masterclass #4: presentations 101
Post on 05-Dec-2014
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Presentations 101: Get Your Point Across
Dr. Cressida J. Heyes
I. The academic presentation
Purpose
• To convey your contribution to research and knowledge.
• To a relatively expert audience with at least some shared interests.
• In the time allotted.• Emphasizing your own work and ideas, not
only the “literature” or “what we did.”
Form
• Typically 20 minutes• Speaking from Powerpoint slides or other
presentation software, or• Reading from a script (with or without slides
as backup)• Need to balance giving a rehearsed
presentation with engaging your audience
What is your project?
Content
Describe your research
General advice
• Talk to a mentor about what to include, how to structure, what your punchline is. If possible rehearse before a fake audience that includes your mentor and some peers.
• Rehearse again• Think carefully about HOW MUCH you can say
in the time allotted. Less is more.• Foreground your own contribution.
Write down a one paragraph description of your research project
Style
General advice
• Voice• Body language• Pace• Engage your audience
Deliver your paragraph to a partner
II: Pitfalls
Pacing
• Too much material• Belabouring things everyone in the audience
already knows• Skipping over important material to get to the
best part• Running out of time before saying the best
part• Too many slides; too much on each slide
Style
• Talking too fast• Talking too quietly• Apologizing or making excuses or being
excessively self-deprecating• Dealing with nerves
III: Answering questions
Positive advice
• Take a deep breath• Take a moment to think• Answer step-wise• Separate and stress your most important
point(s)
Negative advice• Say you don’t know and you’ll have to think about it more• Say you haven’t read a text or author the questioner is
referring to• Ask for clarification or elaboration if you don’t understand
the question• Clear up a misunderstanding if you think the questioner has
missed some part of your paper• Explain that you’re using a paradigm or approach that might
be unfamiliar to the questioner• Offer to give a fuller response later in a private conversation
Modelling Q&A
IV: Using presentation software
Graphic presentation
Mainly black and whiteHigh contrast
Lots of white spaceLittle or no animation or sounds
Graphic presentation
Large fontsNot much textKey points only
Lots and lots of irrelevant text that you can’t read anyway because the background is horrible
STUFF! HAPPENING!• A point I’m telling you• Another way of saying the
point I’m telling you• A paragraph randomly lifted
from my paper and put on the screen so you are trying to read as I say it.
• A reference to an article I’m not currently talking about
• This font colour actually makes me feel ill
A picture! Unrelated!
Cognitive purpose
Stressing key pointsAn image, graph, or chart that supports
your caseShowing a structure for the presentation
Questions?
Presentations 101: Get Your Point Across
Dr. Cressida J. Heyes
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