Presenting Professional Talks J. Ellen Marsden Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural...

Presenting Professional Talks

J. Ellen Marsden

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural ResourcesUniversity of Vermont

http://www.uvm.edu/rsenr/nr385proskills/

Preparing for the talk

Know your audience- public, or scientists?- what type of introductory material is needed?

- context, context, context!!


Know your audienceKnow your venue (time limit, facilities)

- leave time for questions, discussion- how big is the room (size of screen)?- what ‘tools’ will you need (computer, pointer?)- is there a clock available?


Know your audienceKnow your venueKnow your message

- keep it simple- have the flow and ‘story’ by heart


Know your audienceKnow your venueKnow your message Know yourself

- dress appropriately, look confident (balance professional dress with comfort)

General tips for giving talks

• Use slides as your ‘cue-cards’ to remember what to say next, BUT– anticipate your slides

– do not read or describe slides

– slides illustrate points, they are not THE point

General tips for giving talks

• Avoid jargon, acronyms• Use useful names

– not ‘Orconectes virilis’ or ‘green crayfish’ if ‘first invader’ is relevant point

The point of slides:

To emphasize, not provide, the message

To convey visually what words cannot do effectively

- get away from slides to refocus attention on you

(don’t hide behind your slides)

- try giving the talk with no slides

The seven deadly sins of giving talks

• Reading from a script/’reciting’ your talk


• Reading from a script/’reciting’ your talk• Talking to the screen, not the audience


• Reading from a script/’reciting’ your talk• Talking to the screen, not the audience• Typographical erors in your Slides


• Reading from a script/’reciting’ your talk• Talking to the screen, not the audience• Typographical erors in your Slides• Being ‘surprised’ by a slide when it appears (not

knowing all your slides by heart)



knowing all your slides by heart)• Too much text or unreadable text on a slide

TheThe

UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY

ofof VERMONTVERMONT

The Rubenstein Schoolof Environment and Natural Resources

“c

Ecology andEnvironmental Science

EcosystemSustainabilityand Planning

HumanDimensions

Spatial Analysisand Modeling

Water and Lake Studies

Forest Ecosystems Health

Landscape Ecology and Biodiversity

Ecological Economics and Design

Sustainable Forestry

Ecological Planning

Watershed Science and Planning

Environmental Policy

Tourism and Recreation

Environmental Thought

Landscape Mapping

Land Use Change Analysis

Dynamic Simulation Modeling



knowing all your slides by heart)• Too much text or unreadable text on a slide• Apologizing



knowing all your slides by heart)• Too much text or unreadable text on a slide• Apologizing• Too much content for the allotted time

Slide content

Any time you use a text slide with complete sentences the audience attention is distracted from speaker as people read all of the words while the speaker is talking and trying to convey something useful

Slide content

• attention focuses first on a new visual

Slide content


• complex visuals distract from verbal message

Slide content



• guide audience attention by highlighting the focal point(s)

Slide content



• guide audience attention by highlighting the focal point(s)

• … or by reducing emphasis on previous points

Content

• attention focused on new visuals• avoid complex visuals• guide audience attention• highlight focal point(s)

….fewer words is better!!

General organization

Title slide

J. Ellen MarsdenUniversity of Vermont

Additional authorsother institutions

Funded by(in cooperation with):

FONTS Minimum font sizes

Title Font (36 pt) Subtitle font (28 pt) Text font (24 pt)

Sans Serif fonts are recommendedExamples: Tahoma Arial

Serif fonts are not recommendedExamples: Palatino Times New Roman

Format

Introduction

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusions

Organization of my talk:

(yawn!)

Introduction

Include enough information so the audience understands why this study is important:

context!

Objectives

short list of bulleted objectives, each with an action verb:

• identify lake trout spawning locations

• quantify egg density

• determine fate of post-emergent fry

Methods

Statolith preparation:• sagittal otoliths dissected in a Class-100 clean room

• sonicated for 5 min in Milli-Q ultrapure water in ULTRAsonik cleaner

• transferred to clean Petri dish, rinsed three times in Milli-Q water

• mounted with double-sided tape on a petrographic microscope slide

• dried under laminar-flow hood for 24-48 h

• analyzed using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (LA-ICPMS)

• laser power set to 1.10 Kvolts

Methods

Statolith microchemistry analyzed with laser ablation ICPMS

Methods

Statolith microchemistry: laser ablation ICPMS

Results

• Know the ‘rules’ for graphing data• Keep the graphs “clean”

focus on datareduce stray ‘ink’avoid fancy stuff (e.g., 3-D graphs)

• Describe the axes before discussing data

Mortality

Mortality

1

10

100

1,000

10,000

0 5 10 15 20

Nu

mb

er

Age (years)

Comparison

Lethal Removal Preparation Cost Data quality

Scales No Easy Easy Cheap Low

Otoliths Yes Difficult Difficult $$$ High

Spines Could be Easy Difficult $$$ High

Fin rays No Easy Difficult $$$ Moderate

Opercles Yes Easy Easy Cheap ???

Vertebrae Yes Difficult Difficult $$$ Moderate

Comparison

Lethal Removal Preparation Cost Data quality

Scales No Easy Easy Cheap Low

Otoliths Yes Difficult Difficult $$$ High

Spines No Easy Difficult $$$ High

Fin rays No Easy Difficult $$$ Moderate

Opercles Yes Easy Easy Cheap ???

Vertebrae Yes Difficult Difficult $$$ Moderate

Summary

summarize major points, conclusions, or findings; bullets will generally echo your objectives:

• lake trout spawn lake-wide

• egg density is sufficient for population stability

• post-emergent fry sampling unsuccessful

Conclusions

a summing-up of your study (optional; often combined with summary):

• Lake trout spawning is sufficient for restoration,

BUT

• Fate of post-emergent fry is unknown

Acknowledgements

Funding Cooperators

- Great Lakes Fishery Trust - USFWS

- VTDFW

Assistants– Joel Brown - Anne Warwick– Mary O’Connor - John Smith– Pete Swashbuckler - Susan Spey– Fred Black - many others

Acknowledgements

Funding Cooperators

…and the field crews!

Questions?

Format tips and ideas

• Slide space is under-used (graph should be bigger)• Graph space is under-used (legend should be moved)• Remove outline• Remove gridlines (distracting)• Y-axis numbers are too long – remove decimals, add commas• Add axis label

-

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921

Ha

rve

st x

1,0

00

lb

s cisco

lake trout

lake herring

Commercial harvest of salmonids in Lake Superior

Format

• Use visuals to illustrate points (a picture DOES say a thousand words)– but be sure to include credits on photos

Credit: Wes Tibbets, Oneonta College

Format

• Many options exist for transitions between slides

Format


• some can be cute…

Format



• too much can be distracting

Format



• too much can be distracting

• … or they can be really annoying!

use slide space well

Format

Large, bold text can be too overwhelming (and margins need to be used efficiently)

Framing images can be effective

Backgrounds

• White or yellow on blue provides high contrast

Backgrounds

• White or yellow on blue provides high contrast

• use different colors to highlight different levels of slide (title, bullets)

Backgrounds

A change of pace can be refreshing…

Backgrounds

• White on black is useful in well-lit room …but can be hard on the eyes in a dark room

Backgrounds

• Fade-out backgrounds are attractive…

• but the text can get hard to see…

• …. as you go down the slide

Backgrounds

• Be careful of low-contrast colors

• … and jarring contrasts

Backgrounds

• Remember that ~ 20% of males have some degree of color blindness!

Backgrounds

readability is reduced, audience is distracted, information transfer is damaged

Attractive but unreadablewith background

Better use ofbackground

Even better use ofbackground

Interesting background effect – in a dark room, slide content appears alone, without apparent ‘framing’ of slide

In Excel, set back-ground and border of graph to ‘none’

Take the data a piece at a time….

-

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921

Har

vest

x 1

,000

lbs cisco

lake trout

lake herring

-

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921

Har

vest

x 1

,000

lbs cisco

lake trout

lake herring

-

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921

Ha

rve

st x

1,0

00

lb

s cisco

lake trout

lake herring

Year

Habitat Survival Migration Return Breeding

1990 Juvenile 30,089 4,147 0.14 1.28

Sub-adult 374 150 0.40 0.02

Adult 42,279 871 0.02 1.84

1999 Juvenile 54,075

1,311 0.024 5.02

Sub-adult 24,503

1,427 0.058 1.93

Adult 78,578 2,738 0.035 3.35


3,500 0.047 6.95

Sub-adult 41,897

1,499 0.036 3.30

Adult 116,762 4,999 0.043 4.98

The problem of too much data….

Year


1990 Juvenile 30,089 4,147 0.14 1.28

Sub-adult 374 150 0.40 0.02

Adult 42,279 871 0.02 1.84


1,311

0.024 5.02

Sub-adult 24,503

1,427 0.058 1.93

Adult 78,578 2,738 0.035 3.35


3,500

0.047 6.95

Sub-adult 41,897

1,499 0.036 3.30

Adullt 116,762 4,999 0.043 4.98

Maximize size (within reason) ….

Year


1990 Juvenile 30,089 4,147 0.14 1.28

Sub-adult 374 150 0.40 0.02

Adult 42,279 871 0.02 1.84


1,311

0.024 5.02

Sub-adult 24,503

1,427 0.058 1.93

Adult 78,578 2,738 0.035 3.35


3,500

0.047 6.95

Sub-adult 41,897

1,499 0.036 3.30

Adult 116,762 4,999 0.043 4.98

Emphasize focal data points….

Year


1990 Juvenile 30,089 4,147 0.14 1.28

Sub-adult 374 150 0.40 0.02

Adult 42,279 871 0.02 1.84


1,311

0.024 5.02

Sub-adult 24,503

1,427 0.058 1.93

Adult 78,578 2,738 0.035 3.35


3,500

0.047 6.95

Sub-adult 41,897

1,499 0.036 3.30

Adult 116,762 4,999 0.043 4.98

Or highlight important data….

Presenting Professional Talks J. Ellen Marsden Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural...

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