a slide series for progressive disclosure - it clarifies greatly.
- Limit each slide; include no more than you will discuss.
- Leave space - at least the height of a capital letter - between lines.
- Include titles to supplement, not duplicate, slide data.
- Use several simple slides rather than one complicated one, especially if you must discuss a subject at length.
- Use duplicates if you need to refer to the same slide at several different times in your talk. It is impractical for the projectionist to search for and reshow a slide.
- Plan your slides for a good visual pace in your presentation. Don't leave a slide on the screen after discussing its subject.
- Thumb-spot all slides in the lower left corner when the slide reads correctly on hand viewing. Add sequence numbers.
- If you have to say "Some of you may not be able to see this, but . . ." DON'T SHOW THAT SLIDE! If the slide is not legible from every point in the auditorium, it is useless. Never take an illustration from a thesis or printed paper; the print is usually too small and there will be too much unnecessary detail.
PREPARE FOR A SMOOTH PRESENTATION
- Rehearse your slide presentation several times so that you will be familiar with the sequence and timing of the slides.
- On your trip, carry your slides with you - in the tray, if possible. Oon't trust them to your baggage if it is checked through.
- Give your slides to the projectionist before the session, when you'll have time to discuss any special instructions with him. If you wait until just before your talk, he may be busy with the previous speaker's slides.
- Use the slides to supplement and support your oral presentation, not simply to repeat what you are saying.
- Request a pointer, if needed.
- Project your slides form 50-75 feet in a partially darkened room, and make sure you can read everything on them from at least the projection distance, preferably further.
- Each slide should be marked for numbered sequence, to assure proper order in carousel for projection; and with your name to assist retrieval. Feel free to bring your slides properly marked and arranged in your own carousel tray. Be sure the tray has a lid lock firmly in place. Make a trial run well in advance of the meeting to make sure each slide is in proper sequence, right side up and facing-properly (not backwards). There will not be time to rearrange slides during your scheduled appearance.
- Plan on no more than 15 slides, preferably fewer, for a 15-20 minute presentation.
