# Presentation: 338547

## The Discipline of Scientific Presentations- Workshop I For Post Docs / Graduate Students

**Delivered by:  ****Karen Ramorino Ed.D.**

## Introduction

- To identify and articulate the differences between strong and weak presentations
- To gain a better understanding of how to develop and prepare for a presentation
- To learn how to give better presentations

**There are three primary learning objectives for the course...**

**Notes:**
Michael Alley’s background:  technical editor at Sandia Laboratories.  Now a professor in technical communication at Virginia Tech.  Researched stories of Nobel prize winners and their speaking and lecture capabilities.   

My background.

Also, Joe Kwan and Spencer Klein provided conceptual assistance and edited presentation

## Introduction

**Participant Resource**
- Copy of a recent presentation you delivered
**Course Material**
- Presentation Planning Worksheet

**What’s needed for participation**
**in the course...**

**Notes:**
Michael Alley’s background:  technical editor at Sandia Laboratories.  Now a professor in technical communication at Virginia Tech.  Researched stories of Nobel prize winners and their speaking and lecture capabilities.   

My background.

## Introduction

- To convey an idea
- To transfer information
- Communicate your contribution

**What is the purpose of presentations?**

## Introduction

- Poorly organized presentations or poorly presented
- visuals at lectures or conferences **can result in**
**misunderstandings** about the significance of
- the research or findings.

- Speaker has an **opportunity to provide more in depth information** about an aspect of a topic or particular research and **to answer questions** on the spot for the audience.

**What is the purpose of presentations?**

**Notes:**
Advantages:  can have interaction with audience.  More options with presentations than with document:  more visuals, more audience interaction, and information is current to date. 

Disadvantage:  no chance for audience to look up background information;  success dependent on speaker’s ability to deliver speech

## Introduction

-     Effective scientific presentations **communicate highly complex hypotheses, methodologies and results...**
- to colleagues and managers, and often to legislators and other key public administrators **who do not have in-depth training in sciences... **
**but who are making critical decisions about appropriations for research projects and determining industry and national priorities.**

**Why are presentations important?**

**Notes:**
For post docs, future in future may have these implications. 

While most presentations are given orally, the message is often discussed by others after lecture is over, may even make important decisions from it. 

Job interviews.  Most universities hire people partly to teach.  I fyour presentation is poor, they will think you can’t teach.

## Introduction

**  **
**Sometimes there are consequences to poor presentations...**
**   **
- 1986 explosion of the **Challenger **
**spacecraft** shortly after takeoff.
- Morton Thiokol engineers made a weak and unsuccessful presentation to convince NASA to delay the launch.  The result was an explosion shortly after lift-off that killed all seven crew members on board.

**Notes:**
One of the missing links in the chain of events leading to the explosion shortly after the 1986 takeoff of the Challenger spacecraft was an ineffective oral presentation by Morton Thiokol engineers to NASA administrators on the preceding night.  The engineers knew that the lower the launch temperature, the more likely that explosive gases from the solid booster rockets would escape.  Engineers succeeded in convincing Morton Thiokol’s management to request a delay, but they met a lot of resistance when they tried to convince NASA.     

Investigations into the actions leading up to the explosion identified a teleconference between Morton Thiokol engineers and NASA administrators on the preceding night of takeoff failed in part because the engineers didn’t target the audience and didn’t understand the strong bias that NASA had against delaying the launch. It was easier to convince their own management because the bias against delay was not as strong. 

They also didn’t create visuals that were clear and succinct in their message and didn’t consider carefully the occasion of the presentation.

## Introduction

**   ****Sometimes there are consequences to poor presentations...**
**   **
**J. Robert Oppenheimer**
- In his first semester at UC Berkeley in 1929
- he encountered a big problem - by mid-semester
- all but one student had dropped out.  Students
- complained to the head of the  Department that they couldn’t understand what Oppenheimer was saying.

**Notes:**
“Father of the atomic bomb”, first director of Los Alamos National Lab, and head of the Manhatten Project – the development of the first nuclear weapon.

In his early lectures given at UCB in 1929 during his first semester of teaching, he was already well known for this work on quantum theory.  Halfway through the semester the number of students registered for his course had dropped to one.   One of his former student said of him:  “Since we couldn’t understand what he was saying we watched his cigarette.  We were always expecting him to write on the board with it and smoke the chalk, but I don’t think he ever did.”

Principal reason was that he did not target his speech to students.  His pace was too fast for them; he felt it was too slow.  He made seemingly obscure references to the classics of literature and philosophy, students didn’t understand it.  Students complained to the head of the department.   He didn’t match what he said to the audience, purpose and occasion.

## Introduction

-    **The ability to give good **
**presentations is a craft **
**that can be learned.**

## Introduction

- Scientific colloquium
- Conference
- Seminar
- Class lecture

**There are different types of presentations...**

**Notes:**
Times vary.  Conference presentation may be up to 20 minutes.  Seminar may be an hour.  Class lecture may be an hour or more and is part of a structured class for learning

## Introduction

- Informational
- Inspirational (e.g. association meetings or conferences, after dinner speech)
- Proposal for funding
- To management

**There are different types of presentations...**

**Notes:**
Information is usually short.  Inspirational – less technical detail and more emotional appeal.  

QUESTION:  What kind do you anticipate doing?

## Introduction

**    ****Different kinds of presentations require different approaches to preparation, production and delivery...**
- Different presentations are needed for **different audiences**
- For example:
- A **class lecture** might be an appropriate opportunity to pass around models and objects, but for a presentation at **a large scientific conference** it probably is not
- An **inspirational presentation** is effective for a **keynote address** or **a talk to new students**, but not for **a university colloquium**

## Introduction

-   **Four considerations for the presentation...**

**Speech**

**Structure**

**Visual Aids**

**Delivery**

**Notes:**
Speech – what is the message we want to say to the particular audience we are speaking to?

Structure – how will it be organized, how will it flow for the audience, the message you want to convey?

Visual aids – how will you make visual examples that support your key points?

Deliver – how will you help the audience to understand my key message?  They don’t have to agree with you, but at least they walk away informed and understand the key points you wanted to get across.

## SpeechConsiderations 

**A speech targeted to the audience is essential for a presentation’s success**

## SpeechConsiderations 

-   **Know your audience...**
**What are their roles in relation to your topic?**
- Scientific expert in sub-field	- Scientists from other fields
- Senior scientists			- Graduate students / post docs
- Decision-maker			- General interest in topic
- Collaborators
**What will the audience do with the information? **
**What are their expectations from presentation?**
**How much do they know about your area of science?**

## Speech Considerations

-   **Know your purpose...**
**Inform:  **with facts, findings, opinions
**Persuade:  **change understanding about your findings or area of expertise; recommend a particular course of action
**Occasional:  **entertainment on general topic, inspire others to your project
**Instructive: **explain a process or problem solution, or teach a skill, or define terms

**Notes:**
QUESTIONS:  When would you want to inform, persuade, occasional, and instruct.

Morton Thiokol – what should they have done to NASA?

Oppenheimer – what should he have done for his student lecture?

## Speech Considerations

-   **Convey your purpose to a **
**specific audience...**
**Continually ask two questions:**
- 	- Will the audience understand these points?
- 	- Will the audience be interested in these points?
**Depending on the audience, you may need to tailor:**
- 	- the examples
- 	- the depth
- 	- the background information

**Notes:**
Know want they want to hear, your work verses an overview of the field.

Ok to ask the inviter to ensure you are very clear and deliver what they want to hear.

Dan Hartley, a former VP of Sandia National Laboratories was adept at targeting audiences.  He was continually giving tours of Combustion Research Facility in Livermore to DOE officials, visiting scientists from abroad, to politicians, and other visitors.  

Author of the book saw him give three tours in one day, all different because audiences were different.

As he spoke, Hartley constantly watched the expressions of the audiences to gather whether what he was saying registered with them.

## Speech Considerations

-   **Convey your purpose to **
**multiple audiences...**
**Speak to the different audiences at different times in the presentation**
- Begin at a shallow depth that orients everyone in the room to the subject, show the importance of the subject
- Then take a deeper dive into scientific information
- Just make sure you start shallow again when beginning next sections
**What if the audience includes an expert in your area of research?**
- Mention the expert by name and possibly admit this person could explain the topic better, but that you will try.
- Gains respect of expert

## Speech Considerations

-   **Convey your purpose to **
**multiple audiences...**

- Intro

- First
- Major
- Topic

- Second
- Major
- Topic

- Ending

- Non-technical

- General
- Technical

- Specialist

- time

- depth

## Speech Considerations

-   **Summary of speech considerations...**
**Know your audience**
- What are their expectations?
- Who are they?
- Is it a target audience or multiple audience?
**Know your purpose**
- Identify your supporting arguments
- Identify supporting stories, analogies, and examples
**Know how you will deliver the presentation given the situation**

**Notes:**
Review Speech Considerations section in Planning Sheet.  Is there anything you would change in your recent presentation based on what we just learned?
Complete the Presentation Planning Worksheet to start planning for new presentation.

## Structure Considerations

-   **The success of a **
**presentation hinges **
**on its structure.  **

**Notes:**
QUESTION:  What is the structure of a presentation?

## Structure Considerations

**A presentation needs structure...**
- the organization of the **major points**
- the **transitions** between those points
- the **depth** that the presenter achieves
- and the **emphasis of details**

**Notes:**
Aspects of the structure of a presentation are similar to that of a document, but three aspects are not.

The necessity of the speaker to begin at a depth that orients the entire audience.  In a document, readers have the opportunity to look up the background.  IN a presentation they don’t.

Speaker needs to map the presentation for the audience.  Mapping is important in document, but is crucial for presentation because listeners don’t have a change to thumb through document to see what’s coming up.

Speaker needs to signal transitions between topics.  In a document, reader can see transitions through headings and subheadings, and end of chapters.  Speakers need to signal transitions with phrases.

QUESTION:  How did I signal the end of Speech Considerations and a switch to Structure Considerations?

## Structure Considerations

**A presentation needs structure...**
**The beginning** – show the big picture
- focus audience attention on the  particular topic
**introduction:  summary** of theory, experimental apparatus, data, analysis, conclusions
**The middle** – discuss the topic in a logical fashion
-  typically use subcategories or supporting points
**The end – **analyzes work from an overall perspective
- contains a summary of the most important details of the work,
- recommendations
- how work affects big picture presented in the beginning
**Conclusion:  1 slide on conclusion, 1 slide on future work**

## Structure Considerations

-   **A presentation needs a **
**message or theme...**
**Highlight the structure of the presentation** at the beginning so audience knows what to expect
- State theme and purpose of presentation
**Make sure themes are of interest to audience**
**Decide the single main point or message of presentation**
- The evidence suggests that...but...
- If we solve this, then we should be able to...
- Why theory x is better than y....
- It is urgent that we....

## Structure Considerations

-   **A presentation needs a **
**message or theme...**
**Identify a problem**, show how it might be tackled through your research
- Review the significance of what has been done in your research
**Define some distinguishing aspect of your work, **such as a system, device or process, and describe its fundamental purpose
- Helps to locate technical details within an appropriate frame of reference
**Make sure reference is understood by the audience**
**Highlight cause-effect relationships**
- Point to some effect or action that may affect the work or lives of the audience

**Notes:**
My Jamaica research.  Women talked about the significance of their work to the development of their country, and their findings to improving living conditions to the elderly, ghetto youth, youth in classrooms and for educators.

Sylvia called fort public and private institutions to collaborate to realize the new industry from medicinal plants.  She made the link to economic development.

## Structure Considerations

**Develop an outline of the structure:  **purpose, introduction, body of the presentation and conclusion** **
**Define your purpose**, attendees want to know why you are speaking
- Start with an **audience hook** (e.g. a question, an anecdote, a dilemma, a statistic)
- Plan where **graphics** should go early on
**Plan presentation transitions** from one theme to another to the conclusion
- Should flow like a story – audience should be able to follow the story you are telling

**A presentation needs to be planned...**

## Structure Considerations

**A presentation needs transitions...**
**Helps audience remain on track with main topics of presentation.  **
**One level of transitions:  **
- between the **beginning and the middle** – allows audience to assign details to each of the major divisions of the presentation
- between **the middle and the ending** - signals the ending is near, gets audience attention

## Structure Considerations

**A presentation needs transitions...**
**Second level of transitions:  **
- between each segment of the middle
- middle is typically divided into two, three or four divisions
- Speaker needs to make these middle transitions clear

## Structure Considerations

**A presentation needs transitions...**

- Beginning

- Middle

- End

- Point 1

- Point 2

- Point 3

**1st level transition**

**1****st**** level transition**

**2****nd**** level transitions**

## Structure Considerations

**A presentation needs transitions...**
**In speech:  **
- In the middle section, moving from first point to the second point,
- “...That concludes what I wanted to say about building stages of volcanoes.  Now I will consider the declining stages...”
- In moving from the middle section to the end,
- “...in summary” or “to conclude this presentation....”

## Structure Considerations

**A presentation needs transitions...**
**In presentation slides:****  **
- At the beginning, use a mapping slide that includes key images for each of the three topics in the middle.
- As make transition, show that image from the mapping slide
- Or show mapping slide again with new topic circled or highlighted
**In presentation delivery**:
- A pause allows for sorting, synthesis, and analysis to occur
- Holding up fingers, gesture one, two or three
- Raise or lower voice as make the transition
- Return to the podium, pause and glance at notes

**Notes:**
QUESTION:  what was my mapping slide for this course?  Slide 10

## Structure Considerations

**Watch out for too much content...**
**Select details that allow the audience to understand the work and leave out details that the audience does not need or will not understand**
- Give a hierarchy of details so the audience knows which details to hang onto and which to let go of in case they are overwhelmed
**Audiences remember lists of two, threes and fours**
- To have more is overwhelming for listeners
- If have long list, break into smaller lists with two or three overarching topics
**Create a hierarchy of details**
- At the beginning, show summary of essentials points
- Repetition indicates essential points
- Place key results/images onto slides, leave less important details to speech
- Pause before an important point, raise/lower the voice, step closer to audience

**Notes:**
This slide is a good example of too much content....

QUESTION:  how could I convey this information differently? 

## Structure Considerations

**Summary of Structure Considerations...**
**Organization of Presentation**
- Beginning, middle and end
- Identify single main point or message
**Planning the Content**
- Define some distinguishing aspect of your work
- Develop outline, transitions, graphic locations
**Ask yourself...are you drowning the audience with details?**

**Notes:**
Review Structure Considerations section in Planning Sheet.  Is there anything you would change in your recent presentation based on what we just learned?
Complete the Presentation Planning Worksheet to start planning for new presentation.

## Visual Aids

**Most scientific presentations use “powerpoint”**
**as the visual support**

**Notes:**
Most audiences expect this now days, even in class lectures.  

Powerpoints are often emailed around so need to stand alone.

Power point presentation can help emphasize key points to audience.

Emphasis should remain however on speaker, not powerpoint presentation.  

What will makes a memorable speech is the speaker not the powerpoint presentation. 

## Visual Aids

**There are advantages and pitfalls to watch out for with powerpoint ...**

-   +  Audiences expect it
-    +  Can effectively show images
-   + Can effectively emphasize key details
-   -  Can be boring if no images are included
-   -  Can be overwhelming if have too many details
-   -  **Speaker can become irrelevant if doesn’t add value**

**Notes:**
Most audiences expect this now days, even in class lectures.  

Powerpoints are often emailed around so need to stand alone.

Power point presentation can help emphasize key points to audience.

Emphasis should remain however on speaker, not powerpoint presentation.  

What will makes a memorable speech is the speaker not the powerpoint presentation. 

## Visual Aids

**Presentations can include other visual aids...**

| Models | + are effective for showing three dimensions
are ineffective unless large enough for  
  audience to see |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Demonstrations | + are effective for engaging the audience
+ are effective for incorporating sounds and smells
- can fail  |  |
| Writing Boards | + more common in classrooms and brainstorming
- force presenter to turn away from audience
 are slow for detailed drawings and difficult to 
   read if handwriting is poor |  |
| Handouts | + ensure that audience leaves with the 
   message
- Can be distracting if distributed too early  |  |

**Types                          Advantages (+) and Disadvantages (-)**

## Visual Aids

**Slides need to be readable and clear...**

**Typography**
-  Use a sans serif typeface such as Arial
-  Use boldface (Arial)
-  Use type sizes at least 18 points (14 points okay for references)
-  Avoid presenting text in all capital letters – too hard to read
-  Don’t use too many typefaces on one slide (or in one talk)

**Color**
-  Use contrasting background and type color
-  Test to make sure it prints out well
-  Be consistent in color use on all slides (e.g. data = blue, simulation = red)
-  Avoid red-green combinations (many people can’t distinguish and often
-   doesn’t project well)

## Visual Aids

**Slides need to be readable and clear...**

**Layout**
** **Use a sentence headline for every slide, but the title slide
-  Left justify the headline in the slide’s upper left corner
-  Keep lists to two, three, or four items; make listed items parallel; avoid
-   sub-lists
-  Be generous with the white space, keep number of words to a minimum
-  Don’t overuse “special effects”

**Style**
-  Try to include an image on every slide
-  Make the mapping slide memorable; for instance, couple each section of the
-    talk with an image that is repeated in that section
-  Limit the number of items on each slide
-  Limit the number of slides - dedicate at least one minute to each

## Visual Aids

**Slides should be memorable...**

**Showing the presentation’s organization**
-  **makes it easy** for audience to understand the message
-  title slide contains key information:
- - title of presentation
-  speaker’s name and affiliation
-  key image from the work
-  and icon for the affiliation

**Slides indicating transitions in presentation**
-  **m****apping slide** – need one slide outlining structure of presentation
-  **first slide for each different part in the middle section** - establish transitions
-  **concluding slide** – summary of key points, place for repetition

## Visual Aids

**Slides should be memorable...**

**Show key plots / equations / numbers of presentation**
-  title slide and ending slide are more memorable when a **key plot** is
-    included
-  the brain processes visual information more quickly than text
-  audiences remember key plot or image longer

**Show key results**
-  Place the most **important results** of the presentation on your slides –
-   increased recall from audience
-  Don’t use too many numerical results

## Weak Example

***Temperature ***
***Concern on SRM Joints***
***27 Jan 1986***

- Does not convey
- main message...
- delay the launch
- of the Challenger
- Does not identify
- sending entity
- and therefore
- the authority
- of the message

**Notes:**
This is first of thirteen slides from Morton Thiokol that were faxed to NASA in their failed attempt to postpone the launch of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986. 
QUESTIONS:  What’s wrong with this slide?

 It did not reflect the ultimate purpose of the presetation:  to delay the shuttle launch.  

Slide also did not include Morton Thiokol’s logo, or any reference to who sent it, so it didn’t carry the authority that it should have.  

## Weak Example

-  Copper base
-  Elastomeric thermal pad
-  Kovar optical bench
-  LD Submount
-  AWG
-  Kovar lid

**Weak Example**

**New prototype for high powered laser module...**

**Uninteresting way to**
**present information**

**Notes:**
This is an uninteresting way to present this information.  These are the parts for a new prototype for a high powered laser module.  

## Better Example

**CAD drawing**
**can provide more**
**interesting visual**
**Part labels**
**need to be**
**larger **

**Notes:**
A graphic explains it much better.  These are the parts for a new prototype for a high powered laser module.  

What’s better about it?

What could be improved.

## Visual Aids

**Graphic plots are useful in getting complex scientific points across, but they can confuse people...**
-  label the axes on graphs
-  label the curves
-  labels must be big enough to be easily legible
-  define your symbols

## Visual Aids

- But make sure they’re understandable
- Label all axes in large type
- Label all curves in large type
- No more than ~3  curves/plot
- Use colors
- Green does not display well on many projectors
- Don’t get garish

**Graphs are the dominant form of conveying numerical information...**

## Visual Aids

- Best way to show data
- 1 or 2 numbers can be used to make a point
- However, they have pitfalls

**Numbers and equations are useful for conveying quantitative relationships...**

## Visual Aids

-    **Equations are useful for conveying relationships *****if***** the audience can understand them...**
- Keep them simple
- - Maximum of 1 line
- Clearly define all of the variables
- For complex equations, where possible, consider using a graph instead

## Weak Example

**Weak Example**

-     **Don’t present large tables of numbers...**
- Audiences can’t assimilate them
- Use graphs instead

## Weak Example

**We generalized GLV Opacity Series  (****NPB594(01)****)**** to **
** ****M****Q ****and m****g****  > 0** (**DG, Nucl.Phys.A 733, 265 (04)****)**

**Hard, Gunion-Bertsch, and Cascade ampl. in GLV generalized to finite M**

**Weak Example**

**Notes:**
Too many equations for one page...too much to digest in one slide

## Weak Example

-     **Points and labels are small**
**    ****What looks good in a publication may not look on screen**
**    ****This probably**
**    ****can be fixed**

**Notes:**
If you copy a plot from a paper, the labels will usually be too small. 

If needed, relabel in powerpoint, as with the axis here

## Better Example

- Curves
- mostly labeled
- Mostly
- readable
- Axis label a
- bit hard to
- read

**Notes:**
Comparing collisions of two nuclei (composed of many nucleons) with individual nucleon-nucleon collisions
R_CP = 1 would mean that nucleus-nucleus collisions act like collisions of independent nucleons

Axes and curves mostly labeled.  Mostly readable;  axis label hard to read.

Good use of color

## Better Example

- Clearly conveys
- information
- Visually
- appealing
- Overly
- complex graphics
- may detract from
- the physics message

**Notes:**
Nuclear phase diagram

## Better Example

**Baryon Density (********/********0****) [relative to cold nuclei] r****0**** ****= 1/6 baryon/ fm**** 3**

- Easy to read
- diagram
- Single line equation

**Notes:**
Nuclear matter phase diagram

## Visual Aids

**Summary of visual aids...**

** ****Create a powerpoint presentation** to support
-   the speech and the message
-  Select types of visual aids
-  Select visual aspects of slides
-  **Create slides that the audience remembers**
** ****Simplify the complexity of graph plots, numbers and    **
**  ****diagrams**

**Notes:**
Types of visual aids:  projected slides, posters, films, demonstrations, models, handouts, passed object, writing boards 

Visual aspects of slides:  color, size and type of type, headlines, layout and style

Slides that audience remembers:  show key images that audience will remember;  show key results on important results

NOTE:  article in packet on “A Case for Sentence Headlines and Visual Evidence.”  Gives good examples of old paradigm of thinking on powerpoint slides verses more visual presentation.
Review Visual Aids section in Planning Sheet.  Is there anything you would change in your recent presentation based on what we just learned?
Complete the Presentation Planning Worksheet to start planning for new presentation.

## Delivery

**Delivery is your interaction with the audience and with the room.  **
**Voice, gestures, eye contact, stance, movement – all contribute to the delivery.**

## Delivery

**What part should presentation style play **
**in different presentations... **
**If you are not **
**enthusiastic about your subject, how can **
**you expect anyone else to be.**
**Content without some style may go unnoticed.**
** ****Style with no content has no meaning.**

**Notes:**
QUESTION:  can you be objective and enthusiastic?  What are some techniques you could do to show enthusiasm within being objective?

## Delivery

**Building credibility is a technique ...**
**Be objective**, open-minded and fair, and **present evidence and arguments in an unbiased manner**
- Use **carefully documented evidence**, **cite prestigious and the most relevant sources, and cite accurately**
**Present both sides** of the problem or issue, avoid false reasoning
**Acknowledge** the status and knowledge of **audience**
- Have a highly credible person introduce you

**Notes:**
Important if audience doesn’t know you

## Delivery

**Rehearse **
- You learn the pitfalls
- Particularly if doing demonstrations or using equipment
- Speak to the slides not read them
**Arrive early**
- If something doesn’t work, you have time to fix it
- Audiences get irritated if presenter is late
- Test computer with projector before the talk
**Always prepare for the worst**
- Imagine the nightmare scenario and what you would do
- What if the projector bulb burns out, can you give presentation from notes, can audience follow with handouts
- If a failure occurs, turn it into an advantage

**Preparation is critical...**

## Delivery

**Preparation is critical...**
**Continual self critique and revise**
- Ask for feedback
- Have a colleague critique your presentation
**Don’t become too orchestrated**
- Don’t determine every individual part of delivery – posture, stance, hand gestures, body movements, facial expressions, eye contact, loudness of voice
- Will be too stiff and self-conscious; can happen if give the same talk too many times
**Study the delivery of others**
- Observe classroom techniques verses conference lectures
- Imagine what a good delivery of your presentation would look like

## Delivery

**Preparation is critical...**
**Take the time to prepare**
- Time is needed to understand the content well enough to organize it in a fashion that is readily comprehended by the audience
- Time is needed to gather the important images
- Time is needed to rehearse
**Preparing time to speak**
- Most people need some time alone before they speak to gather thoughts
- Practice helps transition from one point to the next better

**Notes:**
Richard Feynman, after his work at Los Alamos and when he began teaching at Cornell, he was depressed because of the time it took to prepare for his two lectures a week.  He didn’t have much time for his research.  He worked from 8 to 16 hours per day each day of the week for these two weekly lectures thinking through his own outline and planning how each lecture fit with the other parts. 

Marie Curie required the entire afternoon to prepare herself for her 5:00pm lecture to her graduate students. 

## Delivery

**Take charge where you can...**
**You control the room set-up **
- Lights
- Arrangement of your speaking space
- Sometimes, the arrangement of the seating for the audience
**Take charge of what you can control – what to look for**
- Are you set up on the wrong side of the overhead projector?
- Are you boxed in by furniture, so you can’t move around freely?
- Does the room lighting make your slides look washed out?
- Are distracting noises coming in from an open door?
- If you don’t have control, make sure you come early enough so you are aware of the constraints

## Delivery

**Take charge of yourself...**
**Attire **
- First impressions are made within initial few minutes
- Give impression that you take your work and findings seriously
**Voice**
- Can’t do much about pitch or accent, but can with inflection and loudness
- If no change in inflection or loudness, makes it hard to listen to attentively
- Change the speed and loudness helps to emphasize key points
**Eye Contact**
-  	 -  Make direct eye contact with individuals for up to five seconds
-        -  Make direct eye contact with individuals throughout the room

**Notes:**
Attire.   Einstein was known for showing up to his first teaching assignment “in shabby attire, wearing pants that were too short.”

James Watson, 1962 nobel prize winner for RNA involvement in synthesis of proteins, once wore clothes purchased at an army surplus to give a presentation at a conference in France, his clothes had been stolen on a train in Italy.
Voice:  Feynman and Linus Pauling were known for dramatically changing loudness and speed throughout presentation.

## Delivery

**Take charge of yourself...**
**Movements **
- Best presenters move around with purpose; get out from podium...
- Find a stance that conveys confidence
- Hand relaxed at your side or in hip range
- If at podium, placing hands lightly on podium is ok, clinching it isn’t
- Hand in the pocket is ok, as long as don’t move it around
**Avoid**
- Both hands in pockets
- Hands folded across the chest
- Fig-leaf position – hands locked in front
- Reverse fig-leave – hands locked in back
- Leaning against the podium
- Over-use of pointer

## Delivery

**Take charge of yourself...**
**Nervousness**** **
- Is sometimes a sign of not enough preparation
- Often subsides when presentation begins and focus is on content
- Often occurs when important people are in the audience
**Don’t overreact**
- You can control how you react to distractions
- If people walk out during presentation
- If bulb burns out in projector

## Delivery

**Pay attention to time...**
**If allowed to speak without interruption of questions**
- Preparation helps meet the deadline
- If too long, redefine scope, avoid talking faster
- For example, don’t show 20 slides in a 15 minute speech
- Complex slides require more time
- Glance at the clock periodically to gauge time
**When audience can interrupt with questions**
- Ok to say you will address that point later in the presentation
- If persist too long, ok to exercise your authority to keep things moving
- Read the situation, if person interrupting is the expert in the field, you may let him/her continue on

**Notes:**
In 1841, William Henry Harrison gave a two hour presidential inaugural address in a freezing rainstorm.  Shortly after the address, he caught a cold and developed pneumonia.  Two moths later he died.

## Delivery

**Pay attention to questions...**
**If you don’t understand the question, ask for clarification**
- If don’t know the answer, don’t bluff it, your credibility will diminish
**If a questioner challenges you**
- Answer confidently
**Ok to counter the attack** with points mentioned in the presentation, or suggest a further discussion at a later date
- Counter with credible sources and data, will show you’ve done your homework
**If you realize you are wrong, admit it**

**Notes:**
If it is out of the scope of presentation, say so.

If its something you should know but have forgotten at the moment, offer to get back to the questioner after the presentation.

Lowering your voice can be effective as long as stay confident and avoid um’s and uh’s

Einstein was once fielding a question from a young, unknown Russaon whose broken German conveyed something along the lines that Eistein had said was not so stupid.  The Russian turned out to be Lev Landau, who become one of the Soviet Union’s greatest theoretical physicists.  In the question, Landau pointed out an error in one of Einstein’s equations.  

Einstein studied the blackboard and turned back to the audience and quietly said that the point the young man had raised was correct and that what had been presented today beyond a certain step was incorrect. 

Such character earns admiration and is a good sign of one’s security.

## Delivery

**Summary of delivery...**
**Tips to improve credibility**
- Present evidence and arguments in unbiased manner
- Acknowledge status and knowledge of audience
**Tips to improve delivery**
**Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse**, arrive early, plan for the worst
- Self critique and revise
- Study the delivery of others
**Tips to prepare for delivery **
- Take time to prepare, control room set-up
- Pay attention to yourself and the audience

**Notes:**
Review Delivery section in Planning Sheet.  Is there anything you would change in your recent presentation based on what we just learned?
Complete the Presentation Planning Worksheet to start planning for new presentation.

## ConcludingRemarks

-   **Summary of audience considerations...**

**Speech: **know your
- audience and purpose

**Structure: **organize
- and plan the content

**Visual Aids:  **create visual
- aids and slides that the
- audience remembers

**Delivery:  **rehearse,
- pay attention to audience,
- room and yourself

## ConcludingRemarks

**Aim high. **
** **
**Strive to craft a presentation that is truly worthy of your audience’s time and one they will not forget.**

**Notes:**
Aim high.  Don’t be content to present in the staid fashion that many presenters resign themselves.  If you discovered some things you would do differently in your recent presentation now that you have reflected on it, then make sure you make those changed in your next presentation.

Do you know professors who delivery exciting and interesting lectures....do you know some who don’t deliver lectures in organized fashion?   Have you ever seen a compelling speaker or one who is so dull you don’t care what their message is....Which one do you want to be like?   Make your presentation truly worthy of your audience’s time and one they will not forget.

## Example

**Director Steve Chu**
- Speech on the** Energy Crisis**
**At Lab’s 2005 Summer Lecture Series**

**Notes:**
Sort of like a home movie.  But we’ll watch about 7 minutes of the speech.

Things to look for:

Keep in mind his audience is mixed – scientists and non-scientific staff

Analogy of horses that he uses in beginning to describe his message – makes a more descriptive graphic point to his message, one that everyone is the audience can grasp 

Very specific on his key points to cover in his talk – what’s the problem, energy solution, and how the Lab could contribute to finding solutions

Describes history in comparison to new data that indicates we’re entering into an atmospheric situation that we’ve never experienced before

Note his graphs – unfortunately don’t view them for a long time, but get a sense of it

Clear graphs, one of two defining sentences
One has a catchy title – Can we predict the past?

Used a Yogi Beara quote to make his point

Room for improvement:
Was a bit too casual at beginning, looked like he was eating something.  As he got going he was casual but more of a presentation style that says he wants to make a point 

## Sources

**Primary Source**
- Alley, Michael
-          2003.  *The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid in Technical Communication*.  New York: Springer
-          Science+Business Media Inc.
**Secondary Sources**
- Alley, Michael and Kathryn A. Neeley
- 	 2005. “Rethinking the Design of Presentation Slides: A Case for Sentence Headlines and Visual Evidence” in *Technical Communication*.
- 	Volume 52, Number 4.  November 2005.  417-426.
- Zwickel, Steven B. and William Sanborn Pfeiffer
-  2006.  *Pocket Guide to Technical Presentations and Professional *
* **Speaking.*  Columbus, Ohio: Pearson Prentice Hall.

**Sources used for course development...**

**Notes:**
With a lot of input from Joe Kwan, Spencer Klein and Jim Siegrist 

## Source

**To download this presentation go to:**
- _[www.lbl.gov/BLI](http://www.lbl.gov/BLI)_
**BLI Resources**
**BLI Courses on powerpoint  **

**Notes:**
Sort of like a home movie.  But we’ll watch about 7 minutes of the speech.

Things to look for:

Keep in mind his audience is mixed – scientists and non-scientific staff

Analogy of horses that he uses in beginning to describe his message – makes a more descriptive graphic point to his message, one that everyone is the audience can grasp 

Very specific on his key points to cover in his talk – what’s the problem, energy solution, and how the Lab could contribute to finding solutions

Describes history in comparison to new data that indicates we’re entering into an atmospheric situation that we’ve never experienced before

Note his graphs – unfortunately don’t view them for a long time, but get a sense of it

Clear graphs, one of two defining sentences
One has a catchy title – Can we predict the past?

Used a Yogi Beara quote to make his point

Room for improvement:
Was a bit too casual at beginning, looked like he was eating something.  As he got going he was casual but more of a presentation style that says he wants to make a point