Effective Oral Presentations

Andrew J. Howard
Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences Department
Illinois Institute of Technology

Introduction to the Professions, 7 - 9 November 2006

Contents

• When you will need to speak
• Why it is worthwhile to speak well
• Understanding the purpose of your presentation
• How to organize a presentation
• Delivery
• Visual aids
• Externalia: clothes, manners
• Special considerations for the sciences.
• Conclusion

When you will need to speak

• to classrooms and seminars
  
• to peers at scientific meetings
  
• to potential funding sources
  
• to the public and the press
  
  

Why it is Worthwhile to Speak Well

• Increases our likelihood of selling our `product'
  
• builds confidence in you--in the audience and among us.
  
• provides better starting material for subsequent lectures
  
• provides practice in organizational techniques
  

• What do we want to accomplish?
  
  • enlightening others (up, down, . . .)
    
  • persuasion of peers
    
  • spur to action
    

• Know your audience!
  
  • at what level can you reach the listeners?
    
  • what background material must you cover?
    
  • how must you organize the information?
    

How to Organize a Presentation

Different organizational structures are appropriate to different kinds of presentations, but there is a surprising number for which the following structure works well:

• Title, Author, Affiliation
• Take-home message
• Table of Contents
• First Major Point
• Second Major Point
• . . .
• Recapitulation and Conclusions

Idea behind this structure:

• Tell 'em what you're going to say;
• Say it;
• Prove it and develop it;
• Tell 'em what you said and what it means.

Delivery

Again, this depends on the nature of the talk and who your audience is, but some general principles are:

• Speak conversationally but clearly;
• Don't talk down to your audience;
• Don't read your visual aids to your audience!
• Work from memory or from notes, but don't be a slave to your notes or overheads.
• Practice!
• Know your subject!
• Leave time for questions and comments.

Visual Aids: What Kinds?

Match your visuals to:

• The expectations and needs of your audience;
• The common practice of your discipline;
       The traditional techniques:
  • Mathematics: hand-drawn overheads, made on the spot !?
  • Physics: hand-drawn overheads, usually pre-made
  • Chemistry: mixture of overheads and 35mm slides
  • Biology: 35mm slides
  
  You don't have to adhere to this, and sometimes ignoring these trends will bring deserved attention to your material.
• The nature of your presentation.

Don't be afraid to use more unconventional forms of audio-visual aids (video tapes, computers, multimedia, interpretive dance . . .) but be prepared to justify the expense in time and money.

Visual Aids: How Should They Look?

• Visuals should enlighten and inform your audience about the arguments you're presenting. They shouldn't merely recapitulate what you're saying (flip side of "don't read your overheads!").
• Bullet formats for text material is fine.
• Abbreviations are OK if the audience understands them.
• Graphics (drawings, photographs, colors on overheads) are good, particularly if they support the material rather than merely showing off the presenter's software!
• Make them big!
  Rule of thumb:
  • Overheads should be readable from across the room.
  • 35mm slides should be readable with the naked eye from 50 cm away.
• Avoid using too many characters!
  • Generally: no more than ten lines of text per "page"
  • Replace tables with graphs where possible
  • Verboten phrase: I know you can't read this, but . . .

Externalia: Clothes, Manners

Remember that you're trying to sell something.

How does a salesperson motivate an audience to buy?

• Dress as you would expect your primary audience to dress.
• Smile.
• Act confident (consider the duck . . .)
• Be appropriately respectful.

Special Considerations for Scientific Presentations

• If you're presenting scientific results:
  Follow the structure of the scientific method itself
  • Hypothesis
  • Methods and Materials
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusions
  
  Ideally this won't be entirely visible to the audience: they should see the material somewhat more seamlessly.
• If you're making a pitch for a scientific project:
  Use the structure presented earlier in this presentation.
• In all cases:
  • Don't lie, exaggerate, or talk down!
  • Simplify, but not to the point of incoherence or untruth.
    Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.
    --Albert Einstein
  • Let the results direct the organization of your talk.

Conclusion

Effective presenters are made, not born.

Whether you're convinced that you're an inept speaker or that you're Dale Carnegie incarnate, you can improve.

You can convince an audience that you're right.

Some of the techniques for doing so involve spiritual regeneration and excellence in material;
but some of them are mechanical or formulaic, and you can do much better if you follow the rules until you're really experienced.

Good luck!