Presentation skills development

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Presentation skills development

• This will be tailored to a chemistry theme, but
  much of this material applies to any talk you
  give, scientific or not.
• First rule of sortsdecide what you want your
  audience to actually learn.
• At the end of your talk what should the take home
  message really be?

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Take home lesson

• Once you have determined what that take home
  message isremember this, tell them THREE times
  what that is
• Tell them what your GOING to tell them
• Tell them
• Tell them what youve TOLD them
• Dont make the mistake of hiding the focus of
  your talkbuilding to some crescendo, that
  doesnt often work well (it does in some
  instances, but not at this stage)

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How to organize a typical talk

• This leads into HOW to organize your talk
• Right after your title slide the order of your
  talk should look something like this (call it an
  outline
• Introduction/Background material
• Your groups work/previous results
• Your approach (the tell em what youre gonna
  say)
• Results (tell em)
• Conclusions/Future directions (tell em what you
  told em
• Acknowledgments (can omit here, but youd better
  have this section in your talk)

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Whats on Tap
A sample outline

• Background information
• Group approach
• Coordination Chemistry
• Additional Directions

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Background material

• Give a general background (a WHY AM I DOING this
  research). This is a key element of any talkif
  you dont say WHY youre doing this, why should
  they listen?
• Include the work of other authors in the field,
  not just your own group efforts (if yours is the
  only group doing this type of research, the first
  point is ALL the more critical to address.

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Background Continued

• Make sure to cite the appropriate articles if you
  are discussing research from other groups
  (demonstrates youve done your homework too)
• Can be noted in almost fine print at the bottom
  of a page
• Make sure its the most up-to-date lead
  references
• Doesnt need to be included for group work
  (unless you want to include it)

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Your Approach

• Here, you need to identify where the current
  research is lacking (again, the focus on WHY
  youre doing what youre doing).
• Outline (briefly) what youre going to do, and
  how you plan to do that.
• Focus on the benefits of what youre doing, how
  it will advance your area of research (often,
  this is obvious, but not always)

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Your Results

• Once youve outlined your research direction, you
  can begin to discuss your results.
• Note that the amount of time you spend getting
  here is between 20-40 of your talk
• In a 20 minute talk (18 minutes to talk/2 minute
  QA), you need about 4-8 minutes worth of
  background material, 40-60 ...7-10 minutes worth
  of your results, with the balance of your time
  going for your title slide, outline, conclusions
  and acknowledgements2-4 minutes

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Conclusions/Future/Acknowledgements

• Always give credit where its due
• Financial sponsors
• Advisor
• Other students graduate/u-grads/postdocs
• Conclusionstell them what youve told them (last
  chance to get your message across
• Futureif you have other plans for your research
  (often the case), outline what you plan to do in
  the future

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Common mistakes made

• Most common mistake is making a slide too busy.
  Keep things simple, one reaction (2 at most).
  Bigger font, so everyone can see
• Heres an example that sort of outlines this,
  Ive crammed two slides into one.

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Straightforward reaction, alkane solvent
Establish electronic influence of ligand
Not everything went according to the plan
Already reported compound Though reported as an
oil Using alkane solvent yielded x-ray suitable
crystals Submitted to Acta Cryst
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Complete sentences

• Too often, using complete sentences is
  unnecessary and distracting. Tend to read
  slide (more on that in a minute)
• Bullet points should normally be less than one
  line longand can be sentence fragments.
• Fragments mean you need to complete the thought,
  so your audience listens to you

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Dont READ your talk

• Most severe errordont read your talk word for
  word right from the screen (sort of like what Im
  doing now). Your audience is literate, and can
  do that themselves.
• Often used as a crutch by first timers avoid
  this pitfall

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Graphics

• Using graphics helps eliminate the need for
  writing sentences, since graphics take up a lot
  of panel space
• 1 or 2 graphics per page is good rule of thumb
• Use ppt animation if you like, thats a style
  preference

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Multiple Substitution
-Additional thermolysis yields disubstituted
product
Peters, Baughman, Golynskiy Acta Cryst. E.
2002, 58, 70-71
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Voice patterns/inflections

• Dont drone onusing same tone. Monotone voice
  monotonous talk
• Vary speed, pitch, inflectionsjust like you
  often do during normal conversations. Acting as
  though youre uninterested (via monotone) tunes
  your audience out too.

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Avoid the Awkward Turtle

• Several awkward momentshow to avoid
• At your Introhow do you get into things?
• Title? Was it read? Can your audience read?
• Have an alternative title a second way to
  describe your talk.
• Thank the one who introduced you
• Dont worry about telling people your name. They
  can read.
• Just get started in professional manner

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Towards the endwrapping up

• Also one of the more awkward moments in a talk.
• Find a smooth way to wrap upleaves a really good
  overall impression.
• Two sections as you conclude your talk
• Acknowledgements
• The actual finish

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Acknowledgements

• IN this section, youll need a segue line.
• No journey in lab is solomany people worked on
  this beforeor many have helped me or supported
  me
• No research completed in solitudeI have many
  people that have helped along the way
• Then name those people, giving their
  contributions if necessary

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The grand finale

• Once youve acknowledged everyoneits time to
  finish your talk. Something like this works
  well.
• and I would also like to thank you for your
  attention and I would be happy to answer any
  questions you may have.
• The audience now knows to applaud

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Local KnowledgeKings Miz

• CHM 391--PresentationKings or Misericordia
• Kings
• Long room with a low hanging screen.
• Audience strains to see things at the bottom
• Make things top heavy leave the bottom 3rd blank
• Smaller Title font to accomodate
• Dark in the front, well-lit in the back
• Means dark backgrounds look terrible
• High contrast background/font colors

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Misericordia University

• Presentation room in their Library.
• Room is enormousyou can hear echos!
• Room stays uniformly well lit.
• Dark backgrounds ok
• Keep material relatively centered on page