POWERPOINT PRESENTATION SKILLS FOR SCIENTISTS

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POWERPOINT PRESENTATION SKILLS FOR SCIENTISTS

• Diane Hannemann
• McDougal Fellow,
• Careers Professional Development
• Anindita Sinha
• McDougal Fellow, Academic Writing

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Keys to a Successful Presentation

• Know your Audience
• Make it Clear!
• The Heart of the Matter Sharp Figures Pretty
  Pictures
• Prepare Practice
• Zzzzzz
• How You Say it Matters
• Not Compatible?
• Closure

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Know Your Audience

• In your field - can jump in with brief
  background non-experts - need more set-up
• Purpose of your talk (Convince? Update? Teach?)
• Communicate with your audience
• size matters
• formal vs. discussion format
• Convey your enthusiasm about your work
• Dont talk over their heads dont talk down to
  them

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Make it Clear - Structure

• OUTLINE FIRST!!
• Controls number of slides provides balance
• - Budget 2-3 minutes/slide (e.g. 30 talk
  10-15 slides)
• Have one story to tell
• - decide on underlying issue to be addressed
• - divide into logical, heirarchical
  subquestions
• - talk should be series of answers to these
  questions
• Zoom-In (intro) and Zoom-Out (closure)

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Make it Clear - Concept

• Style format
• - use color to highlight organize
• - be consistent (audience knows where to
  look)
• Read through presentation and see if main points
  stand-out
• - Heading WHAT or HOW
• - Summary statement CONCLUSION
• Speaker Support
• - It doesnt carry you -- you are the
  focus
• - It supports your message

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Make it Clear - Dont Lose em

• Science talk vs. murder mystery -- dont keep
  youre audience hanging!
• Know the fuzzy borders between experimental
  evidence and speculation (affects how you
  formulate your sentences)
• One concept per slide
  - cluster examples rather than
  moving through series too quickly
• Make sure you can be heard!

Frustrate your audience you lose them!
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The Heart of the Matter Sharp Figures
Pretty Pictures

• Clear title
• Highlight particular areas/words
• Dont crowd with too much info
• Give credit where credit due
• - reference published data borrowed figures

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The Heart of the Matter Sharp Figures
Pretty Pictures

• Show bad
• showing a lot of unreadable info for effect -
  bad!
• if it cant be read -- its a waste it annoys
  audience

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The Heart of the Matter Sharp Figures
Pretty Pictures

• Show bad

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The Heart of the Matter Sharp Figures
Pretty Pictures

• GOOD
• (some showmanship here)

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The Heart of the Matter Sharp Figures
Pretty Pictures

• GOOD
• Use one of Jens figure slides color-coded parts,
  etc.

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Prepare Practice

• Timing (how many slides length of talk)
• Memorize intro and first few lines
• Beware of overpracticing
• Dont memorize entire talk -- stiff
  BORING!!
• 1X 10-fold improvement
• 2X twice as good
• 3X polish

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Zzzzzz

• Talk to your audience
  (eye contact, conversational style)
• Engage your audience by asking questions
• Keep it interesting
• - share interesting tidbits
• - give unique examples/analogies
• - humor disturbs slumber
• Tiny type kills (use at least 18 point font ...
  ?)

If youre bored, youre audience is snoring!
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How You Say it Matters

• VERBAL SKILLS
• Slow down!
• Dont read your slides - use as cues
• Vary voice tone (conversational)
• Genuine enthusiasm
• SPEAK-UP

• BODY LANGUAGE
• Eye contact
• Stand straight - breathe
• Dont overgesture with pointer, etc.
• Face your audience

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Not Compatible?

• Ask ahead of time what equipment provided
• - overhead projector vs. Powerpoint
• What format used
• - PC vs. Mac?
• What type of disk acceptable
• - floppy vs. Zip 100, Zip 250?
• Emergency back-ups
• - overheads
• - handouts

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Closure

• Summary of conclusions
• Zoom-out (relevance or application of your work)
• Next steps (if appropriate)
• Acknowledgements

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Scientific Talks - Summary
1. Know your audience their needs 2. Tell
them a clear story developing each point upon the
previous 3. Show them the evidence (sharp
figures) 4. Keep them awake by engaging them 5.
Give them great delivery -- prepare, practice
SPEAK-UP! 6. Share your enthusiasm for your
work 7. Sell your message with a strong summary
of conclusions
Most importantly - Have Fun!