Designing Effective Scientific Presentations

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Designing Effective Scientific Presentations
BIOS 313 3/29/06 Dr. Mary Purugganan maryp_at_rice.
edu Cain Project in Engineering Professional
Communication www.owlnet.rice.edu/cainproj
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Topics Well Discuss

• Getting started
• Displaying text
• Displaying graphics
• Animating
• Presenting
• Critiquing sample slides

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Getting Started

• Create a slide show that is an outline, not a
  script
• Use the slide show...
• to select important topics and issues
• to organize content
• to create a hierarchy

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Getting Started

• To select a design, ask yourself
• What professional image do I want to project?
• In what type of room will I give my talk?
• Well-lit room use light background / dark text
  and visuals
• Dimly-lit room use dark background / light text
  and visuals

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Getting Started

• Set up Slide Master
• Allows you to design the look of your slide
  show
• Browse design templates
• Enables you to select pre-designed presentation
  templates
• Create new slides
• Choose from 24 master slide styles to build
  your show

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Selecting Content

• Consider your audience!
• State problem/ question clearly early
• Include significance--the big picture why does
  it matter?
• Keep background relevant

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Selecting Content, Part 2

• Explain experiments include the how the why!
• Hypothesis (WHY)
• Method (remember audience) (HOW)
• Show data and guide audience through (WHAT WAS
  OBSERVED)
• Draw conclusions (WHAT IT MEANS)
• Speculate about future investigations

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Suggested Content

• Title as concrete accurate as possible (1
  slide)
• Problem, background, significance (5-7 slides)
• Methods (2-4 slides)
• Results, conclusions (3-6 slides)
• Future investigations (1-2 slides)

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Displaying Text

• Remember that your audience...
• skims each slide
• looks for critical points, not details
• needs help reading/ seeing text
• Help your audience by
• Projecting a clear font
• Using bullets
• Using declarative titles
• Using short phrases
• Using grammatical parallelism

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Project a Clear Font

• Serif easy to read in printed documents
• Times New Roman, Palatino, Verdana
• Sans serif easy to see projected across the room
• Arial, Helvetica, Geneva

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Use Bullets

• Bullets help your audience
• to skim the slide
• to see relationships between information
• organize information in a logical way
• For example, this is Main Point 1, which leads
  to...
• Sub-point 1
• Further subordinated point 1
• Further subordinated point 2
• Sub-point 2

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Use declarative titles

• Results suggests the content area for a slide
• Substance X upregulates gene Y (with data shown
  below title) shows the audience what is observed

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Use Short Phrases

• Use phrases in your slide show outline
• Generate phrases that make your point clearly
  accurately
• Write complete sentences only in certain cases
• Hypothesis / problem statement
• Quote
• ???

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Use Grammatical Parallelism

• Lists should be in same grammatical form--to help
  audience skim phrases
• Not Parallel
• Lysed cells in buffer
• 5 minutes centrifuging of lysate
• Supernatant was removed
• Parallel
• Cells were lysed in buffer
• Lysate was centrifuged 5 minutes
• Supernatant was removed

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Displaying Visuals

• Incorporate visuals that enhance understanding
• Data evidence for argument
• Figures that enhance understanding of background,
  method, big picture, etc. (from WWW, published
  reviews, drawn yourself)
• Design easy-to-read visuals
• Draw attention to aspects of visuals

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Simplify and Draw Attention
http//www.indstate.edu/thcme/mwking/tca-cycle.htm
l
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Displaying Visuals
Harvey et al. (2005) Cell 122407-20
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Choose Color Carefully

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Cite others visuals
Harvey et al. (2005) Cell 122407-20
http//www.bioc.rice.edu/shamoo/shamoolab.html
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Animating

• Custom animation allows you to animate text,
  visuals, or line work
• Custom animation should be used purposefully (and
  sparingly!)
• To aid in the audiences ability to comprehend
  your message
• Not solely for aesthetic purposes

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Animating

• Use professional animation methods for text
  (avoid fly in, typewriter, reverse order, etc.)
• Use mouse-click to advance

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Presenting

• Delivery
• Handling questions

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Stance and Posture

• Worst Practices
• Block screen
• Cross feet
• Rock, sway, pace
• Slouch
• Lean

• Best Practices
• Chin up
• Feet under hips
• Shoulders relaxed
• Weight distributed
• Knees slightly bent

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Gestures to Avoid

• Fidgeting
• Fingers
• Pen or laser pointer
• Pockets
• Hair
• Hands on hips
• Crossing arms

• Gripping podium
• Clasping hands
• Fig leaf
• Behind back

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Eye Contact

• Worst practices
• Stare at screen
• Glance at floor or ceiling
• Read slides or notes

• Best practices
• Direct
• Sustained
• Distributed

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Handle Questions

• Anticipate questions
• LISTEN
• Repeat or rephrase
• Watch body language
• Dont bluff
• Wrap up well

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Sample Slides

• Features to consider
• Text
• Fonts, phrases, parallelism
• Graphics
• Readability, drawing attention
• Slide design
• Organization/ hierarchy
• Titles, Bullets, arrangement of information, font
  size

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What is BRCA I ?
 
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The myocardium of control (left) shows necrosis
(N) and fibrosis (F). The transplanted smooth
muscle cells (right) formed muscle-like tissue
(T) .

• Grafting smooth muscle cells into heart

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