Seminars and Lectures

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Seminars and Lectures

• BIOL5700
• Hal Whitehead

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Seminars and Lectures

• What do you like?

• What do you dislike?

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Seminars and LecturesThink of the audience
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Think of the audience

• Do you like talks or lectures that
• try to say too much?
• are poorly prepared?
• run over time?
• are inaudible?
• go too fast for you to follow?
• Who are the audience?

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Think of the audience

• Be direct
• Make it understandable
• Be enthusiastic

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Seminars and Lectures

• Title clear and descriptive
• Do not start with crucial information
• Say
• Why you did it
• How you did it
• What you found
• What you think it means
• Then stop

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How to make yourself heard and understood

• Look at audience, upwards
• Speak to people at back of room
• Simplify results
• graphs better than tables usually

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Using notes

• Do not read talk unless horribly nervous
• If fairly nervous
• have backup readable version
• series of ideas, on cards, numbered
• have first (and last?) parts written out
• let Powerpoint lead you through

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Timing

• Check
• Leave some slack
• About one Powerpoint slide per minute

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Verbal style

• Short words and sentences
• Finish every sentence
• Speak slowly (T.W. Fline)
• Speak loudly (consistently)
• Check yourself on tape or video
• Reduce number of words
• Avoid Anderm or OK
• Speak distinctly (T.W. Fline)
• Avoid cliches
• Use I sometimes

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Maintaining audience interest

• Tell story
• Tell occasional funny jokes
• A few good pretty slides
• Recapitulate
• What I hope I hope I have shown you so far
• Visual, acoustic, olfactory, tactile aids

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Use of Powerpoint

• Good...

• Bad...

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Figures versus Tables??
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In Presentations (Powerpoint, slides or
overheads)

• Generally use figures
• Use tables when
• Numbers are important
• Fewer than 10 numbers (minimum digits)

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Tables in Presentations

• Number of Limbs
• Birds 4
• Mammals 4
• Spiders 8
• Insects 6

OK
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Tables in Presentations
Probably No
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Tables in Presentations
No !!!
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Do not usually present the same data as both
Tables and Figures
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FiguresPseudo 3-D
No
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(Real) 3-D displays
Use Sparingly and Carefully
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Colour
Best used sparingly!
Beware RainbowHorsehoe
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Figures and Tables Summary

• Presentations
• Usually use Figure rather than Table
• Keep it very simple
• General
• No pseudo 3-D!
• Use 3-D and colour sparingly and carefully