Presenting Professional Talks

1. Presenting Professional Talks J. Ellen Marsden Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources University of Vermont http://www.uvm.edu/rsenr/nr385proskills/

2. Preparing for the talk Know your audience - public, or scientists? - what type of introductory material is needed? - context, context, context!!

3. Preparing for the talk Know your audience Know your venue (time limit, facilities) - leave time for questions, discussion - how big is the room (size of screen)? - what ‘tools’ will you need (computer, pointer?) - is there a clock available?

4. Preparing for the talk Know your audience Know your venue Know your message - keep it simple - have the flow and ‘story’ by heart

5. Preparing for the talk Know your audience Know your venue Know your message Know yourself - dress appropriately, look confident (balance professional dress with comfort)

6. General tips for giving talks • Use slides as your ‘cue-cards’ to remember what to say next, BUT • anticipate your slides • do not read or describe slides • slides illustrate points, they are not THE point

7. General tips for giving talks • Avoid jargon, acronyms • Use useful names • not ‘Orconectes virilis’ or ‘green crayfish’ if ‘first invader’ is relevant point

8. The point of slides: To emphasize, not provide, the message To convey visually what words cannot do effectively - get away from slides to refocus attention on you (don’t hide behind your slides) - try giving the talk with no slides

9. The seven deadly sins of giving talks • Reading from a script/’reciting’ your talk

10. The seven deadly sins of giving talks • Reading from a script/’reciting’ your talk • Talking to the screen, not the audience

11. The seven deadly sins of giving talks • Reading from a script/’reciting’ your talk • Talking to the screen, not the audience • Typographical erors in your Slides

12. The seven deadly sins of giving talks • Reading from a script/’reciting’ your talk • Talking to the screen, not the audience • Typographical erors in your Slides • Being ‘surprised’ by a slide when it appears (not knowing all your slides by heart)

13. The seven deadly sins of giving talks • Reading from a script/’reciting’ your talk • Talking to the screen, not the audience • Typographical erors in your Slides • Being ‘surprised’ by a slide when it appears (not knowing all your slides by heart) • Too much text or unreadable text on a slide

14. TheUNIVERSITYofVERMONT Water and Lake Studies Forest Ecosystems Health Landscape Ecology and Biodiversity Ecology and Environmental Science Ecosystem Sustainability and Planning Ecological Economics and Design Sustainable Forestry Ecological Planning Watershed Science and Planning Spatial Analysis and Modeling Landscape Mapping Land Use Change Analysis Dynamic Simulation Modeling Human Dimensions The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources “c Environmental Policy Tourism and Recreation Environmental Thought

15. The seven deadly sins of giving talks • Reading from a script/’reciting’ your talk • Talking to the screen, not the audience • Typographical erors in your Slides • Being ‘surprised’ by a slide when it appears (not knowing all your slides by heart) • Too much text or unreadable text on a slide • Apologizing

16. The seven deadly sins of giving talks • Reading from a script/’reciting’ your talk • Talking to the screen, not the audience • Typographical erors in your Slides • Being ‘surprised’ by a slide when it appears (not knowing all your slides by heart) • Too much text or unreadable text on a slide • Apologizing • Too much content for the allotted time

17. Slide content Any time you use a text slide with complete sentences the audience attention is distracted from speaker as people read all of the words while the speaker is talking and trying to convey something useful

18. Slide content • attention focuses first on a new visual

19. Slide content • attention focuses first on a new visual • complex visuals distract from verbal message

20. Slide content • attention focuses first on a new visual • complex visuals distract from verbal message • guide audience attentionby highlighting the focal point(s)

21. Slide content • attention focuses first on a new visual • complex visuals distract from verbal message • guide audience attention by highlighting the focal point(s) • … or by reducing emphasis on previous points

22. Content • attention focused on new visuals • avoid complex visuals • guide audience attention • highlight focal point(s) ….fewer words is better!!

23. General organization

24. Title slide J. Ellen Marsden University of Vermont Additional authors other institutions Funded by (in cooperation with):

25. Format FONTS Minimum font sizes Title Font (36 pt) Subtitle font (28 pt) Text font (24 pt) Sans Serif fonts are recommended Examples: Tahoma Arial Serif fonts are not recommended Examples: Palatino Times New Roman

26. Organization of my talk: Introduction Methods Results Discussion Conclusions (yawn!)

27. Introduction Include enough information so the audience understands why this study is important: context!

28. Objectives short list of bulleted objectives, each with an action verb: • identify lake trout spawning locations • quantify egg density • determine fate of post-emergent fry

29. Methods Statolith preparation: • sagittal otoliths dissected in a Class-100 clean room • sonicated for 5 min in Milli-Q ultrapure water in ULTRAsonik cleaner • transferred to clean Petri dish, rinsed three times in Milli-Q water • mounted with double-sided tape on a petrographic microscope slide • dried under laminar-flow hood for 24-48 h • analyzed using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (LA-ICPMS) • laser power set to 1.10 Kvolts

30. Methods Statolith microchemistry analyzed with laser ablation ICPMS

31. Methods Statolith microchemistry: laser ablation ICPMS

32. Results • Know the ‘rules’ for graphing data • Keep the graphs “clean” focus on data reduce stray ‘ink’ avoid fancy stuff (e.g., 3-D graphs) • Describe the axes before discussing data

33. Mortality

34. Mortality

35. Comparison

36. Comparison

37. Summary summarize major points, conclusions, or findings; bullets will generally echo your objectives: • lake trout spawn lake-wide • egg density is sufficient for population stability • post-emergent fry sampling unsuccessful

38. Conclusions a summing-up of your study (optional; often combined with summary): • Lake trout spawning is sufficient for restoration, BUT • Fate of post-emergent fry is unknown

39. Acknowledgements Funding Cooperators - Great Lakes Fishery Trust - USFWS - VTDFW Assistants • Joel Brown - Anne Warwick • Mary O’Connor - John Smith • Pete Swashbuckler - Susan Spey • Fred Black - many others

40. Acknowledgements Funding Cooperators …and the field crews!

41. Questions?

42. Format tips and ideas

43. Slide space is under-used (graph should be bigger) • Graph space is under-used (legend should be moved) • Remove outline • Remove gridlines (distracting) • Y-axis numbers are too long – remove decimals, add commas • Add axis label

44. Commercial harvest of salmonids in Lake Superior

45. Credit: Wes Tibbets, Oneonta College Format • Use visuals to illustrate points (a picture DOES say a thousand words) • but be sure to include credits on photos

46. Format • Many options exist for transitions between slides

47. Format • Many options exist for transitions between slides • some can be cute…

48. Format • Many options exist for transitions between slides • some can be cute… • too much can be distracting

49. Format • Many options exist for transitions between slides • some can be cute… • too much can be distracting • … or they can be really annoying!

50. Format use slide space well