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

Making a Presentation
Research Methods and Data
College of Advancing Studies
Brendan A. Rapple
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.
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.
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?
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?
Structure
 Your talk should have
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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.
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.
The KISS Principle
 Keep It Simple, Stupid!
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 . . . . . .
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Make sure the presentation is loaded and that it works!!
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Simplicity is usually best – too many animation effects can be
distracting and alienating.
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Carefully choose background, layout, fonts, colors.
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Pictures, diagrams, links to web can add attraction.
 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.
Bad Slide
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It’s a study that seeks to understand the mysteries of existence and reality.
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It tries to discover the nature of truth and knowledge and to find what is of basic value and importance in life.
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Philosophy is thus a form of inquiry.
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It’s a process of analysis, criticism, interpretation, and speculation.
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The term philosophy itself comes from the Greek philosophia, which means love of wisdom.
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Ancient Greeks were the first known western philosophers -- about 500 bc.
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They sought answers about the nature of the world and “reality”.
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Formerly, people had largely relied on magic, superstition, religion, tradition, or authority.
Non-Western Philosophy: long history in China and India.
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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:
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laissez-faire capitalism,
welfare democracy (capitalistic and socialistic),
anarchism,
communism,
fascism, etc.
Business Ethics
Explores such questions as
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how moral obligations may conflict with the profit motive and how these conflicts may be resolved.
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the nature and scope of the social responsibilities of corporations, their rights in a free society, and
their relations to other institutions.
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
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
Fonts
Don’t !
 Don’t Sacrifice Readability for Style
 Don’t Sacrifice reaDability for
Style
 Don’t Sacrifice Readability for Style
 Don’t Sacrifice
Readability for
Style
Use a Template
 Use a set font and color scheme.
 Different styles
are disconcerting to the
audience.
 You want the audience to focus on what
you present, not the way you present.
Avoid These Combinations
 Examples:
Green
on Blue
Dark Yellow on Green
Don’t !
Purple on Blue
Orange on Green
Red on Green
Background Colors
Remember: Readability! Readability! Readability!
This is a good mix of
colors. Readable!
This is a good mix of
colors. Readable!
This is a bad mix of
colors. Low contrast.
Unreadable!
This is a bad mix of
colors. Avoid bright
colors on white.
Unreadable!
Graphics and Charts
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.
Don’t !
8
This graph contains too much information in an
unreadable format.
Don’t !
10
Good Graph
These are examples of
good graphs, with nice
line widths and good
colors.
Do !
Charts and Graphs
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
North America
Europe
Austrailia
Don’t
Mode A
Mode B
Mode C
Charts and Graphs
80
70
60
50
40
Mode A
Mode B
Mode C
30
20
10
North
America
0
Europe
Australia
Do !
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.
This is a BAD slide….
A little better?
How’s this?
Diagram 1: Life cycle of the Frog
And how about now?
Diagram 1: Life cycle of Xenopus sp.
How do you like this overhead?
Results
What about this table?
Caffeine Dose (mg)
Average Test
Score
Standard
Deviation
P-value
0
70
2.4
50
74
4.3
0.175
100
68
1.2
0.429
150
63
2.7
0.024
200
59
3.4
0.005
Isn’t this better?
Effects of Caffeine on Test Scores
Caffeine Dose (mg)
Average Test
Score
Standard
Deviation
P-value
0
70
2.4
50
74
4.3
0.175
100
68
1.2
0.429
150
63
2.7
0.024
200
59
3.4
0.005
Note: Red indicates data with a significant p-value
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.
Pace Yourself
 Pace yourself well – make sure that you keep to the allotted
time.
 This means that you should rehearse!
Finish Strong
 Finish with a good conclusion that helps the listeners remember
your talk.
Final Points
 Be entertaining!
 Voice and body language can be as important as content.
 Keep the audience engaged.
 Appear confident and professional.
 Be enthusiastic.
 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.