Peter Puschner, TU Wien [with contributions from M. Függer, R. Kirner, U. Schmid]

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Aims

• Motivation

• Presentation

• Preparation

• Your seminar talks

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Rhetoric …

Sophists:

“… the art of being able to dominate others”

“… makes the weaker matter the stronger

one”

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Rhetoric in Science

• Empirical evaluation

• Formal-mathematical proof

(X-1)² = (X-1)(X-1) = (X-1)X - (X-1)1 = … =

= X² - 2X + 1

... only a convincing speech act?

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Scientific “Problem-Solution”

Cycle

• Inspiration:

reading papers, listening to talks

• Solution process:

oral communication with colleagues

• Presentation at conference:

talk to convince the audience

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The Purpose of your talk …

… is not:

• To impress your audience with your

brainpower

• To tell them all you know about your topic

• To present all the technical details

[Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, “How to give a good research talk”]

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The Purpose of your talk …

… but is:

• To give the audience an intuitive feel for

your idea

• To sufficiently raise their interest to read

your paper

• To engage, excite, provoke them

[Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, “How to give a good research talk”]

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Subject

Presentation Triad

Presenter

Audience

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Your Audience

The audience you would like:

• Have read all your earlier papers

• Thoroughly understand all the relevant

theory of cartesian-closed endomorphic

bifunctors

• Are all agog to hear about the latest

developments in your work

• Are fresh, alert, and ready for action

[Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, “How to give a good research talk”]

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Your Actual Audience

The audience you get:

• Have never heard of you

• Have heard of bifunctors but wish they hadn’t

• Have just had lunch and are ready for a doze

[Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, “How to give a good research talk”]

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The Audience

Relationship: Presenter – Audience

• Contents

– What does the audience know?

– What is the audience interested in?

• Language and style of presentation

• Eye contact

– Do not read

– Handouts after presentation

• Interaction Scientific Presentation WS2019 11

Connecting to the Audience

• Get in touch before presentation

• The first 30-90 seconds

– Begin with a hook

– Explain topic / problem and aim

• Establish eye contact (crowds: ”M”)

• Relate to the audience

• Show you enjoy (be authentic)

• Smile

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Keeping the Audience Awake

• Action, variation

• Different media

• Rhetoric elements

– Voice

– Pause

– Rhetorical question

• Humor (80:20 = information:humor)

• Surprise

• Lists

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Questions from the Audience

• Allow for questions (during talk / at end)

• No questions = problem

• Take a positive view

– no stupid questions

– no malicious questions

• Answering questions

– Don’t create losers

– Acknowledge suggestions / ideas

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The Presenter

• Dress code

• Adequate style and language

• And most important:

[Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, “How to give a good research talk”]

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Aim and Key Message

• Know your aim and key message

• Show applicability of material

Is this useful for my

own work?

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Aristotle’s Presentation Structure

1. Prolog: state the aim

– Quick and exciting

– Explanation of problem

2. Facts and proof

– Objective and well-founded

– Solution of the problem

3. Epilog: rephrase

– Emphasize important points

– Conclusions and appeal

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Presentation Structure

Attention – hook

Interest – aim

Definition – main part

Appeal

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Structure of Main Part

Item by item

• Situation

– What are the facts? What‘s the problem?

• Direction

– New (view)point

– Supporting arguments for new point

• Solution

– Solution to the problem

• Next Step

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Time Budget and Structure

• 5 minutes

Problem statement + coarse solution

idea + pros & cons (limits)

• 7 minutes

+ some detail on solution strategy

• 10 minutes

+ proof sketch(es) and extra details

• 3 minutes

+ cool down, conclusions & outlook

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Slides

• Slide = simple visual statement

• Plain, large font

• Text colours: black, blue

• max. 6 items per slide

• Graphics preferable to text

• Not too many slides (15 for 30 minutes)

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”Accuracy”

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”Precision”

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”Accuracy and Precision”

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Proofs and Formulas

• Proofs: use graphics to show

– the proof assumptions (system model)

– the proof idea

• Fomulas

– Try to avoid formulas

– If necessary: show final result, nicely typeset

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Preparation

• Content

• Technical preparation

– Slides, program, handouts

• Timing rehearse

• Local arrangements

– Test presentation on local beamer

• Nervousness

– Don‘t announce

– Visualization, focus on opening sentences

– Breathing

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Content Preparation – Drivers

• Know why I‘m doing this

• Know who my audience is

• Know what I‘m going to say

• Know how I‘m going to structure it

• Know how to immediately connect with

the audience

[John Waterman, avocets consulting, “Electric Public Speaking”]

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Don’ts

Talking

• Too quiet

• Inarticulate speech

• Too fast

• Reading from slides

• „There are only a few more slides ...“

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Don’ts

Slides

• Mixing different slide designs

• Too many (slide 1/136 …)

• Moving back and forth

• Lots of content slides

• Hosts of summary slides

• Progress bar use slide numbers

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Don’ts

Slides

• Complete sentences or paragraphs

• Too much detail

• Too many formulas

• Wrong use of color (meaning)

• Graphics: too much detail, pixelated

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Further Don’ts

Presenter

• Showing up too late to your talk

• Extravagant appearance

PC

• Omit beamer check (don‘t forget adapter!)

• Antivirus/Skype/alarm on

Time

• Exceeding the time budget

watch the chairperson

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Before Your Presentation

• Rehearse in front of colleagues / mirror

• Keep your time budget

• Get feedback

• Avoid relying on notepads

• Rehearse the opening sentence

– Chairmen often read name and title don‘t

repeat this in this case, rather say e.g.

„thanks XXX for your kind introduction“

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Recall: The Goal of your Talk

... is not

that the others know as much as you

know

but

to make them ask for your paper after

your presentation

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Summary

• Rhetoric is important for scientists

• Convince audience to read your paper

• Know your aim / message

• Prepare

– Audience, content, structure

• Keep things simple

• BE ENTHUSIASTIC!

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