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Improving Academic Presentation Style
Matt | Oct 1 2007
I give a lot of talks, and I've been trying to improve my presentation style, but I'm not sure how to do it in the context of my field. I am in a fairly quantitative science. I have to give presentations where I present results; I am 'selling' the result to the audience, but not in the same way, I think, that one would sell a product, or an idea, or a concept. I'm attempting to convince them that it's right, and that I was diligent in pursuing the result. One common technique is to simply overwhelm the audience with lots of facts and charts and bullet points. Obviously this is a bad idea -- but on the other hand, if you don't give enough 'serious-looking' plots, you run the risk of being dismissed by members of the audience. So how do I strike a balance? How do I keep my presentations in the manner of a good narrative, with appropriate display methods, when constrained by an audience that has a certain expectation of a larger number of quantitative figures and numbers? 31 Comments
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 Re: Improving Academic Presentation StyleSubmitted by mwr on October 3, 2007 - 8:17am.
I had to work up some presentation tips for research undergraduates last summer. So sticking with the same basic themes as everyone else above: Always address three basic questions:
PGP –- on every topic, move from the particular to the general back to the particular. Take care with the Q&A section: people will judge you by how you answer their questions as much as how you present to the group. Practice with a video camera. Playing the footage back normally, without sound, with only sound, at half speed, and at double speed will highlight various nervous habits you have. Sites I pulled the above from: » POSTED IN:
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