Making Effective Presentations:  Essential Techniques for Lectures,

Conferences, and Job Talks

Darren Schreiber

CEU

University of Exeter

Know your audience…

…‘s brain.

Where we’re going …

• An introduction to your brain and how it learns.

• How to use this learning theory of the brain to make effective presentations.

Your Audience’s Brain

We are not computers. We have brains that help us to survive threats and enable us to thrive socially.

The human brain can be viewed as two systems:1.Reflexive

automatic, implicit, subconsciousslow learning, fast processing

2.Reflectivecontrolled, explicit, consciousfast learning, slow processing

What will help you to survive the tiger?

• Your brain evolved to automatically (X system) draw your attention (C system) to what is important.

• You need to draw your audience’s brain to what is important.

Blame the speaker

So … what is important?

• Your job is to signal to your audience what is important. – What is worth their attention?

• You need to know what is important.– What is the main thing they

need to know?

• If you don’t know, they can’t know.

Seven Steps to Powerful Paper Writing1. BrainstormGather all the things you know about the questionDo not disregard ideas at this step!

2. CategorizeHow can each of the pieces of knowledge be grouped?What questions or new ideas do these groupings suggest?

3. CritiqueWhat would be the criticisms leveled by other perspectives?

4. OrderWhat order could we put each of the groups into?

5. Outline6. WriteSentences should average ten words in length.Paragraphs should range from three to five sentences

7. Edit

How do we know when something is important?

• Repetition– with intervals

• Variation– changing tone,

speed, rhythm, etc.

How do we know when something is important?

• Problems– set up puzzles

• Solutions– solve the puzzles

How do we know when something is important?

• Structure– set expectations

• Surprise– violate expectations

How do we know when something is important?

• Emotion– humor, sadness, fear,

anger, excitement, disgust, love

• Senses– images, sounds

How do we know when something is important?

• People–Who are the characters?

• Stories–What is their story?

Tell a story.

• Your dissertation in twenty words or less?

• Your book in six words?

When you tell a good story … minds meld.

Speaker-listener neural coupling underlies successful communication.

(Stephens et al. PNAS 2010)

Where we’ve been …• A brief introduction to how the brain learns

and what it learns.

• Some tips on how to use our understanding of the brain for making effective presentations.