Scientific Presentation
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Today’s Agenda
• Aims of Scientific Presentation
• Scientific Presentation Skills • Planning a presentation• Making oral presentation• Handling questions
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Aims of Scientific Presentation
Importance of scientific presentation
• Important means of communicating scientific information
• A straight and interactive way to make your scientific outcomes understood
• A basic skill for graduate research and your further research career
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Aims of Scientific PresentationElement 2Title Presentation of Dissertation ProposalTask details You are required to present your dissertation proposal and to defend your research approach. You
will have 10 minutes to make a presentation to your supervisor. You should aim to have approximately 5-6 slides and leave 3 minutes for questions. An electronic copy of your slides must be submitted through Turn It In in Blackboard in PDF format by Friday of the week in which this element is due.
Marking Guide
Criteria Issues mark marking breakdown where appropriate
Quality of Presentation
Quality of slides (5)
Clarity and readability of information of slides (5)
Structure and coherence of presentation (5)
Ability to respond to questions and to defend proposal (5)
20 Quality of Presentation
Total 20
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Group discussion
• What characterizes a good oral presentation
• What characterizes a bad presentation
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Aims of Scientific Presentation
A good presentation …
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Aims of Scientific Presentation
A good presentation …
• Audience can understand your work, be convinced and interested in your work, and inspired!
• Content are well organized, clear, to the point
• Good presentations reflect well on speaker!
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A bad presentation …
Aims of Scientific Presentation
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Aims of Scientific Presentation
A bad presentation …
• Audience won’t see your work is great
• Slides are neither understandable nor easy to see
• Not good impression on speaker
Scientific Presentation Skills
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Workflow of Presentation
Make presentation
Handle questions
Plan presentation
Scientific Presentation Skills
Planning a presentation• Thinking about the aim• Developing presentation structure• Preparing presentation slides
Making oral presentation• Structuring presentation• Conducting presentation
Handling questions• Answering questions• Acting as opponent
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Planning a Presentation
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Before preparing contents/slides of presentation, always think about what is the aim of your presentation
Thinking about the aim first
• What is the overall goal of my presentation?
• To understand my research work• …
• What is the title of my presentation?
• Specific to my research work
Planning a Presentation
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Ask yourself
• What are the main points /key messages I want to make to the audience?
• 1, 2,3, …• I, II, III, …• a, b, c, …
• To which details ?• Include enough detail to make presentation understandable• Not including so much details which fails to fit within the
time assigned
Planning a Presentation
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Ask yourself
• What do I want the audience to do after listening to my presentation?
• Comments / advice / suggestions to my research
• Who, where, and when am I making the presentation?• Who is the audience? How many people will there be in the audience?• What are the benefits to the audience of my speech?• What do the audience know of the subject?• How does this change my approach?• What aspects will they be interested in?• Where will the presentation take place? Equipment do you need like
laptop, data storage, whiteboard, projector, laser pointer, etc?• What time am I presenting? How long will be my speech?• …
Planning a Presentation
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Ask yourself
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Developing presentation structure
Planning a Presentation
• What to say
• In what order
• Title• Outline • Introduction/background• Arguments/motivations• Aim and objectives• Approach • Results• Conclusions• Future work
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Developing presentation structure
Planning a Presentation
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Group discussion
• What characterizes good presentation slides
• How will you prepare presentation slides
• Convey key information • Contain appropriate level of details• Be clear, concise, readable and understandable• Be interesting and avoid boring• Avoid over stimulation
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Principles of slide design
Planning a Presentation
Preparing presentation slides
• Layout
Try to use a consistent layout on all (or most) of your slides to make your presentations easier to understand
Placing heading at the same position Use bullets and font sizes in a consistent way Placing figures in relation to text in a consistent way
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Guidelines for making slides – (1)
Planning a Presentation
• Font size
Be noted that you are close to the projector while your audience is far from the screen - make sure the audience sitting at the rear can read clearly
Font should never be smaller than 18 points; If the font size has reached less than 18 point, try to Remove some of the text Split up the text and put it on separate slides
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Guidelines for making slides – (2)
Planning a Presentation
• Use headings
Each slide has a short heading showing to which part of the presentation it belongs
Help audience to keep track of what aspect you are talking about at a particular moment
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Guidelines for making slides – (3)
Planning a Presentation
• Use short expressions
Do not put all the text, code, or explanation directly onto the slides
Use short expressions rather than sentences, but not be cryptic
Always explain shortened phrases on the slides
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Guidelines for making slides – (4)
Planning a Presentation
• Highlight/emphasis
If having a lot of text on a slide is unavoidable (e.g. showing quotes), highlight important words or concepts using color, boldface or underlining
Help audience to grasp the meaning quickly
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Guidelines for making slides – (5)
Planning a Presentation
• Use bullets well organized
Organize the levels of Hierarchy do you think
– You need to express Your point
Use indentation and Keep consistent across all slide
– Decrease font size With nested level of list
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Guidelines for making slides – (6)
Planning a Presentation
• Know slide boundaries
Audience cannot read text that runs off the side of the slides
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Guidelines for making slides – (7)
Planning a Presentation
• Color and contracts guidelines
White background, black text is clearest– Can use other dark text color– But be careful – do not be distracting
Make sure to not use light-on-white or white-on-light
Do not using glaring colors– If not an art major, do not have to get fancy
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Guidelines for making slides – (8)
Planning a Presentation
• Numbering slides
Put a small slide number in the lower right hand corner of each slide
The number should be small and sufficiently close to the edge of the slide not be confused with the contents
Any one asking questions after your presentation can refer to the slide number in the question
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Guidelines for making slides – (9)
Planning a Presentation
• Use visuals
Graphs, charts, maps, drawings, models, Images, photos, video, films, etc
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earth
moon orbit`searth
last (third)quarter
gibbous moon
full moon
gibbous moon
first quarter
crescent
new moon
crescent
waning Moon
waxing Moon
SUN
Guidelines for making slides – (10)
Forms of visual
Planning a Presentation
• Use visuals
To illustrate points easier to understand in visual form but difficult in a verbal form - reinforce ideas and facilitate interpretation
To focus the audience’s attention, involve and motivate the audience
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Why use visualisation techniques
Guidelines for making slides – (10)
Planning a Presentation
• Use visuals
Graphs can also be enemy Simplify graph and make audience easy to catch Explain it - Pick a line, any line
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Guidelines for making slides – (10)
Use graphs properly
Planning a Presentation
• Equations Do you really need all those equations?
– If you don’t need them, do not use them; complex equations make audience lost
– If you do need them, keep it simple; give a plain-text description of it. Do not get into too much details
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Guidelines for making slides – (11)
Planning a Presentation
• Results Do not show lots of results
– Give a simple description/summary of it. Do not get into too much details
– Graphs are helpful
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Guidelines for making slides – (12)
Planning a Presentation
• Notes/manuscripts
Write down what you are going to say will – help practicing – Avoid losing points
Mainly used for practicing before presentation rather than during presentation
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Guidelines for making slides – (13)
Planning a Presentation
• A typical presentation has three parts
• The beginning (Introduction)• The middle (body)• The end (conclusion)
Making Oral Presentation
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Structuring your presentation – (1)
• The Beginning
• Get the audience’s attention or signal the beginning• Greet audience• Introduce yourself
Making Oral Presentation
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Structuring your presentation – (2)
• The Beginning (cont’d)
• Give title and introduce subject• Give your objectives (purpose, aim, goal)• Announce your outline• Make a transition between the introduction and the body
Making Oral Presentation
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Structuring your presentation – (3)
• The Middle
• Sequencing your ideas• Keeping audience’s attention• Signposting or signaling where you are• Linking ideas, sections/making transitions
Making Oral Presentation
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Structuring your presentation – (4)
• The End
• Brief summary of what you have talked• A short conclusion• Thanks to audience for listening• A invitation to ask questions, make comments or open a
discussion
Making Oral Presentation
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Structuring your presentation – (5)
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Group discussion
• What skills are important in making presentation?
• Your attitude Are you interested and confident about your topic?
– If no, get another one– If you, act like it
If you are not excited, you cannot expect audience to be.
Do not talk down to audience– You know more than them about this topic– They know more than you about other stuff
Practice makes perfect– Rehearse in front of other people and seek feedback
Making Oral Presentation
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Guideline for conducting presentation – (1)
• Creating interest and establishing a relationship with audience Arouse listeners’ interest from the beginning. E.g., In the
introduction show how your subject affects or may affect their lives
Other techniques are:– Give an unusual fact or statistic– Use words like you, we, us, our– Illustrate with a real life story– Ask audience to do something, e.g. “raise your hand if you know”– Ask audience direct or rhetorical questions– Speaker should be lively and enthusiastic– Use a variety of media sources
Making Oral Presentation
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Guideline for conducting presentation – (2)
• Talk to the audience and avoid dead man talking Avoid talking to the floor, to the wall or to the screen Avoid hiding behind the podium Avoid back to the audience Avoid staring at anyone Avoid hand/face motionless
Making Oral Presentation
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Guideline for conducting presentation – (3)
• Show the slides properly Avoid showing a slide for just one or two second before
going on to the next slide
Audience are new to your talk, give people sufficient time to grasp the information
Making Oral Presentation
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Guideline for conducting presentation – (4)
• Explain things Do not expect the audience to find out things for themselves
by reading the slide
Avoid reading word by word from slides, and do not treat slides as part of manuscripts
Make your presentation more explanatory and clearly explain each slide what it shows
Give more explanations on visuals like graphs, tables, etc
Making Oral Presentation
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Guideline for conducting presentation – (5)
• Explain things Being precise in what you say helps the audience
understand it quickly
Being concise is to use the briefest possible way of expressing you message, without losing any clarity
Making Oral Presentation
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Guideline for conducting presentation – (5)
• Body language Eye contact, facial expressions, posture, movements,
gestures.
A nature part of communication– to clarify meaning; it is very visual– to vent nervousness– to maintain interest– to emphasize and regulate
Making Oral Presentation
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Guideline for conducting presentation – (6)
• Body language (Cont’d)
Constant eye contact to keep audiences’ attention
Natural and friendly facial expressions and smile!
Posture: stand straight but relaxed
Movement and gesture: to indicate a change of focus, keep audience’s attention
Making Oral Presentation
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Guideline for conducting presentation – (6)
Positive body language
• Body language (Cont’d)
x Loss of eye contact: looking at notes, screen, board, floor.x Stare, or look blankly into people’s eyesx Nervous ticksx Movement: slouch or lean, block the screen, swaying back
and forth like a pendulum, a set of “moves” that repeat during talk
x Gesture: hands in pocket, point at laptop screen (audience cannot see it)
Making Oral Presentation
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Guideline for conducting presentation – (6)
Negative body language
• Use a pointing device or stick Find out how the device works before your talk
Point to where you are explaining
Do not point at everything in the screen
Making Oral Presentation
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Guideline for conducting presentation – (7)
• Keep an eye on time Use your allocated time well
Practice before presentation to ensure you can deliver the talk on time
Making Oral Presentation
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Guideline for conducting presentation – (8)
• Monitor the tempo Do not talk too fast or too slow
Vary temp or voice to emphasize certain things
Handling Questions
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Answering questions
• Be as clear as possible in your replies
• Clarify the question if necessary
• Do not try to avoid answering the question
• Preparing for the defence
Handling Questions
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Acting as opponent
• Asking critical questions to
Judge whether presenter can defend the work Test whether the work is solid and can withstand
critical examination
The role of opponent
Handling Questions
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Acting as opponent
• Problem statementHas the author explained the problem that is to be
investigated in a clear and understandable way?Has the author provided convincing arguments for the need
to investigate this problem?Has the author provided convincing arguments that
conducting the investigation will lead to the possibility of obtaining a solution, or increasing our understanding of the problem domain?
Questions you might ask
Handling Questions
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Acting as opponent
• Aims and objectivesHas the author identified a specific aim to be achieved in the
project? Is the identified aim explained in a clear and understandable
way?Has the author derived a list of specific objectives from the
aim?Are the objectives presented in a clear and structured way?Do the objectives support the aim, i.e. will fulfilling all the
objectives lead to the aim being achieved?
Questions you might ask
Handling Questions
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Acting as opponent
• Method Has the author clearly identified and explained the methods that could
potentially be used in the investigation? Has the author provided an insightful discussion of advantages and
disadvantages of each potential method for the investigation? Has the author clearly stated which method (or methods) was selected
for the investigation? Has the author provided convincing arguments for the selected
method(s)? Has the author described clearly how the selected method(s) will be
applied?
Questions you might ask
Handling Questions
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Acting as opponent
• Data Has the author presented the collected data in a clear,
understandable, systematic and correct way?
Is the collected data sufficient, given the stated aims and objectives of the project?
Questions you might ask
Handling Questions
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Acting as opponent
• AnalysisHas the author made a thorough and systematic analysis of
the data obtained? Is the analysis described in a clear and understandable way? If the data are quantitative, has the author applied
significance tests or other numerical evaluation techniques in a relevant and correct way?
Has the author evaluated the stated aims and objectives in the light of the data obtained?
Questions you might ask
Handling Questions
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Acting as opponent
• ConclusionsHas the author provided conclusions that are relevant, given
the stated aims and objectives? If the work contains one or more hypotheses, does the
author draw conclusions about whether these hypotheses are supported or falsified by the results?
Has the author provided valid arguments for the stated conclusions?
Questions you might ask
Handling Questions
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Acting as opponent
• Discussion and future workHas the author discussed the work in an insightful way, and
thereby placed the work into a wider context?
Has the author identified relevant and plausible continuations of the work?
Questions you might ask
Handling Questions
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Acting as opponent
• Overall assessmentWere the objectives of the project fulfilled?Was the aim of the project reached? Has the project furthered our understanding of the problem
investigated? Will this work be useful in the future? Is the report well structured and understandable? Is the report well written?
Questions you might ask
Handling Questions
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Acting as opponent
• Additional questionsDoes the author have a critical viewpoint, i.e. have sources
used in the work been critically evaluated by the author?Have terms of importance to the report been clearly
defined? Is the use of terms and definitions consistent throughout the
report? Is it clear when something is the author’s own work, and
when it is someone else’s work?
Questions you might ask
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