Notes on giving effective presentations
At the MRS Spring meeting, I went to a session on how to give a scientific presentation by consultant Tim Miller, which I found quite valuable. Here's a summary of my notes from that session.
He gave six tips that he called a "first approximation" to the right way to give a talk. They were:
I tend not to do these things, so it was a good reminder. One common mistake is laser pointer over-use, and from this list you can see why it occurs (you don't stand still, so you need something in your hands; you don't practice beforehand, so you need to emphasize things that you hadn't thought of) and why it's a problem (it stops you from standing still and facing the audience).
He seemed to have a theater background, so he pointed out the importance of breathing deeply, putting emphasis on certain words, and controlling your vocal inflection. It's been a long time since I thought of presenting in the context of theater, though many years ago I took a theater class partially because I thought it would make me a better presenter, so the reminder was so helpful to me.
In the realm of organizing a presentation, he likes a story-type structure, where you first establish a goal, describe each obstacle on the way, and then discuss how you overcame it. Again, typical of theater training. I recall a mnemonic GOTE for setting up a scene: Goals, Obstacles, Tactics, Emotion. The talk should start broad, narrow down, then end more broadly.
Considering your audience is, of course, important. He set it up as a question of balance between answering the questions "what" and "so what." The extremes of this continuum are your thesis advisor, who only needs to know what you're doing, and one he labeled "my mom." His mom doesn't care what you're doing, but she might be interested if your work can help solve global warming. He suggested giving talks for nonscientific audiences as often as possible, since it forces you to be a good presenter.
Unsurprisingly, much of the discussion was about slides. The key point here was to organize and implement the presentation based on the material and audience, not based on PowerPoint. The slide is not a fundamental unit of organization. A pictoral example that you talk over can be much more effective than a bulleted list. Figures should be made as big as possible, with fewer elements per slide. Black backgrounds are better for projecting than white. Signposts about where in the presentation you're in are helpful.
You should never read your slides. He gave an effective and humorous demonstration of this, where he put up a slide with a bunch of text explaining why you shouldn't read your slides, then got himself a drink of water.
As Mr. Miller was quick to point out, none of these suggestions are new or earth-shattering. Yet many people fail to follow the best practices when giving talks. It was nice to have them summarized and demonstrated so effectively. In particular, my talk the next day benefitted from the advice to breathe deeply, stand still, and not overuse the laser pointer.
He gave six tips that he called a "first approximation" to the right way to give a talk. They were:
- Stand still
- Face the audience
- Make eye contact
- Speak slowly
- Practice beforehand
- Stick to the plan
I tend not to do these things, so it was a good reminder. One common mistake is laser pointer over-use, and from this list you can see why it occurs (you don't stand still, so you need something in your hands; you don't practice beforehand, so you need to emphasize things that you hadn't thought of) and why it's a problem (it stops you from standing still and facing the audience).
He seemed to have a theater background, so he pointed out the importance of breathing deeply, putting emphasis on certain words, and controlling your vocal inflection. It's been a long time since I thought of presenting in the context of theater, though many years ago I took a theater class partially because I thought it would make me a better presenter, so the reminder was so helpful to me.
In the realm of organizing a presentation, he likes a story-type structure, where you first establish a goal, describe each obstacle on the way, and then discuss how you overcame it. Again, typical of theater training. I recall a mnemonic GOTE for setting up a scene: Goals, Obstacles, Tactics, Emotion. The talk should start broad, narrow down, then end more broadly.
Considering your audience is, of course, important. He set it up as a question of balance between answering the questions "what" and "so what." The extremes of this continuum are your thesis advisor, who only needs to know what you're doing, and one he labeled "my mom." His mom doesn't care what you're doing, but she might be interested if your work can help solve global warming. He suggested giving talks for nonscientific audiences as often as possible, since it forces you to be a good presenter.
Unsurprisingly, much of the discussion was about slides. The key point here was to organize and implement the presentation based on the material and audience, not based on PowerPoint. The slide is not a fundamental unit of organization. A pictoral example that you talk over can be much more effective than a bulleted list. Figures should be made as big as possible, with fewer elements per slide. Black backgrounds are better for projecting than white. Signposts about where in the presentation you're in are helpful.
You should never read your slides. He gave an effective and humorous demonstration of this, where he put up a slide with a bunch of text explaining why you shouldn't read your slides, then got himself a drink of water.
As Mr. Miller was quick to point out, none of these suggestions are new or earth-shattering. Yet many people fail to follow the best practices when giving talks. It was nice to have them summarized and demonstrated so effectively. In particular, my talk the next day benefitted from the advice to breathe deeply, stand still, and not overuse the laser pointer.