The Presentation on How to Give a Presentation
Disclaimers
There is no right way to do a presentation but there are common characteristics of good presentations
Some of the stuff that I tell you might seem really intuitive, but I think it is sometimes helpful to articulate your intuitions, because then they become more clear
If I’m going too fast please tell me
Assignment Begin to outline a presentation only after you
have summarized the potential presentation in a declarative sentence that captures the central idea of the message Do this early, about 10-14 days before your
presentation date Ask yourself the question: "How would I explain
my research to a friend from another college?" Use this as a guide for developing the "story" you are
going to tell your COW audience.
Audience
Knowledgeable in general science Avoid technical detail, everyone should be able
to understand your presentation Define key terms Explain difficult concepts A bit of redundancy can be very helpful
“tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you just told them”
General Guidlines
Estimate about 1 minute per slide. A slide that takes less than 1 minute is probably not
as effective as it could be. If a the general content of a slide cannot be understood in 4
seconds, it is often a bad one A slide that takes longer than 2 minutes probably
contains too much information. For an 8-10 minute talk, an estimate of 8-12 slides in
addition to the title slide is probably good.
General Structure Title slide
Strive first for a title that communicates accurately the direction of the message, and then see if you can reduce the number of words while retaining clarity.
Outline This is optional. One advantage is that the audience knows where the talk is
going. One disadvantage is that the audience knows where the talk is
going. If this is used, be very careful that it does not steal your thunder
Outline of Intro
• What is glaucoma?– IOP– Secondary degeneration
• What is Oculotrophin Protomorphogen (PMG) Extract?
• What is neuroprotection?• What is ischemic-reperfusion injury?
Example
General Structure
Intro/Background (why was the project undertaken?) ***Start with a statement of purpose or significance***
Methods (what was done?) Results (what was learned?) Conclusion (what does it mean?)
Sometimes conclusion/summary can be the same as the discussion
General Structure Use the same font throughout the presentation,
recommended fonts are Times New Roman, Arial and Verdana
Titles should be ≈ 44 point font, subtitles ≈ 32 and the text ≈ 24
Usually PowerPoint will decide what is best for you Clearly label all structures, axes and symbols in a slide Provide complete references typically at the bottom of
the slide in a smaller font than the main text when using other people's work
General Structure
TemplateReadability requires good contrast in colorsMake the template consistentKeep the PowerPoint transitions between
slides simple and consistent
A picture is worth…
Represent topics pictorially rather than with lots of wordsThis really helps with clarityPictures can be understood much more
quickly than text The next four slides are early drafts of the
three slides following the next four slides
What I did
• Three groups of rats– Control
• daily placebo treatment of 2 mL of water by gastric lavage
– Low dose experimental group (LD)• daily dose of 3.3 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract
in 2 mL of water by gastric lavage – High does experimental group (HD)
• daily dose of 6.6 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract in 2 mL of water by gastric lavage
Example - Bad
What I did
• Duration– Each rat received the treatment for 14 days
• Ischemic-reperfusion injury– On the 7th day the IOP in the right eye of each
rat was increased to 10 times the normal pressure for 45 minutes
– The left eye of each rat was uninjured and served as a control
– Explain value of this injury
Example - Bad
What I didExample - Bad
What I did• On the 14th day the rats were sacrificed and the
eyes were removed• Histological evaluation of each eye followed
– Six, 20 μm thick, frozen sections from each eye were obtained
• three sections from the central retina spaced 200 μm apart • three sections from the inner retina spaced 100 μm apart
– All sections were then stained with cresyl violet– Four random locations, spread as far apart as
possible, were chosen and the cell density was calculated
Example - Bad
Methods
• Treatment by gastric lavage– Three groups of rats
• Low dose experimental group (LD)– 3.3 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract
• High does experimental group (HD)– 6.6 mg of Oculotrophin PMG extract
• Control– Control treatment of water
Glaucomatous Injury Eye Removal
Gave treatment by gastric lavage
Example - Good
• Glaucomatous injury– Right Eye
• IOP increased to 10 times the normal pressure
• 45 minutes– Left Eye
• Uninjured and served as a control
Glaucomatous Injury Eye Removal
Gave treatment by gastric lavage
MethodsExample - Good
Methods
• Eye Removal– Histological evaluation of
each eye followed• 3 sections from each eye
– 20 μm thick– from the central retina – spaced 200 μm apart– stained with cresyl violet
• The density per unit area was obtained for each eye
Glaucomatous Injury Eye Removal
Gave treatment by gastric lavage
Example - Good
Effective Slides
Slides should not be crowded nor should they have too much white spaceeach slide should be designed to illustrate a
particular point or perhaps to summarize a few
The next two slides are early drafts of the two slides following the next two slides
What is glaucoma?• Secondary degeneration
– The slow loss of damaged neurons and death of previously healthy neurons that become injured by an excitotoxic cascade This is a repeat
– During ischemia excessive glutamate is released which causes the overstimulation of ionotropic glutamate (NMDA) receptors
– Overstimulation of NMDA receptors causes an influx of calcium through the NMDA receptor channel depolarizing the cell and causing voltage gated calcium channels to open
– increased calcium levels activate destructive cascades like activation of phospholipase A2, nucleases which act on DNA, proteases which disrupt ribosomes, neurofilaments and microtubules, oxygen-free radical synthesis and nitric oxide production
– All of this eventually triggers apoptosis (Check that)
Example - Bad
What is glaucoma?
• Secondary degeneration– Treatment
• Lower glutamate• Inhibit NMDA
– Ex. Betaxolol
• Lower Ca2+ levels– Phenytoin
• and Oculotrophin PMG?
Example - Bad
RGC Loss and Glaucoma
• Secondary Degeneration– The slow loss of
damaged neurons and death of previously healthy neurons that become injured by an excitotoxic cascade
Ischemia
↓ O2
↓ ATP
↑Glutamate release
Overstimulated NMDA receptor
↑ Ca2+ in cell
Prolonged depolarization
Apoptosis
Dead o
r
dying
cell
Health
y cell
Example - Good
RGC Loss and Glaucoma
• Secondary Degeneration– Treatment
• In the past 5 years research has been directed towards halting the progression of these cascades from one step to the other.
Ischemia
↓ O2
↓ ATP
↑Glutamate release
Overstimulated NMDA receptor
↑ Ca2+ in cell
Prolonged depolarization
Apoptosis
Dead o
r
dying
cell
Health
y cell
Example - Good
Effective Presentations Practice, practice, practice
Rehearsing a paper before members of one’s own department or group can make the difference between success and disaster.
If you practice enough, you will often find that it is easier to give a talk without using notes
Practice enough so that you have ‘memorized’ the framework and concepts of your presentation
Don’t memorize the exact wording that you use, that can sound forced.
Effective Presentations
What to memorize/rehearseEverything you are going to say on the first
slide Once you get past the first slide often you can just
put your mind on autopilot and before you know it you will be done with your presentation
The verbal transitions between slides These can make the difference between an
amazing presentation and a mediocre one.
Effective Presentations General Pointers
Become comfortable with some silence Effective use of pauses can really help
Put inflection in your voice in order to stress important points, don’t be monotonous
Use a pointer in order to clearly "walk" the audience through the ideas you are presenting.
Speak audibly and clearly so that even those sitting in the back row can hear
Make eye contact with the audience to help keep their interest, but not necessarily specific people