Presentation skills

Technical Writing and Presentation

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 Contents

I. Presentation skills

II. Non-verbal Communication

III. Voice Technique

IV. Visual Aid

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Introduction

Presentation skills

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 The aims of the lesson

Training skill of talking to an audience

Contents involved in public speaking

Understanding what influences the audience?

Ability to speak clearly, concisely and convincingly

Developing both personal confidence and skills to take into your future career

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 Why are we need to learn presentation skills?

We all need to do this in everyday basis

It is an integral part from most subjects at school, work, and life

Efficiency in performing a task

Increase motivation

Using simple explanation and allocating a small amount of time

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 Presentation skills

 People are exposed to vast volumes of information

 You need to maximize your message in a minimized

amount of time.
• Example – On a televised interview, the interviewee
has an uninterrupted amount of time of between 2 -3
minutes.
• Can you get your point across in such a short amount
of time?

 Remember, the audience has a choice, they don‟t

have to sit and listen to you !

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 What are presentation skills?

1. Preparing the presentation 2. Giving the presentation

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Presentation flowchart

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 Before preparation the talk

Audience
Think carefully about:
• Understanding what audience expect
• Who will be in the audience for your talk?
• What do you want the audience to learn?

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Length and style of your talk

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 When and Where

The Place, The Time

When and where will you What equipment and technology

deliver your presentation? will be available to you, and what
will you be expected to use?

Will it be in a setting you are Will the presentation be within a

familiar with, or somewhere new? formal or less formal setting?
 Preparing the presentation

1. Structuring your story

2. Preparing your data/information
3. Practicing and giving the presentation
4. Concluding your presentation
5. Questions and answers

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1. Preparing the presentation

The Objective/Purpose

Think about the purpose of your presentation.

Identify clear aims and outcomes

 What do you want to achieve?
 What do you want the audience to take away with them?

As you prepare your presentation, make sure you keep asking
yourself:
“How is saying this going to help to achieve the objective and outcomes?”

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 Structure

Basic rule

• Say what you are going to say

• 1-3 main points in the introduction
• Say it
• Give the talk
• Then say what you said
• Summarize main points in the conclusion
• Don’t try to build suspense and then unveil
a surprise ending

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 Structure a story

 Prepare your material so that it tells a story

logically
• Subject: title, authors, acknowledgements Introduction/overview
• Method/approach
• Results/information/analysis
• Conclusion/summary
• Reference, citation

 Use examples, anecdotes, and significant details

 Create continuity so that your slides flow smoothly

• Guide the audience through your story
• Your last point on one slide can anticipate the next slide

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 Preparing Your Methods, Data, and Results
Visuals
Not too many, not too few:
Prepare your audience for visuals
Visuals and layout:
Use well-designed layout
Give the audience time to absorb the information!
Not too much information on visuals:
Presentation only key words and phrases!
Do not use long sentences!
Audience and visuals:
Talk to the audience, not to the visuals!
Do not leave a visual longer on the screen than necessary!

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 Preparing Your Methods, Data, and Results

 Methods, Instrumentation
• For most talks, only present the minimum
• People can ask more if they are interested
• Use photos/images
 Results Data Presentation
• Tables are useful for a small amount of data
Kaiming He et al
• Include units
• Indicate data source if they are not your own

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 Preparing Your Data (continue)
 Figures
 „1 figure  1000 words‟
 Figures should be readable, understandable, uncluttered
 Keep figures simple, use color logically for clarification
• Blue = cold, red = warm, dark = little, bright = a lot
• Invisible color
• Meaning attached to colors (color blindness is more common than
you think
 Explain axes and variables
 Include reference on figure
 Use images to support your point
 Use a consistent theme

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 Figure (continue)

 Use Minimalist Axes and Grids

 Apply Legends Directly on Data

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 Preparing Your Data (continue)

 Replace Table by Graphs

 Big data tables are often used badly …

 Use figures instead of tables whenever
possible

1 Graph ≈ quite a few tables

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 Preparing your Slides

 Average not more than 1 slide per minute

 MS PowerPoint is now standard
 If you use something else, be careful to check it in advance
 No sounds! Some logical animations good
 Use 3-7 bullets per page
 Most important information Jumps Out
 Drip feed
 Never use sentences
 Slide appearance (font, colors) should be consistent
 Spell check

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 What Font to Use

 Select a clear font such as Arial; Helvetica; Lato

 Use bold rather than underline and avoid italics
 Beware of the special effects, e.g., spinning words or
sound effects
 Keep the presentation consistent: background and
style.
 Do not suddenly switch fonts halfway through
 Avoid clutter slides at all costs

AVOID USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS

BECAUSE IT‟S MUCH HARDER TO READ

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 What size to use

Type size should be 18 points or larger:

18 point

20 point

24 point

28 point

36 point
Use a 32-36 point for titles and a 24-28 point for body text

* References can be in 12-14 point font

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 Preparing your Slides
Color

Dark letters against a light background work

Dark letters against a light background are

best for smaller rooms, especially when the
lights are on for teaching

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Color

Light letters against a dark background

also work

Many experts feel that a dark blue or black background

works best for talks in a large room

http://www.fw.msu.edu/orgs/gso/documents/GSOWorkshopDocsSp2006/PresentationTi
psinPowerPoint.ppt#302,5,Powerpoint basics: 1. What font to use 25
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 Preparing the presentation

Print Your Slides

 Don‟t read the presentation
 Print out copies of your slides
(„handouts‟)
 You can annotate them and use them as
notes
 You can review them as you‟re waiting
 If everything crashes – the bulb blows, you
can still make your main points in a logical
way
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 Preparing the presentation

Presenting yourself

 Immerse yourself in what you are going to say

 Web of Science/Google it: use the latest news
 Your voice
What you say:
Plan the content of your presentation carefully!
How you say it:
How do I have to use my voice?
Speak loudly, clearly and slowly!

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 Preparing the presentation

What to Wear …
 Dress up – maybe wear a jacket?
 More formal attire makes you appear more
authoritative, and you show you care enough to
try to look nice
 From “Ask Dr. Marty” AnimalLabNews (Jan-Feb 2007)
 Dark clothes are more powerful than light clothes
 Shirts or blouses with collars are better than
collarless ones
 Clothes with pressed creases (!) are signs of
power

Technical Writing and Presentation 28

 Preparing the presentation

Rehearsing
 Practice – stand up and say the words out loud
 You discover what you don‟t understand
 You develop a natural flow
 You produce better phrasings and ways to describe things
• It is harder to explain things than you think, practicing helps you find
the words
 Stay within the time limit
 Try speaking too loudly to get a feeling where the upper limit is
 Don’t over rehearse or memorize the talk
 The first practice things will improve at least 10-fold - the second
will make things twice as good - the third may add a bit of polish,
but from there it can easily get worse

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 Giving the Presentation

Experienced speakers:
 Speak freely and look directly at audience
 Remember to roam around the room – don‟t lock onto 1 person!
Inexperienced speakers:
 Put outline and key points of your presentation on your slides
• You don‟t have to remember what to say
• Eyes are on the slide not on you
• Key points are there for people who weren‟t listening or who are visual learners
 Giving the Presentation

 Stand where the figures can be seen

 Look at people during presentation
 Be enthusiastic
 Don‟t worry about stopping to think
 Don‟t rush
 Figure out which slide is your half-way mark and use that to check your time
 Giving the Presentation

 Don‟t apologize or make comments about yourself

 “I hope you‟re not bored”
 “I was working on this „til 3 am”
 Don‟t overuse the pointer
 Don‟t try to be cute and don‟t force being funny
 Don‟t forget acknowledgements, always give proper credit
 Tip: Everyone in the audience has come to listen to your lecture with the secret hope of
hearing their work mentioned
 Concluding Your Content

 Announce the ending so that people are prepared

 For example, with a slide titled “Conclusions”
 Or by saying, “In my final slide …” or “My final point is …”
 Have only a few concluding statements
 Come back to the big picture and summarize the significance of your work in
that context
 Extend logically beyond your limited study – but don‟t overreach
 Open up new perspective
 Describe future work, raise questions, potential implications
 Finishing Your Presentation

 Think carefully about your final words and how to finish your
presentation strongly
 Don‟t just drift off … “I guess that‟s all I have to say …”
 You may want to actually memorize your ending lines, just as you do your starting points
 Ending your talk
 Say “Thank You” … pause for applause … then
 Say: “Any questions?”
 What Can Go Wrong?

 Uncertainty about material

 Interruptions
 Running out of slides
 Running out of time
 Uncertainty About the Material

 Try to structure your talk so that you are sure about the material you
present
 If you have to address something important that you are unsure of
 Acknowledge the gap in your understanding
• “I‟m working on it” or “I‟m looking into it”
 This is better than being pressed to admit something
 Also it may very well be an open question
 Another way to handle this is to raise it as a question yourself
 Minor Interruptions during Your Presentation

 Don‟t look irritated or rushed

 Answer – briefly – just enough to straighten it out
 Then carry on with your presentation without checking
back
 A question that you will answer later in your talk?
 Say “Good point; just wait two slides”
 Requires a long answer and is not critical
understanding?
 Say “Good point; I‟ll come back to it at the end of the talk.”
 Major Interruptions During Your Presentation

 If most in the audience are non-specialists

 Explain the issue to the audience
 Delay discussion until after the talk
 If most of the audience is knowledgeable
 Make your point as clearly as you can
 Discuss it out – don‟t try to diminish or avoid it
 Running Out of Slides

 Short talks are better than ones that are too long
 What to do:
 Don‟t make a personal comment
• “hum, I‟m running out of slides …”
 Stretch it a little -- see if you can think of an example, or story, to bolster your
points
 Conclude unhurriedly, summarizing your main points, but don‟t be repetitious
 Running Out of Time

 Avoid this – impolite to other speakers and the audience: if it

happens …
 Do not assume that you can carry on past your time
 Do not skip all of your slides looking for the right one to put on next
 Conclude – on time wherever you are in your talk -- by making
your main points
• In Powerpoint you can just type the number of your concluding
slide and press Enter to skip right to it
 Questions and Answers

 Questions after your talk can be difficult but they definitely help you in
writing up your research
 Identifies parts the audience did not understand
 Focuses and adds dimension to your analysis
 You can repeat the question
 This gives you time to think
 The rest of the audience may not have heard the question
 Also if you heard the question incorrectly, it presents an opportunity for
clarification
 Questions and Answers (continued)

 Keep your answers short and to the point – don‟t respond with another
lecture
 Don‟t say that a question is bad, or that you addressed it already
 Rephrase it into something that you want to talk about
 Never demean the question or questioner
 They may have friends in the audience, and you never need more enemies
 The research world is smaller than you think and you will continue to encounter
people throughout your career
 Difficult Questions
 Usually you have thought more about the material than anyone else -- this
puts you in a stronger position than you may think
 Anticipate typical questions and prepare for them
 Generalizability of your findings to other times? Other places? Other conditions?
 Methodological bias? Uncertainties? Exceptions? Priorities?
 Still concerned about questions?
 Make extra slides – perhaps on details of instrumentation or methodology
 Difficult Questions (continued)

 If you really don't know the answer

 Say "Interesting, I will look into that" or “That‟s a good point, let‟s discuss it
afterwards”
 Don't feel that you have to invent an answer on the fly -- you are only
human and you can't have thought of everything
 If the questioner disagrees with you and it looks like there will be an
argument then defuse the situation
 "We clearly don't agree on this point, let's go on to other questions and you
and I can talk about this later"
 Deal with difficulties

 Taking the high road and thinking long term

 If your host or the session chair handles something badly, don‟t refer to it in
public
 If other panelists take too long – don‟t complain, just make your main points
within the remaining time
 If something happens to make you angry, think of a way to turn it around
rather than having a public confrontation,
 Conclusions

 Structure your content in a way that is comfortable for you

 Use your own style to your advantage
 Think ahead about where you might encounter difficulties and
figure out ways to overcome them
 10 tips for Presentation

1. Practice, practice, practice

2. Speak, don‟t read
3. Be yourself
4. Aim for a positive state of mind and a confident attitude
5. Use verbal signposting
6. Use examples, illustrations and humor
7. Ask questions and invite participation
8. Be aware of eye contact and body language
9. Learn from the Pros
10. Be aware of technique

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Checklist

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 Home work

Three minutes slide about your field of research interest

Deadline: 23/09/2023

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Next to Nerve and Non-Verbal Communication

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