Making a Presentation

1. Making a Presentation Research Methods and Data College of Advancing Studies Brendan A. Rapple

2. Preparation • No one is a born speaker. • Important to practice as much as possible. • Prepare a script. • Good idea to practice in front of a mirror.

3. Preparation (cont.) • Check out the venue and equipment in advance. • If possible, send any PowerPoint, video etc. to the instructor (organizer, convener etc.) in advance.

4. Preparation (cont.) • Find out how much time has been allotted to you? • Don’t go over the time. • 14 minutes MAXIMUM is allotted for this class • Do you leave extra time for questions & answers? • Who is the audience? • Should you provide hard copies of your presentation?

5. Audience • Know precisely who your audience is. • What level of knowledge do they have? • Say something to capture their attention straightaway. • Talk to the audience (not the visual aid). • What do you want your audience to believe and to remember?

6. Structure • Your talk should have • A beginning • A middle • An end • Omit anything from your presentation that you are unsure about. • Important that the audience remembers your ending – it should have impact.

7. An Old Teaching Strategy • Tell the audience what you are going to tell them. • Then, tell them. • Finish by telling them what you’ve just said.

8. The KISS Principle • Keep It Simple, Stupid!

10. Visual Aspect (if using PowerPoint) • If you are not using PowerPoint or another visual aid, keep notes/outline handy. • But if you are using a visual aid . . . . . . • Make sure the presentation is loaded and that it works!! • Simplicity is usually best – too many animation effects can be distracting and alienating. • Carefully choose background, layout, fonts, colors. • Pictures, diagrams, links to web can add attraction.

11. Keep slides relatively spare – don’t crowd them. • Don’t read the text word for word. • Don’t use all capitals – they’re difficult to read and to some they indicate anger. • Must be a logical, coherent flow between slides.

12. Bad Slide • It’s a study that seeks to understand the mysteries of existence and reality. • It tries to discover the nature of truth and knowledge and to find what is of basic value and importance in life. • Philosophy is thus a form of inquiry. • It’s a process of analysis, criticism, interpretation, and speculation. • The term philosophy itself comes from the Greek philosophia, which means love of wisdom. • Ancient Greeks were the first known western philosophers -- about 500 bc. • They sought answers about the nature of the world and “reality”. • Formerly, people had largely relied on magic, superstition, religion, tradition, or authority. • Non-Western Philosophy: long history in China and India. • Western philosophy generally developed independently of Eastern philosophy. Political Philosophy Examines the nature and possible arguments for various competing forms of political organization, such as: • laissez-faire capitalism, • welfare democracy (capitalistic and socialistic), • anarchism, • communism, • fascism, etc. Business Ethics Explores such questions as • how moral obligations may conflict with the profit motive and how these conflicts may be resolved. • the nature and scope of the social responsibilities of corporations, their rights in a free society, and their relations to other institutions.

13. Another Bad Slide • Libraries hold much more than just books: • Digital resources, journals, sound and video recordings, newspapers, maps, government documents, DVD’s, etc. • Point the user to the world of global information • Not limited to what is physically in the building • Online resources help open up access to the global world • Libraries acquire, organize and make accessible information in traditional and digital formats • Collections can often be accessed remotely

14. More Tips • The following site from ARMA International has some excellent advice on creation on creating PowerPoint presentations: http://www.arma.org/LearningCenter/Facilitator/uploads/PowerPointGuidelines.ppt

15. Don’t ! Fonts • Don’t Sacrifice Readability for Style • Don’t Sacrifice Readability for Style • Don’t Sacrifice Readability for Style • Don’t Sacrifice Readability for Style

16. Use a Template • Use a set font and color scheme. • Differentstylesaredisconcertingto theaudience. • You want the audience to focus on what you present, not the way you present.

17. Don’t ! Avoid These Combinations • Examples: • Green on Blue • Dark Yellow on Green • Purple on Blue • Orange on Green • Red on Green

18. BackgroundColors Remember: Readability! Readability! Readability! This is a good mix of colors. Readable! This is a bad mix of colors. Low contrast. Unreadable! This is a good mix of colors. Readable! This is a bad mix of colors. Avoid bright colors on white. Unreadable!

19. Graphics and Charts Don’t ! Avoid using graphics that are difficult to read. In this example, the bright colors on a white background and the small font make the graph hard to read. It would be very difficult to see, especially in the back of a room. 8

20. Don’t ! This graph contains too much information in an unreadable format. 10

21. Do ! Good Graph These are examples of good graphs, with nice line widths and good colors.

22. Don’t Charts and Graphs

23. Do ! Charts and Graphs 80 Mode A 70 60 Mode B 50 40 Mode C 30 20 10 0 North Europe Australia America

24. More Bad Slides The following seven slides have been borrowed from: www.stanford.edu/class/bio44/IP/IP%20Week%202.ppt The above presentation has a lot of good tips.

25. This is a BAD slide….

26. A little better?

27. How’s this? Diagram 1: Life cycle of the Frog

28. And how about now? Diagram 1: Life cycle of Xenopus sp.

29. How do you like this overhead? Results

30. What about this table?

31. Isn’t this better? Effects of Caffeine on Test Scores Note: Red indicates data with a significant p-value

32. Spell Check • Its essenttial that yyou usse the spel-checker to locatte any silly typoos or mispellinggs. • It gives a baad impresion to see baad speling in a pressentation.

33. Pace Yourself • Pace yourself well – make sure that you keep to the allotted time. • This means that you should rehearse!

35. Finish Strong • Finish with a good conclusion that helps the listeners remember your talk.

36. Final Points • Be entertaining! • Voice and body language can be as important as content. • Keep the audience engaged. • Appear confident and professional. • Be enthusiastic.

37. Nervousness is good! Makes one prepare better. • Always keep within the allotted time: 14 minutes MAXIMUM is allotted for this class • Make sure that your conclusions are conveyed. • Avoid excessive detail, complexity. • Give credit when appropriate.