COMP80122

Giving a good academic talk

Carole Goble
School of Computer Science
University of Manchester
 Outline
• General comments on presentations
• Preparation
– Structure
– Slides
• Presentation
– Nerves
– Speaking
– Questions
• Take home message
 Good Presentations
Are clear and interesting
• So, simply be clear,
interesting...

Remember
• No rule fits everybody
• we need a lot of practice

In the rest of this cours, we

practice Don’t be dull
3
 Presentation Preparation
• Logistics
– How much time do you have?
– What technical devices do you have/need?
• What is the take home message?
– New result/technique.
– Consequences of result/technique.
– Read my paper.
• Time
– Practice – and make changes.
– Have a friend/stranger listen & edit. Esp. an audience representative
– A good talk takes MUCH longer to write than you think: 1 minute:1
hour rule.
 Know your audience
• Who is your audience?
• What assumptions can
you make about
– Their background
knowledge
– Their listening situation
 A presentation
needs a strong framework
1. Title slide (title, authors, affiliation, etc.)
2. Outline or Take Home Message
3. Background
– Motivation, start using running example.
– Related work, continue using running example
4. Results
– Summary of results.
– Sketch of techniques used to obtain these results.
– Further use of the running example.
5. Summary/Outlook/Future
– The Take Home Message.
– Acknowledgements (colleagues and funders)
 Presentation Structure
• Try not to overwhelm with information.
• 3 point talk
– I came, I saw, I conquered
• 3 part structure
– Beginning, middle and end.
• 3 point repeat
– Tell them, and tell them again, and again.
• Narrative and signposting.

8
http://www.presentationmagazine.com/rule-of-three-836.htm
 Presentation Communication
• Think visual and high bandwidth info delivery.
– Analogies.
– Minimize words and maximize pictures.

• Two ways of saying the same thing.

• Plan for whiteboard blindness.

• Prepare good slides.

– Expect to throw away two thirds of your slides.
– Use slides to deal with complexity.
– Don’t clutter with complicated background images
 Slide preparation
• Nothing in less than 18 point

• Serif fonts fade out on projectors

• Don’t write out great blocks of text from your paper. A presentation is
not the same a document. And we will spend lots of time trying to read
it and not listen. Are you still listening?
• Use nested bullet points
– To make clear points quickly
– Make sure you spell check
– Not too many fonts
 Colour choices
• Avoid loud, garish colors…dark text on light
background or light on dark.
• Avoid text colors that fade into background, i.e.
blue and black
• Avoid color-blind combinations:
– Red and green
– Blue and yellow
 Pictures. Worth. 1000 Words.
• Simple
• Confusagrams
• Animations
• Time to go
explain
• Can’t? simplify
• Big enough

• Exceptions?
– Making a point
 Animation fundamentals
• Keep it simple.
• The animation must serve a purpose
• Don’t mix up styles.
• One transition style throughout
• No cute cartoons …
 Handling Technical stuff
• Take your time

• Think of another
way of presenting

• Simplify
examples for the
presentation
How does a clockwork clock work?

“It tells the time,

mechanically”
 Before the presentation.
Get Situated.
• Practice in the room.
• Practice with set up.
• Attend other
presentations.
• Get there early
• Dress code for your
discipline/audience.
– Smart for Medicine
– Scruffy for Maths
• Wear something that
can carry a
microphone.
 Speaking
• Be clear
• Speak clearly, good tempo.
• Speak loudly enough.
• Gestures
– Clarify messages
– Animate talk
– Beware cultural taboos
• Practice with friends.
• Acting.
 Giving the presentation
• Audience
– Speak to your audience, not
your laptop or shoes.
– Check faces of audience
whether they can follow
– Include your audience
• Communication
– Don’t read out slides or notes.
– Listen to yourself.
• Demeanour
– Don’t be cool (bored).
– Be enthused.
– Don’t apologize.
• Breathe.
• Mark start and end.
 On the fly adapting
• Previous speaker has
made your
introduction.
• Another speaker has
presented work close
to yours.
• Its good to
acknowledge
Being Nervous. What won’t help
• Pretending the audience isn’t there.
• Holding (and clicking!) a ball-pen.
• Playing with the change in your
pocket.
• Using manuscript or cards.
• Getting drunk.
• Learning everything by heart:
– you need to know what you want to say,
but don’t recite.

• Things you have seen?

 Being Nervous. What can help?
• It is OK to be nervous.
• Be well prepared.
• Pre-prepare a good mental picture
of yourself in the presentation.
• Don’t be late.
• Breath/drink water.
• Pretend the audience is really
friendly & interested.

• Things you have seen?

 Handling Questions
• Repeat the question.
• Rephrase the question.
• Admit if you don’t know the
answer.
• Ask for suggestions (review
interview).
• Beware getting trapped in a
dialogue (research
presentation).
• The intent of the question.
• Other thoughts?
• Content questions
• “Could you explain to me how this component of your approach works in
more detail?”
• Philosophical questions
– “Do you think there is added value to 3D displays over 2D ones in all
perceptual tasks?”
• Show-off questions
– “You mentioned rendering, will you be using Path Tracing, Bidirectional
Path Tracing, or Metropolis light transport, but also semi realistic
methods, like Whitted Style Ray Tracing, or hybrids?”
• Trolling questions
– “You’ve just presented work which I have already published in 1983 in
Nature and in Science, so I don’t see how your work is relevant and also
my method was better and more elegant than yours. Can you comment
on this?”

http://noeskasmit.com/scientific-presentation-tips-part-2-the-presentation/
 Take Home Message

What is your Take Home Message

to the particular audience?

Your COMP80122 presentation

• 15 minutes, about your research
• including background, motivation, hypothesis,
aims, etc.
• in small groups, with lots of feedback
 Useful Reading
• http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~markhill/conference-talk.html
• http://www.to-done.com/2005/07/how-to-give-a-great-presentation/
• http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~jrs/speaking.html
• http://njn.valgrind.org/good-talk.html
• http://research.microsoft.com/en-
us/um/people/simonpj/papers/giving-a-talk/giving-a-talk.htm
• http://noeskasmit.com/scientific-presentation-tips-part-one-
preparation/
• http://noeskasmit.com/scientific-presentation-tips-part-2-the-
presentation/