Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 1Lecture 17

Scholarship Skills

Tim Sheard, PSU & Todd Leen, OHSU

Material © 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000 David Maier

additional Material © 2001, 2006Tim Sheard, Todd Leen

Presentations 2 - Delivery

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 2Lecture 17

Before the Talk

If you have not given the talk before, rehearse it out loud

• try it out for length, you'll probably be surprised (running through it silently doesn’t seem to give accurate estimates of time – aloud is really the only way)

• “regeneration” is faster than generation

But don’t overfit a practice talk to a small audience.

– Small audience will react differently; a more conversational tone is appropriate.

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 3Lecture 17

Before the Talk

What is the real consequence of messing up?

– stage fright, try to relax

Wear something with a place to clip mike.

Have crib notes for yourself points to emphasize

words to say in difficult parts where to slow down if you rushed in

practice

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 4Lecture 17

At last break before talk

Check AV equipment. Talk to session chair

Confirm time expectationsConfirm time for questionswill (s)he signal you when time is about

upProvide file for computer-based projection

Just before speaking—load your buffersThink about what points you will make on

the first few slides.

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 5Lecture 17

Time to Start

Take your time to get set up• mike on, cord untangled• projector cord out of way• pointer• have a clock in sight (better bring a watch)

• Know where the time prompter is seated• Water – if 1 hr talk

LightsIs screen washed out by outside light or

overhead light? AV person or session chair is responsible, but you may have to remind them.

Beware of total darkness –Is overhead projector tilted, or is there a wind

from ventilation — will slides slide off? Tape, chewing gum …

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 6Lecture 17

Starting

Try to set the tone of a conversation with the audience.

Try to make audience contact on title slide

Try to say something intriguing in first two minutes (and in last minute)

personal anecdote—how work or interest came about (takes time)prior negative workappropriate jokequestion to audienceinteresting statistic or relevant prop

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 7Lecture 17

DeliveryDon’t stand rooted to one spot. (Unless you’re

talking to 500 people in a completely darkened room.)

Talk to, and look as far as the back row.I've NEVER heard a talk where the speaker was too loud.

Regulate your rate of speaking – use crib notes to remind yourself to slow down

Avoid “upspeak”.where everything you say is a question

If you tend to fidget, hold a pen (but not in front of the slide if using a transparency).

If you point with a pen on a transparency, set it down, tremor is distracting

Make eye contact, find some responsive faces (imaginary if necessary).

Need to notice questions when they happen.

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 9Lecture 17

Using Notes

Can be okay, but make sure they are notes, rather than full text. (Don’t READ your talk.)

–3x5 cards–or if using transparency, the backing sheets are a great place for notes.

As backup if you lose the thread when switching slides, consider just one line on each backing sheet (or cards) with the first thing to say.

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 10Lecture 17

Timing

Have time targets for certain slides.Have slides to omit

If someone tells you “5 minutes left”, maybe the best thing to do is stop and think --

How can I recoverwhat should I omitwhats the best use of the time left

Don’t refer to lack of time—it makes you look unprepared.

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 11Lecture 17

Timing

If showing an external video, 35mm slides, demo—keep number of switch-overs low

Equipment failure?

You probably won't get the time backPerhaps take questions early

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 12Lecture 17

Questions

“I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said I didn’t know.”

Mark Twain

Be sure you understand the question.(LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE QUESTION – don’t do lazy

evaluation)Restate if necessary (better than answering a

different question.)Ask if you’ve answer the question adequately, but

don’t engage in a dialog (“perhaps we can discuss this further after the session”)

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 13Lecture 17

Questions

Questioner may be speaking to show off knowledge (still convincing their 3rd grade teacher they’re the smartest in the class).

Take a little time to think, if needed.

Question may be off the mark—does it reveal a misperception?

Did the audience hear the question? (May have to routinely repeat for audience – watch what’s done in session previous to yours)

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 14Lecture 17

QuestionsHave a blank slide handy for sketches.

If using electronic projection , have ancillary slides to answer obvious questions.

Can you give a truthful but partial answer?Or move to a topic you know more about?

I haven’t seen them used in manufacturing, but I do know of applications in control systems.

Try not to let questions during talk digress. (Usually ground rules prevent this.)

If it’s your thesis defense, and there ensues a conversation between two people, neither of whom is you…, rejoice!

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 15Lecture 17

QuestionsWhat about a vicious or hostile

question?Avoid getting defensive, but if you’re

quick on your feet, you can be snide.Attempt to restate questioner’s position.Pretend the question is directed at an

idea, not at youI have no answer to that.

If you pose questions to the audience, silence is okay.Don’t jump in instantly and answer

yourself.

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 16Lecture 17

Resources on the web

giving-a-talk

by Bruce Randall Donald, Professor, Dartmouth University

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~brd/Teaching/Giving-a-talk/giving-a-talk.html

Some Lecturing Heuristics

by Patrick H. Winston

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~brd/Teaching/Giving-a-talk/phw.html

Conference Presentations

by The Mammal Society

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mammal/how2talk.htm

Oral Presentation Advice

by Mark D. Hill, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~markhill/conference-talk.html

How to Give a Talk

by Mark Claypool, WPI

http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/talks/talk-on-talk/

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 17Lecture 17

The 10 Commandments

for giving a bad talkThis one was so good I thought I'd share it with

you.

How to Give a Bad Talk by David A. Patterson

Computer Science DivisionUniversity of California-Berkeley

Circa 1983

(with annotations gleaned from Patterson's talk by Mark D. Hill):

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~markhill/conference-talk.html#badtalk

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 18Lecture 17

I. Thou shalt not be neat. Why waste research time preparing slides? Ignore spelling, grammar and legibility. Who cares what 50 people think?

II. Thou shalt not waste space. Transparencies are expensive. If you can save five slides in each of four talks per year, you save $7.00/year!

III. Thou shalt not covet brevity. Do you want to continue the stereotype that engineers can't write? Always use complete sentences, never just key words. If possible, use whole paragraphs and read every word.

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 19Lecture 17

IV. Thou shalt cover thy naked slides You need the suspense! Overlays are too flashy.

V. Thou shalt not write large. Be humble -- use a small font. Important people sit in front. Who cares about the riff-raff?

VI. Thou shalt not use color. Flagrant use of color indicates uncareful research. It's also unfair to emphasize some words over others.

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 20Lecture 17

VII. Thou shalt not illustrate. Confucius says ``A picture = 10K words,'' but Dijkstra says ``Pictures are for weak minds.'' Who are you going to believe? Wisdom from the ages or the person who first counted goto's?

VIII. Thou shalt not make eye contact. You should avert eyes to show respect. Blocking screen can also add mystery.

IX. Thou shalt not skip slides in a long talk. You prepared the slides; people came for your whole talk; so just talk faster. Skip your summary and conclusions if necessary.

Scholarship Skills

Dave Maier & Todd Leen 21Lecture 17

X. Thou shalt not practice. Why waste research time practicing a talk? It could take several hours out of your two years of research. How can you appear spontaneous if you practice? If you do practice, argue with any suggestions you get and make sure your talk is longer than the time you have to present it.

Commandment X is most important. Even if you break the other nine, this one can save you.