Giving effective presentations
Doug Loy
MSE 460/560
Presentations tell a story
Beginning: tell audience what they should take home
Middle: convince them
End: Reinforce message
People like to hear a logical sequence of events leading to a satisfying conclusion
Story telling tools• Visual-graphics• Slide title is a thesis for slide• Reinforced with bullets of information• Finish with conclusion or
transition
Together these grab your audience’s attention and deliver your message more effectively
Applying the KISS Principle
• One concept or theme per slide• Try to keep it to 4 or 5 bullets max per slide• Simple, easy to understand graphics• Font greater than 18.
Simple, easy to understand slides that focus will leave your audience with your message more effectively
No outlines
• Absolutely useless for short talks (& most long ones)
• Waste of time at best, Insulting at worst• If you must, make it a map for complicated
presentations
Talks can be “outlined” on the first slideBut don’t waste your time or the audience with a special outline slide Borin
g!!!
For historical background, use a time line graphic
1860 20101900
1920 1940 1960 1980
1990
20001950
1880
1930 1970
Surfactant templated
Bridged polysilsesquioxane sol-gel
Eugene Rochow (GE)
F. S. Kipping
Solid state NMR
Don’t go overboard with details• Leave fine details for audience questions• Do not set yourself up for questions you can’t
answer• Keep presentation at higher level (not the
dreaded “graduate student seminar”)
The corollary is that you should be identifying potential questions and organizing your answers before you present
Keep your talk length under control
• Start with one slide per minute• Practice and determine how many you will
actually will need
If you have too many your audience will not remember your message only your lack of preparation
Conclusion slide is where you revisit key points
• Do not save important points until conclusion• Paraphrase those points after introducing
them earlier.• Can be the conclusion bullets from slides
You can often end your summarizing the talks take home points by speculating about the future.