330 likes | 511 Views
Oral Presentations what makes a good talk. Computer Science Research Practicum Fall 2012 Andrew Rosenberg. Oral Presentations. Who is the audience? What is the purpose? How to deliver a talk ? What should you put in a talk ?. Who is the audience for an oral presentation?.
E N D
Oral Presentationswhat makes a good talk Computer Science Research Practicum Fall 2012 Andrew Rosenberg
Oral Presentations • Who is the audience? • What is the purpose? • How to deliver a talk? • What should you put in a talk?
Who is the audience for an oral presentation? • Family and friends • A boss • Other administrators • A potential client • A potential funding agency • A professor/advisor • A colleague
Venues for Oral Presentations • Research Conferences • Lab Talks • Invited Talks • Job Talks • Keynote Presentations • (Guest Lecturing in) Courses
What is not the purpose of your talk • Complete and thorough understanding of the material. • Even if you are teaching. • To show how smart you are. • from Liang’s slides
What isthe purpose of your talk • Convey enough information • to give an accurate impression and intuition • to convince them that they want to know more • Share your perspective on this topic. • Inspire
Content – What goes in your talk? • Motivation • Expectations • Use of Humor • Technical Detail • Examples, Examples, Examples • Be visual • or at least simple
Presenting a Talk • “You walk in, plant yourself squarely on both feet, look the other fella in the eye and tell the truth.” – James Cagney
Presenting a Talk • You will be nervous • You will feel more nerves than you show.
Presenting a Talk • Your experience of time is different than your audience. • 20 minutes will feel like a blink. • 1 minute can feel like an hour.
How much material? • Maximum 1 slide per minute. RULE OF THUMB
How much material? • Have extra slides ready for questions.
Presenting a Talk • Know what your next slide is.
Presenting a Talk • Intonation Matters.
Presenting a Talk • Be on time. • “should I go on?” • The answer is NO. • but no one will say it. (Thanks Liang)
Be ready for questions • Be gracious • Be prepared • Do NOT be afraid to say “I don’t know” • Being wrong will make you look worse.
Use of humor • Tell jokes. • If you are funny. • Not too many. • They must be topical. • Liang says 3 • One at the start to engage the audience • One in the middle to bring them back • One at the end to leave them happy
What goes on a slide? • Structure for you and your audience • Text Notes • Visual Aids • Data
Notes for yourself • Avoid the easy practice of writing down exactly what you want to say. • This will lead to a boring talk. • Your audience will read along with you, or sometimes ahead of you. • They will not listen to what you are saying. • It is better to give yourself a couple of high level notes that remind you and your audience where you are. • This is enough. • If it is not enough, you are not prepared. • Also, slides like this are visual overload on your audience. • It looks like a big block of text.
Impression is not a lack of Detail • Be specific about the contribution. • Even if people won’t completely get it by the time the talk is over. • Don’t be vague or overly broad. What did you do and Why do I care?
Visual Aids • Flow charts. • Examples. • Animations. • sparingly Text Documents Feature Extraction Classifier Training Gather Feedback from Users
Data • Only include data that you want to talk about.
Data • Only include data that you want to talk about.
Charts and Graphs • Column/Bar Charts = Categorical X axis • Line Charts = Continuous X axis weight (lbs) weight (lbs)
Charts and Graphs • Column/Bar Charts = Categorical X axis • Line Charts = Continuous X axis weight (lbs) weight (lbs)
Example Talk • Title Slide – 1 slide • Problem Statement – 1* slide • Outline • Motivation of your Approach – 1-2 slides • Describe your Approach – 1+ slides • Experimental Results – 1+ slides • Discussion – 1+ slides • Conclusion - 1 Slide • Future Work - 1 Slide • Thanks and Questions – 1 Slide
Example (bad) Outline (20 min talk) • The problem. • Why Algorithm is important. • My Algorithm • Experimental Results • Discussion • Conclusion • Future Work
Example Outline (3 hr talk) • Preliminary Material [30] • Techniques for Prosodic Analysis [75] • AuToBI for Prosodic Analysis [30] • Applications of Prosodic Analysis [45]
Practice • Take opportunities to give more talks. • (Even though you hate it) • Go to more talks • (Even though you don’t know about the topic) • Recognize what you like about good talks • and steal it!
Practice • Then practice more.
Thanks • Questions? andrew@cs.qc.cuny.edu http://speech.cs.qc.cuny.edu